The Other Sister

My eyes were locked on the big grizzly bear just yards in-front of me. I wasn’t sure where I was exactly, somewhere in the northern United States, at least that was what I believed anyway. I was about to attack when I felt the air shift around me, I stiffened immediately. I sniffed the air and caught an unfamiliar sent.

Danger, that was all that was going through my head. Danger, danger, danger… I needed to get out, I needed to run. Normally my body would already be a mile away, but my automatic instinct was not kicking in. Not even a full second had passed when my body felt something nearing. I wasn’t sure what was coming, I just knew I had to leave, but I couldn’t make myself go.

Not even half a second later, I heard a voice. I didn’t think it was possible, but my body stiffened more. Humans? But how, out here…? No, not humans, this was moving much too fast. Plus, I would have smelt their blood, heard their heart beating in their chest. Then what? Another of my kind? If that was the case I really needed to go. I had been running from my own kind for so long now, it had been decades since I’ve seen any. I was frozen, though, in my place, the only movement was the ragged breaths I drew in and let out.

I could taste confusion in the air, but was it mine or their’s. Surely they knew I was here, or rather that something was out here, besides the animals and themselves. As their voices grew closer they seemed to jumble together. It was hard to understand, to make out what they were saying. That was strange, my hearing was perfect, why would their voices clutter together? About six seconds after I first sensed the newcomers presence, I could feel the air changing once again, they were getting closer, about seventy yards behind me now. I was more than likely visible to them. It was only a matter of a second before they attack, but they seemed to have stopped running… Odd.

Before I even thought about the movement, my body was already launching itself into the air and twisting around. I landed almost silently in the exact same spot, only facing the opposite direction, towards the danger. I stayed crouched in a defensive pose, my lips pulling back into a sneer, and my teeth gleaming with fresh venom. They were standing there, seven golden eyes staring back at my own. There were three females and four males. A growl escaped my lips at the sight of all of them.

If their number hadn’t intimidated me, than the big brawny one in the front certainly would have. I didn’t want a fight, and I knew if there was one I was no match for any of them, let alone the curly haired, muscular male. He was by far the biggest of them, of anyone I had ever seen. They were absolutely beautiful, but why wouldn’t they be. I had the same inhumane beauty that they had. Although, I noticed the blonde female behind the overly muscular male was by far the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

On her left was a small, pixie-like girl. Although I knew better than to think of her as a girl, she was just a lot smaller than the rest, especially since she was standing so close to the big male. She had short, spiky, black hair. On the blonde’s right was the other female, she seemed older, or maybe more mature. Her look was almost motherly, really. Her icy skin seemed to radiate warmth, but not as if she was really warm. It tasted more like…. Love.

In-front of her was another male, with golden hair that almost matched his eyes, I felt an odd sensation, as if I could tell he meant no harm. He stood next to the brawny male, followed by another light haired male. Even from this distance I could see scars running along this male’s neck and other parts of him. His taste was all over the place. It left a sour sting on my tongue. I felt like I was sensing every mood around me all at once. I narrowed my eyes at him, I had seen him somewhere once before, but I couldn’t place it, there were more important issues at hand.

I quickly moved to the last male, he had a distraught look on his defined face, as if he was trying very hard to read something confusing. His hair was bronze colored and a little disheveled. He was lean with the hint of muscle showing under his shirt. When I looked at him I felt the words double back over themselves.

I tried to make out what they were all saying but it was jumbled still. As I looked closer though, their lips weren’t moving, not one of them were speaking. Along with the words there were images, flashing so quickly I couldn’t catch what they were. I was a little used to strange images, but the speed of these were too fast.

I was so confused I felt like I’d been trapped, but what would be the purpose in destroying me? Were they even doing this to me? Trying to confuse me so they could attack. I didn’t understand why though, their number was enough to take me out. I let out a low hiss as a warning, not that it would be too frightening to someone like the big muscular male.

“Please, we mean no harm.” My eyes snapped to where I last saw the first golden haired male, although I almost couldn’t see past the images. They were getting to be too much. His voice was calm, though, and I tasted that from him. I tried to keep my facial features from showing my confusion and pain, but they betrayed me. I couldn’t help but contort my face to match my emotions.

“What are you doing to me?” It was becoming almost painful now, the voices and the images seeming to get louder and cluttered and I felt the intensity from the situation. Panic was growing inside me, and I felt endangered. It reminded me of another time… The golden haired male spoke again but I couldn’t concentrate on him anymore. There was something inside of me stirring, it was something I never felt before.

Suddenly, as if something burst inside of me, the fast changing images were now things I remembered. The speed barely decreased but now it was as if my life was being shown to me. I didn’t understand what was happening, usually I was able to see into other’s past, but this felt different, it felt amplified The confusion that was so dominant before took the back burner while a new taste filled the air, pain and sadness, loss and fury.

The little hope I had felt for that half a second was soon demolished as the images flickered back again to those fast paced hazy pictures I couldn’t understand.

“How did you do that?” The small pixie female asked surprised. I tasted a calm trying to break through, but the tension was so thick it was having a difficult time. My head was throbbing, matching the pace of the images, like they were being hammered in my head.

“I’m not doing anything… Please just stop this, I… I can’t handle it!” I said exasperated, the pain was growing to an almost unbearable level. I didn’t like to result to begging, but I felt like I had no other choice. I felt the stirring within me again, but it was painful now. It seemed like there was something fighting with it. Another burst and the images changed again, what was going on? This time it lasted half a second and the unfamiliar images returned. For the next half a second it seemed like the images were batting against each other, fighting to break through. My eyes narrowed, my brow furrowed, I couldn’t follow any of what was going on. Panic twisted through my body, almost crippling me, I couldn’t let them win, I couldn’t let them get me. Could I out run them, would I be able to concentrate enough to run?

I tried to focus my eyes on the bodies in-front of me again, the images were hard to block out, it was like a battle of my past and some future, but I wanted to be able to see, I needed to see. I took in the look on the other’s faces, there was shock and pain. That didn’t make sense to me. What was going on here?

The first golden haired male took a step forward, before my brain knew what was happening, I launched myself again into the air but this time I didn’t land on the ground. I grabbed onto a tree branch and hung there. I let a loud growl escape my lips before I took off. I swung to a tree farther from the group, then swung down to the ground and started running.