Red Knights, White Knights

"There's got to be something better. Whatever it is, I'll take it. Just give me something!"

I hurl a rock into the woods and birds flee from it's presence. Telling me to cool off!? My body just can't sit still and I end up pacing in a circle. I flex my fingers, flare my nostrils, if a little kid came up to me right now I'd probably slap them. Looking down at my fingers, I see claws slowly become visible and I feel large canine teeth pierce through my gums. Who f***ing died and made him king of anything!

I'm almost about to go full on when I feel the pain in my side stretch and scream with my shifting body. I look down and the snow below and its such a sickening red that I feel my breathe catch. I whimper and then lay curled up on the ground, my hands search for the wound and I take them away to find them covered in red. Immediately I lift up my layers of clothes and have to stifle the urge to puke. It's turned the corner of my hip and stretched all the way to the center of my stomach. Oh my God... I knew what kind of wound it was, the kind you never want to think about. The kind that will make you bleed out.

I try to rip off some of my shirt for a make-shift bandage, but my strength just gets sapped with in five seconds of trying. I panic, racking my brain for something to grab at, to keep my sanity. There's people coming. My heart soars at the idea of it being someone from my pack, but it quickly leaves me cold. Hunters, hunters were coming. I could smell them and hear their oafish footsteps charging through the snow.

I'm done for. I know it. I can feel it. What hunter wouldn't be over joyed to find a werewolf given to them on a silver platter? Everything starts to get fuzzy and I bring my shaking hands to my eyes. The blood smears my face but I don't care, if I was going to die today, I don't want to see their expressions. That irritating smirk that says 'I've won, you've lost'. I hear shouting and the rushing shuffle of feet. They found me. I expect something to happen. An arrow to the head or a stab to the heart. But there's nothing. I want to open my eyes, but everything goes black before I have the chance.



Everything comes to life in slow, blurry levels. First level is the murky sound of voices, voices I don't recognize. Second level, fuzzy shapes and colors. I can make out a couple of figures, two look fairly animated. Making big hand movements and shouting at each other. And the third level, my brain kicks in. The more I look around the more I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

I was hurt. Hunters were coming. I should be dead right now. Why am I still alive? I move a hand to the spot I remember my wound being. It was professionally rapped with fresh bandages coated in some kind of ointment that smelled awful. Only when I looked down at the bandage did I realize something that scared me a little more than anything else. I wasn't wearing my clothes.

They had some kind of strange cloth wrapped tightly around my chest and a pair of frayed shorts tied around my waist with a drawstring. I feel my face get really hot and I try my hardest to not let my mind get the better of me. That's when I notice the silence. The two figures I saw earlier are staring at me now. Both are men, which makes my earlier thought all the more terrifyingly real. I've heard stories of men from the village taking women that they just found in the woods and raping them. Or the even creepier ones about them taking advantage of the wounded female rejects.

I look around the room and find the only means of escaped blocked off. The window was on the far side of the room and was nailed shut. And my other option, the door, was blocked by the two men. I was completely vulnerable laying in this little cot against the wall. One of the men takes a step toward me and I shrink away to the wall.He looks younger than the other, maybe seventeen eighteen years old? He wears a kind expression on his face and has a certain air about him that I can't place.

"We wont hurt you. Your safe here," he says in a hushed tone. Almost like he was trying to coax a frightened deer out of the brush.

I just squint at him. Safe!? Is that some kind of joke!? I quickly sit up to tell him so, but maybe a little too soon. My head just goes dizzy and everything starts to get a little blurry. Only too late do I realize that I'm falling forward. A pair of hands catch me at the shoulders and I immediately swat them away.

"Don't touch me!"

I rock back against the wall and rub my temples in one motion. The kind faced guy before sits on the floor on one knee in front of me and I resist the urge to kick him in that stupid face of his. I don't like being touched, ever. He quickly recovers from my out burst, standing up and pulling something out of his pocket. It was a small glass bottle with some kind of medicinal blend inside. I could smell the herbs through the lid.

"If your side starts to hurt again, take only one sip of this. It'll numb the pain for about five hours. You run out, ask for me and I'll get you some more," He says plainly, holding the bottle out to me.

I snatch the thing and look at it closer. A simple aspirin, I've watched healers make this before a thousand times. I look to him, then the bottle, and back again.

"Dude, your not allowed to do that! What if the Head finds out?" The other guy says, speaking for the first time.

"Yes I can and he wont. Wouldn't you want some pain killers if you had a wound that looked like hers?"

He just looks at 'kind face' then walks out, muttering about getting caught over a girl. With that, my side started to hurt. The burning comes on in such a huge wave that I almost drop the bottle trying to open it. The lid pops and I take one quick swig. The stuff tastes disgusting, but it stops the hurt. He watches me drink then turns to go. Probably to chase after his buddy.

"Wait,"

He stops in mid step and turns to look at me. His expression was like a mix of confusion and surprise. Like he wasn't expecting me to make an actual conversation with him.

"I need your name,"

I see a faint smile reach his lips and he says it over his shoulder on his way out.

"Ryland,"