Once they could no longer sense any danger stirring deep within the forest, the restless wolves finally quieted their movements.
They turned their eyes back to the old man with the gun, circling in place as if aimlessly wandering but in truth, from every direction at once, the snow wolves were closing steadily in, inch by inch.
The stillness draped over the pine forest brought Jasnah no comfort at all in that moment. If anything, it was suffocating.
She had already thrown out most of the firewood and dried provisions Enno had spent so many days carefully preparing for their journey. Now she knelt in the trampled snow, fumbling with cold-stiffened fingers to tighten the sled dogs' harnesses, glancing again and again urgently toward Enno standing up at the mouth of the slope.
She had to get Enno somewhere safe—that single, overriding need was what let her push through the pain, the way her own injured foot kept scraping repeatedly against the snow, the sharp sting of each contact and the pervasive cold.
Enno should never have had to face this danger. All of it was my doing.
The old her had been lost inside the absurd, seductive dream her father had woven for her, unable to climb out of it on her own. In pursuit of making that ridiculous dream real, she'd lost count of how many Muggles and wizards had died directly by her own hand, or through her indirect actions.
Now, she had finally woken from that dream. She never wanted to be the cause of anyone's death again.
"Enno!"
The moment the harness was looped over the last sled dog's neck, Jasnah didn't bother wiping the sweat beading heavily at her temple—she shouted straight up toward the old man instead, urgency overriding everything.
Bang!
Thin smoke curled from the muzzle again. The smooth snow erupted violently where the shot struck home, and the wolf that had been edging closer flinched back hard, tumbling over itself in fright at the impact.
The restless pack pressed themselves low to the ground in response; their cold, calculating eyes locked strongly on Enno's position.
Crunch, crunch—
Standing motionless as a statue throughout, Enno finally moved. Even as he broke the rifle open in his hands to reload, it never lost its essential steadiness, and behind the clouded film of his eyes flashed an unaccustomed, unmistakable sharpness. Slowly, he began to retreat, one careful step at a time, backing his way down the slope toward the pit.
Awoooo!
Howls rose one after another, echoing through the surrounding trees, and the moment Enno's grizzled head finally dropped out of the pack's direct sight, the whole gathered pack surged with fresh restlessness again.
But for the moment, notably, not a single wolf dared to charge in first, whatever their evident hunger.
They feared injury just as much as anything else in this world—out here, in weather this extreme, to be wounded even slightly was, in practical terms, to be dead within days.
Mrrh!
A wolf stepped out from behind a thick pine trunk—its neck notably thick with grey fur, its blue-grey eyes purer and considerably clearer than any of the others gathered around it.
It let out a low, considering whine, its dark gaze focused intently on the snow pit below, a distinct glint of intelligence was flickering in its eyes.
For wolves living wild in these mountains, the hunting rifle was one of their only natural predators. To avoid it, this particular alpha had kept itself hidden until precisely this moment.
The nearby wolves, seeing their leader emerge at last, came toward it one after another and lowered their heads submissively in acknowledgment.
The alpha paid no attention to its subordinates offering their submission. Its cold gaze swept across the two of its kind lying dead and already cooling in the churned snow, then fixed itself back on the pit below.
A rare heavy snow had buried nearly every smaller creature throughout the forest this season, and finding adequate food had grown considerably harder than in any previous winter within its memory. So, it meant to have these two particular people, whatever the cost.
A low, feral growl rolled out steadily across the snow. The pack, hearing the clear command embedded in it, answered as one with a bloodthirsty, unified howl.
From every direction at once, the wolves began converging steadily on the slope, and this time their coordinated approach was far more resolute and purposeful than before.
Once all forty-some wolves had sealed off the mouth of the slope, there would be no way for Enno and Jasnah to break through their combined line.
Grrrrowl!
Hidden carefully behind the rest of the pack, the alpha kept issuing its low, steady commands.
An old wolf positioned at the front broke into a trot on all fours, heading directly for the mouth of the slope, ready to see for itself precisely what waited there——
Awoo, awoo, awoo!
After a long stretch of tense, waiting silence, the snow pit finally stirred with sudden motion.
"Go!"
At Jasnah's sharp, decisive cry, the sled dogs already tense and ready—lunged forward all at once in coordination, and the sled, its total load lightened by more than half, shot into sudden motion!
The old wolf that had come to scout hadn't even registered what was happening before the sled dogs charging in as if death itself meant nothing to them—slammed it head over heels into the snow. The sled ran straight over the animal a moment later, snapping several of its ribs and crushing whatever hope it had of surviving this winter.
Jasnah hadn't taken shelter inside the sled's cabin for this charge. She sat side by side with Enno up on the driver's seat instead—he held the rifle steady and ready, and she gripped the leather reins tight in both hands.
As if she meant to take the whole pack down with her in a single decisive move, Jasnah drove the sled straight and hard at the wolves. The sheer ferocity of the charge put a flicker of fear even in the alpha's calculating eyes.
Bang!
Fwip!
The crack of the rifle and the hiss of a wandless Severing Charm sounded in the exact same instant, and two more wolves fell dead in the snow.
Jasnah's eyes stayed sharp and focused on the pack throughout. Just before the sled would have ploughed straight into their massed ranks, she wrenched the reins hard sideways, and the dogs veered at once toward the open, frozen river beyond.
The sled carved a wide, sweeping arc through the deep snow, sending a few wolves that hadn't dodged in time flying through the air, before tearing off in a sudden burst of desperate speed, leaving the bulk of the pack behind them in the confusion.
Fled?
The unexpected sight left the alpha stunned for a few full seconds but the moment it caught up to what had actually happened, it let out a howl filled entirely with murderous resolve and savagery.
Boom!
The sled flew off the edge of the slope and slammed down hard onto the river's snow-buried surface below. It shuddered violently a few times under the impact, then hurtled forward without pause.
Under the alpha's direct command, the pack followed in close pursuit, one after another, leaping down onto the frozen riverbed in an unbroken, determined line.
In the forest wrapped in silver snow, a fierce chase had begun!
"Faster! Faster!"
The pines lining both riverbanks streaked past in an indistinct blur. The wind tearing at her exposed face stung so badly that Jasnah could barely keep her own eyes properly open, and her cheeks had gone pale, drained of colour from the sustained, bitter cold.
But Jasnah knew full well that whether they lived or died hinged entirely on whether the dogs could outrun the pursuing pack, so she didn't dare call any halt—she kept urging them relentlessly onward instead.
And yet, even so, the dogs hauling the heavy sled and the weight of two full people were losing ground steadily to the pursuing pack.
Thud!
A strange, unwelcome sound suddenly came from the cabin at her own back, and Jasnah's face changed colour instantly. Her heart lurched violently, and the reins in her hands shook a few times without her meaning them to—enough disruption to throw off the dogs' pounding rhythm, so that the pace pulling the sled stumbled slightly, badly out of step for a moment.
The sled's speed dropped a little in response, and from the back of the cabin came another strange, ominous sound.
"Steady."
Enno's steady, unbothered voice smoothed over the rising panic in Jasnah's chest at the single word. He twisted around just in time to see it clearly—the unmistakable shape of a wolf's paw, pressed hard from beneath, bulging visibly against the leather hide of the cabin wall!
Even as the sled jolted and bounced violently over the rough ice, the rifle Enno raised stayed perfectly steady throughout!
Bang!
Driven from the barrel by the concentrated blast of exploding powder, the bullet tore cleanly through the leather hide with ease, shattered the wolf's exposed forepaw instantly, then blew its skull apart entirely a moment later. Red and white sprayed across Enno from head to foot in the space.
It lent his own wrinkled, taciturn old face an added edge of killing menace in that moment.
Through the gaping hole the bullet had torn violently in the sled's hide, Enno watched the wolf—its skull now shattered get flung clean off the moving sled by the force of the shot before it could even manage a single whimper of proper pain.
But his expression didn't ease in the slightest at that small victory, because more than one additional wolf had already leapt into the cabin behind them.
Another monstrous wolf face pushed through the torn opening in the hide, its pupils narrowed sharply to slits, its beastly eyes soaked entirely through with raw hunger for flesh and fresh blood!
The wolf's jaws split open wide, rows of jagged, serrated teeth bared fully in an open snarl, and the thick, rank reek pouring from its mouth sent a wave of numbness crawling up the back of Jasnah's skull as she fought to hold the speeding sled steady.
Enno's rifle was, by design, single-shot only, and there was no round left chambered.
Having lived so long among Muggles, Jasnah understood Muggle technology better than the average witch or wizard typically would.
Jasnah was just turning her attention to finish off the second wolf that had jumped aboard with a Severing Charm of her own, when out of the corner of her eye she caught Enno raising the rifle high, with no time left to reload it first.
Fwsh!
After that strange, wet sound, Jasnah felt a few drops of warm liquid spatter suddenly against her ear.
Awoooowl!
The wolf let out a howl of agony that seemed to shake the very air around them.
Enno, though, didn't so much as flinch at any of it. In one swift motion he yanked the rifle back out of the wolf's ruined eye socket, reloaded it with quick, steady hands despite the chaos, and then—
Boom!
The rifle roared and spat out a searing round again, blasting apart the head of the starving wolf that had frozen mid-lunge inside the cramped cabin and taking a fair chunk of the cabin's own structure with it in the process.
The torn leather hide flapping loose at the newly broken wall dragged strikingly at the sled as it continued running.
Enno's wrinkled powerful hand seized the hide at the tear and yanked hard with a sharp, decisive rip—the whole panel covering the wall behind the two of them tore clean away.
In the same continuous motion, he wiped the fresh blood off the barrel with the discarded hide, then flung the whole piece behind them, tripping up a few more of the pursuing wolves in the confusion.
'Beautifully done.'
Out of the corner of her eye, Jasnah watched Enno reload without a single flicker of expression, and privately she gave him silent praise for the composure.
But almost simultaneously, more wolves crept determinedly into view at the edges of the broken cabin, and Jasnah's face darkened once again.
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