The Egg

As the night continues on, so did the echoes Luz heard in her dream. Eda is outside, combining magic seals to strengthen them, then she sees Hooty in pain, ‘But why, though?’

“Ok Hooty, come with me and let’s take a look at that bite wound.” she told him while entering the house.

“Ok Eda, hoot...” Hooty follows her to the couch.

“Now lay here and let me see the wound,” she told him as she drew a circle in the air to summon some healing supplies.

Hooty laid on Eda’s lap ready to get a look over. Eda looked from Hooty’s head and down his tube neck looking for the wound, then she saw it. The wound was not healing like she thought it would, it was getting worse! ‘The wood around the bite marks are rotting, but why?’ Eda takes a closer look at it and she sees small crystal shards in the wound, absorbing Hooty’s magic. 

‘That is why Hooty wasn’t healing. I need to get these shards out.’ Eda thought.

“Ok Hooty, your wound is infected so I need to clean it out. This might hurt, ok?” she said, grabbing a pair of tweezers. 

“Ok hoot hoot!” Hooty tells her and prepares for the pain.

As Eda picked the shards out, King came into the living room to see what was going on.

“What are you doing to Hooty, Eda?”

“Oh hey, King. I didn't notice you. Well, I'm cleaning Hooty’s wound.”

“Why are you cleaning his wound? I thought he could heal really fast?”

”Well, I thought of that too, but he was bit by an elemental and the wound didn’t heal.”

“Wait… what was the elemental Eda!?”

“An elemental wolf, why? I said they only hurt living beings.”

“An elemental wolf feeds off of magic; they hunt down anything with magic in it, alive or not. The worst part is they will not stop until they get their target or they get destroyed!”

“What!?” Eda picks up King in shock.

“I have a question: who saw the wolf? I need to know, Eda!”

“The one that saw it was Luz and Hooty, but Hooty was the only one injured.”

“Ok, they might be after Hooty, then what they’ve seen must have been a scout looking for prey. They call the rest of the pack with a howl when they target something. There are usually 1 scout, 7 attackers and a pack leader, the Alpha.”

“Ok King, are you telling me that we are safe here?” 

“No we are not! They are coming here tonight for Hooty and they will not stop until they get him.”

“Ok, what do we have to do to save Hooty and this house?”

“First we must wait for them, fight them off to a stalemate and take out the alpha. He fights the hardest, if you defeat him the pack will listen to you.”

“Ok sounds easy enough, but why are they rare though?”

“They aren't rare, it’s just that whoever tries to study them, they all met the same end.” he said with a sad look on his face.

“Oh, sorry...” Eda pets King to comfort him.

“ Well, let me finish treating Hooty and let's get ready for a battle!”

 “Ok.” King said with a worried face.

As Eda finishes cleaning Hooty’s wound, they hear a howl from outside.

“They’re here, Eda.” King said with a worried face.

“All right, let's get this over with and King, study them from inside the house, ok?

“Ok Eda, please be careful.”

 As Eda left the house, she saw seven big elemental wolves coming out from the woods. She looked around for the scout and the alpha, but did not see them. 

“Ok you wolves, I'm ready when you are!” she yelled.

But none of them approached her, just surrounded her. ‘Why?’ She drew a magic circle in the air and cast it at one of the wolves. It hit the wolf right in the muzzle, but nothing happened to it, not even a flinch.

Then the wolves went on the offense, two attacks and one feint. Eda spun her staff around her. She hit the two attacking her and knocked them down. 

‘Why didn't her spell work on them but her staff did?’ King thought. Then he realizes they are immune to magical attacks and only physical ones work on them. King rushed outside to warn Eda, dodging the wolves and climbing up onto her.

“Eda! They are immune to magical attacks, that's why they are so dangerous!”

“What!? Then how am I supposed to fight them off, King?”

“They aren't immune to physical attack because it's their weakness!”

“Ok King, let hope this works.”

Eda charges at a wolf and smacks it with her staff. The wolf flinches and steps away a little. 

“Hey King, that worked! Now we can maybe win this.”

“Yea!” King said happily.

They fought for hours, none ready to give up. A while later they all heard a big howl. The wolves retreated to the woods line where it was, the Alpha wolf. It’s twice the size of the ones they have been fighting. Crystals growing down his back a deep red glow and a presence telling you it's the end. Eda stands there in shock, thinking on how to beat him. 

“Eda? Eda, are you there?!” King yells and shakes her.

“Yes King I'm here, what is it?”

Then she realized the wolf got right in front of her, ready to attack while she was in shock. She tries to prepare for the blow, but the wolf swipes his huge paw and knocks Eda against the house. Which shook the house, waking up Luz.

“What happened, why did the house shake?” Luz asked in bewilderment, looking around all confused.

She looked outside and saw Eda on the ground with King trying to get her up. Then she sees the huge wolf walking towards them.

“Oh no, this is my fault!” She rushed to get her hoody on and ran outside as fast as she could.

She got outside, seeing Eda in the wolf’s mouth and fearing the worst.

“Hey! Drop Eda down, right now!” Luz yelled at the wolf.

The wolf heard her and looked around. Then he drops Eda and charges right at luz. She quickly ducks under the wolf and dodges his attack. This surprised both the pack and the alpha. Luz and the wolf start to circle each other, waiting for the other to attack. Luz looked at the wolf closely, looking for a weak spot.

"Come on, give me a hint. Where is your weak spot?" Luz whispers to herself.

The wolf attacks again, Luz barely dodges it but then she spots it. Every time the wolf moves, its core pulsed really fast to move it’s body. Luz quickly draws a plant glyph on a piece of paper, ready to counter the wolf. They both waited for the right moment, then the wolf charged first.

"Gotcha." Luz said while smiling.

Luz dodge the wolf’s attack once again and slams the plant glyph on the wolf’s core. Giant vines grew out of the paper, grabbing the core. The wolf felt it and tried to scratch it off. Luz notices this and starts pulling the vines to get the core out. The wolf struggled to get Luz away from his core, but then, “POP!” the alpha’s core was removed. Luz fell to the ground with the vines wrapping around the core and the wolf’s body started to collapse, crumbling away.

"I did it, I did it!" Luz jumped with joy.

Then the elemental wolves surrounded Luz, waiting for an order. This shocked the human because she didn't know what was going on. Eda woke up from her fight and saw Luz surrounded by the wolves.

"Luz! Are you ok!? Hold on, I’ll help you!" she struggles to get up.

"Eda, stop don't stress yourself! Luz is ok." King tried to stop her.

"How is she ok, there are elemental wolves surrounding her!"

"Eda, listen. She beat the alpha and the pack is now following her orders." King points toward the pile of rocks and crystals.

"She did?" Eda said with a confused look.

"Yes. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

"Ok... can you help me up, King?" Ask Eda.

"Sure can." King helped Eda hobble to Luz. While they were walking, Luz saw them and started running towards them.

"Eda! Are you ok?" Luz hugs Eda.

"Yes kiddo, I'm ok." She said, hugging and patting Luz's head.

"So you beat that Alpha wolf all by yourself, atta girl!"

"Yea, it was not easy though, it almost took you away." Luz told Eda

"Really?” Eda was shocked.

"Yea, and King, what are the wolves doing?"

"Oh that. Luz they are waiting for an order, you are the pack alpha now." King said with a smile

"What? I don't want to be the alpha."

"Well you have to, the only way to get rid of it, is if you die or someone beat you close to death."

"Aw... ok I'll give it a try. Elemental wolves! I have some new orders ok."

The wolves howled as an agreement.

"Ok order one, don't hurt anyone that I care or love. Order two, when you hear me howl, I want all of you to meet up with me, fast. Order three, the wolf with this light glyph on their head is in charge while I'm gone. Order four, do what you usually do in the woods and listen to the second alpha that I choose." Luz held out a light glyph as she tells the wolves the new order.

The wolves look at her with slight confusion, but one wolf understands her. 

"Oh, it's you, the wolf that attacked Hooty." Luz said, looking at the smallest of the bunch.

The small wolf came closer to Luz and sat down, waiting for her order.

"Can you understand me? If you can, um, wag your tail?"

Only the small wolf wagged its tail; all the others looked confused.

"Ok so, you know the four orders, don’t you?"

The wolf wagged its tail again to confirm it.

"Ok, this wolf will be the second alpha. Can you sit down so I can draw this on you?"

The wolf sits still while Luz draws the light glyph on his head.

"Ok now, done!" she moved away from the wolf.

The small wolf looks happy with its gift, but it's not over.

"Here, look at this." Luz taps on the glyph to make it work.

The wolf’s whole body glowed yellow, it was bright and other wolves were curious about it.

"Ok, since you are the second alpha, you’ll need a name. Hmm... you should be called Starlight ok?"

((

The small wolf just jumped on Luz giving her licks on her face, filled with joy.

"Ok ok that enough please take the pack to a magic rich area to grow and spread the pack out light there way ok.

Starlight jumped up and down howl to get the rest of the pack's attention then returned into the woods.

"Atta go kiddo!" Eda cheering Luz by the door

"Thanks Eda." As she walked to the door.

"So kiddo what are we gonna do now?"

"What do you mean I'm gonna try to go back to bed?"

"Well the sun is going to come up any moment now I am gonna see if you want to watch the sun rise."

"Sure Eda lets do that. But where is King? 

"Oh he. He fell asleep on the couch after you started your big talk."

"Ok let's watch the sunrise."

"Ok kiddo."

Luz and Eda got to the roof to watch the sun rise that day and start something new and wild. The night battle is over one mystery solved but one remains unanswered. What type of egg is that and why do people think it's a rock? Maybe school has some answer for Luz or will it cause some problems, who knows.

Author rabidime

Editor tol-critter