“What’s happened?” Soren’s mother rushes to the window, and Present Soren hurries to look past her. “Oh gods! Wolves!”
Soren looks at me with wide eyes. “What’s going on?”
Before I can answer, Soren’s father is on his feet and grabbing a pitchfork by the door. “Stay inside!” he orders, then rushes outside to fend off the attack.
“Pa!” Past Soren cries, running after him. His mother grabs his shoulders and hauls him back. She kicks the door shut and turns to her son.
“Your father will be fine. It’s just wolves.”
“But they aren’t, are they?” Present Soren asks beside me, his face pale.
I shake my head. “No wolves would be so cruel as to attack a village. They are a pack of ulfhednar. They came from across the sea to raid and kill.” Soren’s hand quivers in mine. “We don’t have to stay for this.”
Soren’s mother screams as dozens of paws slam into the front door. Furious snarls and barks come from beyond, and the door rattles under the pressure of countless claws tearing into the wood.
Soren’s mother scoops up her son and races for the back door just as a storm of wolves bursts into the cabin. She runs outside and slams the back door on them, and Present Soren races through the walls and outside, bringing me with him.
Soren’s mother runs toward the woods, carrying Soren in her arms. Wolves pursue her. A voice cries out, “To me, foul beasts!” Soren’s father hoists his pitchfork and points it at the pack. A few wolves rush him, but a couple others chase after Soren and his mother. The wolves hurl themselves at Soren’s father, and though he manages to stab a few, he’s tackled to the ground. Present Soren looks away, eyes shut tight as his father screams.
“We need to follow my mother!” Soren races off toward the woods.
I know that despite his injuries, Soren’s father will live, the only survivor of the attack aside from his son. He’ll get stronger, driven by fury and lust for revenge, and years from now he will come to our shores with a small army disguised as missionaries.
If I could kill him now and prevent the suffering to come, I would do so in a heartbeat.
But I can’t. Nothing can change what has already come to pass. All that matters now is that I have Soren, and he needs me. Grabbing hold of my resolve, I race after Soren and into the woods. His mother has managed to shake thewolves for now. They sniff among the leaves, growling in agitation.
“Where is she?” Present Soren asks, looking around.
I grab his hand and lead the way deeper into the trees. Ahead of us, Soren’s mother’s run has slowed to a limp. Blood weeps from her ankle.
“M-Ma?” Past Soren whimpers in her arms. “Hurry. You have to hurry!”
With a gasp of pain, his mother stumbles, Soren toppling from her arms. He scrambles up and grabs her hand.
“I… I can’t go any faster, my love,” his mother says through pained gasps.
“Yes, you can!” Soren urges, pulling on her hand. Tears and dirt streak his cheeks. “Please, Ma!”
The pain clouding his mother’s eyes disperses. I follow her stare to the hollowed base of a tree. Grabbing her son’s arm, she drags him toward the trunk. “Inside, boy, hurry!”
Soren’s lip quivers as he looks up at his mother. “You hide too.”
“Listen to me.” She grips both his shoulders. “We’re going to play a game. You be as quiet as you can and don’t move from this spot. No matter what happens. I’m going to lead the beasts away but I will come back. When I do, we’ll find your father and we’ll go far away. We’ll start anew somewhere else.”
Tears spill down Soren’s cheeks. “Promise.”
She takes his small hand and kisses his palm. “I promise.” She wipes his tears away with her thumbs. “Now, you be strong for me. Quiet as a mouse and still as a tree.”
Sniffling, Soren squeezes into the large hole in the trunk.
“Good lad,” his mother says, eyes damp but voice full of pride. She backs away from the trunk, eyes never straying from her son’s.
Leaves crunch under paws. Snarls get louder, closer.
Soren’s mother rips off the hem of her dress and binds it tight around her bloodied ankle. “Beasts! Here I am!” She takes off running. Several wolves tear past the trunk where Past Soren is hidden. True to his word, he remains still.
It will be three days before my father and a few of his men find him and take him away.
