Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE - He-Who-Runs-With-Wolves
The sun had already disappeared behind the snowy peaks of the Canadian Rockies, casting the cold world into shadow. Darkness came early during the winter months and with it a cold that only those native to the country could truly endure.
Amid this wilderness of snow, stone and bitter winds, a lone mining camp scared the side of a steep mountain, a nasty gash in the skin of trees and stone. The mine had already been deserted. The few log cabins surrounding it sent up thick columns of white smoke through their chimneys and buffalo skins were pinned over the windows, trapping the precious heat and light. The whole valley smelled of pine smoke and animal skins. Sensitive noses could also smell the sweat of men and mules. Food, iron, coal, lamp oil: the smells of this little spec of gruff civilization in the sprawling Canadian wildness.
Beyond the small camp, snowy pine forest and mountain slopes stretched endlessly on, still undefiled and trapped in the silence of winter. Frozen streams cut like whips through the valleys and bald caps of silver ice crowned the peaks. Overhead, stars were piecing through the dim twilight and the last rosy glow was fading in the clouded horizon.
Only two figures, playing with oblivious and rambunctious energy, defied Winter's domain. A teenage boy and a young she-wolf wrestled in the powdery snow near a clearing of pine stumps. They were some distance from the camp, beside the slick road used to sled logs to the river, and both were growling and snarling like beasts.
"Grurrawh!" With a mighty effort, the boy kicked the wolf from him, the stick lathered in cold drool still clasped in his hands. "I got it now!" he laughed then rolled to avoid a snarling lunge from the wolf. Scrambling to his feet, the teenager held the stick high in the air like a torch, or a trophy. He was short, but powerful muscles were obvious under the tight buckskin of his coat and a thin black scruff was already shadowing his face. At fifteen he was already as strong as men twice his size.
The wolf leapt and twisted in the air with anxious happy barks, never taking her eyes off the stick in the boy's hand.
"You want it Mika? You want it?" teased the boy in an excited voice, sending the wolf into an even higher frenzy of frantic leaps. "Fetch!"
Swinging back the power arm of a miner and coiling his supple body, the boy threw the stick with all his might, three sharp claws of gnarly bone flashing out from his knuckles, as he did so.
The stick went soaring over the clearing, spinning into the growing darkness toward the dark wall of tall mountain pines. Mika turned and dashed away, kicking up a flush of snow behind her.
Retracting his claws, the boy self consciously, stuffed his fists into his coat pockets and watched the grey streak dash down the slope. Then, as the stick fell between the branches of the trees, there was a sudden rustling in the pines and a large form leapt out of the dark shadows, springing from one tree trunk to another, like a huge cat or monkey. With a final leap, it caught the stick midair in its mouth, before landing on the snow in front of Mika.
The wolf yelped and swerved away, with a defensive snarl and, from his place up the slope, the boy glared, his blue eyes hostel and disapprovingly irritated.
The form stood and took the stick from its mouth revealing itself to be a tall young man in a long fur coat. Snow was splashed over his tangled beard and ratty brown hair and he growled at Mika, barring yellowed fangs, before stomping up the clearing toward the boy.
"You fetch better than Mika, Victor," said the boy, once the man was closer.
Victor glared down at the thick stick in his hand, and then easily snapped it, before tossing it aside. "Where the hell have you been, Jimmy?" he snarled, "Smitty and Rose thought you'd froze in the privy or something. The Old-Man made me do all your chores."
Jimmy smirked then shrugged, "You know the cold can't bother me, Victor," he said lazily, rubbing Mika's ears, as she warily took cover behind his legs, still watching Victor like he'd eat her up. "I've been out here with Mika the whole time."
"Out here avoiding work," accused Victor, "I swear Jimmy you're more spoiled than that damn dog of yours. Just cuz Smitty favors you don't mean he'll let you get away with this. The whole fuc…"
"She's a wolf, Vic, not a dog," interrupted Jimmy and shook his thick black hair out of his face, "And I weren't 'voiding work. There's a wolf pack not far off. Been try'n to get Mika to go back to the wild, running with th…"
Victor spat in to the snow. " He-Who-Runs-With-Wolves ," he said in very bad Blackfoot, "So I've heard Jimmy. Everyone thinks your a'maze'n! But you know what I think?" He stepped closer, leaning over the shorter boy, "Ah think it's just your way'a find'n an outlet for the bloodlust. Your way of disguising what you are."
"I don't lust fer blood, Victor," Jimmy snapped, stepping back, "I just like… like the exercise."
"Sure you do Jimmy." Victor rolled his grey eyes. "Perhaps you can hide the animal from Rose, Smitty and the rest, but you can't hide from me, Runt. Maybe you’re not the one with yella finger claws an' fangs..." Victor stepped close and grabbed Jimmy's coat, nearly lifting the boy off his feet, "But ah've seen the rage burnin' in yer eyes, Jimmy. Same that burns in me. When you swing a pick-ax in the mine, when you’re runnin' with your damn wolves. You hate 'em all! You burn with rage fer no reason. Burn for blood."
"I don't!" snarled Jimmy, shoving away from the man, "I'm just tryin’ to get Mika back to her family. I'm not a damn animal! I don't hate anyone! Just leave me alone fer once Victor. I don't need you to take care of me anymore. I don't want…"
Victor shoved Jimmy hard in the chest, causing him to stubble backwards, where he tripped over Mika. As he crashed into the snow, Jimmy's claws flashed out, his temper beginning to flare.
"You’ll always need me Jimmy!" shouted Victor, "Ah'm your brother and brothers look out for each other!"
"You're not my brother! You’re only my half brother!" snarled Jimmy getting up. He was met with a clawed smack in the face that sent him crashing back to the ground and splashed the snow with a spattering of red blood.
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" growled Victor furiously. He stepped forward to stand over his little brother, as the boy turned to reveal a mangled face that steadily repaired itself, under Victor's eyes. "We're brothers and you’re the one who killed our…"
"Gerrawh!" Before Victor could blink, Jimmy lunged up claws first and buried all six into his waist.
Roaring like a lion, Victor staged back his grey eyes burning with animalistic rage. Grabbing both of Jimmy's arms, he pulled the claws out of his stomach and flipped the boy up, over his head ten feet across the clearing, where Jimmy landed at the base of a tree stump.
"No bloodlust eh, Jimmy Boy?" panted Victor, putting a hand on his bleeding waist and stumbling toward his brother, "Wonder what sweet little Rose would do if she saw you now."
Snarling, Jimmy got up to face him, claws out, face stubborn as hell. Victor smirked slightly. The hot rage was plain to see in Jimmy's eyes and the boy's breath was fast and steamy, like an enraged bull's.
Stopping a few feet from him, Victor stood straight, crossing his arms, the smirk still showing off his fangs. "Come on, Runt. I'd love to see you try."
Jimmy grimaced then, to Victor's disappointment, relaxed. He retracted his claws and slowed his breathing, going from beast to civilized man in only a couple seconds. "I'm not gonna fight you Victor," he said almost solemnly.
Victor laughed, but his eyes were frowning. "Damn right you aren't. You know why? Cuz ah'd whoop you so bad, you'd still be growing back your balls come morning!"
Giving him a disgusted look, Jimmy turned his back on his brother. "No. I'm not gonna fight you, cuz, unlike you, I don't need to prove I'm better day in and day out. You’re so dense, Vic. I'm going fer a run." He whistled for Mika, who was hiding behind a snow bank and began jogging away, toward the forest.
With a snarl, Victor stepped after him. "Jimmy," he shouted, "Smitty wanted you back at the house!"
"Tell 'im you couldn't find me!" Jimmy called back, without stopping. A few seconds later, he and his pet wolf disappeared into the dark forest.