Northwest Smith is a seasoned traveler, and knows how to avoid danger. However, he finds himself limping away from a battle with a wound in his chest gushing blood. He staggers into the forest to escape, but quickly begins to feel like he was being watched. She-wolves stalk him, then surround him as he falls on the ground and passes out. When he wakes up, one she wolf in the form of a woman approached him. Another she wolf attacks him, but the first she wolf protects him. Suddenly, Smith finds himself running with the wolves, transformed into one himself. While they run Smith feels simultaneously in the forest and in another realm, one with a shining marble path where he ran beside a woman in colorful sandles while he himself wore a gleaming sword at his belt. Smith and his new pack run into some hunters. Smith is overcome with the urge to murder them, like the other wolves in the pack. They attack, but the hunters defend themselves with a silver cross. The pack scatters, and Smith and the she wolf who defended him run away together. They run until they run into a hostile force that Smith cannot understand- they can only move slowly and while they are within it they are nearly paralyzed by a deep sense of dread. Smith is able to drag them both out of it, and t