Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 5
5
Ander always knew there was a special kind of magic in creating something. It didn't matter whether it was just a little drawing in the dirt or a massive undertaking like building a house. Making something real that wasn't real before, first imagining it and then giving it form. But he never knew how wondrous it could be to have people appreciate you for the things you created, and not scoff and scorn and call you a freak because of them. A waste. A reject.
A disease.
A cold breeze ruffled his hair, sharpened by winter to a fine edge, and he watched a cloud slowly pass the Cora by, obscuring its white summit. The scent of aster and cosmos was in the air, and the not-so-distant sounds of the final winter's harvest coming to a close, of work well done and rest well deserved.
He had done it. It still felt like he was dreaming sometimes, but everything around him was real. This simple wooden bench he was sitting on, made out of a fallen tree? Real. The carvings he had made for Kiana and her family out of the wedge he had cut from said tree? Real. And his home... He had known he would build it atop this hill the moment he first saw the oak with its canopy of flaming orange, growing slightly off-centre, as if begging the gap to be filled.
It was a simple little house, but well built. Every stone fit neatly together, with nary a gap between them, and the supports were cut thick and strong. He was expecting to build it all by himself, but word soon got around that the resident Wolf was asking about Fox building techniques, and before he had even finished digging out the foundation, what seemed like the entire village was up here, eager to lend a hand.
Ander was stunned at first. He had nearly brought a whole tribe of bloodthirsty Wolves down on their heads, after all, but it soon became evident they did not see it that way. Verily, some even went so far as to call him a hero, a title he vehemently refused. After being shunned his entire life, to have so many extend their hands in friendship, it was like suddenly being reborn into a whole new world, the scope of which was unfathomable to him.
After explaining exactly what he had in mind, a young Fox named Sam drew up a plan on a large roll of paper and stuck it up against the oak where everyone could see it. After that the place was like a giant anthill, crawling with hundreds of Foxes coming and going, transporting huge piles of stone and lumber in carts and wheelbarrows. It was so busy Ander actually struggled to find jobs he could help with. He was still covered in scars and bandages back then, though, and most Foxes didn't want him to strain himself, but Ander would have none of it, easily lifting the stones and raising the beams his smaller comrades had trouble with.
Unless Bethany was around, that was. He and all the Foxes agreed it would be for everyone's best interest if she didn't know he was doing any heavy lifting in his condition.
Working together, they finished the whole thing in only ten days, and unanimously christened the place 'Wolf Hill'. But it didn't stop there. Foxes from all over Grovenglen came in the coming days with all kinds of gifts; skins, blankets, food, tools, firewood. The local glassblower even came along to fit his little home with glass windows just like they have in town, and another showed up the next day with an exact replica of the leather vest he had lost to the claws of his brethren. And no matter how hard Ander tried to refuse their kindness, they simply would not take no for an answer.
A week after Ander's home was finished, he was visited by a pure white vixen by the name of Linda, tiny even for a Fox. Her mother had sent her, all alone without even the slightest shred of concern, with a gift of spices, and she presented it to him with the biggest smile he had ever seen on a face so small, like she was the one doing the receiving. Ander couldn't take it anymore, and before he could stop himself, he had blurted out a question which seemed so rude to him at the time, but didn't faze her in the least. And that question was why. Why was she doing this for him? Why did her mother send her all alone to a giant Wolf she's never even met before?
She looked up at him, smiled her smile, and said something that rocked him to his core, even though he knew it to be true long before she came to visit.
Because you're one of us now, aren't you?
It was that moment, even more so than when he first opened his eyes and realized he was still alive, or the completion of his new home, or the gradual change of the season, that made him believe that this - all of this - really was real. This was his life now.
He had given Linda a ride back home on his shoulders, holding onto her ankles while she laughed with glee and shouted out directions (when she wasn't urging him to go faster, that was). They must have made for quite a sight going down the road like that, because every Fox they passed along the way dropped whatever it was they were doing to laugh and wave. It was different from the laughter he was used to, that condescending laughter that just made you want to slink away and hide in your tent the rest of the day. This was friendly laughter, laughter that made you want to join in. Linda's father in particular thought the two of them together was funny as hell. Her mother, on the other hand, was more than eager to get her giddy little daughter down from such a great height. That didn't stop her from smiling warmly when he thanked her for the spices, though.
The wind suddenly picked up and a flurry of red leaves swirled through the air and whispered their way down the hill, occasionally getting stuck in the grass before getting plucked by the gust's icy fingers once again. The clouds drifted apart, and the Cora's tip pierced the sky like a giant white spear.
Ander's smile faltered. His hand travelled to the scar in his chest almost of its own volition, and his memories drifted, just like the clouds, into a less happy world...
*
"You're not gonna glare the mountain any lower, girl. Devin is a right quick little blighter, but it'll be at least twenty more hours before help arrives."
Was someone talking? He wasn't sure...
"I know that."
That voice! He knew that voice! Ander tried to see, but it was too dark. Was it night time?
"So then try and save your energy for when it's needed. Pacing up and down's not gonna do anything 'cept tire you out."
"I know that, too."
Ander could feel something... something besides the pain and the cold... It felt like hands... small hands...
"You love him, don't you?"
"I do love him."
"You love him like one Fox would love another?"
Why couldn't he see? He felt like there was something he needed to do, but he couldn't remember.
"I love him like one Soul would love another. That's all that matters."
It was Kiana. Ander walked through the darkness, trying desperately to find her. He called out her name, but he had no voice. He wanted to tell her that he loved her, too, more than anything else in this world. Even if he had no voice, she would know. He would hold her close and she would feel it. That would be enough for him.
But he couldn't find her.
It was too dark.
He looked up at the sky, hoping to find his way by the stars and the moon, but they were gone. Why...?
Wait... the moon?
Yes, he remembered now. The night was over. The sun had risen and he had won. All he needed to do was open his eyes...
"Oy, you guys hear something?"
"Wolves!?"
"No, up there."
Ander tried to open his eyes, but... it felt like they weren't even there anymore. He might as well be trying to open the third eye of the Cora. He tried to listen instead, but there was only the soft bubbling of the river, so far away.
And the steady drone of flies.
But then came running footfalls, light and fast, and heavy breathing, like that of someone on the verge of passing out from sheer exhaustion.
"Devin, what the hell are you doing back here!? You're supposed to -"
"It's! It's a - hah..." the new voice panted, trying to force the words out even as he struggled to take in breath. Finally, in one explosive burst he shouted: "It's a godsent miracle!"
Without even realizing he was doing it, Ander managed to open his eyes just a sliver. The world was blurry, but bright, oh so bright. He could see someone above him, but her back was turned. Was that Layla? He could just barely make out the dark lines across her muzzle, as if she'd been crying. He wanted to tell her not to, he didn't like seeing her so sad, but his voice was still gone. He followed her gaze up, and splotches of brown slowly grew more defined as his eyes adjusted, and he realized he was looking at rocks, hundreds and thousands of rocks. No, not just rocks - a mountain, with a great tear running through the middle, as if cleaved by a giant axe. And inside this tear, bent over with his hands on his knees and gasping for breath, stood a tired-looking Fox, a stark contrast against the dying tendrils of mist issuing from the mountain's maw like breath in the cold. But he was smiling, too. Smiling, because...
She emerged from the mist like a phantom, a blurry shape with no colour or form, but when he saw the way she was clutching the neckline of her dress he knew.
It was Sarah. His mother. His real mother. The one who had clawed her way through the mountain pass to save him as a cub, and who had done so again now. And she wasn't alone.
They emerged one by one, dozens upon dozens of Foxes, some he knew, some he didn't. There was old Jonathan from the mill, and standing next to him was his son, Jonah, with three thick coils of rope around his neck and shoulders, looking like he might collapse at any second. His eye next fell upon Rufio, strangely naked without his pipe, and Bethany, baring her fangs in a growl that would have put even the fiercest of Wolves to shame.
And still they came, until the top of the pass was filled from one side to the other.
They all came to help him...
"Devin!" someone shouted. Ander couldn't tell who, but it sounded close. "H-How did you get back so fast!?"
Devin straightened up and said: "I didn't even have to go a quarter of the way! I was running and running, and then I turned the corner and almost ran into half of Grovenglen! Sarah was leading them up to - Hey wait, Sarah! That's dangerous! Hey!"
Sarah had broken free of her horror-stricken paralysis and was now scrambling down the rockfall like a madwoman. Chunks of rock broke free from beneath her feet and slid to the bottom of the pile, their crumbling and clacking reverberating throughout the pass. Ander wanted to tell her to please slow down, but he couldn't even move his mouth to form the words.
She reached the bottom while strapping young Foxes half her age were still trying to get their first foothold, and she threw herself down by his side, her eyes crazy with remorse.
"Andrew! By all the gods what did those monsters do to you!?"
I kept my promise...
"Andrew!?"
He could still hear the voices, could still see the faces, but everything else was slowly fading away again.
"Jonah! You tie that one there, I'll take this end!"
"Kiana! Layla! What were you thinking!? I wake up and you two are gone without a trace!"
"Please Mother, you can punish us as much as you want later on, just please help Ander! We tried to stop the blood, but..."
"Move aside! You too, Sarah! Let me work! By the gods, this terrible. I'll have to..."
After that, he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, and everything just went black.
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