The Gathandrian Trilogy 02 - Hallsfoots Battle

wolf at his side.
    Prudence is calling at his curtain. “My brother, wake up. It is time for us to greet the day.”
    Heart beating fast and his throat filled with all the words he longs to tell her, he leaps over the wolf and flings aside the heavy red velvet she made for his privacy. Hugging her slight form to him, he feels more than ever that he has indeed come home.
    Prudence smiles. He can sense the movement even though he cannot see her face. Her confusion is also evident. He does not usually greet her appearance at his bedside in the morning with such enthusiasm. This thought makes him smile, too.
    He holds her a little away from himself. “I have great and marvellous news.”
    “And what might that be, brother of mine? Oh!...”
    The exclamation is the result of her first sighting of the wolf as the animal lopes into her vision. She steps back, pulling Sloth with her. “What is that creature? Has it hurt you?”
    “No, no, not at all. Calm your fears, my beloved sister. The wolf has been good to me. See, I will show you.”
    Gently, Sloth releases himself from Prudence’s protective grip and hunkers down, stretching his arms towards the animal. The wolf pads across and nuzzles his hand, licking the fingers where they are still holding the remains of the leaves. However, the animal does not touch them.
    Sloth smiles. “See, there is no need to be frightened.”
    Prudence still frowns, but asks, “What has this creature done that you should be so trusting?”
    Sloth tells her the tale, what he has seen and what he has done. His sister listens with all her familiar intensity. She likes to weigh words as if they were bread before she speaks her thoughts. It is a gift he has come to rely on.
    When he is finished, he steps back from her and waits. The wolf sits up, ears pricked and head to one side. Sloth wonders if it will speak again but it does not. Perhaps it understands that further conversation will not sway Prudence’s decision.
    “What proof do you have that the Gathandrian Spirit wished you to eat the leaves of the forbidden tree?” she asks him. “If the Spirit wanted us to know we were not living the life it desired for us, why not simply show us that?”
    Sloth doesn’t know what to say to this, but it does not matter as, at last, his strange companion speaks.
    “It is a test,” says the wolf, “and because of your caution and need for comfort and familiarity, you have not faced it. Because of this, I have come to you to give you the life you should be leading. Eat, Prudence, eat of the leaves your brother brings you and be thankful. For then you will know all things and your wisdom will be complete. Indeed, you and your brother will converse with the Gathandrian Spirit as equals and you will be like all the gods and stars themselves. But if you do not do what I say, you will die. Go into the fields and see the storm of death is already approaching.”
    Prudence’s face pales as if lit by too much sun. Then, in the next heartbeat, the sky outside turns dark and the sound of thunder fills the house.
    The wolf leaps to the window.
    “Already, it is too late,” it cries. “Come, eat and live.”
    Sloth finds that the wolf’s muzzle nudges his hand and he is stretching out his fingers towards his sister. The leaves glow green and gold even in the darkness or, perhaps, that is the animal’s eyes as he cannot tell where his own body ends and the all-encompassing dark begins.
    Above the noise of thunder, Prudence screams. Tearing himself away from the wolf, he stumbles to her side. Her skin feels cold and she is trembling. A few leaves are still in his hand. As the storm and darkness and terror wrap their strange anger round the house, he doesn’t know what to do.
    There is only one thing worth the doing. A clarity he has not known before seizes his heart. He reaches his free hand towards Prudence’s hair, where he imagines her hair will be, and he’s right. Some instinct is guiding him in the dark. There’s something strange and powerful inside his mind that he thinks the cypress leaves have put there. It makes him feel alive.
    In his head, Sloth hears the wolf’s voice. The sound is triumphant. At the same time, he is raising his hand with its gift of leaves to his sister’s mouth.
    “Eat,” he whispers in her ear, knowing she can hear him in her thoughts and all the storms in the land cannot stop this happening. “Eat and live.”
    A flash of white in the dark and her fingers