16. A Nightmare Come True.

Everyone was looking at Maria as her gaze returned to them after checking the Phase of the moon. She must have looked worried because so did they.

"What’s wrong?" asked Harold.

"I think we are in more danger than we originally thought." she said. "I don’t think he brought us here just to get us lost, or to bring us far enough away from him so that we can’t find him and stop him. I think he wanted to get rid of us."

"So why here exactly?" asked Paul.

Maria hesitated before answering. She did not know what their reaction would be to her news, but they were her friends and hopefully they would understand. Besides, there was little time for hesitation.

"You have all met my aunt?" she asked.

They all nodded.

"Well, aunty is a bit different from the rest of us."

"What exactly does that mean." asked Jenny.

"She’s a werewolf."

No one said anything.

"She can control her wolf self most of the time." she continued. "But when the moon becomes full, the animal takes over completely and she does not know what she does until the next day. This makes her very dangerous to everyone, even her loved ones."

"And you think she is here?’ asked Jenny.

"The howl I heard just now sounds very much like her. I have lived with her and learnt from her long enough to recognise it." she answered. "She usually goes somewhere remote to allow the wolf to hunt and feed on the animals but not on innocent humans. Our friend probably knew she would be here and left us here for her to kill. She would easily find a few humans in an area they do not normally occupy."

"But how would he know all this." asked Harold.

"The same way he knew about me and the sword." replied Maria. "He got a lot of information from the Unnameable. It is fascinated by Death and probably knows a lot about my family. It was probably not too hard for him to find out Aunty’s habits and know just where to bring us."

"Well, That may be how this all came about, ." said Jenny. "but it doesn’t help our situation any. Even I know that our swords and arrows are useless against a werewolf and Maria’s sword is missing, which was the only weapon we had that could help us."

"Not the only one." said Maria in a whisper.

"What do you mean?"

Maria reached down into her boot. She pulled out a long thin blade attached to a small ivory handle. She held it up in front of her for the others to see. It shone in the moonlight with a gleam that a normal metal sword did not have. They could all see that this blade was made of silver.

"Where did you get that?" asked Warren, still staring wide eyed at it.

"It was a gift from my aunt on my 10th birthday." she replied. "It was the worst birthday present I ever received"

The others said nothing.

"She gave this to me just before she promised to teach me how to fight. She said that unlike mother, I was not invulnerable to her wolf side. She gave this to me and made me promise that I would always keep it on me, hidden away so that it would not be stolen." She stopped to choke back the tears that threatened to fall as she remembered that day. "She also made me promise that if ever there were to be a situation where I was threatened by her, that I would not hesitate to kill her if necessary."

"so we just have to make sure that that situation doesn’t happen." said Harold as he stood up.

The others followed suit as he continued, "We definitely can’t stay here and hope she passes us by. It is harder to catch a moving target, so let us get moving."

Maria didn’t want to tell them that in the case of her aunt, that may not be enough. They walked out of the grove they had woken up in and entered the forest.

This forest was very different from the one they had back home. The trees were denser here, and much thicker and older looking. They could tell that this forest had seen very little of humans. It looked untouched and was very beautiful in its purity.

They walked slowly, making as little noise as possible, stopping every once in a while so that Maria could look and listen for signs of her aunt. One of the good things that came from being taught by her aunt was that Maria knew all her aunts marks and habits when she was in wolf form. She had done this thinking that if ever they did meet, Maria would have a more even hand if she knew as much about her opponent as possible. Maria had still felt bad having to learn these things because it reminded her of the possibility that it could happen, and here she was on the verge of having her biggest nightmare come true.

"not to be a pessimist." said Warren during one of the breaks. "But what are we going to do if she does find us?"

They all turned to Maria.

"You run." she said. "As far and as fast as you can. Try to cover your sent with any body of water you come across. Just like a real wolf, she can lose your sent in them. I have been hearing a stream nearby, and I hope we can make it there. I will try to hold her off as long as I can and then maybe get away myself without having to hurt her too much."

"But what if that isn’t enough?’ asked Jenny.

Maria thought about her answer for a bit.

"Don’t worry." she finally said. "If I have too, I will."

The others nodded their heads, sure that she had spoken the truth.

"Come on." she said to break the silence. "Let’s see if we can’t get to that stream."

They moved off toward the sound of water. As they did so Maria kept her eye out. It was odd to her that she had not seen any sign of her aunt. Maybe she had been wrong about the sound earlier, or maybe her aunt had just gone off in a different direction. Somehow she doubted it. Maria was worried that her reluctance to meet her aunt was affecting her abilities.

The answer came as they stepped out of the forest to the streams edge.

Standing there, looking straight at them as they emerged, was a wolfe as black as the night with eyes as blue as the sky. A wolf that was bigger than any his lordship’s hunters had ever seen.

All except one, who wished to all the gods she had not seen her tonight.