A.N.D. - Wolf Woods

Wendell had celebrated the night of the full moon in his own way with Lord Rupert, and had intended to sleep in the next day. As a consequence, he was not ready to have the head of whoever it was who started pounding on the door at an appallingly early hour.

He was trying to unscramble his brains enough to come up with a suitably quelling response when the pounder suddenly had the sense to simply shout his news through the door. “Your majesty! Your majesty! The garrisons report multiple troll invasions!”

Oh! That was important! Yanking on a robe, Wendell stumbled to the door. “What’s happened?”

“The trolls have attacked Beantown and Troll Gate garrison. They say that the trolls were beaten back, but additional troops are coming in from Moon’s Rest, Wendell’s Warning, and Paw-in-Hand. Wolf’s Gate garrison has not responded to any of this activity via howl or flags; a scouting party from Broken Lock has gone to investigate.”

Wendell scrubbed a hand across his face, trying to clear the mental cobwebs. “Get a map so I can see exactly where everything is happening. Take it to the West Balcony, so we can listen for updated howls. Summon my council and the wolf called Royal Windhowler and tell them to meet me there in fifteen minutes.”

Rupert was already pulling his clothing on when Wendell closed the door and turned around. “Just let me get buttoned, Wendy, and I’ll help you get dressed.”

“Thank you.” Wendell started digging through his capacious closet for something both royal enough to be reassuring to his council and practical enough to ride off with the army if need be.

The West balcony was still dark, the sun not having cleared the spires of the palace yet, but it was also out of the wind, so the map wouldn’t be flapping around. Howling could easily be heard in the distance.

Lord Anthony stood at the edge of the balcony, looking homewards towards the howling. “Sebastian’s tried to teach me to read the patterns, but I can’t quite grasp them.”

“I’m glad you’re here,” Wendell told him in a heartfelt undertone.

Anthony shrugged. “I’m glad to be whatever help I can be. I prefer not to stay at my castle when the moon is full anyway. I’m safe enough, but I can never get enough sleep when they yowl all night like that.”

Behind them, Griswold cleared his throat. Time to start the meeting.

They were deep into a strategy session when a new voice added to the howling. At first it was so soft that Wendell hadn’t even noticed it, but the voice got insistently louder until it was impossible to ignore.

“…tonytonytonytonyTonyTonyTonyTonyTONYTONYTONYTONYTONYTONY...”

Lord Anthony glared over the balustrade to the courtyard below. “Fred? What are you doing here?”

Wendell looked too, to find a young wolf jumping around and wriggling so much that it looked like he had two tails. Dark marks splattered on the pale stones behind him. Beside Wendell, Rupert tsked and said something disgusted about housebreaking.

Fred leapt up and down below the balcony, as if he thought he could climb the wall with sheer energy. “Tony! Tony! They said Wolf... the cub... but he didn’t... no wolf would! No wolf could! It’s a lie, your majesty! And now the baby’s... and Virginia won’t wake up!”

“Fred!” Anthony thundered, leaning forward. “Calm down and tell me properly, I can’t understand you!” He squinted into the still-shadowed courtyard. “And tell me why you have an arrow in your butt.”

The little wolf took a startled look behind him, where one tail flopped and something stood out rigid and unyielding, then turned back to look up again. “I hadn’t even noticed,” Fred said reproachfully, keeling over as the sun cleared the palace and turned the dark stains to bright red.

“Something’s happened to my little girl,” Anthony fretted.

Wendell nodded, but right now he had to be a king instead of a friend. He gestured to the guard. “Go get the royal physician. Hurry!” He turned to Windhowler, who had already thrown his head back and yowled a question to be carried to New Sanctuary.

It normally took several relays to get messages from the palace to the heart of the woods, but this time an answer came back as fast as an echo. Windhowler frowned. “The outposts say that the sickness flag is flying on their signal tower, but the woods outside the town are full of confused howls about fighting. Nobody seems to know exactly what is going on.”

“Trolls? Did some of them make it into the woods?” Rupert quavered.

“I’ll let you know.” Anthony was already striding for the door.

“You can’t just go riding in there!” Griswold objected. “That is exactly what I am going to do!” Anthony snarled. “If something has happened to Wolf and Virginia, there’s nothing that will stop me!”

He yanked the door open-and had to stop before he ran into the man who was just on the other side, nervously twisting his hat in his hands.

“Your majesty!” He dropped to their knees in the doorway, head bowed to everyone there. “Your majesty, we beg you for aid! Send your soldiers to protect us!”

“From the trolls?”

“From the wolves!”

“Wolves?” Just what he needed right now, a band of rogue wolves roaming around somewhere. Lawless packs still appeared from time to time, undoing all his careful interspecies public relations. “How many are in the pack?”

The messenger was twisting his hat again. “It is one wolf who is the main problem. The Wolf. Your wolf.”

Oh, dear. He knew by now that Wolf was mostly a gentle, silly creature, but a part of Wendell had been waiting for this complaint for months now. “What has he eaten?”

“His own child, your majesty!”

“NO!” The entire council gasped as one.

“It’s true, your majesty!”

“No, it’s not,” Anthony flatly contradicted. “Not possible.”

“Of course it’s possible!” Griswold snapped. “He’s a wolf! How long did you think one could act like a hero before slipping?”

“All the wolves have gone crazy,” the messenger said. “They were ready to kill us all to make sure nobody out with the news of the baby.” He glared at Windhowler, who glared back. “No wolf can be trusted, not now.”

A wary warning prickled coldly down Wendell’s spine. “What about the humans? Have they done anything... untrustworthy?”

“Of course not, sire! The animals just went moon-mad and attacked us with no provocation!”

“All wolves?” Wendell shifted position, watching the messenger watch him, distracting the kneeling man from possibly seeing the servants washing wolf blood off the courtyard below. “You’re sure? No human attacked a wolf?”

“Only in self-defense, your majesty. I swear on your Mirror of Truth!”

The cold premonition was getting stronger. “Now there’s an idea,” Wendell said with false casualness. “Would the mirror tell me how it is self-defense to shoot someone who is running away?”

“Sire?”

“A wolf messenger reached here a few minutes ago, with the news that there was something wrong with Wolf, my namesake, and Lady Virginia. Interesting that he had traveled so far to tell me what no wolf wants me to know, isn’t it?”

“Uh...”

“He had been shot from behind. Had he been attacking you with his tail?”

“Um...”

“I’m not going to waste time playing Twenty Questions with this idiot. There’s only one way to find out what’s going on,” Anthony snapped impatiently. “I’m going. Good luck with the trolls, Wendell!”

He was gone before Wendell could even wish him well.