One project down, two to go. :3
Well, two and a half, since this bit of my short story still has to be proof read and such. 030
But here, I wanna show you guys.
Note it's five Microsoft Word pages long though.
Well, after making it the right size, it's eight.. ;u;
Ah well.
Not to mention the auto-paragraph thing it started in Word, so now it screwed up anything below the story.. ;=;
Gotta go anyway.
The story is below. uvu
Bye guys~
Smoke fills my nostrils as I jerk awake, the strong, bitter smell amplified with my superb sense of smell. I shakily stand, and immediately begin coughing and choking as my head is lifted into smoke. Frantically, I skitter over to Grant, and nip at his face, waking him. I scramble out of the den, starting a signal of danger deep in my chest and throat, letting it loose, a long, low howl, with a warning tone around the edges. Lowering my head from the tilted position I had sent the signal from, I moved my gaze from the smoke-filled sky to the forest around me. Fire danced all around the hollow we once called home; cracking, snapping and growling, intense heat beating off it in long, painful strokes. I heard a small, high-pitched yelp as Violet leaped out of her cave, flames engulfing the entrance just after her escape, fire almost clipping her tail. Teetering back and forth, she tried to regain her balance, which is not an easy task if you’re Violet, considering her missing leg. She limped towards me, wary. I sigh. After all this time, she still doesn’t trust us yet. I felt another pelt brush mine, nervous breath ruffling my fur. In my focus on Violet, the other Pack members had made their way to me, and Snowfall, my younger sister, had positioned herself at my shoulder. Grant looked at me expectantly, waiting for the signal to move. Tensing my shoulders, I nodded.
“Let’s move.”
Now, all of that happened in about two minutes. I’ve slowed it down, as at full speed it is almost incomprehensible. I had to sit down and give it a good, long thought myself, and I was there. Everything is about to get a lot faster, and I suggest you prepare for that. Now, let me continue…
My breath comes in short, choppy beats. I count the beats of pawsteps to keep count. One, two, three, four. One wolf. Eight beats pass. Two wolves. My own steps. Four wolves in total. Seven beats. One wolf and Violet. Four more beats. All seven wolves. We’re quite far from the hollow now, but the fire chases. Eight extra beats. Four more only just behind.
A small red fox and a skittish black wolf burst out of the underbrush, and a white wolf with pure aura rolling off her, as if purifying the dark smoke surrounding us. The three join us in the race, the mysterious aura-wolf’s head beside mine. Up ahead, a clearing. Bounding into it, wet, cold mud seeps in between my toes and claws. A sickening squelch. Mud on my face. A dark body slipping past. A black paw sliding from my grip. Tightening grip. A sick, grinding sound as tooth hits bone. Fear, pain. Terror clear in our faces, and pumping through our veins. Flesh of the thin layer protecting our paws tearing. His blood on my lips. A black figure, falling, falling. A lake so far below. Splash. The figure does not resurface. Heart pounds. Instincts screeching to move, get away. An orange blur, a grey containing it. Orange struggles. Heat. This is the fire run.
Everything happens so fast. A high, frantic screech breaks my trance, and a splash hits, far, far below us, barely audible. The fox scrabbles at the mud, sending it flying everywhere. Grant struggles to keep his grip on the fox, his teeth on the fox’s scruff. Whipping my head from one canine to the other, panic starts to well up, deep inside of me. Careful to contain and hide it, I jerk forward, moving so fast my stomach lurches. Ignoring the hot acid making its way up my throat, (Whether from smoke, sudden movements or nervousness, I still don’t know.) I tear down the path again.
A few kilometers away from where the wolf had fallen, I hear the soft huffing of breath. Still on the move, I glance over to where the huffing is coming from out of the corner of my eye. Grant, still holding the fox had caught up, and the rest of the Pack came into view as I turned around, stopping for a moment. Silenced gave me a slight, curt nod as if to say ‘Yes, we’re alright.’ I nodded back, and whipped back around, speeding up. The fox is making small, quiet whimpering noises. I sigh. The fox is obviously struggling to keep control of his emotions. But during a situation like this, emotions cannot matter. The difference between ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ is all that matters now.
The fire is much closer to our tails now, much too close for comfort, and it’s quite clear that it’s getting to Silenced. She keeps glancing over her shoulder nervously, as if to make sure she still had the fur on her tail. As I’m about to turn my head away and think nothing of it, Silenced falters, tripping on a branch. She falls to the earth, flames touching the tip of her tail. Still running, I quickly and frantically look down the path, ripping my gaze from Silenced thrashing on the ground, flames engulfing over half her back legs now. The exit of the forest is so, so close. Dashing towards the back of the Pack, I drive Found ahead and leave him just beside grant. I can’t let him see Silenced, or we’d lose him too.
Reaching Silenced, who was now half covered in flames, I could so easily see the fear raking her eyes and body, and her being itself. Her eyes were out of focus, and she looked about to give up.
“Not on my watch.” I growled determinedly, and grabbed the scruff of her neck, trying to ignore the vicious waves of intense heat that now tore across my body as the fire came ever closer. Dragging Silenced out of the burning grass and bush, I pulled her only a few feet before her head jerked, her eyes alive and alert, and pulled herself out of my grip, tearing down the path, her back legs charred, embers still burning on her tail. Racing after her, we reach the rest of the Pack. Snowfall quivers next to me, and I look ahead to see the source.
Ahead, Silenced writhed on the ground, and a crackling, fizzing sound could be heard as the embers in her tail slowly started burning out. But it was the sight beyond Silenced that stopped my heart and caused a breath to be jerked into my lungs, forced through my windpipe as a violent gasp of fear. Ahead of us stood a large throng of people, who obviously had no intention of letting us pass.
Armed merely with water and the trucks carrying the water, it may not seem like such a threat to you. But from a wolf’s perspective, the hoses were deadly, odd-colored snakes of huge, colossal sizes, just waiting to fire the crystal-colored liquid, blasting us back the way we came, into the snapping, cracking bonfire. As for the trucks, they were monsters, noisily waiting to lurch forward, running clean over twos and threes of us at a time (And with a Pack as small as mine, this would obliterate the entire Pack in a matter of minutes.), the flames glinting off the glass-like material covering the headlights as if they were eyes, watching, waiting for one of us to make a wrong move, stepping into the jaws of death and opening the door to heaven above.
Thoughts whirred through my head like the coding in a computer, racing to find a suitable plan, zipping through them at almost light speed.
Run forward, snap hoses. (How do I snap the hoses?)
Get Silenced, jump into the lake. (What about the black wolf?)
Grant gets Silenced.
Violet acts dangerous.
Found carries Silenced.
Snowfall carries the fox.
Sora helps Violet escape.
Pack runs from the humans.
Me-
And with this, everything disappears, fading into nothing. I still don’t know for sure what happened, but Grant says nothing out of the ordinary happened- I merely gave him the signal, and we all took off at top speed, executing the plan that had previously been whirring through my head, as I had later found out.
I came to my senses on an overgrown and narrow path, which turned out to be leading us to a lake- the same one the black wolf had been lost to. I cautiously looked over my shoulder, watching to see if the fox had picked up on our location. (He hadn’t, and didn’t until we reached the far end of the bank.)
As we reached said bank, I did a quick headcount.
“Grant, Snowfall, Sora…” I muttered, counting. “… Violet, Silenced, Found… Six in total, plus me is seven… Plus the aura-wolf and fox makes nine… All here.”
Found is frantically tending to Silenced, Snowfall to Violet (As usual), and the whole Pack is alive and well, with some extra paws this time. The fox quietly pads over to me, and introduces himself as Lead.
“That black wolf… That was Fallen.” He said sadly. Something inside me screeched ‘IRONY!’, but I didn’t say it out loud- it is uncalled for and sick at this point. Instead, I nod, and Lead continues.
“Fallen and I… We were like brothers. Fallen was really skittish and jumpy, and I was the one who kept him in check.”
Something inside me fell at this. Instinct told me what Lead was going to say next.
“But… I… I-I guess I just wasn’t enough this time.” He continued, and his voice sounded strained. I sighed to myself, and sat down next to him.
“Lead… It was a fire. We were all jumpy, it wasn’t your fault.” I told him. His face looked believing, but his eyes told me different.
“But-“ He started, and I cut him off.
“It could have been any one of us. It just happened that he was the one to slip- his personality only caused him panic, not the fall.” I continued, my voice level as to not upset Lead any more than he already was. Sympathy surged through my body, and it was obvious Lead was struggling to keep a hold of himself.
I didn’t have enough time to form another sentence, however, as Snowfall trotted over, smiling. The aura-wolf came just behind Snowfall, her face shining, mirroring Snowfall’s expression.
Stopping just in front of me, Snowfall said something, much to fast to understand or comprehend.
“Woah woah woah. Slow down, Snowfall. What is it?”
Snowfall took a deep breath, her eyes dancing. Lead was silent, curiosity in his face.
“Okay, so this is Mi.” Snowfall began, gesturing to the aura-wolf. I nodded my greetings to Mi, and she did the same in return.
“And?”
“Well, we started talking, and, long story short, she needs a Pack.” Snowfall continued excitedly.
I raised an eyebrow.
“Weren’t you tending to Violet, though?”
“You know Violet, Wish. She chased me off, as usual.”
I nodded again.
“… I see.”
“And so, I’d like to know-“
“You want Mi to join our Pack, don’t you.” I finished for her.
She nodded enthusiastically, and her eyes absolutely shone.
“Can she? Please?” Snowfall begged. Mi stood just behind her, looking hopeful.
I didn’t have the heart to say ‘no’, not after the fire or how excited she is.
“… Alright, she can stay.” I replied, after pausing a moment.
Snowfall squealed and bounced in a small circle, and turned to Mi, whose face reflected the joy in Snowfall’s. I turned to Lead, who was looking quite upset again, grief obviously coursing throughout his entire body.
“What about you?” I asked, and he looked surprised. “Want to join our Pack?"
A small spark of happiness flicked across his face, and he nodded, giving me a soft smile.
“Then it’s settled.” I announced. “Let’s go tell the others about our newest members.”
“It might be good to explain Fallen to them, too…” Lead added quietly.
I nodded at him.
“Yes… I agree.”
After introducing Mi and Lead as the newest Pack members, Lead began his explanation. Upon reaching Fallen’s name, Silenced screeched, startling everyone, including myself.
“IRONY!”
Found nipped at her, but she ducked, giggling. I glanced at Lead to see his reaction, and found myself surprised as he giggled with Silenced.
“Yeah, it is pretty ironic, isn’t it?”
Before Lead could even finish this statement, Found pushed Silenced into the lake. Silenced shrieked, a loud, rising scream.
“YeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
The entire Pack exploded into laughter, even Violet and Silenced herself.
Turning to Grant, I felt the corners of my mouth curving into a grin, and I didn’t hold it in.
“Good spot?” I asked.
My own amusement reflected in his eyes, he nodded.
“Good spot.”
And that, my friend, is how we came to live here at the lake’s edge. Sora later found another hollow in the woods nearby, and we make our dens there. Food is plentiful, and everything is alive. The fire, fortunately, had never reached this end of the woods. Everyone is content and happy, and it isn’t uncommon to hear a shriek of surprise from a Pack member as they’re pushed into the lake.
I, myself have even been pushed in before. This lake will be where we call home for a long while yet, and it’s as if we had always lived here- we belong here. It’s like this place was made just for us.
Life truly is a mysteriosu and beautiful thing.
