By that point, Arthur and Gunnar already had their swords drawn.
When Kara scrambled out of the house and onto the roof, it wasn’t hard to tell that a giant beast was approaching the place. Considering its large, furry paws helped it remain on top of the snow, it could easily jump onto the roof and get to Irene.
However, at Kara’s insistence that they ought not to shoot, not a weapon was put away, but incredulous looks were given to the old woman.
"Mother?" Arthur questioned, his tone trying to remain even despite the threat ahead.
Luckily the northern dire wolf had stopped in its trek forward. Surprisingly it seemed like the sight of Kara had done the trick.
"It is a spirit guide!" she insisted. "It’s here because I have offerings for it. There was leftover deer this season and I froze it outside. Arthur, you will find it alongside the eastern wall. Please get it."
Even though Arthur did what Kara implored him to do, he still couldn’t hold back his comments as he went on.
"You’re leaving raw food outdoors when there are beasts prowling around?" he asked. "People die every year practicing much more caution than this."
"I insist," Kara stated calmly. "The moment you give her the offering then she will be on her way as usual. As long as I keep my spirit guide fed through the winter, she’ll continue to stave off necromancers and the like. I’m safer with a beast than something trying to manipulate my soul the closer I creep to the afterlife."
"How very grim," Irene uttered. "You ought to not say things like that."
"It is a privilege to go to the afterlife," Kara reminded Irene. "That very tattoo I gave you will guide you to paradise one day. We will all be able to love one another forever."
While Irene practiced the more cautious aspects of Sünstoian, she was still a bit hesitant about a few things. In her mind, it felt like she had already died once and she was very much attached to life because it felt like when someone died they were simply sent somewhere else, not necessarily the afterlife.
In her winter readings while having indoor duties, she would look for answers for what she had been through. Whether it was a dream or a genuine redo of her life, she still wasn’t sure. All she had seen even close to what she experienced were that ghosts’ souls remained on Earth when they had unfinished business.
However, the difference was that she was definitely a living, breathing human being.
Irene shook her head a bit, more to clear her thoughts than in disagreement with her grandmother who had already looked away and stalked to the edge of the roof.
The dire wolf, by that point, had sat itself down on the snow but its calculating eyes didn’t move from the house in front of it. Its ears back were also an indication that it was on guard rather than relaxed at that moment.
Despite her grandmother’s words, Irene kept her weapon out and ready, hoping to handle it in case something happened. While she was getting better at archery on horseback, she was far better at archery on stable footing. There was no doubt she could take care of even a fast-moving threat.
Fortunately, dire wolves tended to stalk slowly and only move quickly upon attack.
"Arthur, hurry!" Kara urged. "If I go down there the Ulf will certainly come closer!" Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel·fire·net
Since Irene was already towards the eastern side of the square house, she cautiously sidestepped so that she could peer over the edge. Even though she didn’t want to pull her eyes away from the wolf, she glanced down at her father who, instead of using normal tools, was having to axe out chunks of meat from where they were frozen solid at the side of the house. Luckily, his mother had the foresight not to wrap them because cloth, paper, or anything else would stick to them and he didn’t normally describe wolves as patient.
"How many?" Arthur asked.
"Of course," the knight uttered.
When he freed two, he tossed them to the roof.
The final one was harder to obtain because it was pressed against the house’s bottom stone foundation which was giving him problems since he didn’t want to dull his axe against stone.
Sir Gunnar soon came to the rescue.
He had seen a pitcher of water on the stove when they first tucked into the small dwelling. Since it seemed like getting the wolf its food was the highest priority—surprisingly enough—he decided to speed up the process.
"Lift your axe," the knight requested.
When Arthur’s hands were away, Gunnar slowly poured the water over it.
The second the meat was free, Arthur tossed it to the roof as well.
Both knights were able to get back to standing height which put the roof that would normally dip down about head height to chest height.
Irene was somewhat disgusted when a raw piece of meat fell to her feet with a disgusting squish. However, that didn’t stop her grandmother from picking up all the chunks of meat and throwing them as far as she could.
Sir Gunnar was surprised that, despite how old the woman looked, she was spry enough to send something quite a distance.
Everyone watched the wolf cautiously with their weapons still drawn if necessary.
To their surprise, the wolf ate the most thawed-out chunk of meat but seemed to carry the other two back where it came from up the foothills until it could no longer be seen amongst the evergreen trees.
Kara stood for a long time, simply watching the wolf leave with a faint smile and her hands folded behind her.
Irene sank to her knees towards the knights and her eyes were pulled from the hills then went to the two men who guided her through her apprenticeship so far.
"Is that alright?" she asked. "I have always been taught we must slash them down because they will take food from people. Even cubs aren’t given the chance to grow into wolves."
"I will be guarding these hills as the winter thaws," Arthur reminded his daughter. "If something isn’t right, I’ll be the first to see it."
The girl nodded. Since the wolf hadn’t attacked, she supposed it got more of a chance than the bloodthirsty ones they constantly saw.
"I have never seen one that looks like that before," she admitted.
"As a child, that was the only ones we had around," Arthur explained. "They’re usually north of the mountains but it seems a few have gone south."
Since it was clear Irene felt that she had done something wrong, Gunnar decided he ought to take the fall for it a bit more.
"There are exceptions to everything we’ve been taught," he explained. "You did good with the information you had."
At that, she beamed. It was time to heed Gunnar’s words the most, after all.