Midnight Commotion

Stirring awake I could faintly hear the sounds of panicked screams, looking around I noticed it was still night outside. Turning to my parents on the other end of the room from my crib, I saw them sleeping soundly.

'I need to try to wake them up,'

Doing the only thing I knew I could, I mustered my best high-pitched baby's wail. When Mother slowly got out of bed half sleepwalking trying to hush me, a light of an orangish-red color blanketed the night sky, followed by a muffled explosion, our villages signal of an attack. Just as the explosion settled, I could hear our front door burst open.

"Chief Knox! We are under attack! Shadow wolves have come from the forest!" a voice rumbled from our front door. 

Without a second to spare my father bolted out of his bed and grabbed his weapon from the corner, a wooden spear nearly twice the height of himself. It had glowing yellow crystals that lined the shaft of the spear, with a bright red gem embedded in the center of the head of the spear.

"Alice! Watch over Zeph, I'll return shortly," my father said with a smile, giving us both a peck on the forehead. Then, faster than my eyes were able to follow, my father bolted out of our home to go defend our village. 

*Chief Knox's POV*

Arriving at the scene of the attack I couldn't help but to be thankful. The shadow wolves were currently being held at the edge of the farms surrounding our small settlement. Scanning the battlefield, I counted 6 shadow wolves and 10 men holding them back, they were at a stalemate. 

"Alen," I said to my old friend who warned me of the attack, "Go, hold them back for a few moments and when I give the word fall back."

"Aye Chief," Alen said, saluting with a goofy grin.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my spear with both hands, squaring my feet with my soldiers I planted the butt of the spear into the soil beneath me. Closing my eyes, I focused on channeling the ambient mana surrounding our village. The faint glow of the mana crystals embedded throughout my spear increasing with each passing second. The earth around me started to tremble, the mana crystals illuminating with such intensity a passerby would mistake it for daytime on our small battlefield.

"Now! Fall Back!" I shouted. I picked up my spear leaping over my retreating villagers, and twisting in the air I forced all the mana I had gathered into the red gem embedded in my spear I released all with a slashing motion starting from the left most shadow wolf. What followed was a stream of fire so concentrated it looked solid, forming a single crisp line across the approaching pups. As the line of fire connected with the shadow wolves, now leaping toward me in the air, it exploded engulfing the small pack, barely a meter away from me, in flames leaving nothing but ashes. Following the explosion, I was launched through the air until tumbling through the farmlands finally stopping around 30m from where the battle occurred. 

'That may have been a little too much mana..' I thought while spitting out a mouthful of dirt.

"Have you heard of a thing such as overkill, Chief?" Alen asked with a raised brow and a chuckle, lowering his hand to help me to my feet.

"How can I be a possibly be a village chief if they think I'm some pushover?" I joked, giving him a muddy smile.

"They'd definitely think you're one if they saw how your wife's reacted to the state of your body upon every return," walking away with a hearty laugh and a wave he said, "I'll be back at dawn, there's some scouting to be done." With that, Alen disappeared into the woods.

'He is right, Alice is really going to kill me this time,' chuckling looking at my current state.

"Everyone! Gather round, report," I said to villagers still pacing around. Our village's head scout, Xavier, stepped forward.

"Chief, while doing our mid of night rounds we spotted a lone shadow wolf 3 kilometers from the village, so I decided we needed to kill it, only to find out that it was a trap set up by the wolves," sounding disappointed in himself he continued, "The lone wolf allowed us to attack it and retreated, once we were 5 kilometers from the village we decided to turn back. When we reached the farm line to report we were ambushed by the 6 shadow wolves, thankfully you came to save us chief! I don't know how long we could have held out without you!" 

"You all did very well tonight, everyone remember what you learned tonight. Shadow wolves are cunning creatures, if they deem their prey weak enough to defeat with the strength of their pack, they will not hesitate to attack with full force even losing their own in the process. We were just lucky this pack didn't have an alpha otherwise tonight could have very well turned out differently for everyone here," I stated matter-of-factly, "Well I've said enough, everyone go home now, inform your families of your wellbeing and rest, training starts at daybreak,"

Staying back watching everyone slowly make their way back to their homes I had a small smile on my face.

'Who would've thought the once noble member of the King's Guard would someday be the chief of a small village a month's travel from the nearest city,' I mused as I gazed into the night sky. 

Before idle thoughts started to turn into distasteful memories, I turned to walk back home to rest. Interrupting me from sleep yet again, I heard Alen shout from the woods.

"HAHAHA KNOX, COME!!! I'VE GOT THE BIG BOY!! AHAHAH WOAH THERE BETSY!!"

Turning around, jaw agape in both surprise and genuine confusion I saw my old friend mounted on the back of an Alpha shadow wolf maneuvering the poor thing by the ears. The wolf jumped and spun around doing anything it could to escape. Eventually the wolf calmed down and looked to me with a gaze that begged me to get the foul beast off its back. 

'That man is a mystery' I thought with a sigh, ignoring Alen's antics and making my way back to my family to be in peace, at least for a little while.