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The Blood War

Chapter Twenty-Four

As the sun dug it's talons into the landscape and pulled itself from the ground to begin its long crawl across the sky, Outlander watched what she had believed to be impossible.

She watched the immortal death-wolf bleed.

Bone's breaths were shakey and laced with visible pain. Sitting there, broken and bloody, she thought back to her promise. "If I ever see you again, I will give my life to make you suffer." Well, here he was, defensless and half-beaten already. If there was ever a time to take her revenge, it was now.

She padded towards him, looming over him. His eyes flew open and he looked at her without moving his head. "I didn't think monsters bled," she murmered.

Bone let out a noisy breath, somewhere between an appauled scoff and an amused snort, but it caused obvious pain as he winced immediately and inhaled sharply. "Still convinced I'm a monster?" Then his amusment fell to something else. For a second, Outlander didn't know what to call the look; she had never seen it on Bone's face. Sadness? Despair? Confusion? Then she pegged it: fear.

He was afraid of her.

The great bringer of so much death and destruction, left vunerable and afraid of a little coywolf.

"Scavenger-" he started.

"Is in the past." The words tumbled out, leaving a bitter taste in Outlander's mouth and the feeling of deep claws in her heart. "I'm putting it behind us. No more revenge. No more of Scavenger." Outlander could picture the look of betrayal on the ghost Scavenger's face, the disbelief. The hurt. She apologized profusely in her mind and heart as she said the words, "You are forgiven."

If there was a Forever Grounds for coyotes, she would answer for her treachary someday, but today there was a bigger threat than the Bone Beast.

"Thank you," he breathed quietly, lightly, as if a great burden that had been clinging to his lungs suddenly released its hold. Bone tried to push himself to his feet, fighting the pain in defiance, but he dropped quickly as the movement became far too excruciating to withstand. "Your legs. The entire hip, it's too high, not where it's supposed to be." She walked around to his back.

"I have to get up," he panted. "The ancestors sent me to stop Snowblind."

Outlander grew queasy. His spine wasn't broken, but it cetainly was bent out of shape, the imprint of an elk hoof deeply imprinted on his skin. "You will," she murmered, subconciously offering whatever comfort her mind found fit, "but you're not going anywhere like this. Snowblind can wait." She poked her head back out to the field. "There's an old wolf I know. He healed me after my first run-in with you. He may be able to help you too."

She turned, wanting to give Bone some encouragement, something to hold on to. "Besides, I think he's a big fan of yours," she said with a grin.

Bone snorted again, and winced again. "Snowblind kicked you out. How do you plan on getting back in?"

"He didn't kick me out, he killed me. When I go back, wolves will be staring in disbelief, not trying to tear me limb from limb. Stay here."

"Where am I going to go?!" Bone snarled, his voice growing distant behind her as she made her way back to the den of vipers she once called home.

~CL1

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