A short-story by: Red Ghost
‘Please, no! I want to go home! I want my mom, my dad! Save me!’ I cried silently as hot tears soaked my black wolf fur. My paws thudded softly on the forest floor, my heart was pounding, my lungs burned, and my body ached.
Some said what I had was a gift, others a curse. I just wanted to go back to living a calm life, but instead I was being hunted like a wild animal by my own friends and neighbors.
“It went this way! We have to stop that beast!” a man bellowed a ways behind me. I gasped in shock and dismay as the baying of the hounds became increasingly close. My breathing was short and suddenly loud snarls erupted behind me.
Please stop! I wailed in a strange language that sounded alien yet somehow came naturally.
Obey! Hunt! Kill! Obey! The dogs howled now so close I could feel their rancid breath on my tail. Suddenly a dog snarled loudly and lunged for me; it sank its teeth into my right back paw and I yelped in agony as it held tight and whipped its head to the side, pulling me with it. I was flung like a rag doll across the forest floor, crashing loudly into some dry bracken. I curled into a tight ball as the massive, slavering, hounds loomed over me; they where all easily twice my size, I was only nine in human years and I was numb with fear. The dog that bit me leaped forward, teeth bared, eyes glowing with bloodlust, I lashed out with a forepaw out of instinct and my claws connected with the tender nose of the animal. It reared back, growling in pain as it jumped behind the five other dogs that cornered me.
Enemy! Attack! Attack! They all howled, my nose began to burn from the stench of blood and the overpowering smell of adrenaline and my own fear.
Stop! Please no! I cried.
“Over there! The dogs have it cornered!” a man called, the dogs turned for a second and I used that moment to turn and lunge back into the thick woodland. I didn’t get far before the ground dropped from beneath me and I plummeted and struck hard packed dirt. Something made a popping sound and I inhaled sharply in pain. Something happened to my back leg but I didn’t know what as my head spun and my vision blurred. I scrambled blindly in the dirt, in pain and in confusion and in the midst I thought I caught a glimpse of yellow in the black forest.
Help me… I need… help… I whined into the forest but the yellow blur was gone.
I heard the hounds. I heard the men from the village. Their yells filled with anger and uncertainty as they pursued me. Coming for me. I don’t know what I did, I never will, I was going to die here. They would kill me; nobody would stand up for a shape shifter, for a werewolf. I braced my front legs underneath my beaten body and hauled myself into the middle of the small clearing before collapsing again to the ground.
‘Wait, I can’t die… no… I can’t please no…’ I thought before I was interrupted by the loud clamor of the dogs and the village people.
‘Why?’ I thought as my head slumped into the dirt. I tried to haul myself up again but was cut off my immense pain and I screeched into the night, it almost sounded human as it added to the continuous calls of the villagers and their dogs. I finally laid down in defeat waiting to smell the dogs breath and feel their teeth at my throat, their claws raking my fur. ‘How much longer must I wait?’ I thought as I struggled to breathe evenly trying to calm myself before my life ended, then it happened; the dogs exploded from the underbrush, howling and snarling like wild beasts. The leapt from the small ridge and raced around me, their heads low to the ground scenting my blood and fear, their eyes filled with the excitement of the chase.
“Down there!” another man called and suddenly the villagers where at the top of the small ridge, “Let the dogs finish it off, none of us want the blood of a child on our hands, do we?” a man queried. It. That’s what I now was to these people, an it.
I growled weakly as a dog came too close to my head and it hopped back and barked at me. That’s when I heard what most feared, a long, feral howl, and it was soon joined by a dozen other wild songs.
The villagers fell silent, the dogs went still. They all listened. Agonizing moments passed, part of me wanted them to just end my life so I didn’t need to suffer any longer, and another part wanted to live desperately. As I waited, a minute passed then the dogs began to fidget closer and closer to me, the villagers remained mostly silent but they now whispered uncertainly to each other. The largest dog then snarled violently and lunged forward, its red eyes fixed on my throat where its teeth should have been if it wasn’t tackled to the ground by an enormous wolf-like creature. I huffed in surprise as my vision blurred once again as I tried to follow its movements; it was unbelievably fast. When I finally caught a solid glimpse of it three more animals had appeared from the night. They all had strangely built figures; sturdy and large, but their paws where oddly elongated almost like human fingers, they also had very muscular torsos and very long hind legs like mine. The creatures moved with deadly grace, each striking down a hound with a single blow from their massive paws. The villagers turned with screams of terror and where now the hunted as four separate wolves exploded from the trees and raced after them.
I cried in horror as the massive beast approached me, it was larger than any dog I have ever seen and its eyes where a vibrant yellow, though unlike the hounds, they did not hold bloodlust, and to my surprise they seemed gentle. It bent down on long legs and sniffed me. I closed my eyes tightly and laid my ears back,
I will not hurt you… the wolf cooed and I found it to be a female, I blinked up at her and she continued, I will take you to a safe place, you will not be harmed, your safe now, child. I felt myself relax and my head fell back to the earth as my body calmed. She stooped down and picked up my small form in her jaws before turning into the dark night, her soft, yellow eyes lingering in my memory, as my mind went blank and my sight blurred then faded to black as I fell unconscious.
A howl sounded, soon accompanied by others. How much longer must I wait? Until my song joins theirs?
