Wolves of War

3

  The river was just as it was before, gently rolling past the cave, which they now stood on top of. The sky was purple with long piles of darker clouds that were pink as if it were sundown.

"What happened? Why are we back here?" Zephyra turned wide eyes on Lykaion.

"This is the underworld. It is just a mirror image of the mortal world, except it is always twilight or dark here. Demons and some beings need darkness." He explained, leading her back down the river, along the woods they had come from earlier. "The villages will not be here, no one you know will be here. This level is for lower level demons and dark Gods. Mortals do not come here. They try, but once they dock their boat, they wander the pier for eternity or the dragon eats them in those waters.

"Demons and dragons?" Zephyra's voice rose. "You said it wasn't that bad here. Demons and dragons?"

"I don't know what in the hell you expected, this is the underworld." He chuckled at his own terrible pun but Zephyra wasn't having it.

"What do we do? Won't they eat us?" She was holding onto his strong arm without realizing it. Her wide eyes surveyed all around them.

"I suppose they could but none of them have ever tried me." He patted her hand. "Try and relax, enjoy this. This is something few ever see."

He was right, she knew, but it didn't calm her at all. In the distance a mountain rose against the purple sky, it looked indigo in the distance, the ragged outcroppings and ledges were all visible in the outline, there appeared to be snow draped over the top of the mountain.

"That's Mount Olympus." Lykaion pointed to the imposing figure they were walking towards. "The home of the Gods. We shall visit there. We should leave an offering to Zeus."

Zephyra agreed, even though it was Zeus who had gotten her into this mess, she wished to stay on his good side. The clatter of horses' feet took them both by surprise, but Lykaion appeared to recover faster. It was a band of at least twenty, carrying torches as they rode hell-for-leather across the valley. Their horses were all dark, as were the cloaks the men wore. As they grew closer, Zephyra noticed they had no face, only skulls with grimacing smiles.

"Oh-" she froze, squeezing Lykaion's arm. "What is that?"

"Shadow Riders, they ride the valley looking for tainted souls that have somehow escaped here. Let us change into wolf form for the next part of the journey, shall we?"

As he spoke he slipped into his wolf body, waiting on her to do the same. Zephyra closed her eyes, but nothing happened. She concentrated on the feel of the fur she had as a wolf, on the feeling of going on all fours, and slowly she began to morph into her other form. Her change was not yet seamless, rather it started with her hands and feet, then traveled along her limbs and torso until all of her was changed. Lykaion hoped she'd get faster with it, a lag in changing could mean death for sure. But he said nothing despairing about it. Instead, he moved off towards the mountain without a word.

Zephyra's keen eyes locked onto something in the sky to the East. Long and serpentine it moved through the clouds like a snake. Lykaion noticed her stares and followed her gaze.

"Dragons." He replied. "They won't bother us. They will have eggs this time of year and they are only watching for humans to come and steal them or slay the adults."

"I thought humans couldn't come to this place." She watched three of the large serpents weaving among the clouds and seeming to play with each other.

"They cannot. They don't have to. You can find dragons among the human realm if you know where to look. All of this is in the human realm but not everyone can see it. There are some gifted humans that can. There are beings like us that can, you will see it too, my dear."