Grand Game 293: Back Home (Patreon)

The four wolves came to a stop in a half-circle around me, their minds shuttered and their gazes inscrutable.

My legs suddenly shaky, I drew to a halt and knelt in the snow. “It is good to see you again,” I said, unable to help the wide grin that split my face. “I’d begun to fear…” Emotion choked my throat, and I started again. “I thought I would never return, that the pack was lost to me forever.”

Aira stepped forward while the others hung back.

Lowering her head, Aira brushed her muzzle against my face. “Michael,” she greeted, her mindvoice ringing with warmth, “I never doubted your return. But stand. It is not right you kneel before us.”

Rising to my feet, I ruffled the dire wolf’s fur. “Oursk told me about Moonstalker,” I said, projecting my words to her alone. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” she said, her voice tinged with remembered sorrow. “He died defending his pack, as brave a death as a mother could wish.” Aira glanced over her shoulder and Sulan padded forward.

“Welcome home, pup,” she said, her voice as acerbic as ever.

“It is good to see you, too, Sulan.” I smiled. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

Snorting, the white wolf nudged me hard enough to topple. “Nor have you. Still the same insolent pup, I see.” Lowering her head, she held my gaze for a second. “But you do not disappoint.”

From the old white wolf, that was high praise indeed, I thought, recalling her parting words to me in Besina’s lair.

Turning about, Sulan stepped back, and Leta took her place. Finally recognizing the ritualized nature of their greetings, I held myself stiff under the brown wolf’s inspection. She scrutinized me for a beat longer, then bowed. “Well met, scion.”

I inclined my head in return. “And you too, pack elder.”

Leta limped back, her mangled leg evidence of the hard times the pack had endured. And where was the rest of the pack council? I wondered.

There had been six the first time I’d visited. My gaze slid to Aira. I didn’t think it was an accident that she had been included in their assemblage today. “Are you an elder now?” I sent to her on a whisper-thin thread.

“Yes,” she replied just as softly.

Before I could congratulate her, Duggar stepped forward. The pack leader took his time inspecting me, his winter gray eyes as inscrutable as when we’d first meet. “Alpha,” he greeted finally, acknowledging my new status.

“Duggar,” I replied.

The black wolf’s jaws parted in what I interpreted as a smile. “You have grown into your own, I see. Welcome back.” Turning around, he padded towards the pile of rocks. “Come. The rest of the pack is eager to greet you.”

✵ ✵ ✵

The five of us made our way to the pack’s den in silence. While I strode in the wolves’ wake, I studied the four elders.

Like Oursk and the hunting party, their coats were bedraggled, and their bodies were lean. Given the barrenness of the surroundings, it was no wonder. Food had to be in short supply in the mountains. I bit my lip. It was clear the intervening years had not been kind to the pack, but just how bad had things gotten?

Was I in for more shock?

Before I could work up the courage to enquire, wolves streamed out of hiding and onto the plateau. At the same time, I was bombarded. Words of welcome—exuberant and unfettered—assaulted me, both in the real and in my mind. My ears ringing with the sounds of their greetings, I drew to a halt in stunned shock.

Duggar glanced over his shoulder and seemed to smile. “I told you. The pack is eager to greet you.”

“Why?” I asked, at loss to understand their welcome.

By my own reckoning, I’d done nothing to deserve it, and truthfully, I’d expected the pack to resent my return, bringing, as it did, the attention of Loken’s envoy.

“Why, he asks,” Sulan said, sounding amused. “Perhaps they remember who saved them from the goblin tribes and who stuck out his neck for them—foolishly, I may add—by going up against the wyvern mother.”

“Or maybe,” Leta added more solemnly, “they recognize the Wolf in you and pay tribute to him as much as you.”

“Or it could be,” Aira said, rolling her eyes at the other elder, “that they are simply welcoming a lost brother home.”

Absently acknowledging their replies, I dropped to my knees to greet the wolves streaming across the snow. Their joy was unrestrained and unabashed. Dropping my mind shield, I let them see my own delight. The dire wolves were as much my pack as the arctic wolves and as dear to me as Snow and his brethren.

Letting the big wolves engulf me in their celebration, one thought rang deep in my mind.

I was home.

✵ ✵ ✵

The pack had grown in my absence.

Not significantly, but enough for me to be certain the dire wolves had reversed their previous slow decline. Sitting cross-legged in the shallow caves where they had taken refuge, I counted the wolves milling about.

By my reckoning, the pack numbered six scores. True, all the wolves bore the telltale signs of hunger, and some, like Cantur, seemed of unsound mind, but they had turned a corner, I felt. My thoughts drifted to Loken’s envoy and her threats.

I can’t let them be imperiled again.

“What are you thinking?” Sulan asked from where she and the other elders lounged across from me.

Beyond them, the pack rested, too, feeding on the piles of lizard meat the twins had gathered. It was no feast by any means, but I suspected it was more food than the pack had seen in months.

“Can’t you tell?” I quipped.

“Your mental walls have grown stronger,” Aira said approvingly. “None of us can pry into your thoughts anymore.”

I nodded. “I was thinking of what the pack must have undergone in my absence.” I gestured to the cold stone rock surrounding us. “This is not the most hospitable of locations. Why shelter here?”

“The valley is no longer safe,” Duggar said, confirming my fears. “Even the tunnels where we normally hide are often frequented by players.”

“They’re like a plague,” Leta growled. “Spreading fast and far.”

“It is only here, in the coldest peaks of the mountain, that few players bother coming,” Aira added.

“Few, but not all,” I murmured. “How did Loken’s envoy find you?”

Duggar exhaled noisily. “I do not know.”

I met his gaze. “The pack cannot stay here.”

The alpha did not reply, but I could see that what I said was not news to him. Duggar had reached the same conclusion himself.

“And where would you have us go?” Leta demanded. “There is nowhere left in the valley for us.”

I turned to the elder, not blaming her for her anger. “Then it is time to leave the valley,” I said equably.

She snorted. “We are not players. We cannot leave as you do.”

“You cannot create portals,” I corrected, “but you can pass through one.” I turned to Duggar. “I have a sector in mind that can serve as a new home for the pack.”

“That’s preposterous!” Leta scoffed. “The pack can’t—”

“Where?” Duggar asked, cutting across the other wolf.

“It is easier if I show you,” I murmured and lowered my psi shield.

Four minds delved into my own, tasting the thoughts I offered. I didn’t attempt to sway their thinking and let them see my true, unvarnished memories and plans. Relocating the pack would be hard and not without risk, but it was a step I felt necessary to take.

Loken’s envoy had convinced me of that.

The envoy had enacted her entire charade with the dire wolves with one purpose in mind: strongarming me into doing what she wanted. She’d believed—rightly so—that in the pack, she’d found the means to force me to do her bidding. I had convinced her otherwise—barely—and for now, things had turned out alright.

But what about the next time?

And there would be a next time, I was sure of it.

Whether it was the envoy again—with Loken’s blessing the second time around—or Loken himself, someone would try using the pack against me, which was why I needed to get them to safety without delay.

My plans for the sector notwithstanding, the valley was no longer a safe refuge for the dire wolves. Even assuming I gained control of the sector, four months was too long to leave the pack unprotected. And besides, now that Loken—and possibly others—knew that the wolves were in the valley, they could always get to them. Me owning the sector would not stop that.

No, the pack had to find a new hiding spot, and there was only one possible place they could go: the arctic tundra.

And the key to getting them there was sector 18,240.

I would have to accelerate my plans for the nether-infested region. Ever since discovering it, the hidden sector had become central to my plans for raising House Wolf. It had been my intent to purge the sector of nether, secure its location with a shield generator—similar to what the Ishita had used in the valley—and only then gather my allies within.

But all that was out the window now.

Now, I would have to move before I was truly ready and use the arctic tundra instead of sector 18,240 to shelter the pack. It could still be done. But not without risk.

“Necessary risk,” I thought, projecting the thought to the listening elders.

“Arctic wolves,” Aira breathed as she finished reading my memories. “I’ve never heard of their like before.” Her thoughts swam with excitement. “I would dearly love to see them.”

“You’ve grown a solid pack,” Sulan said appreciatively. “I like your Snow already. I vote, we go.”

“It looks cold there,” Leta grumbled. But despite the complaint, I sensed no dissent from the elder.

I turned to Duggar, waiting to hear his opinion.

“I agree,” the alpha said. “But cold is better than dead. The pack shall relocate.” He inclined his head in my direction. “Thank you, scion.”

On behalf of Wolf, the Adjudicator has allocated you a new task: Resettlement! Loken’s envoy has discovered the pack’s hideout in the valley. Realizing how this endangers them, you have convinced Duggar to relocate the pack to another sector. Objective: Safely transport the dire wolves to the new home you’ve chosen for them.

I swallowed relief.

I hadn’t been sure the pack would agree to abandon the only home they’d known for centuries, but once again, Duggar and the elders had surprised me.  “Good,” I said, “then let us solidify our plans.” I glanced at Duggar. “How soon can the pack be ready to leave?”

But before the alpha could speak, another did.

“Wolf-man?”

I didn’t recognize the speaker. Jerking upright, I slammed my mind shut and swept my gaze across the cave. Where was the intruder?

The elders noticed my sudden alertness and rose smoothly to their feet, hackles raised. I kept searching the darkness, trying to pick out the interloper that was surely hiding close by. The strange mindvoice had been high and sweet, and unlike any wolf I had ever met.

Someone else is here—someone not of the pack.

Was it the envoy?