Return to the Tavern

   We left the good folk on a misty morning. The water droplets in the air caught what sun shone through and small rainbows filled the air.
   The return journey to the Tavern was uneventful. The only thing marring our journey was the village that had been destroyed. As we passed through the ruins of what had been a small town we saw no one. It was obvious that the villagers had tried to rebuild their homes but again something had moved through the buildings, destroying all in its path.
   When we entered the Tavern, the owner again greeted us warmly, though his smile seemed a bit too wide. Our meal was promptly brought and our rooms were freshly cleaned.
   That night, long after we had retired, I heard the door to the room that Xiona and I shared open. I had been lying awake, trying again to count the days I had been here, when a silent figure slipped into our room.
   I lay on the bed quietly, trying to guess at the intruder's intention. When the figure approached Xiona's bed and started to draw a knife, I sprang into action.
   I leapt from my bed onto the back of the assailant as Xiona slipped from her bed. She grabbed his wrist and whispered something. When the attacker dropped his knife, Xiona caught it with her free hand before it could hit the floor.
   The assailant shift and slipped from my grip. He slapped Xiona, hard, across her face and as she stumbled and loosened her grip, he ran from the room holding his one wrist in his other hand.
   We started to follow him but stopped when we heard fighting from the room Andrys and pup were supposed to be sleeping in.
   Knocking down the door, we saw Andrys fighting with the last survivor of the attack from over a year ago. Andrys sword, Primus was dripping flame and his foe was slowly being forced back towards the outside wall.
   The whole room was on fire.
   I looked around for pup and gasped when Xiona pointed her out to me. She lay next to the bed, blood dripping from a knife wound in her side.
   I ran to my pack mate and applied pressure to the wound. She started violently when I touched her but then opened her eyes and smiled weakly at me.
   "Tell Him, that this one loves Him."
   "Tell him yourself, you ain't dying on us. Xiona grab a sheet to put against the wound and lets get her out of here."
   Xiona tore of the bedsheet and, as I removed my hands, wrapped it around pup.
   "Sorry little one," I said as I picked pup up and started toward the door. I stopped before I exited the room and motioned for Xiona to lead.
   She hesitated for a moment and ran back into the rooms to grab Andrys and pups packs. Then she took the point and went out the door holding the knife of the man who had tried to kill her.
   Before I followed her, I looked back into the room. Andrys had his opponent forced against the wall. It wouldn't be long before the man was only a corpse. But, I didn't think Andrys had the time, the room was quickly becoming and inferno.
   "Andrys, we have pup and WE ARE LEAVING. Finish him and come on."
   Andrys took a second to glance our way and nod.
   Seeing his one chance at survival, the man jumped through the window in the outer wall. The broken shards of glass followed him to the ground.
   "Damn," Andrys said and followed me out the door.
   We went down the stairs and out of the Tavern. Next to the door was a bloody body. Tira was standing over it.
   "He who would attack our pack is dead," she said.
   I looked down, it was the innkeeper.
   "Come on, everyone," Xiona shouted over the sound of the flames that were rising from the back of the building.
   "Give her to me, Dan," Andrys said, his voice catching.
   "Brother, you are the only one with a ready weapon. I have pup's wound pressed against me. If I move her she will bleed more. I know its hard but you are our best protection and this is our best chance to save her. Trust me, I'll carry pup as if she were my own child."
   Andrys only nodded, his tears flowing freely, and led the way down the entry stairs and away from the burning tavern.
   We finally stopped a couple of miles from the inn. Tira had found us a clearing in the woods where we could safely stop. I laid pup down and started to tear up the sheet. Together Andrys, Xiona, and I bound the wound but pup was very pale and I knew that more was needed.
   Andrys knelt beside her, crying.
   "Xiona, could you heal her, the way the Priests healed me."
   "I don't know how. The used the power of the Goddess to heal you, Dan. I'm sorry, Andrys."
   Thinking of the power of the Lady and the Goddess and of last chances, I touched my cross and entered the Mists.
   Once again, the Lady and the Oracle sat beside the pool. A feeling of calm and peace pervaded the small clearing.
   They watched my approached, quietly.
   "Lady, can you heal pup?"
   "Child, we have already told you," she said. "We can't leave here. We can't even affect anything outside the Mists. I am sorry, but you will have to do it."
   "What? How?"
   "When you and Xiona became soul twins, you gained much of her magic," the Oracle said. "This was the magic that was brought out of Xiona's future. There was too much for one person to handle, so the extra went to you. The magic is wild and needs to be controlled before it can manifest itself. You started to control it when you first became a wolf. But, even though that brought most of the wild magic under your control, there is still some of it you haven't yet tapped into."
   "Child," the Lady said. "Accept that you can heal pup and you will, just as you decided to become a wolf and did so."
   "That should bind the rest of the wild magic within you," the Oracle finished.
   "All right, how do I do it?"
   They looked at each other.
   "We don't know," the Lady said. "Each person thinks differently, whatever it takes for you to accept the healing, do it. You will decide how this works, not anyone else."
   I thought for a moment and made my decision.
   When I returned to my pack, it was as if I had never left.
   Calmly, I said, "Xiona remove the bandages."
   Andrys looked at me, his eyes wild and filled with pain. "She'll die if you do that."
   "No, she won't," I said, quietly. "Please Xiona. I have spoken to the Lady about healing pup. It shall be done."
   My heart was racing as Xiona removed the torn sheet from pup. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to do this but I couldn't let anyone see it. I figured if they thought the Lady was doing the healing through me, then they would let me do it.
   I placed my hands on pup's wound and closed my eyes. My little sister didn't even flinch as I touched her and I knew time was short. I thought about everything I knew about the way a body works and concentrated first on forcing the blood vessels to seal. There wasn't enough blood to form a clot that large so I convinced the cells to grow and reform the torn vein. Then I looked to the rest of the wound. The bleeding had cleaned most of the dirt out of the wound but some remained. This I forced out by making the muscled move minutely. Some bacteria had entered with the knife. I killed it. Then when everything was clean inside, I forced pup's skin to regrow until not even a scar showed. Finally, I reached deep down within myself to give pup enough strength to regain consciousness.
   pup opened her eyes and smiled at Andrys. She reached up with one hand to touch his tear stained cheek before relaxing and falling into a restful sleep.
   Andrys and Xiona could only gape openly at the clean wound and healthy color of our pack mate.
   I stood and walked carefully and unsteadily until I leaned against a tree.
   "Dan, are you alright?" Xiona asked.
   "Just tired and weak," I replied.
   "The Priests were never that weak after healing you," she said. "The Lady wasn't helping was she?"
   I shook my head. "She told me I could do it but, no, she wasn't helping."
   I leaned against the tree, trying to regain my strength until I realized that it was a losing battle. I had pushed too far, too fast. I looked at Andrys holding pup, hugging her fiercely as she slept, and whispered, "It's worth it."
   "What?" Xiona asked.
   "Nothing."
   Andrys laid pup down and stood. He looked down at his sleeping love and then over to me.
   "Let her rest, Andrys," I said. "I couldn't give her enough to be up. I didn't have enough for that."
   He nodded and slowly walked over to me.
   "Thank you," he said, touching my shoulder, his voice thick with emotion. "Everything I own, anything you want is yours."
   I felt myself getting to weak to stand. "Just one thing, brother," I said as I started to black out.
   "Anything," he repeated.
   "Don't let my head hit the ground."
   I felt both Andrys and Xiona catch me as I fell.

   I awoke much later, tired, weak, and hungry. I started to sit up but gave that up as a bad idea when I saw spots in front of my eyes.
   "He's awake," I heard Xiona say from off to one side.
   "Good, help him sit up. I want to get something down into his stomach. He looks too pale."
   Xiona helped me into that sitting position that I had given up one, leaning me against a tree. I looked around the camp. We were still in the clearing. There was a fire in the middle with a small animal stuck on a spit, cooking. pup was laying to one side, watching me. Andrys was across from her, cutting up something. Thankfully it was a warm night. Everyone was still only clothed in what they had worn to bed.
   "What's going on?" I asked.
   "We're staying here until both of you are able to travel," Andrys said. "All of your things are still back at the Tavern, if Xiona hadn't had the foresight to grab our packs, all of our supplies would be gone. We pretty much have the clothes on our backs. My money pouch was under the bed and is probably melted now."
   I nodded, "Well, at least everyone was wearing SOMETHING."
   pup laughed lightly.
   "Does anyone know what actually happened back there?" I asked.
   "The tavernkeeper, for some reason, chose to attack us," Xiona said.
   "Why, I thought he had been a friend of Andrys for a long time."
   "He had been," Andrys said. "Why he changed, and how he did so quickly is beyond me."
   "He smelled of the Goddess," Tira said, emerging from the woods. "Honored Brother, there is a stream not far from here. The water is fresh and there are fish swimming within."
   "Thank you, Tira," Andrys said. "When the two of you are a bit stronger, we move there."
   "Why don't Tira and I return to the tavern," Xiona said. "Maybe we can find out what happened and possibly get Dan's and my packs."
   "Didn't the Tavern burn?" I asked.
   "Dan, the Tavern is stone, remember? The wood in the room is an overlay, added only about a century ago," Andrys said.
   "Oh, I forgot about the outer stone."
   "I really don't want anyone going back to the Tavern, just in case someone blames us for all of that," Andrys told us.
   "Don't worry, no one will see us. I have learned a trick from something Dan knows, I can't explain it right now, but I know it will work," Xiona told him.
   "Besides," I said, "if my gear is intact, so are my weapons. I don't want anyone getting their hands on those things. It could be much too dangerous."
   "Alright but be careful, both of you," Andrys told them.
   "Don't worry, Andrys, we will be."
   And with that the two left the camp.

   We waited impatiently for them to return. As each hour passed we all grew more restive. Finally, as the sun rose, I started to try to rise.
   "What are you doing, Dan?" Andrys asked.
   "Trying to stand, what does it look like?"
   "It looks like you aren't going to make it."
   "Probably not, but you want to go find Tira and Xiona as much as I do. And you won't leave unless someone can protect pup, right?"
   "Yeah, but you aren't in any shape to protect anyone," he said as he came over to me and touched my chest.
   Just that little pressure was enough to knock me back. I almost fell, except that he caught me.
   "Point taken," I said.
   "Just don't try that again. Wait until you feel stronger. We'll have to trust those two to take care of themselves."
   "Thanks for the vote of confidence," Xiona said, as she emerged from the woods, our packs over her shoulders.
   "What took you so long?" Andrys asked.
   "We had to avoid a crowd in front of the tavern. The man you fought, Andrys, was telling everyone that we had killed the tavernkeeper. He said that you set your 'pet' wolf on him. I think he was trying to refer to pup."
   "That one smells of the Goddess as well," Tira said.
   "So, they'll turn the people against us?" pup asked.
   "Well, most of the crowd wasn't having any of it. I guess you are too well known around here, pup. Some of the foreigners were buying it but most of the locals weren't. I did pick up that he has been following us. He knows of Lord Tevanor's death, the destruction of that village and the Oracle's disappearance."
   "He is the Goddess' hand in this world. I smelled others on him as well. He has been collecting allies for her."
   "So, my friend of all these years, went to the Goddess."
   "Tira says he was forced."
   "What?" I asked.
   Tira came over and lay down beside me. "The smell on him was hers. Her scent overwhelmed him."
   "I think she used her gift on the tavernkeeper. He wasn't in control of his own actions."
   "That makes one more debt that she owes," Andrys said, darkly.
   "Mine, let it go for now please," pup said.
   He looked at her as if to continue but I interrupted. "How did you get our things? If there was a crowd, how did you get in, and did anyone see you?"
   Xiona grinned at me. "No one saw us. Tira led me around the crowd. Then I used a trick I picked up from your memories to sneak inside while she hid in the bushes."
   "A trick from my memory? I've never been that good a sneak."
   "No, I remembered something that you know, the nature of light. I bent the light around me and that made it seem as if I wasn't there."
   Andrys whistled. "You have been practicing, haven't you?"
   "Exactly. I won't say that it was easy, it wasn't. But, it worked beautifully. I stood right in front of someone and the couldn't tell I was there. I was able to walk into the Tavern and into our room to get our belongings. No one had thought to go through them. Our room smelled of smoke but our stuff was undamaged. By the way Andrys, your money bag is gone. I looked in your room but, it wasn't there. I thought that even melted gold would be worth something. Sorry."
   "It's no problem," he replied. "I am grateful that you were able to get what you did."
   "Well, I needed my own clothes. I'm a bit to tall to wear pup's extra clothing and your spare tunic might be a stretch for me."
   We all laughed.

   We spent all that day at the campsite. By early afternoon pup was able to get up and move around a bit. I was able to do the same by early evening.
   With Andrys carrying pup and Xiona helping me walk, we moved to the creek that Tira had found.
   When we arrived, all I could do was sit and watch as Xiona and Andrys made camp. Tira drug some small, dry branches into the center of our site.
   "A fire would be nice," was the only explanation she would give.
   Since I was still so tired, I fell asleep before having a chance to eat.
   I awoke the next morning to find everyone except Tira still sleeping. Pup lay curled up in Andrys arms and Xiona lay next to me, her back to mine, sharing warmth. Tira lay in front of me, her eyes watching my face.
   "This one wondered when you would awaken. You have been on the edge of sleep for some time."
   "Yeah well, I'm awake now."
   "Do you feel rested, Honored One?"
   "Yes, I do, finally."
   "Good, now I can take you to task for your mistake."
   "What?"
   "It is only proper to accept that you make mistakes. Even a pack leader can err. We all have a responsibility to ensure errors are only made once."
   "OK, what did I do wrong?"
   "It is hard to explain. It is easier to show. Close those human eyes of yours, they hide too much from you. Open your other senses, feel the life around you, taste the forest, smell the wind, hear the water. All these things are part of us. Do you accept that?"
   "Yes, it is a principle that many on my world believe."
   "It is no principle, it is truth."
   "What does this have to do with my mistake?"
   "When you healed pup, where did the strength come from?"
   "From inside me, where else?"
   "Did you not think to ask the trees, the wind, the grass, or even us for help?"
   "What?"
   "Did you think that we would refuse?"
   "I didn't know that I could ask."
   "So stubborn, you are still too human. Get up, come with me. Leave that form behind."
   I stood and followed Tira into the forest, Changing as we went. We ran across the ground, our paws barely touching the leaves and branches. We ran for miles, leaving the forest and entering a field of clover. As we ran I began to feel what Tira had told me. There was life everywhere. It is a simple concept, I know but there was more than that to it. The life around us was more than the creatures needed. Everywhere, there was plenty to borrow. All I had to do was ask.
   I stopped, dumbfounded by the reality I had discovered. I understood what my pack sister had been trying to tell me, but no words could explain it. She had been right, I was too human to understand. Now I was wolf enough to accept it.
   "You do understand," she said, seeing what was in me.
   "Yes, finally," I answered.
   "Finally," she repeated. "You finally know what you are and why?"
   "Not completely, I understand what I am but as for the why, I'm not sure."
   "Then, tell me what you are and we will work on the why."
   "I am a human, a wolf, a healer, soul-twin to Xiona, husband to Tammy. I am all of that but that is not all of me. I am myself, and that's the best I can describe it."
   "It is enough. Who you are will always be changing, as long as you hold onto who you want to be. As for the why, does it really matter? You are who you are. You are here. Do what needs to be done. It is that simple."
   "And if I'm not enough?"
   "That's why we are here. To be with you."
   "And if together, we aren't enough?"
   "Ahhh, all this worry. It is simple. If we are not enough, we will fail. There is no choice. We have to be enough."
   "Well, if that's our only choice, I'd rather not fail."
   "Good decision." Tira said. Then she looked at me slyly. "Race you back to camp," she said as she took off running.