“Damn”,
Karma thought, turning over the scraps of broken metal in his paw.
“Now what am I supposed to do?”
He
had been working below deck most nights lately, slowly restoring the
ship to something resembling working order. It wasn't exciting work,
but it kept him occupied and helped clear his mind any time he was
plagued by thoughts of futility or doubt. Tonight he was working on
repairing one of the cabin doors he had broken down during his
rampage. The door had been torn right off its hinges, splintering
the wood underneath, so the first thing he had to do was turn the
door around and cut another set of holes on the other side He had
managed to reattach the bottom hinge, but the top hinge had evidently
held on a little better, and the metal pin holding it together fell
to pieces when he tried to flex it. Without the pin, the hinge
wouldn't stay together, and if he let go of the door it was going to
fall down again. He sighed and opened the door all the way, leaning
it against the wall in the hallway, then went to check his storage
room.
Much
of the furniture from below deck was damaged beyond repair, so he had
taken a cue from the strangers, salvaging what material remained
useful from pieces he couldn't fix. He had an ample supply of wood
and some cloth, but metal was in much shorter supply, and he knew he
certainly didn't have any spare hinges in that pile. He looked over
a few nails for something that might serve as a replacement pin, but
they were all too short and too thin. The rest of the pile showed
little promise. There were a handful of chairs with no backs, a
broken end table, and a few cracked drawers from a dresser. Most of
the pieces he was repairing needed replacement legs, so he had
harvested most of the ones that remained intact from the furniture
stored here.
“That
might work”, he thought, taking a closer look at the end table.
The legs were fastened to the table by a long skinny bolt that ran
all the way up the leg. He tried to detach one of the legs, but it
was secured quite firmly, and he couldn't pull the bolt out from the
bottom, either, there was only a flat metal head at the base of the
foot. He pulled on the leg a little harder, but eventually it just
snapped off, breaking part of the base of the table. The bolt stuck
out from the end of the leg a little, so he tried to knock it out
using a hammer, but that only succeeded in bending the metal.
Annoyed, he struck the leg against the table, leaving a big chip in
the side.
“Get
a grip”, he reminded himself, “it won't help any to lose
control.”
Instead,
he began cutting away at the leg with a saw. It took a while, but he
finally managed to saw enough of the wood away that he could pull the
bolt out of the leg. It was a fair bit too long, so he jammed it
into a crack in the floorboards and used the hammer to snap some of
it off, then returned to the door. It didn't perfectly fit inside
the hinge, and the door wobbled after he bolted the hinge back
upright, but at least it seemed to be holding together. He took a
few steps back to see if the door would fall over again, but it
stayed upright.
It
certainly didn't look great. He had turned the most damaged section
of the door to face the inside of the room, but the wood was still
chipped in places and one whole corner of the door was missing from
when it had first struck the ground, but it was functional again.
The same could be said of the other things he had fixed, they would
never look as good as they did before, but the lower deck was slowly
starting to look merely old and worn down rather than destroyed.
Though it likely wouldn't have impressed anyone else, he was pleased
with the way things were coming along, it reminded him that things
could always change. What had once been broken had found new
purpose. The great gashes he had made on the walls with his claws
were one thing he couldn't fix, he had no tools with which to fill
them in and nowhere near enough wood to replace all the boards. He
had tried to rub them down using a course piece of fabric, but that
too had lead him nowhere. Some scars would always remain.
He
returned to the deck to check the signals. A few nights ago he had
finally finished a new rope ladder to replace the one he had thrown
overboard that night. It had taken all of the rope he had in
storage, but now he finally didn't have to scale down the side of the
ship to get to the water anymore. He climbed down the ladder to get
to the water's surface and dipped his tail into the water, listening
carefully for the signals. Every night he hoped he would find a
fifth one, indicating the return of Lapse, but once again there were
only the same four that were always there. He was getting so tired
of those same four signals over and over every night, they served as
a constant, droning reminder that he was getting nowhere. After that
night where he had helped Pack confront his darkness, he had expected
they would find Lapse right away. She seemed to have been gone for
quite a long time now, though in truth, he had no idea how long he
had been away from this world, perhaps this was only the beginning of
how long they would have to wait. He wondered if he would even make
it that long. So far, the repairs to his ship had kept him occupied,
but they wouldn't last forever. What was he supposed to do to occupy
himself once they were complete? Since he came back, all he had
thought about was finding Lapse and Line. He no longer enjoyed the
mornings the way he once had, and now that his plan to find Line had
been reduced to waiting for Lapse to return the nights felt aimless
and passed terribly slow. He needed to return to a more active
approach.
“I
guess I should go check on the others”, he thought. There wasn't
much else he could do now. Perhaps Pack had already found Lapse, and
she was just together with him on his ship. He didn't allow himself
to get his hopes up, but at least he could see what the others were
up to, and he might learn something. If his monitoring of the
positions of the other ships was correct, and he had been getting
better at it, it would take quite a few nights before he would find
anyone. He set his ship's course and hopped up onto his favourite
perch. He tried to think back to happier times when Banshee and Line
had been around, but found he had precious few memories that weren't
contaminated by regret in one way or another. Instead, he found
himself remembering that night where he had gone away, and how angry
he had been at them. “Why did you make me care about you?”, he
had demanded. It had certainly been easier not to care. For a
moment, he wondered if he would choose to forget all that had
happened and go back to being the Destroyer if he had the chance. It
was impossible, though. No matter how much he might try, those scars
on the walls of the ship would never fade.
Karma
gazed out across the ocean as the sun began to rise, deep in thought.
---
“AWOOOO!!”
The
bloodcurdling cry of a wolf filled the air. Karma knew the sound
well, wolves were vicious creatures who hunted in packs and the
strangers feared them. The scent of wet grass and pine trees tingled
his nose, and he wondered if he had become a wolf, but when he opened
his eyes he saw the dark-skinned hands of a stranger instead. He had
never taken the form of a wolf that he could recall, and it seemed
tonight would be no different. He quickly looked about to see if the
wolves might be nearby, but there was no sign of them. The sound had
likely come from the forest that stood atop the large hill on which
he stood, there was no imminent threat. The sun was just beginning
to come up from beyond the hill, with nothing but errant scraps of
light poking through the trees.
In
the distance, Karma also heard the sound of footsteps. Many of them,
and voices, too, drawing closer and closer. His first instinct was
to hide, but he wouldn't have time to reach the woods, and the grassy
hill offered no cover. He turned to face the sound of the footsteps,
straining to make out their source in the dim light.
The
first glimpse he caught of the mob was the glinting of metal, rising
up from the base of the hill. He soon saw hands, as well, hundreds
of them, holding a terrifying assortment of blades and knives. The
sound of hurried footsteps and angry voices came in loud and clear
now, and he found himself regretting his choice not to hide. If he
ran, he could make it to the forest before they would, but now he saw
that some of them carried torches, too, and he knew what fire could
do to trees.
“Death
to the monster!”, the crowd chanted, in unison.
So
it was true, they had finally come for him. After all he had done to
the strangers, it was hardly surprising. There was no escape now,
and even the Destroyer could never have taken on so many, unarmed no
less. Perhaps people could change, but to those they had wronged it
made little difference. He had always known in the back of his mind
that his reckoning would come eventually, and he could scarcely claim
it was undeserved, he just hoped that Pack would find Lapse, and that
together the two of them could bring Line back. He had done his part
to put him on the right track, at least, his death would not be
totally in vain.
“AWOOOO!!”,
the cry of the wolf sounded again, foretelling his imminent doom.
“There
it is!”, the mob shouted, almost upon him now, “the monster!”
Karma
braced himself, digging his feet into the ground, ready to move at a
moment's notice. He would make a show of it, at least. Let them see
which among them cold strike him down, the one who had struck fear
into their hearts for so long.
“Onward,
men! Tonight, we take back the night!”. They cast their blades
toward the forest, and Karma stood there, bewildered, as the mob ran
right past him. It seemed that today they sought a monster of a
different sort.
For
a moment he just watched them approach the forest. He was surprised
by the relief he felt, knowing that his end would not come today.
Many times since he had returned had he cursed his existence, was it
simply that he was glad that he would be able to continue his search
for Line, or had some part of him become accustomed to this life?
Either way, he found himself chasing after the group, curious to find
out what manner of monster they sought that was greater than him.
He
finally caught up with them at the entrance to the woods. He
approached a stranger close to the back of the pack, a burly fellow
with deep red hair and a beard, carrying a large torch, who seemed a
bit less agitated than the others.
“What
is this monster that lies in the woods?”, he asked.
“Are
ye deaf, then?”
Karma
looked at the man with a blank expression on his face, not sure what
to say.
“For
weeks, the great wolf has terrorized our village. It creeps out of
the woods at night, raiding our crops and stealing our chickens.
Those who laid on it claim that it's not even a wolf at all, but some
great beast that walks upright like a man. Its howling makes our
babies cry, and the women in the village are afraid to go out at
night, so tonight we hunt down the beast and take our lives back!”
The
men cheered and clanged their blades together, pressing into the
forest. The ground was wet and littered with the roots of tall
trees, so they had to proceed slowly, and a couple tripped and fell,
causing the others to jump and turn abruptly, only to confirm there
was no threat and continue on. For all their bravado and the size of
their band, they were frightened of this creature. The ones at the
front held their weapons nervously at the ready as they came into a
small clearing.
Karma's
sharp ears picked up the sound of a creature running through wet
grass.
“There!”,
someone shouted. A grey flash tore past the clearing, and several of
the men lost their footing in surprise. Karma realized it would be
prudent to stand some distance away from the men lest they skewer him
by accident, so he stood on the root of a tree just outside the
clearing.
“Where
did it go?”, a man asked, clutching his sword and scanning the
woods nervously.
Karma's
senses were better than theirs, his ears had been able to track the
creature's movements as it passed by, and he could faintly detect the
beast's scent, too. He slipped around to the other side of the tree
and quietly crept away from the crowd. He took care to walk on the
roots of the trees where he could, keeping out of the noisy grass.
He
wasn't sure what he intended to accomplish, skulking alone through
the trees. He was unarmed, so he could not possibly hope to fight a
giant wolf. Yet somehow, he felt safer out here, away from the
clumsy throng and their weapons. He was being quiet, so he was
fairly confident that the beast would not find him, but still he kept
a close watch. He heard a rustling in the grass up ahead, so he
quickly hid behind a tree. After the sound had stopped, he peeked
out from behind his tree to see if he could catch a glimpse of the
beast, but all he could see was some grey fur hidden among the woods.
“I
know you're there!”, said a deep, sorrowful voice. “I can smell
you. Just leave me alone, I don't want any trouble!”
Karma
took one step out from the tree. He still couldn't see the beast
clearly, it was hidden among the trees on the other side of the path.
“If
you don't want trouble, why raid the village? The villagers say you
stole their chickens and their crops.”
“I
only took what I needed”, the creature protested. “They would
never let me into their village, so I have to creep around at night.
They have plenty of crops, and I have no intention to hurt anyone, so
please, just leave me be!”
Karma
almost felt a sense of pity for the creature, but he knew the others
would not see it that way.
“I
hear something!”, someone shouted. “It's over here!”
He
heard the sound of loud footsteps rushing through the grass again as
the men carelessly raced through the forest, revealing their position
instantly. Still, careless as they were there were far too many of
them for any kind of confrontation.
“You
have to get out of here”, he told the creature. “Follow me!”
He
darted into the woods across the path where the creature was hiding.
It was then that he caught his first good look at the monster.
Indeed, it seemed to be some cross between a stranger and a wolf, it
stood upright like a stranger, but it had the head and grey fur of a
wolf, and while it had stranger-like hands on the end of its long
thin arms, it also bore powerful claws. The beast was quite large as
well, standing at least a head taller than Karma, and broader as
well.
Then
men shouted again, coming to the area where Karma had been hiding.
The creature broke into a run, dropping to all fours, and even though
he was used to travelling quickly through places such as this Karma
struggled to stay ahead.
“Why
are you helping me?”, the beast asked.
“They've
come after me, as well. Maybe us monsters have to stick together.”
They
were putting some distance on their pursuers now. Though they had
lost the element of stealth, the strangers were clumsy and couldn't
move through the forest as fast. They were going to get away.
“Wait!”,
the monster cried out. “Not that way!”
Karma
just barely had time to come to a stop as the forest disappeared
before his eyes and the rising sun caught him right in the eyes.
Beyond the last set of trees the ground fell away, and he found
himself atop a tall cliff overlooking a valley far below. He turned
his head to the side, and the cliff continued as far as he could see
in both directions with no obvious way to get down. It was a dead
end.
“It's
up here!”, a man shouted. Karma could hear their footsteps
approaching from several directions now.
“This
way!”. he said, darting through the forest again. The beast
followed after him.
“But
that path leads back to the village! We'll be caught out in the
open!”
“It's
the only chance we have!”, Karma said, paying particularly careful
attention to his footing as they raced through the trees.
Sure
enough, it wasn't long before they found themselves out of the forest
and back on the hill from earlier. They started to run down the
large hill towards the village just as the men started pouring out of
the woods. They seemed to have overcome their fear now and were
coming towards them with great speed.
“Now
we're trapped!” the creature said, turning back to their pursuers.
“No”,
Karma said, “don't you see? This is our chance! All of the men
are behind us, the village is totally unguarded. All we have to do
is run down there, grab a few hostages, and use them to secure our
escape!”
The
creature looked at him, aghast. “We can't do that! I told you,
I'm not here to hurt anyone!”
“We
don't have to hurt them, we just have to trade them for our freedom.”
“No”,
the creature said. “That would just make me into the monster that
they believe me to be. And even if we did escape, I have nowhere
else to go. I'm tired of running.”
“You
can't be thinking of fighting”, Karma said, “there's far too many
of them.”
“AWOOOO!”.
The wolf's howl was so powerful and unexpected that Karma was
knocked off his feet. The strangers up on the hill let out a cry and
ran towards the wolf, and he stepped away from Karma as they
encircled him.
“What
is he thinking?!”, Karma wondered as he got back up to his feet,
but it was too late, he had no way to push through the throng. He
could only watch now.
“Kill
the beast!”, they shouted. “Slit his throat! Take back the
night!” The men inched forward, their blades at the ready.
“AWOOOO!”,
he howled again, briefly silencing the mob. Some of the men backed
away, but he was still outnumbered a hundred to one. The smart thing
would be to try to break through where the men were caught off-guard,
and make his way back to the forest, but he showed no signs of
moving.
“We
have ye now, monster!”, said the burly man with the red hair whom
Karma had spotted earlier. He had since traded his torch for a
sword, and was advancing on the wolf. If he was going to make his
move, now was the time.
“Tell
me now, which one of us is the monster?”. The man stopped. The
crowd seemed to be shocked that the beast could speak. “I have not
done anything to you, but you chased me from my home with your swords
and your flames. Would you burn down the whole forest just to get
rid of me, then? Is that what makes a human?”
“Dinnae
try to confuse us with your riddles, beast! You have besieged our
town, looted our farms, and terrified our families. We will do what
we must to protect our homes!”
“And
what threat do I pose to your homes? How many of your villagers have
I hurt? How many crops have gone missing? I took only what little I
needed and kept to myself in the forest. We are not so different, we
just want to be free to live our lives in peace.”
“Aye,
well, there is a price to be paid for stealing those crops.”
“And
what price would you have me pay? Would you let me into your shops
to buy my own food? It seems the only price you deem fair is the
flesh from my bones.”
“Perhaps
there is some truth to what ye say...”
“Dinnae
listen to 'im!”, someone said, throwing a rock at the wolf,
striking him in the back. “He is no man! He is but a monster,
come to destroy our town!”. There were other cries of affirmation
from the crowd.
“I
have said my piece. If you still want to kill me, then kill me.”
There
were certainly still many in the crowd who wanted to kill the wolf.
Perhaps he should have said something, but Karma was transfixed by it
all. He had never thought that the wolf would attempt to reason with
the strangers. Could it really work?
The
crowd was starting to become rowdy again, and some of the strangers
were starting to break the circle and advance towards the wolf. It
didn't seem as though they were going to spare him.
“Silence!”,
the man with the red hair yelled, and the crowd fell quiet. “Ye
can't keep stealing our crops. However, if ye be willing to keep yer
nose clean, perhaps I could use someone with a strong back to help
out around the farm. If ye work hard, then I could give ye what you
need to eat.”
Whatever
the wolf might have said, in response he was drowned out by the
protests of the crowd.
The
man with the red hair put up his hand. “I have rendered my
verdict. If you have an issue with it, you can take it up with me
later. But if ye haven't noticed, it's already midday, and we've all
got work to be doin'.”
There
was a lot of grumbling from the crowd, but they gradually dispersed.
The man with the red hair also began to head back towards the town.
The wolf was just standing there, apparently as surprised as anyone
else by what had happened.
“Are
ye coming, or what?”
The
wolf gradually started to follow after him. “Thank you, friend”,
he said to Karma as he walked past. “Without your help I never
would have thought that humans could be trusted.”
The
two of them walked down the hill towards the village, leaving Karma
alone on the grass. Slowly a fog started to roll over the village,
obscuring it from view. Karma walked back towards the forest,
thinking about what the wolf had said.
“They
were all ready to condemn the wolf to death, but somehow they changed
their minds. Is that really possible? Could people accept something
they had once feared?”
He
found his ship waiting for him where the cliff had been. Just as he
was about to climb on board, he heard the call of the wolf one last
time from far away.
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