A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

When his speech was over, silence fell over the town of Frostvik. Erik quickly realized he had unwittingly shifted to his wolf form. His mouth twisted into a snarl while his wolfish amber eyes shone with a fierce defiance.

Apparently, Frostfang's insinuations had trudged up some intense feelings from Erik.

Frostfang paused due to Erik's rebuttal but kept his eyes narrowed. A complex mix of anger and sadness marred his face. Yet, for the moment, he didn't seem to have a good comeback to Erik's words.

Deciding that perhaps it was best to move Frostfang's focus, Viljar moved to stand in between Erik and Frostfang. "Setting aside all of this, it's good to see you again, Jonas," he said with a warm smile.

The truth was, that the current Silver Enclave was divided into a large number of camps spread throughout the eastern area of Finnmark, and Frostfang was always on the move, traveling from camp to camp. Thus, he rarely saw his old friends.

They only occasionally talked and received orders through a complex system of many two-way radios that were kept just barely functioning.

Even this meeting was little more than a coincidence, as they might as well have been stationed in a camp far away from here, which meant Erik would have been chased by a different group.

Suddenly finding his vision of Erik obscured by the bear-sized form of Viljar, Frostfang couldn't help but lose some of the anger in his gaze and sighed, "Same to you, old friend." His words were uttered in a cool tone, but there was clearly a warm glint in his eyes.

Then he frowned, and his eyes narrowed again, "But now move aside, I'm not done with the brat yet."

Viljar sighed and didn't move yet. "Look, maybe he'll tell you his story when he's ready, but do you really think Runa will appreciate you giving her returned-from-the-dead son the third degree?"

Frostfang's gaze seemed to soften a little, but he still kept his eyes narrowed as he looked over Viljar's shoulder towards Erik, who glared back, undaunted.

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"His attitude pisses me off…" Jonas began but looked back at Viljar with reluctant acceptance. "But I suppose you're right. And although he's a lot more casual than honored teacher, I do notice some of her in him."

"You should have seen him before the awakening," Viljar responded with a half-smirk. "He took more after his father back then."

Finally, Viljar moved out of the way, causing Frostfang and Erik's gazes to cross paths again.

Frostfang still seemed filled with a mixture of emotions ranging from anger to sadness to even relief at Runa's son still being alive, but he didn't seem ready to pounce on Erik anymore. Erik even noticed a glint of protectiveness in Frostfang's eyes.

'I guess Frostfang has enough loyalty to my mother to want me alive at least,' Erik thought to himself. 'Although I wonder about the breaking point of that desire.'

"Perhaps I was a little hasty," Frostfang began. "No matter what, I'm sure honored teacher would be overjoyed at your survival, and I won't jeopardize that happiness."

Erik however, didn't calm down much, and instead snorted dismissively, "You know, I can't wait to hear what Mom thinks of your presumptuous attitude. From the way you talk about her, I doubt your relationship ever went beyond mere teacher and student, so why you thought you could start lecturing her son is beyond me."

Immediately, Frostfang's fury returned, "Listen here, you brat…"

But before he could continue, another voice sounded. "Enough of this!" Victor shouted. "I'm sure the two of you have plenty of things to sort out, but you can do it later. We came here for a reason."

Victor now became the target of the furious gazes of one werewolf who was definitely more powerful than him, and another who likely was as well, based on everything he knew about Erik. Yet, he stood his ground and snorted while waiting for Frostfang's response.

Finally, it came. "You can't take Erik," he said with conviction. "Honored teacher would never forgive me for that."

"I don't care about him," Victor waved his hand dismissively. "I already told you I'm here for the black-haired girl and the crimson-haired girl. You can keep this guy."

It didn't seem like Victor had any clue about the fact that you couldn't separate Elora and Erik. Then again, that wasn't so strange, as the reason for Elora's teleportation back in that helicopter was only mentioned by her to Katya in an off-handed remark. It was entirely possible Katya hadn't even told the rest of the council.

Frostfang nodded at Victor's words, "Good. That's fine then."

But naturally, Erik disagreed. "Fine my hairy wolf ass!" he snarled and bared his sharp teeth at the both of them. "You think you can decide my and my companion's fates so easily? None of us are going anywhere with anyone!" he continued, defiantly.

Erik knew perfectly well that he couldn't actually stop Frostfang from taking them, nor did he put any stock in convincing him to refuse the deal with the council. Erik also wasn't one to bluster pointlessly, but… it wasn't pointless.

It was aimed at portraying a certain image that Elora had asked him to portray. While before he needed to show confidence in order to throw off Frostfang, now he needed to make it appear like all his confidence had come from his identity, rather than anything else.

From this point on, he and Elora wanted Victor and Frostfang to underestimate him.

Inside Erik's soul, Elora was calculating and planning every possible next event and their suitable reaction, while adjusting everything as the situation progressed. So the moment Frostfang had shown interest in protecting Erik, she had moved on to the appropriate plan.

Seeing Erik's pointless anger, Frostfang scoffed, "Don't be an idiot, boy. Honored teacher tasked me with protecting the Enclave, and that is what I will do, even at the cost of your friends."

Before Erik could retort, more people entered the scene, as Nora, Anne, Björn, and Olaf now left Viljar's old house.

While Björn and Nora appeared neutral, a careful observer might notice fear and concern in Nora's gaze, while noticing conviction and determination in Björns.

On the other hand, Anne and Olaf showed their clear glee at Erik's apparent predicament. 'Finally, this human sympathizer will get what he deserves! And so will those bitches with him!' they both thought, filled with anger.

Seeing the new arrivals, Frostfang nodded in greeting. "Good, you're all here," he said. "Go fetch Erik's companions for me, while I keep an eye on him."

His words caused Erik and Elora to grin inwardly when, less than a moment later, green flashes appeared on the back of all four of their hands, while they remained still, with distressed faces.

"W- We can't, boss," said Olaf while scratching his head awkwardly. Naturally, they knew perfectly well where the rest of Erik's group was hiding. The covenant simply wouldn't allow them to act on it, or even say a word about it.