Daine, curled up alongside her pack-brother, Brokefang, tossing and turning in a restless slumber. She was having the same nightmare she had been having since the day her ma and granda had been murdered, and her life had been forever changed.
Dream
Daine was running through the forest dodging the tall trees expertly, and not daring to look back. The villagers' angry faces floated behind her screaming insults that she had heard all her life."Bastard!"
"No-good"
"diiirty!"
Daine sprinted relentlessly until she couldn't run anymore. The breathless girl threw herself onto a pile of leaves, thinking the villagers' faces had disappeared, and hoping that she could just rest. Then Daine saw her mother coming toward her. Seeing her mother's face, Daine ran towards her ma, longing to feel the comfort only a ma could give.
Her mother's face suddenly changed from elated to outrage.
"You killed me!" her ma screamed at her shoving her daughter to the ground
"Why didn't you save me?" her ma went on angrily. Then Sara drew a dagger from behind her back and started to come down…
End dream
Daine jerked awake, suddenly. She had ripped herself away from the petrifying nightmare and had woken Brokefang from his sleep.
Still having those visions in your head at night? The wolf questioned in mind talk.
Daine said, wiping sweat from her forehead.
Go back to sleep, pack-sister. We will hunt in the morning. The wolf answered, already halfway asleep.
Daine did what she was told, and drifted back into a less fitful sleep, thinking of Cloud.
The next day Daine woke up when the wolves did, and while they discussed where they were going to hunt Daine went to her horse. Cloud was all the family that Daine had since the bandits killed her ma and granda on that horrible day. A thought popped into Daine's head. She, for a split second, wondered if she was really going to be with the Pack her whole life. Daine immediately ejected the thought from her mind barley convincing herself that she would always be with the Pack, and that humans were bad news.
Stand on two legs. Ordered the feisty mare when her human trotted over on four legs. Cloud was sick of her human acting so weird. If Daine was a human she should act like one, was Cloud's thinking.
The Pack is going hunting. I think I'll stay with you. Daine spoke to her mare, ignoring her order.
That's because humans don't hunt like the People do, humans don't think like the People do, and humans aren't supposed to walk on four legs like some of the People do. You are simply trying to be what you are not. Now get up and go find a human that will not hurt you. You need a mate so you won't hang around me all the time. The mare snorted in reply.
I'm staying with you, Cloud. You can either like it or not. The girl growled in response to her stubborn mare.
A cold wind blew through the trees and hit Daine, hard. She shivered, dressed only in clothes that had been reduced to rags in the half of a week she had been running with the Pack. Her whole life, Daine had lived in Snowsdale, a place of horrid winters. Still, Daine had not grown to accept the presence of winter, and it didn't help that she was barley clothed. Daine sighed. It was going to be a long day.