Chapter 6- Atlas

**Atlas**

Doran’s dark brown wolf came into view. I watched him go behind a nearby tree and emerge in human form. We were around a mile away from the village where my mother said the man was staying. This way we could walk in as humans and not cause too much suspicion. As we joined the main road, we began to discuss the conversation I’d had with my mother.

“Surely we haven’t already found a hybrid after a single day of looking? We were expecting this to take months, maybe longer” I shrugged in his direction. “Maybe they are more common than we were led to believe.” Doran shook his head. “I don’t understand Atlas, I thought all of the supernatural species hated each other. That can’t be the case for all of us if we are producing children”. I agreed with him. I was as surprised as he was. “Well, it must take place mustn’t it? Otherwise we wouldn’t even know what a hybrid was in the first place”. Doran turned to me “I wonder if it’s the outcasts that are mating. You know, like our rouges. There must be the equivalent for the vampires and the mages.” “I think that is a fair assumption.” We continued on a little way in silence. Both of us thinking about the same thing. Doran voiced it first. “Atlas, if that’s right, and it is the outcasts. What kind of person is that going to produce? Someone disloyal and traitorous…it’s not the person I’d choose as our Luna.” “Doran, you know very well you don’t get to choose our Luna anyway, so try to remember what our Alpha is doing for us and respect it”. Despite feeling the same I needed to remind him of his place. “Yes, Beta” he said submissively.

Not wanting the rest of the journey to pass in silence, I asked him about his favourite subject. “How’s Bessie?” His face instantly brightened and I rolled my eyes at how deeply his happiness was tied to her. I would find it so frustrating that my joy only came from one source. “She’s well thank you. She’s not much of a warrior as you know, but has recently found a love of making clothes. She’s pretty good actually, she made me this” He proudly pointed to the jacket he was wearing. “It’s given her something to focus on, since well, you know…” Bessie and Doran had fallen victim to our current difficulty with fertility. They had been trying to have a baby for around three years. Although Bessie had become pregnant, she had not given birth to a living baby. If I was truly honest with myself, it was another reason I didn’t want to find my mate. I saw what the grief had done to Doran and Bessie. Why would anyone want to endure that? “That is indeed a fine jacket, will you ask her to make me something?” Doran smiled “She would be delighted”.

We reached the village shortly after. What was it with human villages being so drab? The ones round here all looked the same too. No lovely architecture like our kingdom. Just the same cobbled stone and mud thatched roofs. We entered the village and soon found ourselves in the main square. “Where did Agnes say he would be?” “She didn’t, it was just something she overheard at the market. A man like that though…” I looked around the small square and found what I was looking for “Look, an ale house. I think that’s a good bet”.

The smell of stale ale was noticeable even before we went inside. It was a dingy little hole, with hardly any natural light. There were wooden tables and benches in rows, a few of which were occupied by intoxicated customers. A stout red-faced man stood behind the bar wiping a tankard with a filthy rag. As we approached him, he pulled out another tankard and went to pull the ale pump. “Ah, we won’t be drinking thank you” I said, not wanting to drink anything out of the tankard he was holding. “We’re only here to ask some questions”. The man looked almost bored as he responded “No drinks, no answers”. Feeling inpatient I pushed two coins across the bar. He scooped them up and began pouring the very clearly gone off ale into the suspect tankards. He set them down on the bar. “Have you seen a man in here with a badly burnt hand?” The bartender had already taken the rag to another tankard and was rubbing the rim. “Might ‘av. There’s a trader passing through with a nasty burn.” “Was he talking about a servant girl a few villages away” The bartender rolled his eyes “Wouldn’t stop going on about it. If he hadn’t bought so much ale I would of chucked him out just so I didn’t have to listen to it no more” A surge of triumph went through me. This had to be the same man. “Do you know where he is now?” “Said he was leaving today. He was staying at the inn across the way” Fuck. I hoped he’d not already left. “Thank you” We were about to go when the bartender asked “Oi, what about your ale?” I huffed and picked up the tankards, dropping them in front of the nearest man who was sat down. He looked up at me, his eyes trying to focus whilst swaying from side to side “You are the most kind gent’le men” he slurred.

We hurried across to the inn. We were just about to enter when Doran called out “There!” He was pointing to a man loading a horse one handed. He cradled his other bandaged hand against his chest. He was a wretched creature. I couldn’t imagine any woman wanting to be touched by him. “Sir, some of your time please” He eyed us suspiciously “What do you want?” He moved his good hand towards his sword. I held up my hand “Nothing like that. Are you the man who’s hand was burnt by the inn girl?” He spat on the floor in front of us. “Why do you want to know? ‘aint none of your business” Deciding to take a different approach I carried on. “It’s just we heard from the ale house over there that you had been talking about it. Me and my…” I gestured to Doran searching for the right word “associate here. We’re in the business of making sure things like this don’t happen to innocent people like you again.” It worked. The mans face relaxed. “Well that is a very good business indeed. What do you want to know?” “If you could tell us exactly what happened, what she looked like and any other details you think relevant” The man took a deep breath, as if preparing himself for a stage performance. “I was travelling through this village some miles back. I trade iron for smelting. As I was walking through the market place this girl with dark hair, skinny little rat really” He picked his yellow teeth “Anyway she was givin’ me the eye, you know how it is” He winked at me and I had to stop myself from punching him. “She told me she worked at the inn, and I thought well, got time for a stopover so’s I went in and ordered somethin’ to eat. Anyway the grubby whore comes out with me plate. She started to walk away but she’d not brought me any bread. So’s I reached out to stop her, ya know, just pull her back like, so’s I could ask her about the bread” He looked at us earnestly as if to try and convince us this bullshit was true. “Next thing I know, me hand feels like it’s on fucking fire. Bitch had burnt me” He brandished his burnt hand that was clad in a dirty bandage. Trying to fake concern I replied “How terrible for you, but do you know how she did it?” He shook his head “No, not a clue, although…” He looked around to make sure no one was near and leaned in closely so I could smell his putrid breath “She could be a witch. I know a lot of folk don’t believe in such things but I couldn’t see any other way she could’ve done it”. “Hmm” I replied “Well you’ve been very helpful. We won’t delay you any further” “ere! What you planning on doing?” He called. I turned and gave him my best fake smile “Don’t worry friend, we’ll take care of it for you.” We strode away before he could ask us anything further. When we’d left the village Doran suddenly said “I know I was out of order earlier. About speculating she might be disloyal. But if this girl turns out to be our future Luna, I would like to hunt him down and kill him” I chuckled. “You know what Doran? I think I’ll join you”.