The Wolf in the Walls

The black mass erupts from the city like a geyser. Even from my perch high above, the cavern trembles beneath my talons. Below, the dark figures surge as one, lifting their faces to the air, tasting it.

Hunting.

They move with the instinct of beasts in the shape of men — nightmares given form.

A shudder coils through my feathers, and I fight the urge to launch myself skyward, to flee back to the surface.

But I cannot leave. I must not fail them.

It’s okay. I’m okay…

I still have time. I’m many levels above the cavern floor. By the time the horde reaches this height, I should be long gone.

Breathe. Think.

First, I need to escape. I cannot search through this maze while being tailed by these creatures. If I take flight into the cavern, I will undoubtedly be seen — just as I was before.

But there’s something else. Something I’m missing.

Before they saw me, the creatures searched the sky as if expecting to find something — as if my presence had been detected by some other means.

An unsettling thought worms its way into my mind; if I am being tracked by something other than sight, how will I ever know if I’ve broken their trace?

Or if I’ve left behind something more… an echo they can feel.

My only option is to create distance between us.

And hope they lose the trail.

“Pssst… little birdie. Take flight. They’re coming.”

My nerves ignite like fuel poured onto flame. I spin, talons flaring, ready to claw and tear until my final breath.

But there is no one there.

“Now, little one.”

My eyes dart toward the source of the deep gravelly voice, and the moment I see it, my gizzard sinks.

Those molten-gold eyes lock onto me. No shape. No body. Just two burning points of light, staring out from the stairwell’s exit at this level.

A low grumble rolls from the shadows.

“Grrr… too late.”

The darkness ripples at the edge of my vision. I twist toward the descending stairwell, and the shadows break. A figure shrouded in black mist launches itself into the air with inhuman agility.

For a heartbeat, it passes close enough for me to see it clearly.

The thing has the rough outline of a man, but nothing about it moves like one. Its limbs bend at wrong angles, joints popping and folding as if bone were optional. Black vapour clings to its form, peeling away and reforming with every motion.

Where a face should be, there is only a warped suggestion of one; sunken hollows and a stretched, lipless jaw, pulled wide in a soundless snarl.

Its eyes are deep black, not set in the skull, but hovering just behind it — as though the darkness itself is looking through the body.

Its head snaps toward me mid-air.

Those dark, hollow eyes fix on my position, and a cold truth settles into my bones.

It isn’t tracking my shape. Not with those eyes.

It’s tracking something unseen.

Its mouth twists into the remnants of a human smile, pleased with what it has found.

Terror constricts my heart like a serpent coiling its prey. My instinct flares, begging me to take flight, but those eyes trap my body into a morbid stillness, as if they have some power over me.

The creature rushes toward me, its grin widening, saliva glistening. I struggle against the invisible cage, but I cannot break eye contact with the horror before me.

This is it. I have failed.

I was no help at all.

The creature breaks into hysterical laughter, as though it cannot believe its luck — as though I am its first meal in years. I try to close my eyes, hoping to hide from the end, but I cannot look away.

It pounces.

But before it can land its strike, a flash of shadow cuts across my vision, snatching the creature away as it passes.

I stagger, breath tearing from my lungs, as control of my body slams back into me.

A gargled scream echoes from the stairwell. I turn, and see the shape of a wolf. Its form is so black it reads as pure shadow, a void cut loose from the dark.

Its jaws are clenched tight around the twisted man’s throat. The creature thrashes helplessly, claws scraping at nothing, but the wolf answers with one final, violent shake.

A stomach-curdling snap cracks through the stairwell.

The wolf flings the body aside in disgust, coughing and spluttering as it hits the stone. He jerks his head away.

“Hk — ptuh!”

Whatever touched his tongue strikes the ground in a wet splatter.

He turns to me, and those golden eyes shine bright and pure — in stark contrast to his shadowed form.

“It’s time to go, little birdie. That one was only a scout. The rest won’t be far behind.”

His lip curls, bearing his large pearl fangs.

“And I will not be putting another one of those in my mouth to save you.”

He snaps his gaze back to me.

“So fly, you fool.”

For a heartbeat, I stare at him. At those impossible golden eyes. And then instinct finally wins.

I launch.

Stone screams past my wings as I hurl myself from the stairwell, the air tearing at my feathers. The corridor ahead narrows too fast; no room to bank, no room to slow. I fold tight and skim the wall, claws scraping sparks from the rock as I barely clear the turn.

Behind me, screeches ring out. The creatures are already here. How are they so fast? I should have had plenty of time to escape.

I beat harder, wings burning, heart hammering against my ribs. The passages twist without mercy, branching, splitting, collapsing inward like a maze designed to break the unwary. I choose left, then right, then drop sharply as the floor vanishes beneath me.

I hear the rumble of the horde behind me grow louder and louder. Old dust and powdered stone shake loose from the walls, clogging the air, stealing my breath. They are gaining on me.

Twin embers flare ahead.

Molten gold, burning bright from a shadowed archway.

“This way.”

I don’t hesitate.

The wolf vanishes the instant I commit.

The creatures are so close I can feel the air tremble, the chamber shuddering around me.

Eyes ignite again; not ahead this time, but to my left, blinking once from a seam in the stone.

“Here,” the wolf murmurs.

I fold instantly, dropping through a broken arch as the ceiling collapses behind me. Stone explodes into dust, the shockwave snapping at my tail feathers. I burst through the debris cloud and bank hard, lungs screaming, wings clipping a rusted chain that howls as it tears free.

The eyes reappear — closer now, pacing me from the wall itself, gliding from shadow to shadow as though the stone were no barrier at all.

“Keep moving,” he growls. “That collapse won’t slow them for long.”

A chorus of shrieks rises somewhere behind me. Too many. Too close.

The corridor narrows again, then ends abruptly in a sheer drop. No stair. No bridge. No light.

I falter for half a heartbeat.

“Trust me.”

I dive.

Cold air tears past as I plunge through darkness. The floor rushes up, revealing a narrow slit just wide enough to slip through. I wrench my wings tight and skim the opening by inches, bursting into a passage so small my feathers brush both walls.

The eyes flare once more, directly ahead.

“Here.”

The corridor dead-ends in bare stone.

I almost slam into it.

Then the wall opens.

The stone simply exhales, seams parting like a held breath released. I slip through as the passage seals behind me, sound dying instantly, the roar of pursuit cut off as though swallowed whole.

Silence crashes down.

I land hard, talons skidding across smooth stone. My wings tremble as I fold them in, chest heaving, vision swimming.

The room is small. Intentional. Old.

No carvings. No runes. No scent of magic — just bare rock shaped into a hollow that feels… absent. As if the world has forgotten this place exists.

The eyes emerge at last, no longer darting — just there, hovering in the far corner.

“They won’t find you here,” the wolf says quietly. “No echoes. No threads. No trail.”

I swallow, heart still hammering.

“What are they?” I ask.

The eyes narrow, molten gold dimming slightly.

“Things that hunt what leaks through the cracks in time,” he replies. “And you, little birdie… you’re bleeding.”

The shadows shift.

“But rest,” he adds. “Breathe. This place is blind.”

The eyes fade — not vanishing, but sinking back into the stone, as though retreating beneath still water.

Alone again.

Safe.

For now.