Flanz - Wolves

Flanz-le-Flore smiled back, a soft and reassuring smile, and then snapped her fingers and turned one of the fauns into a wolf. Another snap, another wolf, and another, and in a matter of seconds a ring of snarling muzzles surrounded them. Even still Lalum continued to nod her head along to Flanz-le-Flore's pleasant smile, grasping onto the slightest hope that smile presented, until the wolves tightened their approach, hemming her in, and the wayward scuttling motions of her legs took her only closer to yet another set of jagged teeth.

At last she realized and pulled the two metal cages from her hip to wave around wildly as her only weapon to protect herself. Jay slapped against the bars as she swung at the first wolf who leapt, missed entirely, and released the cage once the jaw clamped around her arm. Another wolf crunched down on one of her legs, and a third wolf, a fourth, a fifth, Lalum through her strained sealed lips screaming.

Jay's cage bounced, rolled, came to a stop so Jay could watch as a flurry of waving tails surrounded an increasingly less-visible Lalum, Lalum attempting to coat her own face and throat with thick wads of string, although Jay knew from experience her string didn't defend too well against anything sharp. Then a snap—and he was no longer a rat.

***

A splatter of blood and a severed spider leg flopped not far from Jay's clothes. He glanced at the seething mass of fur under which there was no longer any sign of Lalum, nor any screams, and with his head tilted low to hide his eyes under his hat grimaced.

***

[9] The Same Wrong Even More Ruthlessly