635 - Leader of the Pack
It took only a few seconds for Lex and Solvei to find the rest of the winter wolves.
Exiting the narrow tunnel, the two of them emerged into a wider area. A few dozen feet across, there were several similar tunnels branching out in a radial pattern. Had he not been briefed on the layout of this place by Solvei the night before, Lex would have been concerned that the rest of her kin would use those tunnels to disappear further into the mine, turning their engagement into a series of hit-and-run attacks in order to wear them down.
But Solvei had assured him that such a thing was impossible. Each of those tunnels was – like the one Kaja had emerged from a few moments ago – its own little room, not going any further back. While the mine might have gone further at one time, the rubble that Solvei had described as being in the rearmost alcove suggested that whatever tunnels had been dug deeper into the mountainside had collapsed. Which was, in Lex’s estimation, likely the reason this place had been abandoned to begin with, leaving it wide open for Solvei’s family to move in.
Nor, from the look of them now, were they happy to find out that they had uninvited guests.
“I can’t believe you actually came back here,” snickered Ebbe as he stalked forward. “You might have surprised me before, but you should have known better than to let it go to your head like this.”
“Your brother is right, Solvei,” murmured Turid – the mother wolf – as she moved alongside her son. “Whatever seidr that pony used on you yesterday won’t be useful in here.”
She canted her muzzle upward as she spoke, and it was easy to see why. Although the chamber they were in now was wide, the ceiling was still barely ten feet high. Any attempt to increase Solvei’s size, the way Lex had the day before, would leave her cramped enough that she’d be at a considerable disadvantage in a fight.
Lex couldn’t have cared less about that, however. Compared to yesterday, he had a far more profound understanding of what he could do with the power the Night Mare had given him. Something as tame as merely increasing Solvei’s mass was the very least of it.
In the face of that, whatever power Solvei’s family had gained was puny in comparison. Which was why Lex didn’t hesitate as he strode forward, drawing the attention of the mutated wolves. “Where is the Red Man?” he demanded. “What has he done with Thermal Draft?”
Coming up next to her mother, Kaja’s lip curled. “You want to see the Red Man? I’ll drag you to him myself…right after you’ve been made to realize how badly you erred in coming here.”
“Forget that,” sneered Sten. “We already brought the Red Man a pony. We’ll bring him plenty more after we invade their lands. I say we eat this one, since Bolverk kept last night’s meal for himself.”
“And what if I did?”
The voice came from the opposite end of the cavern, and Solvei’s family spun around, turning to face its source. Solvei herself growled softly, baring her teeth as she flattened her ears. “Bolverk,” she spat.
The wolf in question sauntered forward, giving Lex his first good look at the final member of Solvei’s pack.
He was an ugly creature, even without taking into account what the Red Man’s power had done to him. His muzzle was short, giving him a pug-faced look, and several of his teeth protruded past his lips, to the point of almost being saber-toothed. His ears were too small for his head, thin membranes twisting as though to try and make up for their lack of size. His fur was thin, almost to the point of being mangy.
That was only where he still had fur, however. The majority of his body had lost its natural covering; whereas the rest of Solvei’s pack still had their white fur, almost all of Bolverk’s body had been reduced to gnarled, leathery skin. Haphazard patches decorated his sides, legs, and belly in asymmetrical locations. His tail was completely hairless, and was far shorter than it should have been, barely constituting a nub at the base of his spine. Even his wings were unpleasant to look at, pronounced veins pressing up through the batlike folds, giving them the appearance of being mottled with age.
But as hideous as he was, the one thing Bolverk didn’t look like was weak. For all his disgusting features, the mutated winter wolf was thickly built, with his front paws having become claws so long that they scraped at the ground as he moved. Twice as wide as Solvei without being any longer, he could have been mistaken for corpulent at a distance, but up close it was plain that beneath his skin he was all muscle.
Giving a gulp so loud it was almost audible, Sten curled his tail between his legs. “A-alpha,” he stuttered. “We were just discussing what to do with this-, NGH!”
Lazily pulling his claw back from where he’d swiped Sten across the face, knocking him to the ground, Bolverk glowered at him. “I heard what you were discussing,” he spat, snarling as he moved to stand over Sten, the fallen wolf shaking as he curled up in a ball. “And I heard the disrespect in your voice when you mentioned me.”
Lex frowned at the display. As galling as the unwarranted violence was, he couldn’t help but note how deep the bloody furrows on the side of Sten’s head were. He’d hit the wolf with a spike of black crystal yesterday, during their brief altercation, and it hadn’t inflicted anywhere near as much damage. For him to strike with that much force that he so easily split the other wolf’s unnaturally tough hide was a testament to just how much power lay in that bulky frame.
A whimper as his side made Lex glance at Solvei, seeing her shaking as she watched Bolverk tower over her brother. The sight brought a frown to his lips; that wouldn’t do. If she lost her nerve now, he’d have no effective means of forcing the other wolves to tell him where the Red Man was. For all that he’d learned about the Night Mare’s power, he still couldn’t use it on himself; it had to be channeled into an intermediary, and right now Solvei was the only one of those he had.
Never having had a pet growing up, Lex had no idea how to soothe a frightened beast. The most he knew was what he’d seen other ponies do as a child. And with no better ideas now, he availed himself of what little knowledge he had.
Standing up on his hind legs, Lex reached over and stroked Solvei’s fur.
She almost jumped at the contact, inhaling sharply as she looked at him with wide eyes. Knowing better than to look away from an enemy – even if he still felt confident that, so long as Solvei didn’t lose her nerve, the other wolves were no true threat – Lex didn’t return the look, instead keeping his eyes on Bolverk. But his hoof didn’t stop, stroking her fur from the back of her head down to the middle of her back, then removing it and repeating the process, over and over.
He was on the eighth pat when he felt her shaking stop. Out of his peripheral vision, he could see her tail wagging behind her. That was supposed to signify relaxation in canines, wasn’t it? Deciding to take her reactions as a positive sign, he ceased petting her, falling back onto all fours.
Across from them, Solvei’s kin were still unsettled. Her ears flattening against her skull, Kaja slunk over to Bolverk’s side, keeping her head low. “Bol-, I mean, father, please. My brother spoke out of hunger, not disrespect. He-”
Bolverk turned his head to look at her, the motion slow and menacing. “Are you correcting me, Kaja?”
Stepping back, Kaja shook her head quickly. “No! I just meant-”
“And now you’re lying to me!” howled Bolverk, suddenly furious. “Right to my face!”
Growling, he marched toward Kaja, causing her to step back again in turn, which only seemed to make him angrier. “After all that I’ve given you, you ungrateful pups still refuse to give me the respect I deserve! Of course I ate first! That’s my right as alpha!”
Again he lashed out, and Kaja’s yelp was high-pitched and pained as she went sprawling. But Bolverk still didn’t seem satisfied, stalking toward her. “After I tore the throat out of that pathetic mutt who sired you, I could have done the same to you and the rest of your siblings! But instead I took you in! I allowed you to remain together as a pack, and even shared the Red Man’s power with you all, and THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?!”
His enraged howl echoed of the cavern walls, and it was enough to drown out the sound of Turid’s paws on the ground as she placed herself between Kaja and Bolverk. But her eyes were on her daughter, rather than her mate, as she raised a claw and brought it down across the top of Kaja’s head.
It didn’t escape Lex’s notice that, unlike the larger wolf’s strike, this one caused no visible damage, save to ruffle the younger wolf’s fur.
“How dare you treat your father so rudely!” snapped Turid. “And on the day when our family is finally reunited!”
Spinning in place, she faced Bolverk, dipping her head. “My alpha, please forgive my stupid children. As their mother, the fault is mine for not raising them to honor their alpha properly. But I hope it pleases you to know that my other daughter has finally come to her senses, and seeks to rejoin the pack. She’s even brought you a meal as an apology for her behavior before.” She turned her head toward Solvei then, and Lex could just make out her mouthing the word “please” at the white wolf.
But Bolverk cut in before Solvei could react. “The reason your pups are feeble and insolent is because they were sired by a weak and foolish cur.” He turned to look at Solvei then, growling. “Why else would your youngest allow a pony to stroke her fur as though she were a mere dog?”
Answering his growl with one of her own, Solvei took a step forward, defiant. “You take that back!”
Bolverk laughed. “A dog is a dog, and so I’ll call you a dog as much as I like!”
“Not that!” Raising a paw, Solvei swiped at the air. “Take back what you said about my father!”
Bolverk’s mirth fled as quickly as it had come. “I’m your father now, you miserable runt!”
Solvei, however, refused to be intimidated. “No, you’re not! My father was Frode! He spoke to our ancestors and taught us their stories! He reminded us why we’re a proud people, the utvalgte! He-”
“Died,” snapped Bolverk, “when he was stupid enough to face me, his superior, in battle!”
“YOU CHEATED!” The words coming out of Solvei now seemed to well up from deep inside her, as though she’d been pushing them down for a long time and could finally keep them back no longer. “YOU ONLY WON BECAUSE YOU HAD THE RED MAN’S SICKNESS!”
“It’s not a sickness, you stupid pup! It’s power!” Rearing up on his hind legs, Bolverk gave a loud howl. “When I first fought your father, he said he had the spirits of his ancestors on his side, and that was why he won! Why he got Turid and I got nothing! So if he can borrow power in order to win, then WHY CAN’T I?!”
“Because you’re a fool,” interjected Lex, having grown impatient. “One too stupid to recognize the difference between borrowing power and earning it.”
Bolverk’s eyes slid over to Lex then, regarding him with rage so intense it was almost palpable. “Pony,” he hissed, “my son might be a disrespectful weakling, but he was right about one thing: you’re not going to see the Red Man. Because I’m going to devour you alive right here.”
“Solvei told me about what her father was capable of,” continued Lex, as though Bolverk hadn’t spoken at all. “How when he ‘spoke to the spirits’ he could do inexplicable things, such as commanding fog to rise up and hide him from sight, or look at a carcass and know if it was diseased. In other words, he was probably a spellcaster, whereas you’ve simply allowed some unknown monster to mutilate you.”
Solvei’s eyes widened. “Wait… Are you saying that my father was a seidrmadr?!”
“There’s no way of being certain,” shrugged Lex. “But it’s the most likely explanation. In which case, it was likely a talent that he worked hard to cultivate, unlike that failure over there who couldn’t become stronger on his own.”
Bolverk gnashed his teeth. “And what does that make Solvei then, pony?! Turid told me that the only reason her daughter defeated her and those useless sons of hers was because of your seidr!”
Lex laughed, the sound as cold as the snow blanketing the outside of the den. “It makes her smart enough to realize that if she can’t become strong enough to defeat you on her own, she simply needs to pledge herself to someone who can give her that strength.”
“And that’s you?” sneered the alpha wolf. “One puny little pony?”
“It is,” affirmed Solvei. “And the Red Man’s going to find that out soon! But right now it’s your turn! Let’s put what you got from the Red Man up against what I’ll receive from this seidrmadr, Bolverk!” Throwing her head back, Solvei let out a howl. “I challenge you for the right to be alpha!”
For a moment Bolverk just stared at her. But when he finally reacted a moment later, it was to burst out laughing rather than roar with anger. “You’re really as stupid as Frode was, you know that? He was foolish enough to fight me all by himself just because I challenged him to. I know better.” He looked at the rest of the pack then, who had huddled together against the side of the cavern, watching the exchange fearfully. “Go. Kill them both.”
For a moment, none of them moved, until finally Ebbe spoke up. “B-but…she challenged you for the position of alpha. By the decree of our ancestors, you’re supposed to fight her alone-”
“Burn your ancestors!” yelled Bolverk. “All of you, go kill those two right now, or after I’m done with them I’ll make you all wish you were dead!”
“Don’t do it!” urged Solvei. “I can win! Mother, you’ve seen what this pony’s seidr can do! You know I can win!”
Slowly, Turid stood up, a miserable look on her face and her eyes wet with unshed tears. “I’m sorry, Solvei,” she murmured as she began to advance on her daughter. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this. But I have to protect your siblings.”
The other three slowly moved alongside their mother.
“I told you to leave when you had the chance,” muttered Kaja bitterly.
“You should have just done what you were told,” whimpered Sten.
“This is on your head, Solvei. Not ours,” murmured Ebbe, his voice gruff.
For a moment, Solvei’s expression turned haunted. “You…” But she recovered a moment later, shaking her head. “No, it’s okay. This is why I came back.” Lifting a paw, she brought it down sharply. “I said I was going to save you even if I had to fight you, and I meant it!” Her eyes moved over to Bolverk as she continued. “And then, I’m going to make you pay for everything you’ve done to my family! In my father’s name, I swear it!”
Alongside her, Lex remained impassive, having already diagrammed how the fight was likely to proceed.
“GO!” roared Bolverk. “TEAR THEM APART!”
And then the wolves charged.
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So Bolverk was originally from the pack but either got cast out when he lost or left out of shame and stewed in his hatred until Prevarius entered the picture...though I do wonder how the two meet. The first thing that popped into my head is Bolverk killing whoever summoned Prevarius and used that opportunity for power since I can't imagine the demon purposefully appear before Bolverk to make his offer.
Regardless, I had a good chuckle at the part where Solvei started wagging her tail. I look forward to what sort of surprises Lex and Solvei will have up their proverbial sleeves in the fight next chapter.
gigadey this is going to be good.
Yup, Blueblood style, throw the lessers at whatever threat there is at the very least to drive them off or even weaken them to the point where they can just stroll in and claim the kill and glory without further effort bar the loss of prawns.
If lex was a bit higher as a mage he could use forcecage to cage them all and then use sickening radiance to win this fight easy as pie. As it stands it won't be easy to actually face a gang of creatures easily stronger than you. I really hope lex has learned how to use tender transformation on the wolf otherwise this is gonna get ugly.
10969225 The implication (to me, anyway) is that Bolverk wanted Turid for himself, and fought with Frode (Solvei's late father) for her, losing because Frode apparently had some magic of his own. It's unclear exactly what the social structure was that led to that (for instance, the current pack, for instance, was essentially two parents and their four children, at least before Bolverk killed Frode and tried to take his place. Though the fact that he did - demanding that the younger wolves refer to him as their father - seems suggestive to me. He didn't just want Turid for himself, he wanted the life that Frode was living). Once he lost, he met Prevarius, and cut a deal to gain sufficient power to mount a second challenge, winning that time.
How exactly he met that devil, what deal they made, and similar details are as-of-yet unclear, but if things go the way Lex seems to expect, they'll probably come to light sooner rather than later. Hopefully soon enough that Thermal Draft will be okay.
And the part with Lex patting Solvei was rather cute, wasn't it? If he wins this fight, I wonder if he'll ask her who's a good girl.
10969957 It certainly seems that way. Lex is riding high in terms of confidence; what exactly did he learn from those nighttime experiments with the Night Mare's power?
10969979 Bolverk is a rather honorless cur, isn't he? He seems to care about the other wolves in his pack only insofar as he can put them to use for his own ends. And yet, he demands to be respected and revered by them. Not exactly leadership material there, though for the winter wolves to accept that treatment, you have to wonder how much "leadership" means "ruling by fear" in what passes for their culture.
10970539 Well, the major issue with Lex's magic isn't so much the level of spells that he can cast (which is 6th, though he can use the Compact metamagic theorem, Eclipse: The Codex Persona p. 57, to put a higher-level spell into a lower-level slot in exchange for a drawback), but rather that he has such exacting conditions under which he can restore his (arcane) spellcasting. If he had his full complement of spells available right now, the winter wolves wouldn't be a challenge for him at all; he'd mow through them easily, even with his restriction against learning AoE spells (or at least, ones that deal hit point or ability damage).
I'll note, by the by, that sickening radiance appears to be unique to D&D 5th Edition, whereas this story is based on the d20 System, i.e. D&D 3.X and Pathfinder 1E. So it's not like he could hit them with that particular spell anyway.