I Will Not Bow

And I'll survive, paranoid
I have lost the will to change
And I am not proud, cold blooded, fake
I will shut the world away
Fall! ~ Breaking Benjamin

It had taken a day to clear the path to the beach, it could have taken less had he allowed Gio or his brothers to help him. Kruger was nothing if not stubborn though when it came to certain things. He was covered in sweat, there were scrapes along his arms from the bark of the branches he'd trimmed back. His fingers were sticky with sap from those same freshly cut branches but the work was done. He stood on the edge of the beach, the place where the sand and the dirt mixed together, a blurred line between two different worlds. The sun had left its traces on him, the redness would get worse long before it got better.

It was strange to feel it that way. He spent more time in front of the forge fires drinking in that heat but that was out of the sun. It was nearly out of the light, save for the flicker of super heated coals that gave him just enough to work by. He'd known it would happen, once it may not have when he filled his days with the workings of this place. That had been a long time ago, or maybe it simply seemed that way because of how he distanced himself from everything and everyone. Kruger listened to the crash of the waves mixed with the call of sea birds. The horizon was empty, and behind him stood a forest, two worlds that met in this one place. He sat down heavily, watching the sun fall into the sea. The sky seemed bursting with reds and oranges and it did remind him of those long nights of working. For a moment he imagined a figure standing over the sun. He could see clearly the hammer falling and hear the bell tones of the hammer meeting the anvil. It faded, the reds turned purple and then were gone. In its place stars began to burn, lighting up like embers in the darkness.

He didn't dare stoop to grab the ax again, it was a slow weapon anyway. Kruger closed his fists and fell back into a part of his mind that was used to fighting. The old bruises on his torso spoke of blows received that were still in a state of healing. He hadn't let those aches and twinges stop him from working though. He surely wouldn't let them interfere with this fight. He was at a disadvantage here, there was no side of him that wasn't vulnerable.

Deeper in the shadows that large wolf waited and watched, its dark fur blending into the shadows. Perhaps it heard the footsteps approaching, or the commotion of Antonio's voice. It growled once and huffed. Whatever that meant the other wolves came at the smith all at once. His pant legs had growling maws pulling at them in different directions. Kruger just had time to catch the next one leaping at him but its momentum dropped him to the path. His fingers were biting deep into the throat of the animal and squeezing despite the flanking attacks that came at him which he couldn't fend off. The creature in his hands stopped moving and he lofted it aside to swipe a fist at one of those on his legs. He felt his back dragged across the dirt as they began pulling him deeper into the woods.

When the ax went flying, the glint of its edge caught the pending moonlight. Distinct. Known. At that sight, Antonio knew who was on the receiving end of the attack. Without question. Without reservation. There was not a shred of hesitation in the counter, nor the animalistic violence that spilled forward in the Blacksmith's defense. His own blade, the well tuned rapier that he had been gifted by Kruger many years earlier, as he himself had treaded into manhood, was a flurry of motion. "Ayeeeeee!" The sound bellowing into the surrounding air, each swing, sinking deep into the fur and flesh of the four legged beasts, but not before his thigh became the victim of sharp teeth and mind bending growls. A step and only a step by the elder wolf. He was finally allowing himself to be in the open, but still did not advance upon the two humans. No, he would wait, and allow the other's to do the dirty work they so earned. He would have his chance.

There was so much blood in his face and eyes, not his own but from the former, Antonio could barely see and grappled for the hand and rose. A split second taken to rid himself of the muck, and the blade spotted. Scooping it back into his grasp, a simple moment passed and that lone wolf made his move. As if a ripple sliced through time, the monstrosity was mid flight and on Kruger with such force, their fall onto the earth created a vibration beneath them. Unrelenting in his viciousness, he was going for the throat and only that. A mere whisper floating on the evening breeze, featherlike in its volume, so barely heard. "You failed me..." A child's voice should never be so monotone, so stoic...but it was and held no sign of a giggle or a breathy sigh. Just three simple words, that only the intended receiver could fathom and it was gone.

Kruger hit the ground with two hundred pound of fur and teeth seeking out his throat. Had he heard what he thought or was that simply the echo of his own thoughts in his head? There wasn't time to tell for certain, to give way to reflection would probably mean his end. Perhaps he deserved such a fate. Perhaps he shouldn't struggle against the dark monster that wanted finish him. It would be so easy to give in, who would fault him to meet his end this way. There's still so much more to do. The thought hit him quickly, driving doubt from his mind. It was another of those things that he couldn't account for. Not yet anyway. There would always be more, he knew this instinctively, but the wayward thought had his hands gripping the shoulders of the wolf and using every ounce of his strength to keep it from getting any closer to his throat. He could feel the blood of the creature dripping onto his chest from the places Antonio's rapier pierced, but the wolf seemed possessed with the need to end the smith.

His adrenalin pumping, he was only concerned about his friend, his brother, regardless of anything else. They had their problems with one another, but life was life, bond was bond. Gio hollered, loud enough to snap him from his thoughts. "Alessandro, get up to the main house, get Miss Shai and Rochelle, NOW! RUN!" Gio actually thumped the child in the back of the head and he was off like a shot, barefooted and running like the wind. "Hurry up, Constance....he's losing too much blood." Rushing his wife along, Gio was already cutting Kruger's garments from his body, more and more flesh revealing more puncture wounds, tears and shreds than he could count. "Holy Mother..." Muttered beneath his breath, then louder. "Wake up old man, don't you dare die." A prompt smack meeting Kruger's cheek. "I said, wake up."

Kruger felt the slap, heard the command to wake up and not die. Worse than that he'd heard Gio intone the holy mother. "No prayers for me Gio. Save them for someone else." His voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper. It hurt to breathe, to move and yet he would try to do both. Hands pushed him back down too easily. Once he'd have had no problem forcing himself up against them. His torso burned in places where he'd been bitten and clawed, is shoulder felt like it was on fire. "Where am I... need to get back." His head turned towards Constance and he did his best to give one of those grins that said everything was better than all right. He may even have managed it, though with the commotion it was hard to tell exactly what they all saw. He felt cold, whether from lack of blood or the fact that Gio had relieved him of his clothing he couldn't be sure.

"I wasn't praying for you, Krug, I was praying for me that I could tolerate the smell of your blood for awhile.." This muttered in response, Gio was tying off an area on Kruger's thigh, the blood finally slowing down, while Constance was tucking a thick blanket around him. "You're at the house, you aren't going anywhere."

That glass would end up being enough especially with the way it was partaken of. He nearly gagged at the strength of it. "You wouldn't know me if I weren't stubborn." He could see her face now if he craned his neck just so. The pain of holding his head that way translated into his face with a clenching of his jaw. His brows dropped over squinting eyes and if anyone looked closely they would see his grip on the headboard was a white knuckled vice that threatened to splinter the wood. "There's still so much to do, Shai."

Shai's features shrouded over into something unreadable, but it was absolute fear. Not of the common sort, but of the sort that reached into a person?s soul and gripped it so tightly, breath was hard to take, rationalization was even harder. Maintaining the locked nature of eyes, a palm smoothed across his forehead in a calming motion, and her voice was shaky. "Oui, there is and there is plenty of time to be able to accomplish those things, Kruger...if you had not fallen in the thorn bushes, you would still be doing so..." Such a failed attempt at fractional humor, she glanced over to Gio who was concentrating with needle and thread, each stitch near popping in two as Kruger's heartbeat, forced more blood into the area.

Constance overseeing all of this, she was aware of Antonio over there, who had taken care of his own wounds and was at the ready if anything was needed of him. It seemed like forever, until the door slammed open and the doctor rushed in. Gio near yelled. "The bleeding, it won't cease!" His hands trembling, he was covered in Kruger's blood and shifted slightly over to let the doctor Kiean in. "The muscle is torn into the bone....heat an iron, now!" Essentially, the Blacksmith was bleeding internally, stitching it would prove fruitless until it was stopped. Constance rushed away and returned seconds later, a thick leather strap held in her grasp.

Marcus was bearing down on him, but strong as he was he struggled against Kruger's strength. He tried to lash out with his feet but they wouldn't let him move. It didn't last long. The smith fell silent as awareness left him once again. Consciousness flickered away from him, but at least the doctor wouldn't have to worry about him struggling anymore.

Kruger would never know, how much a part of each and every person in that room, died a little with his muffled screams. Focused intently, the doctor, being who he was and the task at hand, did not flinch, did not break away from the matter at hand. With beads of sweat dripping into his eyes and down his glasses, it was all he could do to pinpoint the bleeders and cauterize them off one by one. It was as if the wolves had been inside this man, and had fought their way out. There was so much internal damage, perhaps when this was all over, he would speculate it further.

For now, the bleeding slowed to a stop from that wound. Constance took on the sewing of it up, while the doctor moved on to several other wounds and proceeded in the same fashion as previous. When Kruger passed out, Shai began to silently sob and pray to every God there was. They couldn't lose him. No matter much he fought again the commonality of what they all were, and were to him, they could not lose him. Niko could not lose his father. "I am going to give him a sedative, he needs it as much as possible. His body will need to heal on its own and him getting up or struggling is going to undo what was just done and if he starts bleeding again, he will die, quickly in fact. He is not to be moved until it is certain he is out of danger."

Doctor Kieran was muttering as he continued, and finally after what seemed to be hours, because it was hours, he leaned back and wiped his face with one of the now dried bloody towels. "I ain't never seen anything like it..." He sighed. "Whatever got him, wolves or what have you, they reached into him." As the doctor rose, Gio began to cover each area with gauze, wrapping it time and time again, assured they were not open to the elements, which would only create deadly infection. Stroking at the mark beneath his eye, in habitual fashion, Shai continued to hold him and glanced up to Kieran. "Will he survive?" He didn't answer the question directly, he actually avoided it, but did say. "That is up to him now?"

http://i1306.photobucket.com/albums/s573/AKrugerAllen/Krugerwolf2_zpsc848f281.jpg