Lykos
All eight eyes saw him at the same time, a huge grey wolf snarling at them. Six of the eyes showed fear, two eyes showed hope.
Louve whispered “Lykos?”
The man with the knife reached down into his boot where he had a pistol; before he could get it out, the wolf roared and leaped upon him. A second later he leaped off and the man with the knife no longer had a face.
Louve screamed, no one moved.
The door to the tavern flew open and men began running to where the scream came from. Louve looked into the wolf’s eyes and was astounded at what she saw.
The wolf started toward the other two men and they backed up against a tree as fast as they could, sobbing the whole time.
Henri yelled out to Louve, “You alright?” and she yelled back, “Yes, over here.”
When everyone else arrived, the wolf was gone. The two men who had held Louve were crying and in total shock.
Henri asked Louve what happened and she explained that the three men were going to rape her, and then this huge grey wolf appeared. She thought it was Lycos. One of the men in the group came up to the body and said, “Oh, mother of God! That wolf ripped his face off.”
The next day there was a town meeting to discuss what to do about the wolf. Louve was next to Blaidd and wouldn’t let go of him.
One of the hunters said that they had to stop doing everything else until they killed Lykos because if he could kill a man in a split second, what couldn’t, or wouldn’t, he do? Several others agreed.
Louve stepped forward and shouted, “No! He saved my life, and if he had wanted to, he could have killed all four of us, but he didn’t.”
One of the men said the only reason he didn’t was because everybody in the tavern was coming.
The debate continued with some of the people siding with Louve and others siding with the hunters. Rand didn’t know what to think, so he finally asked Blaidd what he thought.
Blaidd said, “It’s not what I think but what I know: Lykos was there for Louve, and he had plenty of time to kill the other two if he had wanted to.”
One of the hunters shouted, “How can you be so sure?” Blaidd responded, “Because I know Lykos.” So then another shouted, “Are you saying that if he wanted to, he could kill anyone in this town, and that the only thing that is stopping him is he doesn’t want to?”
Without thinking, Blaidd responded, “That’s about the size of it.”
That did it. Almost all the crowd were now on the “Let’s get the wolf side” and the town voted to put a thousand dollars reward on the wolf.
Louve was beside herself. She turned to Blaidd and said, “You have to do something,” and then she got very angry when he said, “There is nothing to do. Lykos can either go or stay and take his chances.”
Rand didn’t know what to do either. He loved his cousin, but he also thought the wolf was dangerous and a thousand dollars was a thousand dollars.
Louve knew what she would do. When she wasn’t working, she was going to be in the woods looking for Lykos to help him. How…she had no idea.
For two weeks they hunted for him, but he eluded them all. Then something occurred that changed a number of the villagers’ minds back to Louve’s side.
Two of the village boys were going fishing with their dog when out of the woods came two wolves. The dog was quite a bit ahead of the kids, and the wolves broke into a run straight for him.
There was no doubt that the wolves were going to get the dog, when out of nowhere, came Lykos, rolling one wolf then the other and then jumping in between them and the dog. The two wolves got up growling, then decided discretion was the better part of valor, shook themselves and headed back into the woods.
Lykos looked at the kids and then headed off into the woods also. This time there was no doubt what he did and why, but a thousand dollars was a thousand dollars and people hate to admit they are wrong.
A couple of weeks later Louve was working in the tavern when a hunter came in and excitedly yelled, “We killed Lykos!” But then in a more subdued voice he said, “The big grey wolf we killed has got to be Lykos, but the mayor says no one gets any reward until he is positively identified.”
Louve went into a panic quickly looking over to Blaidd, but he was not there. Then she remembered he had not come in that day which was unusual for him.
Earlier the two boys were taken to identify the wolf; they said they thought it was him but weren’t sure. That was the reason the hunter had come to the tavern---to ask Louve if she would be able to positively identify Lykos.
With head bent and tears in her eyes, she said, “Yes, if it is Lykos, I will know it is him.”
As she went with them she was crying because she just knew it was him. Where was Blaidd? She needed him now more than ever. Thinking about Blaidd brought forth the one dread she feared above all else. She tried to suppress it, but it continued to haunt her.
The wolf was laid out on the road. And from a distance it looked just like Lykos. S he whispered to Rand, “I think it is him.” Rand asked her, “Are you sure?” and she said, “No, there is only one way to be sure, and I’m so afraid to do it.”
But she knew she had to, so sobbing uncontrollably she walked up to the wolf and looked down at his face.
She made a slight gasp and prayed, “Thank you, God, Oh, thank you.” And with a smile as broad as her face she said, “It is not Lykos!”
She grabbed Rand and hugged him. Rand was full of joy too because after the incident with the other wolves, he had come to believe that Lykos was good.
When they got back to the tavern, Rand asked her, “Why are you so sure it is not Lykos?” and she said, “Because that night he saved me I looked into his eyes, and they are just like Blaidd’s, sky blue!”
enough