Her belly full for the first time in days, Aindry left Jaisan to guard the rest of the deer they'd brought down, and trotted back to collect their belongings. The ground was clear, no snow at all penetrated the thick conifers to whiten the rusty needles below.
A sharp cr-rack was the only warning she had before the tree fell; she lunged forward, and it missed her, though not by much. Instantly wary, she spun around, searching the still air for any scent of danger.
Shadows detached themselves from the rest, drew themselves together into a solid form. The upper body was grotesquely humanoid, yet with four clawed arms; at the waist, its body trailed off into that of a massive snake.
Another one. Once, attacks from the demon plane had long intervals between them, so long they'd wondered sometimes whether they'd been forgotten or dismissed as not important and maybe they could settle down somewhere. They always turned up eventually, though, even if it took a while. Presumably it wasn't easy to get themselves called here and then choose their own prey, or to find cracks between the planes that they could slip through alone. Lately, the frequency had been increasing, not at all a good sign.
This demon advanced towards her, baring teeth that put a wolf's to shame. She crouched, growling a warning, her ears flat against her skull; she could feel the rhythm of her heart speed up, the rush of adrenaline...
It darted forward with surprising speed, all four arms extended to snatch at her. Aindry slipped away to the right, tore at its side with her teeth, but they glanced off metallic scales. It thrashed sideways, and she barely escaped being swept off her feet.
She circled around it, tried to decide how to attack. She doubted she'd be able to get her preferred grip on the back of its neck, so something else. Even demons had to follow some rules when they took physical form. She just wished she'd had longer with her mother to learn all the tricks of killing demons.
It came at her again—how did it move so quickly with that awkward-looking tail?—and again she ducked sideways. This time she snatched for one of the arms, and closed her teeth on it with all her strength. The claws of the other hand on that side raked across her hindquarters shallowly, but she crunched down harder, chewing at it. The demon shrieked and whipped around to bring the other claws into play, and she backed off, noting in satisfaction that she'd half-severed one hand from its wrist. Still screaming, it drew its arms in close to its body, and the whole shape fluxed. A huge snake reared above her and hissed. Blood dripped from one side.
All right, how was she to get through those scales?
She grinned to herself. Easy: don't. She turned and fled, back towards Jaisan.
It couldn't keep up with a running wolf in that form; it had to shapeshift again to follow her, as she'd hoped. It took the form of a black wolf half again her size, and ran after her.
Aindry watched her surroundings closely for a place she'd passed a few minutes before... there! She thought, hoped, she had enough of a lead to pull this off. She crested a small hill, reached the bottom in three more strides, and slewed to a halt to hide herself in the shadow of a tree to one side.
The demon came over the hill, passed her; five feet later, it halted, finally realizing something was wrong.
Too late. Aindry flung herself at it from behind, ripping with teeth and front claws, doing as much damage as she could before it could shift back to its snake form.
Not quite enough damage, though it was now blood-streaked in a number of places. She fled again, and again it went back to wolf to pursue.
She had yet to meet a demon that would fall for the same trick twice in a row; trying had gotten her and Jaisan both hurt a few times. She'd have to think of something else.
A sudden yelp echoed off the trees from behind her; she skidded to a stop, spun around. Two black wolves were tearing at each other savagely. Not surprising that Jaisan had heard the demon's screams. She backtracked to help, adding her own teeth and claws and fury. Some of the blood she smelled was hers and Jaisan's, but the scent was overwhelmingly that of the demon's; it couldn't even seem to muster itself enough to return to snake-form.
She finally got a firm grasp on the back of its neck and crunched down until she felt bone shatter under the pressure of her jaws. With a last wail, the demon melted away, back into shadows and silence.
Both panting, the wolves stood still a moment, waiting for the demon-rage to pass. They needed to get clean, they needed somewhere they could sleep for a few hours while their bodies worked on the demon poison... Wearily, she forced herself to move, prodded Jaisan into motion. No snow to roll in, no open water to splash in, it looked like getting clean was going to have to wait a bit. Back to the clearing where the small pile of their belongings was, and no farther; they curled up heavily, a little apart, and endured. The poison had already worked its way in deeply, spreading its cold fire through every cell; gradually, Aindry felt it fade, as wolf resistance to poison came into full force.
Ravenous, she'd have liked to get back to the waiting deer, but she curled herself around her little brother to wait for him to get past it, licking his ear reassuringly.
Finally, he struggled to his feet and shook himself, then licked in disgust at the acid-tasting demon blood that matted his fur. Aindry sympathized, she wanted very badly to get it out of her own coat. She shifted to human, scraped at the caked blood with her nails, then called Jaisan over while she dug in her pack for the brush they'd stolen from a pet store. She brushed out as much dried blood as she could, checking at the same time that none of the wounds he'd taken were too serious; she decided they'd have to go slower for the next few days, but what difference did it make? It wasn't like they were going anywhere.
Once she finished, they traded forms and places and Jaisan returned the favour. More than once Aindry growled at him when he got rough; he'd been oddly distracted for the last few days, though generally in a more bright and high-spirited mood than she'd seen in much too long. Each time she complained, he apologized and was gentler for the next few strokes, then drifted off mentally again.
At least it got rid of the worst of the mess. She twitched away, and shifted back to human long enough to return the brush to her pack.
“Come on, let's go see if anything stole the rest of that deer. I'm starving.”
Jaisan nodded, shifted to wolf and seized the straps of his backpack between his teeth. He tossed it so it rested across his shoulders, waited for her, then together they made their way back to their kill.
A few ravens were feeding happily; they paused long enough to give the wolves wary looks, but when neither wolf attempted to chase them off they went back to their meal, all eating contentedly. Aindry wished the ravens would stay; she remembered a family of ravens that had lived near their house, remembered playing with them. But any creature that came with them was likely to die, and she cared too much for these feathered friends to want to see that happen.
Once full, they curled up to nap a bit and let that digest. Aindry thought they could get another meal from it before they moved on, even sharing with the ravens and anything else brave enough to approach.
The ravens squabbled over the meat, then perched in the trees around them. Aindry couldn't help but think they were offering to stand guard over the sleeping wolves in return for the meal...