Screams rang out in the night, fires from the village burned bright. Behind her, her brother and sister kept close to her as they ran. Emily, the eldest at nineteen, was strong and smart. The raid had happened shortly after dark. The bandits had attacked with no mercy: death for the men; rape and slavery for the women. Mother and father had run to fight the thirty or more bandits to give their children time to escape. Emily cried, knowing father would die and mother would die and probably be raped. She and her sister and brother would be sold as slaves if captured; tears burned her eyes as she talked to her siblings.
"Hurry Mary, hurry Ben, We need to make it to the forest like dad told us. It's the only safe place."
"Why did this happen Em? Why did they attack our home?" Mary asked, crying as she ran. Mary, at thirteen, was quiet and shy. She would one day be a beauty like their mother.
"They're thieves, Mary. They kill and take because they're monsters." Ben said angrily. Ben, at fifteen,was tall, no grown man, but intelligent and strong like their father. Emily looked back to be sure her siblings stayed with her, hoping they would make the forest unseen. She was their mother now. She would die to keep them safe.
Always.
Micah had visited the village a few times to trade. Now, from the forest, he watched the village. He had two old friends living in the village, but this was a human village, not a pack village. Sometimes, Micah wondered why humans were so cruel. The pack would never waste lives or resources, but humans destroy and kill for mere pleasure. Micah heard footsteps moving closer. He looked to see his pack mates stop to observe the village, their eyes filled with sadness.
"We should go before we are seen, and report this to the alpha." Said Kip, Micah's best friend.
"I know Kip. I just can't see the point of all the killing." Micah said.
Moving back into the forest: Micah, Kip, Trevor, and Hugh gathered up the kills they had made, hunting over the last two days. They picked up the dray poles and moved into the forest. Micah knew the alpha would not be happy when word of the attack reached him. It had taken six weeks to persuade the villagers to trade with the pack and now they were gone.
Still moving fast, Emily, Mary, and Ben were nearing the forest when she heard the horses. Looking back, she saw five raiders moving rapidly towards them. Fear took her; she moved faster, telling Ben and Mary to hurry. She knew her brother and sister were tiring. Soon they reached the forest, Emily was looking for a place to hide her siblings, when she heard the raiders shout. "Stop," ignoring the order, they moved deeper into the forest. She was about to jump a fallen tree, when she felt a sharp impact to her right shoulder. The pain hit her, wrenching out a scream that echoed through the forest
Micah stopped as he heard her scream rip through the forest. Turning towards the scream Micah, Kip, and Trevor shifted as they ran. Moving with wolves' speed they smelled the blood and heard the screams of children and the laughter of men, sounds of persons being beaten. Micah's wolf became angered. This was pack territory, not the village. The men were fools to come into wolven forest. As they came through the brush, Micah saw a young girl held by her hair, a man licking her face. Saw a young man being choked red by another and a woman being kicked and beaten. It was her blood he had smelled as he moved toward were she lay, unmoving. Kip went for the young girl, Trevor for the young man. All the men turned at the sound of their growls. Their man-eyes bulging at the sight of the huge wolves. Men's screams echoed through the night, mixed with the howling of wolves.
-------
At first, there was only darkness, then extreme pain and a coldness that consumed her. Then, heat burning through her as if she were being burned alive. Her body felt as if it were tearing itself apart. She could hear voices but what they were saying was beyond her. There was was only burning forever. Through her pain, she suddenly felt someone holding her. She moved closer, feeling safe. She opened her eyes to a field of flowers. There, three feet from her, stood a huge wolf, amber eyes gleaming; his brown coat tipped with gray and his belly white. His tail swished back and forth as the wolf stared at her. Emily somehow felt this wolf would never harm her, would instead protect her. Reaching out, she touched him, knowing she must, but as soon as she made contact everything went black again.
