Cassiopeia's View Jibbering, howling and chants in long dead languages

The black-headed witch. The beginnings of a growl twisted Dragomir's lips, not aimed at Dacio but at the black-faced cur that kept cropping up in all these scenarios. Dragomir had been captured and tormented by a wolf he believed to be a friend of his mother, but did Blackhead have something to do with that at the time as well? It seemed likely. She seemed to have her claws in everything, and everything came back to her. His family left Drageda because of her. Vercingetorix thought to make a home by the sea for them but Caiaphas had somehow ruined that, too. He didn't know the details of that, though.

Caiaphas was part of the reason they left Kaistleoki—Vercingetorix said she was lurking near the riverlands. Hydra said she was lurking in the foothills in the company of the wolf who had captured him and thrown him from the mountain. How was it possible that Blackhead was everywhere all at once? Dacio had the right of it: she was some kind of witch.

Did she attack Praimfaya? was the first thing Dragomir had to ask, because how could it be a coincidence that everywhere he and his little family went, they followed? If Blackhead mistook Praimfaya for Isilmë, then she must be searching for his sister. Cold dread spilled into his stomach at the thought that Isilmë wasn't missing, but had been deliberately taken. Hydra wouldn't let that happen, he fervently told himself, but the fear would be evident in both his scent and his fallen face.

I don't know why she would leave, he said, dejected. She's the only one who never did. Maybe she went looking for our mom? He didn't know why Isilmë would do that, but maybe his sister was having an even harder time coming to terms with being abandoned than he was; maybe she yearned for Aurëwen where he only yearned for her to disappear entirely. Moonspear has been watching the area around home, Blackhead was lurking around but it sounds like someone from an ally pack hurt her. I don't know where they are now. But if there was a chance they might have his sister ...

Oh, god, he wasn't ready to fight them yet.

NANOWRIMO: 373