Chapter 12- Accepting the strange

Peggy sat down and watched as Mikael dug the hole. Eli walked down the hill and started to help Nieve, using magic to sharpen their fingernails and begin cutting into the bone and cartilage that kept the wolf trapped.

It took Mikael almost an hour to dig a large enough hole, and as he worked, she realised she could feel her muscles ache in tandem with the ones he would be using. A cold shiver ran down her back as he sweated. Her mouth went dry just before he took out a flask of water. She drummed her fingers into the dirt as she tried to make sense of this.

Either she had very quickly bonded to this group, and she was feeling some weird psychosomatic sensations, or…

Mate.

“Nope, not ready to confront that,” she sighed, pulling her knees to her chest.

Still, that word drifted around her mind. As much as it felt like a foreign sensation, she had seen werewolves mated to humans before. At the same time, it felt uncomfortable, having someone else possibly in her mind like this. She needed to talk to him.

Maybe when he wasn’t actively burying a giant rotting head.

Eventually, Mikael came up to Eli and Nieve, helping them crack the rogue’s hand to pull Nieve’s fangs out. Peggy looks down at the pile of dirt where the head is buried…

She swallows hard, thinking back to the campsite where Mikael had buried something else. She had never been told what had happened.

Her attention focused on Mikael as he walked up to her on the hill while Eli helped Nieve get the rot out from his teeth.

“That was… A lot,” he said softly.

“Yeah,” she agreed. She fidgeted slightly, not wanting to talk about what could be happening between them.

“Are you ok?” he asked gently.

“Yeah, just…” she swallowed hard. He put a hand on her shoulder.

“Breathe,” he said softly. She nodded.

“... Is this, like, normal?” she asked.

“No, not even slightly,” he said. “I mean, we know rogues can get that big, but it’s not something we usually see, especially this far south from Arcterra.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Rogues are… They’re people who have been cut off from the moon goddess, normally criminals. Doing that cuts them off from her magic, the stuff our wolves need to live,” he explained. “It has… Some really bad effects.”

Peggy nodded, but her stomach churned.

“Oh… Yeah, you said there were people at the camp…” she said, finally letting that sink in. “I… I didn’t think they could become something like that, though.”

“Only when it gets to a super late stage… If it helps, the person would have died a long time ago,” he said softly.

“Yeah, but…” she hesitated. She looked back at the mound of dirt he had left behind. That thing had once been a werewolf like Archer, Eli, and Mikael...

“... Best not to think about it,” he murmured.

“You can say that again,” she said, running a hand through her hair.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Normally, the big ones are only found super far north, up in the tundras, but…”

They both looked at the large body that was left from the attack. There was no denying this one was way too far south.

“We… We should let people know,” Peggy said, taking a charcoal and a piece of parchment from her bag.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I- uh-” she hesitated. “If we’re going to a town soon, I have ways of letting my cousin, Aurellia, know.”

Mikael raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“I know people,” she said vaguely. “They can pass on a message or something…”

“Huh… Good to know,” Mikael nodded. “We can find a town. I mean, there’s a monastery nearby. There must be more civilization.”

Peggy frowned.

“A monastery, huh?” Peggy said softly. “I’ve not heard anything about that…”

“I mean, Leviathorp is a little ways away,” Mikael offered.

“Sure, but the lands the royal family govern are a lot larger than just the city…” Peggy said, rubbing the back of her head. “Maybe I just skipped the lesson about it…”

“You skipped lessons?” Mikael asked with a snort. Peggy’s cheeks flushed. “I thought you were a goody two-shoes.”

“Well- no, I just-” Peggy stammered. “I don’t like math…”

“I can hardly blame you for that,” Mikael snorted. Peggy sighed and scribbled some symbols onto the page. “She’ll know what those mean?”

"Cipher system," Peggy said, not meeting his eyes. "Royal business. She'll understand."

“Got it,” Mikael nodded.

Peggy quickly wrote the symbols, then intricately folded the paper and tied it with string. Aurellia would know this was an urgent message.

She could only hope that it would reach her cousin in time.