Chapter 103: I am Dagan, leader of Ashclaw
"Put down your weapons."
Soren raised his head from where Nahla was treating him.
Black blood still covered his mouth.
His silver eyes became glacial.
"No."
The single word crossed the ridge like a blade.
The unfamiliar beastmen tightened their grips on their weapons.
Around forty of them blocked the exit.
Wolves.
Hyenas.
Boars.
Large cats.
Every one of them was male.
Not one female stood among them.
Not one cub.
Their bodies were well-fed. Their weapons were clean. Thick ash covered the ground around their camp, and several fires burned between walls of split stone.
They did not look like survivors who had barely escaped death.
They looked like hunters waiting beside a trap.
Riverbone’s people felt it too.
The wounded crowded closer together.
Males moved in front of their females.
Mothers pulled cubs against their bodies.
Kael stepped before Swanly despite the blood soaking through the binding around his shoulder.
His black ears flattened.
His claws slowly emerged.
Swanly touched his back.
"Do not start anything."
Kael’s golden eyes remained on the strangers staring at her.
"They are looking at you."
"They are looking at every female."
"That is worse."
Nerin moved closer on Swanly’s other side.
His broken antler still bled from the strain of sensing the hollow ridge, but his normally gentle green eyes had hardened.
Arion stood several steps away.
Even he had noticed the way Ashclaw’s males watched the women.
His jaw clenched.
The tall gray wolf at the center smiled.
He had broad shoulders, dark gray hair, and a scar pulling one side of his mouth upward. A heavy bone blade rested across his back.
"I am Dagan, leader of Ashclaw."
Soren said nothing.
Dagan waited.
Soren continued staring at him as if he were deciding which part to remove first.
The wolf’s smile tightened.
"And you are?"
Raku folded his arms.
"You blocked his path without knowing who he is?"
One Ashclaw male laughed.
"He looks half-dead."
Raku’s expression vanished.
Nahla slowly removed her hands from Soren’s ribs.
Swanly saw the pale scales beneath his jaw darken.
Just for a moment.
Raku saw it too.
His shoulders became rigid.
The last time Soren’s scales had darkened at the edges, the old Riverbone council had not survived until sunrise.
Fifteen elders had died.
Soren had taken command before their blood cooled.
Now his core was split, his venom channels were burning him from within, and the scent of wounded bodies surrounded him.
This was not the time to mock him.
This was the time to stand very far away and avoid breathing with offensive intent.
Dagan noticed none of that.
His eyes moved over Riverbone’s injured hunters, crying families, and damaged weapons.
Confidence returned to his face.
"You crossed the Falling Ridge."
"We did," Soren answered.
"Then you know the path behind you is gone."
Soren’s tail moved once across the stone.
"And?"
Dagan opened both hands.
"Splitstone Gorge is ahead. Ashclaw controls its safest path."
One of the former Riverbone elders whispered, "Controls?"
Dagan heard him.
"Our group has survived here for four moons. We know where infected gather, where the stone collapses, and which routes lead into hunting grounds."
Swanly looked past him.
Ashclaw’s camp rested between tall walls of gray stone.
Several trenches filled with ash surrounded the sleeping area. Sharpened wooden stakes guarded the narrow approaches.
It was defensible.
Too defensible for people who claimed they were simply travelling.
Dagan continued.
"You have wounded people. Cub families. Females who look ready to collapse."
His eyes settled on Swanly for too long.
Kael moved.
One step.
That was all.
But the growl rising from his chest made three Ashclaw males raise their spears.
Dagan’s gaze shifted toward him.
"Protective."
"She is my female," Kael said.
The words came low and savage.
Dagan’s eyes travelled over Swanly again.
"Only yours?"
Kael’s claws extended fully.
Soren’s tail struck the ground.
Crack!
Every weapon lifted.
Soren did not stand.
He remained seated on the stone with black blood drying beneath his mouth, Nahla’s medicine wrapping his ribs, and Raku near enough to catch him if his legs failed again.
Still, the entire gorge seemed to shrink around him.
"Look at her again," Soren said softly.
Dagan’s smile disappeared.
Soren’s pupils narrowed into thin silver slits.
"And Ashclaw will require a new leader."
Silence.
Swanly stared at him.
He did not look at her.
His tail had curled between her and Dagan without touching either of them.
Possessive snake.
Bleeding, half-conscious, terrifyingly possessive snake.
Wonderful.
Dagan’s nostrils flared.
For one brief moment, fear entered his eyes.
Then he noticed Soren’s trembling fingers.
The black blood.
The way Raku remained close.
The fear faded.
A mistake.
A very large mistake.
Dagan laughed as though Soren had made a joke.
"No insult was intended."
"All insults are intended," Soren replied.
Dagan’s mouth tightened again.
He pointed toward the fires.
"We have food. Clean water. Information. Your wounded can rest beside our camp for a few hours."
A hungry murmur travelled through Riverbone.
Several people had not eaten since before Riverbone fell.
Nahla looked at the wounded.
They could not continue immediately.
Some would die if forced to walk without treatment.
Soren saw it too.
"We rest on this side of the stone," he said.
Dagan frowned.
"You will be safer behind our walls."
"No."
"We are offering shelter."
"You blocked our path with drawn bows."
Dagan smiled.
"A precaution."
"So is refusing your shelter."
Raku nearly smiled.
Dagan spread his hands again.
"At least accept food."
"Nahla examines it first."
The healer grunted.
"And the water."
Dagan’s face twitched.
Soren continued.
"Our weapons remain with us. Your males do not enter our groups. Ashclaw does not approach our cubs or females without permission."
One of the hyena males laughed.
"You arrive bleeding and still make demands?"
Soren looked at him.
Only looked.
The hyena’s laugh died.
Dagan raised one hand.
"Agreed."
Swanly did not believe him for one second.
Neither did Soren.
Riverbone spread across the open stone without entering Ashclaw’s inner camp.
Soren placed guards around them immediately.
Kael and the hunters protected the outer side.
Raku took the path facing Ashclaw.
Tilla gathered every cub family near the center.
Nahla and Sari treated the worst injuries.
Tovan divided the remaining supplies again and placed them in separate groups.
Nobody relaxed.
They only stopped moving.
There was a difference.
Swanly lowered herself beside Kael.
He sat with his back against a stone, his injured arm resting across his thigh.
The claw marks across his shoulder were closing, but slowly. Too slowly.
She touched the edge of his binding.
Kael caught her wrist.
"I am healing."
"You are still bleeding."
"I have had worse."
"You nearly fell into a ravine while holding me with this arm."
"And I did not let go."
His voice softened on the final words.
Swanly’s anger weakened.
She crouched between his legs and carefully tightened the medicine binding.
Kael’s other arm wrapped around her waist.
"You should rest."
"So should you."
"I will when you do."
"That is ridiculous."
"Yes."
She looked at him.
His golden eyes were fixed on her face.
The noise around them faded for one heartbeat.
Then Miko climbed directly between their bodies.
"Miko rest too."
Swanly nearly fell backward.
Kael caught both of them.
Kairo arrived carrying a small food bundle.
Nilo followed.
Tavi trailed behind them.
In seconds, Swanly and Kael had been buried beneath cubs.
Swanly stared at the four small heads.
"Where is Tilla?"
Tavi pointed.
"Mama helping hurt female."
"And why did all of you leave the cub group?"
Miko lifted one finger.
"Food smell."
Kairo corrected him.
"We see strange males give meat."
Swanly’s head snapped toward Ashclaw.
"What?"