Angharad: Welcome Home

Harri drifted into and out of sleep as they passed through the woods. Her father's arm very strayed from her, keeping her upright even as her head would loll forward.

Wolf's leg ached terribly, but he managed to plod on. The sun grew high in the sky, then fell from its zenith, becoming a boiling red. When they came to the castle, it was a half-circle over their sea, painting the off-clock laborors and half-formed masonry in gold and violet.

On the great steps leading up to the fort stood a woman, tall and thin and straight, like a candlestick. She fell forward, rushing down the steps with a cry as she saw the slowly rousing Harri on her husband's horse.

"You found her!"

Harri roused at her cry.

"Mama!" she called, and wriggled a little to be let down.

"Mama - they were horrid things in the woods, and they tried to kill me! They killed Master Dylan. But my Wolf came and saved me, and Kip, and he looked after us all night even though the horrible things wounded him too!"

She struggled again to get down.

"And Uncle Julian says he will die if we don't help him now. And Kip's hurt too, Mama!"

Once they stopped, Wolf sat with some relief. Cub looked happy enough, so Wolf took advantage of the chance to rest his leg. His gaze, however, remained on Cub as she wiggled in her Sire's arms.

Harri's mother rushed forward to claim her daughter from Corwin's saddle, then stopped dead in her tracks as two green eyes glinted in the fading light. She drew a sharp breath, recoiling.

"A... wolf?" She looked up at Corwin with uneasy eyes, but he only sighed.

"Julian says he's halfway tame, and I'm certain he'll stay until this wolf is well to ensure that, right?"

Julian shrugged.

In spite of the assurances, Harri's mother wasted no time in snatching up her daughter and taking her a good distance away from the wolf before smothering her in a bear hug.

Harri returned it with enthusiasm, but she took the first opportunity of saying, "Mama - you have to be kind to Wolf. He killed the Things ... the Wyrr ... that were attacking me. They killed Master Dylan - and his horse. It was only because of Wolf that Kip and I got away.

"Mama ... you have to be nice to him."

Wolf stood and limped over to Cub's Dam. He nosed between the two, licking Harri, and then sitting down next to her, staunchly refusing to leave.

Harri's mother froze, barely able to breath until Corwin came to her side and pulled her up from her crouch.

"The wolf did save Harri from a near-deadly attack. We owe it at least a safe place to heal, and the time to do so."

"It's not staying in the castle, is it?"

Wolf snorted at her reaction. If he'd intended to hurt Dam or Sire, they'd be hurt. But after he'd gone through the trouble of saving Cub's life, he didn't want to make her cry again.

Still, he hurt... he leaned against Harri and stared at her parents, green eyes glittering.

Harri dropped and slid her arms around Wolf's neck, resting her head on his side.

"Please, Daddy? Please, Mummy? He could sleep in a stall in Kip's stable. Kip =likes= him!"

She tactfully omitted the fact that his presence was likely to drive half the other horses mad with terror.

"But not the kennels," she added firmly. "It would hurt his dignity. He's very proud."

She said this with complete confidence. How she knew ... well, she did not understand that. But, quite simply, she knew she was right.

She also knew it was the Thin End of The Wedge. Once she had Wolf sleeping within the boundaries of the Castle, she calculated she would have smuggled him into her room within a week.

"You're staying with me, aren't you, Wolf?" she said to him, her voice warm. "You'll stay while we make you well?"

Wolf shifted as she leaned against his side, making sure Cub didn't touch the wound with the stinging, in case any remained there still.

He looked at her as she spoke, understanding soem urgency in her tone, and when she was done, he whuffed softly, and nosed her cheek. He would see her safely here.

Harri gave a little laugh and hugged him gently.

"You see?" she said in triumph to her parents. "He understands every word I say!"

Harri's parents exchanged a dubious look, but seemed to sag slightly in an unspoken relent.

"If that wolf is to stay here," said Harri's Mother, "He's not staying where he can terrorize my horses and stable boys. Julian, since you're going to be healing him..."

He slapped his knee, motioning for Wolf to follow. "I've had hounds in my room before. This boy will be no different. Is that dinner I scent on the wild?" They made their way into New Avalon, and Harri found she was never quite free of one parent or the other touching her shoulder, or giving her a quick hug.



For a week, Wolf found himself bound to the annoyance of a poultice strapped to his leg, and meat that was not only long dead, but cooked. He saw little of Harri's mother, but barely noticed as Harri always seemed to be available to lavish him with attention. Her studies were halted while Master Dylan's funeral was readied, and another tutor sought.

Julian stayed on through the summer, watching over as Wolf's aggrevated limp became a slight dip in his walk, then a perfectly smooth stride. By then, though fall was taking over the land, and he insisted releasing the wolf would be tantamount to killing the creature, when it's pack has most likely moved to winter far into the woods.

"You had better not be domesticating the creature," Harri heard her mother say one evening, as she was being bustled off to bed.

It was in the spring, when Julian finally looked over the wolf one last time, and declared him ready to rejoin the wild.

Harri received the news as stoically as she could.

"We'll have one last day together," she said. "And then ... tomorrow ... we'll ride into the woods, and set him free."

She tried to keep her lips from quivering, but she knew her eyes were a little shinier than usual.

No-one knew exactly at which point Wolf had decided that it was Harri's room that was his den, and not Julian's. But by the time anyone except Harri and her Nurse had realised it, it was too late, and Wolf had spent the winter in her room.

Now, although Harri usually joined in with the rest of the castle in longing for spring, this year she was dreading it - for it meant she would lose Wolf.