Running From Shadows

I roused from my sleep before daybreak. Loud whispers floated into my ears, but the sounds were a little hard to understand at first. I kept my eyes closed as I strained to listen harder as I tried to remember my surroundings. It dawned on me, that the whispers had a set of breathing behind the words, and some of that breathing was coming in short quick gasps. The couple, I thought.

“If she doesn’t know anything about them why is she running,” the man’s voice accused.

“They are pretty scary looking,” the girl gasped.

“You shouldn’t be talking,” the man stated before continuing his thought process aloud. “Belphyre called her a friend of Hyphron. You remember what he did to Ray!”

“Ray wanted to live like that,” she hissed.

“No one wants to live like that, but how can you not know about…” he trailed off. I could feel his eyes staring into me.

“She just doesn’t!”

“No, Uri. She doesn’t know anything. I bet she doesn’t even know her own name; that’s why she won’t answer our questions.”

I took in a deep breath. How did he know? Was he working with whoever brought me here? Was this supposed to be some sort of sick experiment?

“Dreig, let the girl be, alright. She helped us, she offered to share her hiding space, and she went to sleep before either of us.” The woman half growled, though the effect was lost with her breathing.

“Urielle, I promised I would protect you. I’m not gonna be able to do that if I go around trusting everyone.” I felt my branch shake gingerly before he cursed loudly.

I couldn’t take any more of their bickering. I wanted sleep, but they wanted privacy. No one would win this war, so someone was going to have to give up. “You two can’t whisper to save your lives,” I stated loud enough to frighten a few birds in the tree next to us. I quickly untied myself before climbing to a safer branch to stretch my muscles on. I noticed the black leather jacket the man was wearing was caught on a thin branch; he broke it easily, but it left defined white scuff mark on the left shoulder of his black jacket.

“Sorry,” she answered disappointedly.

“I’m going to look for food. Argue all you want, but if I’m not back in an hour you might not want to come down.”

“Who said we would go down to the ground this soon? Belphyre is lurking, she is not the type to give up easily,” he hissed.

I laughed. “Awe, you’re afraid of the big bad wolf-thing.” I swung down to the branch above his head.

“You should be too.”

“It’s like you said, I don’t know anything. Where we are, who you are, what those things are, but I do know they can die. That makes me less afraid of them.” I jumped down two feet and looked upward to see his stunned face.

The ground was easy to get to after I got around my ‘tree’ guests. My surrounds became much quieter except for the occasional loud grumbling of my stomach. I spotted what looked like some sort of burro or den hole by a tree about ten yards from my own tree. Nothing would come out of the hole unless something caught their attention. I decided to smoke out whatever animal that inhabited the hole, and if I was lucky I’d be having rabbit or fox for dinner.



The circle moved locations upon Belphyre’s return. Waves crashed against the shore as if a huge storm was arriving while the sky darkened with dense grey clouds. Seven of the cloaks rose from the ground. “Belphyre, what news have you,” the purple cloak asked with caution seeping through each word.

“The rebels have located the girl, or rather stumbled upon her. She helped them to safety.”

“Do you believe she knows anything?”

“No, sire. The girl does not remember anything; she does not realize she is even on her home island.”

“Good, we do not want her to remember quickly.” The purple cloak looked to the left. The black cloak standing there kept its head bowed while staying silent. “Belphyre, where are the rebels and our dear friend,” the cloak’s eyes never left the member standing to the left.

Belphyre, standing in the middle of the circle, answered, “High in the trees to the east of us.”

“Morphyne, I believe heights are your specialty?”

The cloak to the left nodded. “Good, take Dalphine with you and rush the rebels. Leave the girl be; I think Hyphron will take care of her for me.”

The purple cloak fell to the ground along with five of the other cloaks. Morphyne stood to the left of the purple cloak looking towards the ground as Dalphine stood staring at the sky. Dalphine’s hood fell backward to reveal her pale blue skin and her fiery locks with the most piercing orange eyes. Her skin darkened as the cloak fell from her body; scales took over her sleek skin as her fourteen feet wingspan spread to its max. She was a fearsome creature to behold with her midnight blue scales, large black wings and her orange eyes.

Morphyne’s body appeared slowly from under her cloak. The dark green scales of her tale spread about thirteen feet behind her, her yellow cat eyes glowed from the darkness of her hood, and her forked tongue flicked rapidly getting a sense of her surroundings. Her black cloak fell off her sleek scales to reveal her six inch fangs dripping the most deadly venom known to the world. Her neck flared out in the shape of a cobra’s head, and she stood fourteen feet above Dalphine’s eight foot stature.

“Shall we go hunting, sister,” Dalphine asked as she flapped her wings.

“Yes,” Morphyne hissed as she lowered her body to the ground. Her stomach muscles propelled her a little over 90 mph, and Dalphine had no problems keeping up.

“I want the rebel leader,” Dalphine laughed as smoke spilled from her mouth. Sparks shot from her lips.

“I want Hyphron’s girl, but I’ll settle for the leader’s sister.” The girls started on their quick journey into the woods, and it wasn’t long before they found their prey.



I grabbed two of the rabbits as they hurried from the destruction of their home. I quickly killed them both before heading back to my tree. I thought I had time to skin and cook my meal before anything else made plans to attack, but I was wrong. The sun was blacked out before my instincts told me what to do. I saw the shadowy animal in the sky, before I felt the ground move from the one burrowing beneath the surface.

“Get higher,” I began screaming as I ran for the tree. I knew they wouldn’t hurt me, but I didn’t want them to hurt the others.

“Get out of sight,” I screamed louder as my tree came into sight. That’s when the ground burst open, and the most hideous creature rose ten feet off the ground in one sickening instant.

“Dear God, they’re going to die!”