Black Ice-Completed
Chapter 16

One year later

Nyota looked at Veronica, worry in her eyes, “Are you sure you’ll be alright on your own?” she asked, concern clouding her words, “I can stay another week if you don’t feel up to it?” Even though it felt like it would kill her, she would stay with her Aunt, just to make sure she was still feeling better.

Veronica laughed softly and waved her hand away, “Go Nyota, you doted on me enough during this winter and the better part of spring. You deserve this so go on!”

Nyota stared at her for another minute before going through the door to run out into the cool summer air. After a few moments, she slowed down, huffing in air, “Okay, need to build my stamina back up!”

Since the prior year, after the wolf had left, things had begun to become worse as the season turned.

That summer had been the first drought Nyota had ever seen. There had been dry spells in the past but never had the rivers run dry. When the rivers ran dry, it was almost like a desert in the forest. The herds ventured further East towards the big river, which caused Nyota to leave her territory and travel long distances to hunt and bring meat back.

Veronica had gone with her multiple times to try to help but often stayed home to try to collect as many nuts, berries, and herbs that were available.

It wasn’t much use and by the time winter hit they had half of the larder full. Nyota thought that maybe she’d be able to hunt during the days but found that the herds stayed far to the east.

The last time she had gone hunting, she had gotten lost within a snow storm which kept turning her around. It had taken her several days before she found her way back home only to replace Veronica weak with sickness. A fever ran rampart in her Aunt’s body.

Nyota had tried to heal her as well as she could and while the fever had broken, her aunt was bedridden due to being so weak.

As weeks passed, Nyota felt her own health start to decline because she was so tired. When she went to bed she couldn’t sleep due to worry and a constant itch was across her skin. Sometimes it felt like her skin was stretched too tight or her bones were too big. Veronica could barely move and as weeks went by the larder began to empty.

The blizzards never abated, on one side of the house the snows reached up to the roof of their cabin. One particularly blizzard day, Nyota woke up and could barely move without pain shooting through her whole body. Rolling over, she quickly got sick in the chamber pot. After rolling back over, she felt it first. There was stickiness between her legs and on her bedding. Moving slowly she wiped her hands across her thigh and cried out. There was blood all over her hand.

Crying out in fear, she called for her Aunt in panic. Veronica simply told her it was her heat cycle, something that would happen each month for a week and told Nyota how to take care of it.

But as the weeks went by, the cycle never broke. Nyota was struck with severe cramps that kept her bedridden. Every time she tried to get out of bed, pain would shoot up her spine causing her to collapse back onto her bed. Between the two of them, they were able to keep a fire going with only deer broth and onions being their constant food source. The larder was completely empty.

It was midwinter, no food, barely any firewood was at the ready, and Nyota felt so weak that she didn’t know if either of them would survive to see the spring.

As Nyota had that thought, she felt something inside her shift and break open. Crying out, Nyota rolled onto to the floor and cried as her bones shifted and popped.

Undress, said a soft whisper, become the wolf and embrace the strength it can give you. Nyota listened and instantly began shoving her clothes off even though every time she moved another bone would pop or shift causing extreme pain.

“Nyota? What are you doing?” Veronica cried as she struggled to sit up in bed.

“I-I need the door open. Can you g-get the door?” Nyota bit out as another wave of pain washed over her and was thankful when she saw her aunt make her way over to the door. As cool air swept over Nyota’s body, she embraced the pain and felt her bones make a complete shift into the wolf.

Veronica stared at the wolf that was her niece and saw glowing green eyes stare right back at her. She was speechless because Nyota’s pelt was not pitch black like the others in the Black Ice nation, instead it was a dark red, much like her human hair. The wolf itself wasn’t much bigger than that of the average wolf, but that was because Nyota was still quite young. Veronica wasn’t sure how big females got but hoped her niece would continue to grow. It’d be the only way that she would be able to go up against Lyosha.

Nyota stood there with her eyes closed as she breathed, allowing the pain to recede and for the instincts of the wolf to take over. She was hungry and needed to hunt.

With that in her head, she rushed past her aunt in a run and howled at the sheer freedom that she felt. As she began to hunt, Nyota had thought it would be easy, but she was used to hunting as a human and it took her several minutes to get used to using all of her senses. As a human, she had to rely on her eyes to help her track animals. As the wolf, she had eyes, ears, smell, and even her whiskers on her face which was causing her some discomfort as the sensory glands told her that a storm was approaching.

Nyota closed her eyes and focused solely on food and started to track the herds to the east. As a wolf it didn’t take her long to travel as it had when she was a human. When she finally spotted the deer, Nyota knew there was a problem. She was the size of a regular wolf whereas the deer were twice her size, she’d never be able to take one down by herself.

As she watched the deer, her eyes kept straying over to the woods beyond and it was frustrating because she was trying to make a plan, when finally she saw movement. There was a pack of Thurian wolves hunting as well. It was a small pack, only three other wolves and to her they looked as weak as what she felt.

Nyota stayed back and watched as they closed in on one of the elderly deer. It looked quite old and she knew it was goig to be terribly gamey, but Nyota felt herself begin to drool. As she watched, she noticed that there was a wide opening that was not covered and if it wasn’t filled, the deer could escape. Without conscious thought, Nyota moved into the empty position and moved with the Thurian wolves.

Unlike regular wolves that would have stopped mid hunt to chase Nyota away, Thurian wolves had been blessed with a human conscious so they could make decisions based more on logic than instincts. The legends said that the Black Ice wolves and the Thurian wolves were brothers. That the wolf God blessed one with shapeshifting abilities and the other a human conscious.

The hunt had worked out and in the end she had taken a leg home just as the storm had hit. Afterwards, she had started to run with the pack more, learning how to hunt as a wolf and to interact with the Thurian wolves which were two sisters and the Alpha male.

As she ran, Nyota began to grow more in size as muscles were worked and used for longer lengths of time. By winters end, Nyota had become twice as big as she had been before. It by no means helped her though because she was still quite lanky and tripped over her paws often.

It was summer now and she smiled as she braided her hair back. The first order of business was to build up stamina as a human and to patrol her territory. Nyota was sure lots of things had changed in the area and the territory would probably have to shift if the deer did not make their way back.

As Nyota searched the area for food she used more than just her human senses. Her wolf senses, while muted, were far stronger and the smells that came to her were reassuring. The herds had made their way back and she was thrilled that she wouldn’t have to enlarge her area. Instead she went about and marked her territory where it had always been.

It had taken several days because Nyota not only marked it against humans, but she had to go over it as a wolf and mark it against other animals. It had lain heavily on her mind that the wolf from the year before would show up but as time wore on it only became a random thought.

And now she could hunt without much worry.