Rating: pg13
Fandom: The 10th Kingdom
Disclaimer: All characters are copyright Robert Halmi Sr., Hallmark and others. I am in no way earning money or other profit from this fanfic.
Char/Pair: Wolf
Prompt: None
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: Character death, violence.
W/C: 323
A/N: Trying my hand at a couple of pre-series Wolf fics. This is the first in a three (or more) part series, but it (and the rest) can be read as stand-alone. Unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.
The woods were cold. Trees gave very little warmth when they weren't on fire. Well, he hated flames anyway, he'd much rather freeze to death. Not that he had much of an option, mind you. He couldn't remember how many months he'd been in hiding; how many years he'd been on the run from the villagers who had killed his family. But he had gotten taller, his hair thicker, fuller. There was no longer a whine in his growl like there had been that night. Now it was deep and full of warning, sending shivers down his own spine sometimes when he forgets that he's not a little cub anymore. His momma had told him it was going to change.
His momma.
She'd been beautiful. Even in the scary-orange glow of the fire. She stood there, stoic, as those men cooked her children and husband, and then herself. She hadn't even blinked when the flames started licking her bare legs, hadn't cried when they swallowed her long brown hair. Oh, he loved her hair. He would nuzzle into the crook of her neck when she rocked him to sleep, the soft tendrils tickling his cheeks. It smelled of Clean and Moonlight. No, she didn't cry. But he did.
He ran as far away from that place as his baby legs would carry him and after what had to have been hundreds of miles he could still smell flesh and heat. It was deep in the woods where he finally broke, letting loose the scream of a frightened man and the howl of a wounded animal. He was all alone, no one to hold him as he cried.
But he'd survived, for his family. He was going to continue surviving and getting stronger because there were men on his heels. Men who were going to know the pain he felt as he watched his family burn. Men who would pay for taking away his momma.