by Billy Wong
Tonya nodded. "So werewolves might have been created by people. But how does that help us in looking for a cure?"
"If we knew where they were created, we might be able to find out how to reverse the process if we went there." Red frowned. "It's been a long time, though..."
"The ancients' works tend to hold up well," Herbert said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we could find some intact ruins from around that time."
"Do you know where any ruins like that might be?" she asked Art. "Preferably ones that haven't been looted empty."
He shrugged, but Tonya said, "I hear the most complete ruins are in the far north, where the superstitious folk don't dare to intrude on them."
Herbert folded his arms around his middle. "North? Be cold up there, I reckon."
Red laughed and slapped his arm. "Really? You're the last one who should be worried about that, lardass!"
"I'm not as much of a lardass as I used to be. I don't know if there's enough of me left to provide warmth for the both of you."
"Three of us should be plenty of warmth to go around," Tonya remarked with a glance at Red which made her look away.
"By the way," she asked Art, "there's one other thing. A little while ago, we fought a huge wolf-like creature that healed like a werewolf, but walked on four legs instead of two and didn't revert to human form when it died. Do you know what it was?"
"I'm not sure my information is perfectly accurate, but here's what I recall. Werewolves normally mate with humans or other werewolves, and their offspring are also werewolves. But they can also mate with normal wolves, which is rare because their more natural relatives shun them. If it does happen, though, the result of a pregnancy born of such a union is called a warof—a terrible beast with even vaster physical might than its lycanthrope parent."
"We still managed to kill it," Herbert blurted out, no doubt trying to alleviate the anxious feeling that gripped them all.
Red frowned. "Yeah, but considering the effort it took to bring down even one of them, we'd be hard-pressed against any greater number. I'm hoping that boy's pet was an isolated occurrence, but we should prepare ourselves in case we do face more. Its dad might have a thing for wolf bitches, after all."
They stopped in Veid and asked Boris to hook them up with some additional armament, for a price they could barely afford. He got Herbert a repeating crossbow with silver-tipped bolts, a heavy pike for Tonya that would serve better against a giant warof than her lighter spear, and a few small silver shrapnel-filled bombs with a killing radius of ten feet. Red figured she'd stick with what she knew, being already as effective against wolves as she was, except for using the bombs if needed.
The quickest route to the cold north was through Leviatha's valley and the mountains beyond, and on the way Herbert mused, "So should we stop by to say hi to our old friends?"
Red thought about it. "Her castle isn't directly in our way, and I don't know how happy her brother will be to see us. So if we do want to visit, let's save it for the trip back."
It seemed they weren't destined to avoid that meeting, though, for when they entered the valley's northernmost town to stock up on some last supplies, they saw Lane talking to a couple men on the main street. Before they could make themselves scarce, he spotted them. "The Red Rider!" he greeted her cheerily. His voice grew acidic. "How I despise you."
"Look," Herbert began, "we don't want any trouble-"
Lane spread his arms wide and walked towards them, making a scene as everyone outside stared. "Trouble? What kind of trouble could I make for you, great warriors, champions"—he sneered at Red as he said this—"of justice? It's more the other way around that I should worry about; but no, too late for that."
She shook her head. "You must have introduced Chaser to Aidan thinking to get into his good graces that way, didn't you? But how dare you fault me for ending that, when the alternative would be to let vile deeds continue unpunished?"
"It was none of your business. We could have had a whole kingdom again..."
"With a nice position granted to you by the grateful king, if only I'd turned my back on young boys being raped? Sorry, we don't think that way."
"Aye," Herbert said, "if Red hadn't been there, I probably would have been compelled myself to try and stop it. Though Chaser might've killed me for trying."
Tonya draped an arm over Red. "And that's why my little Red is awesome!"
Your little Red? Argh... "Anyway, we're buying some stuff and then we're finished here. Say what you want, but you're hardly going to get an apology."
They walked to the nearby food store, only for Lane to run inside and in front of the clerk. "You will not sell them anything," he said.
Red sighed. "Really? That's so petty of you." She looked at the shopkeeper, but the young woman turned away unwilling to defy the lady of the land's brother. Herbert clenched a fist and Tonya's hand moved closer to her spear, but Red raised her hand. "Let's not make a big deal out of it. We can make do, despite anything this rat does. It's not hard for me to take a bird down with my throwing knife, after all."
The others followed Red out, leaving Lane to fume impotently behind them. They exited the north end of town, already feeling a hint of the north's chill gusts as they started onto the long path through the mountains that would take them there.
#
Finishing the latest from the pile of pork chops on her plate, Leviatha threw the leftover bone at her brother. "Will you quit your incessant whining about that girl? I'm trying to enjoy my meal here."
Lane fished the bone out of his bowl and dropped it on the table with a disgusted look. "We would have been in a good spot now though, if not for her. Maybe you could have married that silly prince and been queen."
"We're in a good spot already. The valley's jewels make us rich, and I'm the most feared fighter in the land. Besides, who says I'd want to be queen? Too much work always acting polished and ladylike."
"You could have stayed here, then. But I wanted to be something more than your underling."
She chuckled. "And who would help me take care of the valley?"
"I could have gotten you someone, if I had power. The Red Ridiot as you called her ruined that."
"I might've been too hasty in giving her that nickname. She grew on me after we fought together. Maybe you shouldn't have put your ambitions in the hands of a rapist."
He shoveled the last bits from his bowl into his mouth and scoffed. "You taking the moral high ground? You have no trouble killing people, last I checked."
"I kill people who I fight. I don't pick on little boys who are afraid to even defend themselves."
"Huh. I suppose his ways were a tad rough. But he seemed like a good choice for helping Aidan intimidate his way to the throne."
"As long as he didn't run into somebody who could stand up to him, which he did." She smiled. "That's the Red Rider for ya."
"Sometimes I feel like you're laughing at me over this. It isn't respectful to treat your older brother so."
"You may be older, but who leads, and who follows?" Leviatha finished another pork chop, aware as usual that she ate a comparable amount of food at least three times as fast as him.
"I wasn't born with the physical size you were." Implied, not so fair, that.
She looked down. "I'm sorry about acting so arrogant at times. You know I love you, right brother?"
He walked over and hugged her. "I know, you big brute. I suppose if anyone has a right to be arrogant, it's you."
"Heh. Can you at least promise me to try not to associate too much with rapists in the future, if at all possible?"
"I can promise to try."
Just then a guard entered the dining hall. "Lord Lane, there's a man here to see you. Is it all right if I let him in, Lady Leviatha?"
"Go ahead," she said. He gestured to someone outside the door, and a young man walked in. His tan skin and the curved sword he wore made Leviatha curious. "You're from the same land as Chaser, I presume?"
"I'm his nephew." Barely acknowledging her, which she wasn't used to given her enormous size, he turned to Lane. "Did his killer travel by here recently?"
"Not here here, but she did pass through the valley..."
Leviatha continued eating her meat while keeping an ear on their conversation, amused by the visitor's lack of greetings and other etiquette. "You should come with me and help me avenge my uncle!"
"I don't think my sister would approve of that." Lane might have been a little tempted, but she doubted he would seek Red out as an enemy even if she wasn't there to discourage him.
"You are a cowardly man, who takes orders from and is afraid of women! You were not fit to be my uncle's friend, and should be ashamed of yourself for not standing up for him!"
Lane shrugged. "We weren't really close friends."
"Even so, if you were comrades, you should not have allowed him to be so disgraced and done nothing!"
"Eh... even I can admit he kind of brought that upon himself."
"What do you mean?! My uncle was a great warrior, who did not deserve at all to be shamed as he was!" Leviatha heard the sound of a sword scraping free of its scabbard.
She stood up to tower over the man who now stared, apparently having failed to notice her size before. "I should warn you that if you attack my brother, you'll have to deal with me too."
Lane smirked and drew his own saber. "Why so quick to jump in, sis? I imagine I can handle this stripling myself."
The young foreigner seemed to think about testing that, but glanced at Leviatha again and decided against it. "Fine, I'll do it without your help! Can you at least confirm she went north, as I heard?"
"Yup, north." Leviatha smirked. "You might want to consider buying some heavier clothes. It's cold."
"I'll buy some clothes and come back with her head!" he spat, and stormed off.
"Well, he'll succeed," Lane said with a roll of his eyes.
"Did you get his name?"
"He didn't... bother with that."
"He didn't bother with that," she repeated in a deadpan tone. "Then I guess if his dead body somehow finds its way back here, we can put on his gravestone the name 'Moron.'"
#
Red and friends left the first northern town, having learned there were a trio of ruins spaced a few miles from each other about a week's trip north. It would have been nice to ride instead of walk, but it was too cold for horses. She felt glad at least they had finally gotten to purchase food, and wouldn't have to rely on birds and small animals she downed with knife throws anymore. "You holding up okay, Tonya?" she asked the smallest member of their group while they pushed on through the biting cold wind.
"I'm fine. Would be better if you let me cuddle up with you instead of Herbert during the night, though."
"He's bigger, more warmth to go around. Listen, I really want you to understand... there's very little chance we'll ever get together, all right? I think you're a great person, and I have no problem at all with you liking guys and girls. But I just don't think I'd ever really have feelings for a girl like that."
Tonya looked sad, but said, "That's okay. Of course I'd never try to force myself on you like Chaser would."
She supposed she could give the girl a bit and it probably wouldn't do any harm. "You can huggle up with me tonight, or maybe between me and Herbert."
"Shouldn't you ask me for permission before offering that?" Herbert asked. Before she could respond, he laughed. "Don't worry, it's fine. Sounds fun."
"By the way," Tonya said, "about you not having hobbies, what if I taught you to sing?"
Red looked at her in surprise. "You can sing? I've never seen you do that."
"I'm not that good, I often mix up sounds when I sing in front of people. My friends teased me a lot, so I stopped doing it in public. But I know the basics well enough to teach them, and maybe you won't have the same problem I do. Seems to me like you're pretty confident around others."
"Heh, well, when you've walked alone as much as I have you kind of need to know how to put on a game face. So let's hear it."
Tonya sang them a lullaby about relaxing beside a warm fireside, distracting from how their breaths made steam in the freezing air. She did mix up sounds now and then, even performing for people she'd become as comfortable with as Red and Herbert, but Red found her sweet, high-pitched voice pleasant nonetheless.
"That's pretty good. So what would you suggest to improve mine?" Red launched into her own rendition of a heroic battle song, making Tonya laugh and Herbert cringe.
"I bet you haven't even tried to sing in years," Herbert said. "That was downright awful."
"You have a lot of room for improvement," Tonya agreed with a smile. "Don't worry though, I'm sure with all your natural talents you have one for rhythm hidden somewhere too."
They journeyed on, and Red enjoyed the struggle of trying to get her singing voice in presentable form. She'd had difficult fights with the likes of Leviatha, the giant wolf king, and Chaser, but it was good to be challenged in something she wasn't good at and that didn't carry a risk to her life. "Can we stop for now?" she asked after a few hours. "My throat's beat."
"Sure. Work on it again tomorrow?"
She coughed. "If my throat is up to it."
"Thank the gods that's over!" Herbert said. "That was truly torture to listen to."
"Asshole."
Days passed, and after her ears picked up sounds behind them several times Red began to get a sense somebody was following them. Herbert expressed that suspicion too and she advised him to play dumb, hoping for their stalker to reveal themselves. At last her patience paid off, for just a couple days from the ruins, she heard somebody approaching them followed by the twang of a crossbow. She spun to deflect the bolt, but found she didn't need to. The missile missed by a good yard, burying itself high in a tree trunk ahead and to her right. She looked to the shooter—a young man with similar tan skin to Chaser, but right now pale in spite of it, and so cold he couldn't hold the crossbow steady in shaking hands.
He gave up attempting to reload, tossed the bow aside and drew his scimitar. "I'll kill you!" he cried, and charged Red. She parried his blade with one knife and kicked his leg, dropping him on his butt. Weak and clumsy from the cold as he was, it didn't even take much of a kick. Before he could move she was on him, pinning his sword arm with her knee and putting her knife to his throat. "What are you waiting for? Kill me!" But his voice trembled, and she felt for him a bit knowing he must now realize he was in over his head.
Red wrested the scimitar from his hand and threw it away from them, then he blinked in surprise when she released him. He didn't go for his sword, perhaps thinking she was testing him. "Why would I kill you, when you're too weak to even be a threat?" The anger in his expression fought not to give ground to shame, a losing battle. "You came after me to get revenge for Chaser, didn't you? What was he to you?"
"He was my uncle."
"Why are you being so accommodating with him?" Herbert asked. "They're from the same culture, he's a rapist too. Let's just kill him and move on."
"I'm not a rapist!" he protested. "Not all of our people are like that. Most of us have realized such a way of asserting our power is wrong and abandoned that tradition. My uncle was one of those few who clung to it."
"But then why, if you know what he did wasn't right," Tonya asked, "do you want to kill Red for stopping it?"
"I wouldn't fault her if she'd just killed him in battle to prevent harm to others. But even if he followed outdated beliefs, he was still a great warrior and my kin. He didn't deserve to be damned."
Red looked at him in puzzlement. "Damned?"
"The most disgraceful thing that can happen to a man is for his manhood to be taken from him. One who this happens to cannot go to heaven. You could have just killed him and given him an honorable death in battle, but instead..."
Ah, so it was a religious thing. Personally she would've thought castration a lighter punishment than death, but apparentl
y Chaser hadn't agreed either given his suicide after being maimed. Still, "I don't know how you heard the story, but I'm not sure what I did to him really qualifies for what you're talking about. I just sliced him there a few times, I didn't exactly check if... well, check what was still attached and what wasn't."
"He killed himself, though. You must have done some damage."
"Some, but who knows how bad it actually was? I don't recall him examining himself. Maybe he just assumed I knew what I was doing and had 'unmanned' him." To be honest, she probably had ended his reproductive capabilities with three vicious strokes. Still, she wasn't sure whether that counted as unmanning or only full removal of the parts in question did. "I may be a scary looking girl, but I'm hardly an expert in abusing men. I only claim that expertise with regard to werewolves.
"Besides, that doesn't make sense to me. Are you saying that if a really good man loses his manhood in saving somebody else, just because of that he won't be allowed into heaven?"
"It's what the holy ones say," he said with a frown. "I suppose the first part of what you said might be possible. Still, you meant to unman him."
"I had no idea what doing that would mean at the time."
He seemed to think about it. "But I came all the way here to kill you. How can I turn back now?"
She shook her head. "You can't kill me. Even if you could normally with your skills"—which was doubtful—"you're not used to the cold, and it weakens you. So you have two choices. One, turn back, or two, force me not to show the mercy I'd like to and die right here."
Their gazes met and held each other, hers stoic while his wavered between anger and fear. Finally he spun away, grabbed up his scimitar and ran. "I still think maybe we should have just killed him," Herbert said. "He tried to murder you, and he might make more trouble for us later."
"He tried, but it's not like he came close. And he might, but I'm hoping he'll think about what I said and recognize some wisdom in it."