Arthur and the Fenris Wolf Read Online Free PDF

continued on their journey.
    The moon was low in the sky and the sun was close to rising when they reached their destination. They’d come to a large forest and the grey wolf stopped by a gnarled oak tree. Its trunk was as thick as a car and twisted. The branches were bare, save for a few dangerous-looking icicles that hung glittering along their length.
    Loki-wolf could smell the magic from the tree. The grey wolf grinned – as much as a wolf could be said to grin – clearly relishing the moment. Then he barked three times quickly.
    Suddenly a large chunk of bark at the base of the tree slid aside, revealing a hollow interior. The grey wolf bounded inside and Loki followed just as the bark slid back into place, shutting them in.
    It was completely dark inside and, even with his wolf eyesight, Loki couldn’t see a thing. He could hear the grey wolf perfectly though – the sound of his footsteps padding away, going deeper into the ground. Loki trailed after him, finding himself in a tunnel just large enough for him to fit through. He could feel dry, hard earth below and above him.
    The grey wolf dashed further down the tunnel, bounding ahead, eager to get home. Loki could hear his claws digging up dirt as he went.
    As Loki loped down the tunnel, he saw a pinpoint of soft yellow light in the distance. The pinpoint grew larger and the light became brighter as he approached the end of the tunnel. After so much darkness, the light was almost blinding. He could hear a cacophony of noises beyond the tunnel: music and talking, laughing and singing, some growling.
    Loki sped up towards the sound, towards the light and the warmth, relishing his moment of triumph. As he took the final leap out of the darkness, he transformed back into his man-form with an ooze of green light.
    He found himself in a great circular hall. Heavy curtains hung on the walls alongside ancient and shedding tapestries depicting great battles of long ago. Large fireplaces stood every few feet around the hall, with blazing fires in each, giving Loki his first touch of warmth in days. A chandelier hung from the high ceiling, with its candles flickering brightly and the light reflecting off its hundreds of tiny crystals. A wind-up gramophone was placed on a side table, playing an old vinyl record – some crackly recording of a ragtime classic.
    The hall was full of people of every age, gender and race. Loki guessed there must be somewhere between two and three hundred individuals in the hall. Most of the men were wearing suits in a variety of colours, although shades of cream and navy appeared the most popular choice. A couple wore stiff straw hats. The women favoured long dresses, layers of silk that flowed when they moved their legs, and wore wide-brimmed hats on their perfect, not-a-strand-out-of-place hairstyles. The few children were mostly in pastel colours: the boys in striped short pants and matching blazers, the girls dressed like miniature versions of the women. Some of the people had been swaying along to the music from the gramophone; others were seated at the long dining tables arranged throughout the room, eating meals of rare steak with no vegetable sides and sipping glasses of wine or tumblers of brandy; still more were lounging on couches and chaise longues, reading, chatting and joking with each other. There were wolves in the hall, too. Not as many as there were people, but still a significant number. Many of these were eating large chunks of uncooked meat on the bone or gnawing at chicken carcasses. Most of the wolves had placed themselves in front of the fireplaces.
    As the people became aware of Loki’s presence, the conversation died, until the only sound was the crackling tune coming from the gramophone. One by one the people turned to stare at him. The wolves too stopped their feeding and regarded the new figure warily.
    Loki spotted the grey wolf, his travelling companion, now lounging by a fireplace and greedily