“Mishka, no! Mihai get back inside!” Elena shrieked as she fought to hold onto Astrid.
The boys seemed to succumb to selective hearing, Mihai moved around to brace his Mother. Prepared to catch her and usher her away from the feral creature. Mihai was able to shift, but knew how important preserving their secret was and was counting on his Dad and brother to handle it.
“Shoot, boy!” Sebastian yelled, encouraging Mishka to take a shot at the animal.
Rundin rushed forward and immediately placed his hands on the wolf’s muzzle, one hand on both top and bottom. As he attempted to wrench his jaw open, Mishka raised the rifle and took aim, but it was proving harder than he thought.
Mishka lined up the sight, watching his father and wolf both bobble in and out of his line of vision. He took a breath and lined up to aim again. As soon as the wolf was in the sight, he fired off a shot. Instead of hearing an animal yell though, he instead heard his father. He pulled back to look at the scene without the sight and saw his father’s shirt sleeve drenching with red in the upper arm area.
“Dad! Mama!” Astrid yelled as she finally pried free from Elena. Of course she knew that keeping their family secret was a priority in almost all regards, but this was dire. This was life threatening. If someone didn’t do something, Valentina would surely die, her brothers would be hurt, maybe even their father. She wasn’t going to risk it.
As she flew out the front door, she dove from the front steps and in the middle of her leap she forced a shift. Her skin bristled with fur and she burst out of her dress as her form changed from that of s human girl to a wolf. She sprinted forward, snarling, and as soon as she could she snapped her teeth onto the other wolf’s scruff, minding her father’s hands on the wolf still. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“Astrid!” Elena cried after her but gasped and recoiled, burying her face in Sebastian’s side in horror as she watched their grandchild change into an animal.
After Astrid bit Toma, he yelled and released Valentina, sending her sinking into Mihai’s arms. He quickly back peddled with his Mom in hand, retreating with her back into the house. Toma growled and snapped at Astrid, pulling back his lips and snarling at her.
“Astrid! Get back! Help Mihai with your mother!” Rundin shouted as he reached out to grapple the wolf, wrapping his arms around it’s middle and yanking it back from Astrid.
Astrid snapped her teeth back at the wolf before retreating back towards Mihai and Valentina. She shifted back into a human, her braids unmade and not a stitch of clothing on her, and went to help Mihai with Valentina.
As soon as she was far enough, Rundin tossed the wolf with as much force as he could.
“Mishka, shoot! Shoot!” He hollered.
Mishka bobbled the fun a bit, but managed to line up the sight and fire off at the wolf. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Toma let out a yelp that rang through the air. He staggered clumsily to his feet, zig zagging away with little grace.
Elena had followed Valentina back inside, Sebastian at her heels. Mihai was cool enough under pressure, thank goodness. His grandparents were yelling at him in broken Romanian, exclaiming and inquiring wildly about what happened. Mihai mostly ignored them, gently laying his Mother on the floor. He removed his shirt (revealing four or five little tattoos on his body) and pressed it to Valentinas shoulder to try to stop the bleeding.
Valentina herself appeared a bit dazed and glazed over, clutching her wounded hand lethargically.
Astrid has the decency to wrap herself in one of the coats hanging by the door before hurrying over to her mother, sinking to her knees by her brother. She reached out and cupped at Valentina’s face.
“Mama, can you hear me? Mama?” She sputtered a bit.
As soon as the wolf staggered off, both Mishka and Rundin hurried back to the house.
“Valentina! How bad is it? Is she okay?” Rundin immediately sputtered as he entered and rushed into the room where everyone else was, Mishka right at his heels. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“I don’t know, she’s not acting right. What’s happening?” Mihai sputtered. Valentina still not really responding.
Sebastian took a break from his interrogations when he saw his daughter was not really herself.
“Whats wrong with her?” Sebastian nearly exclaimed.
Valentina slumped against Mihai then, letting out a shakey breath. She was coming too now, somewhat. Her wounds weren’t fatal at all in spite of Toma tossing on her like a rag doll. But she felt very weak, feverish and disoriented.
“Rundin...My love I do not feel good.” She sighed.
In all his panic and worry, it took Rundin a moment to put the simple equation together regarding his wife’s condition. As soon as he did, his eyes widened and his jaw slacked.
“She’s reacting to the bite...” he uttered.
Mishka and Astrid looked to their father. Both Mihai and Astrid has been born with clear signs of their wolfen heritage, but the Dalca children all knew that while it was passed to them by blood, Rundin had been given the curse by the bite. He rarely talked about it, but when he did, he conveyed that it was never painless and it was sometimes fatal even.
“Wh-what does that mean? What do we do?” Mishka sputtered then, instantly frazzled. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
Mihai looked down, eyes darting around the room while he tried to think. His grandparents yelling again in Romanian reminded him they needed to keep humans out of the way. Maybe the secret was officially out, but they didn’t need to see anything else.
“Grandma, Grandpa, we need to treat moms wounds. We’re going to take her upstairs, please go to town and get gauze, medical tape, anti bacterial ointment- anything, please go. We’ll look after mom here.” Mihai pleaded.
It took convincing, but the elderly couple obliged, wanting to be of some help.
Rundin went to collect his wife up from his youngest, hefting her into his arms while gently crooning his assurances that she’d be alright. Astrid followed closely, wanting nothing more than to fuss over and take care of her mother.
As soon as everyone, including Sebastian and Elena, started clearing out, Mishka remained where he stood. He was mostly worried about his mother, but there was another part of him that was angry, furious even, for her. He clenched his jaw and went over to the gun cabinet. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“Don’t worry about it, just stay with Mom and Dad.” Mishka said as he took out a box of rifle ammo out as well as a smaller handheld gun and it’s ammo. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“Mishka, no....” Mihai trailed off, bounding back down the stairs towards his brother. “It’s not safe, Mom would want you here.” Mihai tried to reason.
“Mom wouldn’t want that wolf to hurt anyone else either.” Mishka retorted. He made sure the handgun’s safety was on before tucking it into the back of his pants. _________________ Butts n' butts n' butts n' butts.
“What if you get hurt? What am I supposed to tell Mom?” Mihai presse$, moving to be in front of the door. “If you’re really going to go, let me come with you. “ No one seemed to mind or wonder about Mishka’s shifting or lack there of. But it felt like Mishka’s odds were better with a wolf on his team.
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