Anderi stood there for a moment before falling on his back into the ruined carcass of the fiend.
A moment later, movement stirred within the underbrush at its edge. Two massive shapes rose from the shadows, low and half-formed, more shadow than wolf, their edges still smoking as they crawled up the ravaged fiend.
They stopped at the edge of the pit gouged out in the fiend's side, fur raised in alarm, teeth already bared at the enormous figure lying amid the ruin of the abomination.
They stared down at the figure with their lusterless eyes, low growls escaping their throats as their shadowed muscles tensed, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
Then a woman stepped from the shadows between the two, quietly placing a hand on each wolf's side. The simple touch seemed to reach through their tension, and the two shadowy beasts eased, if only slightly, their bared fangs lowering as their muscles slowly relaxed.
