Lone Werewolf Duology (bxb)

16. Dangerous Quest

Nadezhda preferred to sleep in her wolf form by the fire rather than under a roof, even when it was made of polyester, not shingles. She stirred out of her sleep, gazed at Volya with chillingly intelligent eyes, shook herself and disappeared into her tent. By the time she re-appeared wearing an oversized hoodie, leggings and a collection of talismans, Damir emerged as well.

Damir stretched, kicked the smoldering logs closer together to wake up the fire and hung the kettle over it. Then he slumped to the ground to sit cross-legged and stare into the flames.

Volya made scary eyes at Nadezhda to dissuade her from attempting to poke Damir. Talking to him when he was that bleary-eyed was an exercise in frustration. The man slept-in rarely, but when the sleep deficit and his healthful nature caught up to him, it took a while to bring him back to the world of the living.

"We'll need a gallon of coffee," Volya judged. He went to rummage through their supplies for the can with the Nescafe elixir.

Nadezhda made a second trip to her tent for some mysterious leaves that she had crumbled in slow, deliberate motions. Really slow motions.

Water took its sweet time to boil too.

"Hallelujah!" Volya exclaimed after it finally did.

They mixed herbs and ground magic beans together, then steeped it for a bit in their largest mug. Nadezhda gave it a judicious sniff a few times, before declaring it perfect, then inserted it into Damir's hands. "Drink, my friend."

It turned out the ritual was totally pointless. Volya held the key that rewound Damir's mechanism all along! Damir nodded off through Volya's tragic tale despite taking frequent sips from the mug, but the moment the magic word, tomb, left Volya's mouth...

Wow! why didn't he start with it? They would have saved loads of time!

Damir accelerated from 10 mile per hour to the lift-off speed of a space shuttle. Volya could practically hear Damir's heart pounding as the man dashed inside his tent with a scream of, "Wait, wait! Let me show you!"

While Damir's tent shook with curses punctuating his frantic search, Volya grabbed Nadezhda's hand.

"Promise not to commit me to a mental ward, if I ask you a weird question?"

Nadezhda cocked her brow. "Why would I—"

He took it as a yes. "Karzhift did what she did, because she understood what Akrum knew all along."

At this point his breath caught, because the idea was so insane, so out there...

"You speak in riddles, brother."

Despite his skull buzzing with ideas, Volya felt his lips stretching into a smile. That pretend-sage tone was adorable! He was still smiling when he tried to organize the swarm of guesses into his but-hear-me-out spiel.

"All humans have magic. Yasuwa and Ushpi and the others, they didn't need to climb the mountain. They were this close..." Volya distanced his thumb and forefinger as if he were holding a single grain of salt to show just how close the centaurs were to a breakthrough... "this close to becoming something new and powerful species. Once Yasuwa had realized that, once they had accepted what they were, that Akrum didn't curse them—"

A tiny crease cut in between Nadezhda's brows. "Let me check the bandages. Maybe the cuts are inflaming and you're running a fever. Add the upsetting vision on top of it—"

In the background, Damir addressed his backpack in a language that would have made his tent blush if it weren't orange already.

Over his profanities Volya said... no, let him be honest here. He raved. Everything he knew broke down to atoms, then started forming back up, cold-fusion style. That energy flowed out of him in a torrent of words.