Midnight Shadows
Ten
I was motionless under the comforting covers in my bed. Rain thundered outside my window, soaking everything nature could possibly touch and feeding the roots of every plant and flower that harvested such impressive amounts of water. It had been a month and a half and although my leg had almost fully healed, it still hurt just to move it. I had my nose dipped into the books that woman had dropped, each word like eye candy. But what did it all mean, what was I not understanding? I felt like I was missing some key aspect to the whole puzzle. I was told not try to think too hard about the books as it would just confuse me more, but honestly it was something I couldn’t control or help. I couldn’t get enough, like a sick obsession, or a guilty pleasure.
A monstrous thunder galloped across the night sky outside my window, who could sleep through this even if it was three in the morning? I felt a little drained inside, not just because of the lack of sleep but because of the yearning. The untamable need to understand. Another flash of thunder…sent a chill up my spine. An eerie shadow covered my window like a monster trying to break through the glass and steal me away. It slightly resembled a four footed figure haunting outside the house. It was then that a wolf caught my eye, just outside my window. Its reddish ash-burnt fur immediately had a sour familiarity to it. It was her… that woman that dropped the books in wolf form. Neither Kane’s pack nor mine had seen her since, yet here she was…
My first instinct was to duck out of sight and crawl to the window. I did so and felt a small pinch in my still recovering leg, feeling the muscles tighten around the injury. I winced a little, but managed to crawl to the window and look over the edge. The rain was coming down so hard that a foreigner to the rainy season would think we were experiencing hurricane alerts. The wolf seemed to be searching for something, plunging its nose around the muddy soil even though she should know well that a wolfs nose wouldn’t work nearly as well in such rainy weather as after the rain. Then it hit me, she was looking for the books…
I got up, feeling that same tightened muscle pinch in my leg and grabbed the books, heading for the exit. I wasn’t looking to give them back or to hide them, no I was running to get answers. She knew something I didn’t and this was my chance to demand how she knew these things and why she was carrying around these books.
I sleekly slivered my way into the living room, undiscovered and opened the door to the outside world. The wind felt like it was hammering rain straight into my face for only a moment before the blasted winds rapidly changed direction and through the rain nearly sideways towards the mountain peaks. I took the opportunity to slam the door shut and find that wolf. At last she was spotted, running towards the slight shelter of the forest trees. I ran following her, my feet sinking into the mud that was stirred up with the rain water to the point of being of the same consistency as pancake batter.
Once my feet touched the spiked ground of the forest, made rough from splinters of cracked trees, I really felt the chase quicken. There was no time to transform into my wolfen form, too much on the line to risk losing her. She knew exactly where she was going as she took direct turns at random areas in the forest, curving between thin trees and jumping over rocks and boulders. She was running as fast as she could on all fours, her wet fur bleeding into the rain drops like a blur on a painting. It was finally that she had found her destination.
She took a curve into a small cave made of boulders. Obviously animal-made, maybe even nature manufactured, but an animal had for certain tampered with it. I felt uncomfortable going into such a tight space, but there was no time to worry about getting caught too early in my plan. I transformed into my slim wolf form and immediately discovered the downside to becoming wolf in the rain as my fur weighed me down. My fur locked in rain water easily, but I just had to deal with carrying excessive rain water for now. As soon as I touched the safe but dark inside of the cave, I shook my fur to lose some of the extra weight and began to ran inside, deeper into the unknown.
I had lost her… the woman could have gone anywhere if there were multiple tunnels. It was a straight tunnel however, but there was still no sign of that wolf which wasn’t a good sign with the tunnel getting darker and darker. After a while of running, jogging and more running, the tunnel got pitch black and became harder to travel through. I was finally able to squeeze my frame through a passage, leading to an open area of darkness.
“Hello Raksha…” a voice murmured that sent a chill back up my spine. I perked my ears as I couldn’t see a thing in the darkness. “Glad you could join us; we all knew you were following me you know. It was pretty obvious; I could easily hear your running through the forest. Not such a well developed paradise wolfess are you…” I growled an echoing snarl into the cave, satisfied with the doubled sound effects. “How do you know these things about me? Why do you want my land and why did you leave me to this disgusting cave of yours?” I growled hopelessly through thin air, I had no idea if it was only me and her in the cave or if I was in the middle of hundreds of wolves before me.
“You sound threatening but I can smell your fear a mile away. Don’t forget you are in my common territory, I don’t think you’re in any position to be demanding.” I bared my teeth, trying not to expose my panic. She was right, I wasn’t hunting her down, she was hunting me all along…
“I believe you have my books…” my mind numbed… I brought them with me, but didn’t have them now… “Maybe I do,” I growled, “maybe you should be more conscious of where you drop them. Are they precious to you?” I heard a slight chuckle, “Not really, I certainly didn’t find my name labeled on every inch of the thing… I was asked to give these books to you by a different source than myself. However they clearly aren’t important to you seeing you abandoned them in the mud.” I felt a pain in my stomach, in my rush I just left them there.
A scrit sound quietly sounded a little far away, lighting a match which then lit a candle. With one candle being lit, more candles where lit throughout the entire cave as a domino effect. I felt a little stunned as the entire place was now visible. The ash colored she-wolf was now in her familiar human form, she was glaring down at my wolf form. The identity of one of the big white wolves was revealed as a human, the one who lit the candles. In human form he had silvery white hair even though he must have been in his early forties. He was buff, big and matched his wolf form down to just about everything a human could match to a wolf.
I felt a sharp stab of horror to find only two exits, one in front of me being blocked by the well-developed body of a grey male and the one behind me unexpectedly also guarded by a dirty white male.
It seemed like the woman was the only female, probably high priority being the alpha of the pack between two males. I was distracted from my thoughts when the woman pulled out my books. “How did you get those, you where running the whole time and no one else was in the forest!” I growled, irritated by her antics. “Let’s just say I have my sources.” I remembered how a ‘higher source’ had told her to give the books to me in the first place. “You say these books have no power to you, so what do you plan to do with them now?” I asked with a peaceful voice this time. “I sense your yearning for them. I’m not going to just give them back to you; you must show me that you are worthy…”
I felt a bone-crushing pain climb up my back and a small yelp escape my lips as the dirty-white male wolf grabbed me from behind with his canines and tossed me like a rag doll across the rocky cave. “By the looks of it, you are anything but worthy to getting these books back, none the less becoming a paradise wolf. I should have you know that I was told to correct you into shape to becoming a paradise wolf, but if he finds you aren’t destined, I’m second in line…. So please, keep up your pathetic excuse of attempting to fight and in a second it’ll all be over…” And with that, both males began their march at me and the scent of rose pedals flooded through the cave in a blasted wind.
A monstrous thunder galloped across the night sky outside my window, who could sleep through this even if it was three in the morning? I felt a little drained inside, not just because of the lack of sleep but because of the yearning. The untamable need to understand. Another flash of thunder…sent a chill up my spine. An eerie shadow covered my window like a monster trying to break through the glass and steal me away. It slightly resembled a four footed figure haunting outside the house. It was then that a wolf caught my eye, just outside my window. Its reddish ash-burnt fur immediately had a sour familiarity to it. It was her… that woman that dropped the books in wolf form. Neither Kane’s pack nor mine had seen her since, yet here she was…
My first instinct was to duck out of sight and crawl to the window. I did so and felt a small pinch in my still recovering leg, feeling the muscles tighten around the injury. I winced a little, but managed to crawl to the window and look over the edge. The rain was coming down so hard that a foreigner to the rainy season would think we were experiencing hurricane alerts. The wolf seemed to be searching for something, plunging its nose around the muddy soil even though she should know well that a wolfs nose wouldn’t work nearly as well in such rainy weather as after the rain. Then it hit me, she was looking for the books…
I got up, feeling that same tightened muscle pinch in my leg and grabbed the books, heading for the exit. I wasn’t looking to give them back or to hide them, no I was running to get answers. She knew something I didn’t and this was my chance to demand how she knew these things and why she was carrying around these books.
I sleekly slivered my way into the living room, undiscovered and opened the door to the outside world. The wind felt like it was hammering rain straight into my face for only a moment before the blasted winds rapidly changed direction and through the rain nearly sideways towards the mountain peaks. I took the opportunity to slam the door shut and find that wolf. At last she was spotted, running towards the slight shelter of the forest trees. I ran following her, my feet sinking into the mud that was stirred up with the rain water to the point of being of the same consistency as pancake batter.
Once my feet touched the spiked ground of the forest, made rough from splinters of cracked trees, I really felt the chase quicken. There was no time to transform into my wolfen form, too much on the line to risk losing her. She knew exactly where she was going as she took direct turns at random areas in the forest, curving between thin trees and jumping over rocks and boulders. She was running as fast as she could on all fours, her wet fur bleeding into the rain drops like a blur on a painting. It was finally that she had found her destination.
She took a curve into a small cave made of boulders. Obviously animal-made, maybe even nature manufactured, but an animal had for certain tampered with it. I felt uncomfortable going into such a tight space, but there was no time to worry about getting caught too early in my plan. I transformed into my slim wolf form and immediately discovered the downside to becoming wolf in the rain as my fur weighed me down. My fur locked in rain water easily, but I just had to deal with carrying excessive rain water for now. As soon as I touched the safe but dark inside of the cave, I shook my fur to lose some of the extra weight and began to ran inside, deeper into the unknown.
I had lost her… the woman could have gone anywhere if there were multiple tunnels. It was a straight tunnel however, but there was still no sign of that wolf which wasn’t a good sign with the tunnel getting darker and darker. After a while of running, jogging and more running, the tunnel got pitch black and became harder to travel through. I was finally able to squeeze my frame through a passage, leading to an open area of darkness.
“Hello Raksha…” a voice murmured that sent a chill back up my spine. I perked my ears as I couldn’t see a thing in the darkness. “Glad you could join us; we all knew you were following me you know. It was pretty obvious; I could easily hear your running through the forest. Not such a well developed paradise wolfess are you…” I growled an echoing snarl into the cave, satisfied with the doubled sound effects. “How do you know these things about me? Why do you want my land and why did you leave me to this disgusting cave of yours?” I growled hopelessly through thin air, I had no idea if it was only me and her in the cave or if I was in the middle of hundreds of wolves before me.
“You sound threatening but I can smell your fear a mile away. Don’t forget you are in my common territory, I don’t think you’re in any position to be demanding.” I bared my teeth, trying not to expose my panic. She was right, I wasn’t hunting her down, she was hunting me all along…
“I believe you have my books…” my mind numbed… I brought them with me, but didn’t have them now… “Maybe I do,” I growled, “maybe you should be more conscious of where you drop them. Are they precious to you?” I heard a slight chuckle, “Not really, I certainly didn’t find my name labeled on every inch of the thing… I was asked to give these books to you by a different source than myself. However they clearly aren’t important to you seeing you abandoned them in the mud.” I felt a pain in my stomach, in my rush I just left them there.
A scrit sound quietly sounded a little far away, lighting a match which then lit a candle. With one candle being lit, more candles where lit throughout the entire cave as a domino effect. I felt a little stunned as the entire place was now visible. The ash colored she-wolf was now in her familiar human form, she was glaring down at my wolf form. The identity of one of the big white wolves was revealed as a human, the one who lit the candles. In human form he had silvery white hair even though he must have been in his early forties. He was buff, big and matched his wolf form down to just about everything a human could match to a wolf.
I felt a sharp stab of horror to find only two exits, one in front of me being blocked by the well-developed body of a grey male and the one behind me unexpectedly also guarded by a dirty white male.
It seemed like the woman was the only female, probably high priority being the alpha of the pack between two males. I was distracted from my thoughts when the woman pulled out my books. “How did you get those, you where running the whole time and no one else was in the forest!” I growled, irritated by her antics. “Let’s just say I have my sources.” I remembered how a ‘higher source’ had told her to give the books to me in the first place. “You say these books have no power to you, so what do you plan to do with them now?” I asked with a peaceful voice this time. “I sense your yearning for them. I’m not going to just give them back to you; you must show me that you are worthy…”
I felt a bone-crushing pain climb up my back and a small yelp escape my lips as the dirty-white male wolf grabbed me from behind with his canines and tossed me like a rag doll across the rocky cave. “By the looks of it, you are anything but worthy to getting these books back, none the less becoming a paradise wolf. I should have you know that I was told to correct you into shape to becoming a paradise wolf, but if he finds you aren’t destined, I’m second in line…. So please, keep up your pathetic excuse of attempting to fight and in a second it’ll all be over…” And with that, both males began their march at me and the scent of rose pedals flooded through the cave in a blasted wind.