赤裸裸的滑稽故事

Granger awoke with a pounding in his head and a heaviness in his body. He was sluggish and dizzy.

The dark honey mead was even more potent than the normal one. He could remember three empty glasses and one glass of dark honey. Other than that, he wasn’t sure what he had been up to the night before.

He sat up as his alarm blared in his head louder than it should. He needed to wake up. This morning, he was due to begin the long-range lessons at the training grounds.

Grabbing his towel, Granger made his way to the shower. The warm water felt nice on his aching skin. Then, finally, his mind began to clear away the haze of the alcohol.

‘Fae magic.’

The words echoed around in his memory. His heart raced, and he felt anger from them, but he had no idea why. Fae magic was never something he had been interested in.

He knew the things that he needed to know, how they had tried to enslave the humans and been defeated by the werewolves who had received Goddess’ blessings.

But why would their magic matter? It was long gone. The fae were dead. So there was no reason for him to care about such things.

He shut off the water, drying himself. Finally, he decided to ignore the words dancing around his memory.

***

An hour later, Granger arrived at the training grounds. He had just enough time to check-in and get his equipment set up before the others would be coming.

He was pulling his bows when he was approached from behind.

“Granger,” called out Saul.

“Hey,” Granger replied with a warm smile, “are you participating in this as well?”_.

“No, I was sent by Alpha Wyatt,” Saul replied, “he has decided to take the representatives on a tour of the northern border. Therefore, your lesson has been postponed until tomorrow.”

“I don’t understand,” Granger replied, his smile faltering slightly.

“What is there to understand?” Saul asked, genuinely unsure what the problem could be.

“Why wasn’t I informed?” Granger asked.

“I am informing you now.”

“For what purpose do they need a tour of our borders?” Granger demanded, “they came to learn about attack strategy and long-range defense. There is no reason to give them unnecessary access to anything else of ours.”

Saul was confused by the hostility that was coming from Granger. He could only assume that, unlike himself, Granger was one of the wolves that felt strongly about the feud. Therefore, he must have thought that the wolves of Summer should not even be allowed to cross into Winter. All that he could do was offer his opinion and hope the boy listened to reason before starting a problem with another pack.

“During my time in Summer, I learned….”

Saul thoughtfully explained the things he had discovered about the defenses in Summer, about the way they operated. He had learned quite a bit from his two weeks. When they had arrived the night before, he had not hesitated to share those lessons with his alpha.

Alpha Wyatt had been receptive to opening a dialogue on making improvements. So, Saul arranged for a border tour. The primary purpose was to allow Galen a chance to review their defenses and offer what suggestions he could to improve them.

His words were clear, concise, and without bias. A very well thought out and planned exchange of information to benefit the wolves of Winter. Saul hoped Granger would be able to understand his intention.

Unfortunately, Saul’s words had fallen on deaf ears at the first mention of Summer.

They stood awkwardly silent for several minutes.

Saul wasn’t sure what else he could say, nor did he feel any real need to try and convince Granger any further. His task had been to inform him of the schedule change. That task was done

“I’ll be off then,” he grunted as he walked away, leaving Granger alone to settle his thoughts.

‘Why are those mutts always causing me problems!’ Granger shouted angrily in his mind.

He had gotten distracted as soon as Saul had mentioned Summer. He didn’t care for whatever excuse Saul made. What mattered was that they were interfering. Somehow, they had pushed Alpha Wyatt to change the schedule he had already approved.

‘…there have been reports of Summer using Fae magic….’

Holden’s words suddenly rang out in Granger’s mind with new clarity.

“What did he say?” Granger asked himself aloud, trying to remember what Holden had said about Fae magic.

‘…a lot of secrecy and deception…’

His eyes widened; he felt a lump in his throat.

Granger ran towards the sparring chambers. He needed to find Ashleigh.

***

Ashleigh looked around the room with a heavy sigh.

She lightly punched one of the sandbags without effort into the action. This was supposed to be her first session with Caleb in Winter. They had focused almost entirely on defense and learning each of their fighting styles. Here they were going to begin her portion of the training, and she had been excited about it.

Her style was wilder and looser than his. He was strong and long-lasting in a fight, while she was quick and aggressive. When she was fighting, she didn’t think of defense. Instead, she focused on taking the enemy down fast and hard.

Caleb had pointed out that while it did allow her to make fast work of the first wave, it left her open to attack from the second or even a hidden opponent. She disagreed until they trained in the simulation room together.

At first, she had held her own, taking down two enemies quickly and efficiently. She had even taken the time to give Caleb a smug smile. But she hadn’t paid enough attention and had missed the two that had hidden behind them. They both attacked at once, her quick movements kept her mostly out of harm’s way, but they wore her down.

As she grew tired, her actions became slow and sloppy. Ashleigh fought hard to regain her ground, only to find yet another surprise attacker, this time leaving her side exposed to receive a blow.

She laughed as she remembered the smug smile Caleb had given her when he offered his hand to help her back up.

It had been a crushing defeat and an exhilarating lesson.

Ashleigh reached down and touched her side, had it been real, she would have died. But instead, she only had some bruising and a minor soreness for the rest of the evening.

“Ashleigh!” Granger shouted, startling her from her memory.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He ran to her, putting his arms around her, hugging her tightly.

“Granger! Hey!” she mumbled into his shoulder. She pushed him back just far enough that she could see his face.

“What is going on?” she questioned anxiously.

“What do you know about Fae magic?” he demanded.

Ashleigh was dumbstruck by the complete randomness of the question.

“What?” was all she could manage to say.

“What do you know about Fae magic?” he repeated.

Pushing away her confusion, she tried to answer his question.

“I’m not sure. It’s been a long time since I studied up on them,” she began, “I know they were masters of elements, earth in particular. They often used their magic for convenience. Oh! Like the gateways that would take them from one side of the continent to the other in a matter of seconds. The gateway entrance in the sacred forest was one of them.”

The annual Blood Moon Gathering entrance was a looming stone arch of carved foliage. Millenia ago, it had been an active gateway. Only the Fae could activate it. After the Goddess had raised up the werewolves that then eliminated the Fae, these gateways became nothing more than decorative pieces around the world.

“There was some stuff about shapeshifting or mimicry. Loki was the best example. He hid among the humans for years without them knowing, influencing them, and causing chaos. It wasn’t until Alpha Geri and Beta Freki discovered his tricks that he was revealed.”

The story of her people was interesting, though a part of her wondered if it had truly been necessary to eradicate all the Fae. She had always been interested in learning what she could about them. However, her pursuit of that knowledge had fallen aside when her priorities had shifted to becoming a wife and maintaining her position as a berserker.

But Granger had never cared about the Fae. He had always found the history uninteresting.

“Why are you asking all of a sudden, Granger?”

“Because Ashleigh,” he said, his tone very serious, “I believe that you are being manipulated by Fae magic.”

“What are you talking about?” Ashleigh asked incredulously.

“Caleb,” Granger replied.

“What about him?” Ashleigh sighed. She felt tired already. Any conversation with Granger about Caleb was a fight waiting to happen.

“There are reports that he has been using Fae magic,” Granger whispered.

Ashleigh suddenly stood up straight. She backed away from him, holding a serious gaze.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded. “Where did you hear that?”

She thought back to the treant in the simulation room. She had found it strange when Caleb said it was an old fae beast. But it wasn’t magic that brought it to life. It was technology.

“That doesn’t matter,” he replied quickly. “What matters is that he is using some dark fae magic to manipulate you into believing that he is your mate!”

Ashleigh found herself stunned once more.

“Granger,” she began, “I know this situation is hard. It’s hard on all of us. But you can’t throw around accusations like that just because you don’t like him!”

She hadn’t meant to, but by the end of her sentence, she had shouted at him. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she recognized a protective instinct she hadn’t felt towards Caleb before. It was concerning.

“I’m not making this up, Ashleigh!” he shouted back, grabbing her arm and pulling her close to him. “He is tricking you, and you are refusing to see it! He is using you to get back at your dad, and he is using fae magic to do it!”

“You have no proof of that!” Ashleigh shouted. “Do you have any idea what would happen if someone heard and believed you?”

“It is true! It’s the only thing that makes sense! Why else would you have two mates?” Granger demanded, gripping her arm tightly.

“Maybe the Goddess made a mistake!” Ashleigh shouted, pulling at her arm as his grip was hurting.

He threw her arm down. A dark expression settling over his face. His voice was distant and cold.

“So, you think she gave you a new mate because she made a mistake the first time?”