4Mortimer hitched his breath as lightning whipped across the thunderous skies. A single streak of flashing light illuminated the features of a young boy nestled in the saddle, rain and blood running down his chin. The rider's lanky torso leaned into the smaller body, lean arms fencing the child in. A bolt of lightning torpedoed down from the rolling heavens and ripped into a nearby tree. " Easy, Herzog!" Mortimer boomed as his frantic companion swung his front legs into the air, hooves caked with mud and gristled bits of flesh. Herzog's rider gripped the reins tightly, a curse escaping his lips as the momentum nearly flung him into the storm. The horse's legs crashed into the slush-coated road, knees buckling slightly. Glowing eyes gleamed in the encircling woods. Mortimer's calloused fingers stroked his partner's mane in urgent consolation. " Ride, my friend, for the wolves wish to overtake us!" Herzog's limbs thrust forward in powerful bursts as he hastily lunged into a gallop. The boy stirred in his transporter's saddle, cracked lips parting with a dazed groan. Mortimer's pointed ears pricked at the sound, breath halting in his throat. Tension clenched his chest as the memory burst forth in the murky waters of his mind. The child's body leaned to the side, rain-drenched head scarcely missing the elf's arm. In utter horror, the rider flung his arm from the rein and allowed the boy to be slung from Herzog's back. He rolled into the surrounding brush, the snapping of salivating jaws increasing tenfold. " Fuck!" Mortimer's right hand wrenched a dagger from his belt and snapped his wrist in a deliberate, violent manner toward the glowing yellow eyes. The blade sung sweetly as it spun through the rain, burying itself into the center of the conglomeration of glowing eyes. The mass of wolves scattered into the shadow, whimpering and howling in an almost-repentant spirit. "Halt!" Herzog's hooves fumbled in the mud-slicked path as both he and the elf skidded to a halt. His rider involuntarily propelled forward into the slick neck of the befuddled horse before leaping off and lunging toward the brush. Trepidation chained him to the recollection of the woman soaked in her own blood , dull red eyes imprisoned in their death-song of emptiness. Sharp pain gripped his left wrist as tiny teeth clamped into it, the pliant, bony fingers of the boy sinking into the flesh of his arm. Mortimer roared in agony, right hand slinging into the shadow overtaking him. " Get-OFF!" A powerful leg swung into the child's ribcage, bones cracking and popping from the sheer momentum. An ignonmious howl echoed through the canopy of leaves, short, limber arms slinging ferociously into Mortimer's sides. Wrath emanated from the child's being, shadow trembling with fury that seemed to have seethed from years beyond his life. The elf stumbled back in remembrance,eyes bulging in perturbance.
Dark eyes burned into his own , ruby lips curled in ignomious disgust at his arrival. " Elf, leave this place!" Tiny hands curled into balls of fury, unearthly wrath emanating from the small body of a boy. The corpse of a woman was sprawled across the grass, a river of thick blood spurting from what used to resemble a neck.
"Fucking monster!" Lithe fingers tore at the mass of hair on his head, entire being trembling with rage. "Fucking beast!" The child's body crumpled to the ground, convulsing in uncontrollable twitches and kicks. " Kill him! Kill him!" Rain thundered down from heaven, cloaking the boy in an ocean of the god's tears, mingling with his own. Mortimer slumped against the cold bark of a tree stump, panting heavily.
"Fuck, fuck..." His grey eyes snuck to black, shuddering mass, whose cries had muffled into pained whimpers.
" Momma...momma...you killed..."
Mortimer shakily rose in the pounding storm, a flash of light illuminating the face of the boy. His lips now quivered in agony, dark eyes bulging with terror. The elf tentatively approached him, his footsteps executed in a vein of daring.
" I don't want...no...stop..I don't..."
The elf slowly reached up to unfasten the pin of his cloak, nimble fingers bunching it into the fist of his hands. With pendulous apprehension, he approached the child and gently draped the cloak over his tiny body. He braced himself for attack, flinching as the boy's torso jerked under the cloth. The child took shuddering breaths now, sniffling in the pain of his cracked ribs. " I'm sorry, child, I'm sorry..." Mortimer lifted his foot to step backward. Lithe fingers lunged toward his ankle, clamping on in a desperate panic.
"Stay..with..me..." he panted, voice trembling with anxiety. "Stay.." The grip on his ankle loosened as the child's bony fingers slipped, hand thudding into the slush-coated road.