Disclaimer – I don't own Voltron. This was written for a contest over Wattpad which was hosted by more than one contest host this time around. The goal was to write about a creature of some kind which was frightening in 3,000 words or left. This is what I came up with.
Were Are We
The night air chilled the body to the bone, causing the sweat covering the skin to send a shiver down the spine. Two dark blue eyes looked up at the planet's two moons, remembering how the two found themselves in this particular mess, only to remember the destabilization of the wormhole. Keith wrapped his arms around himself, trying to find some semblance of warmth, his eyes darting over to Lance. The blue paladin looked around aimlessly as if the entire situation meant nothing to him.
"Lance..."
The other paladin flinched, Lance's entire body jolting around to look at Keith. "Don't do that."
"I think..." Keith's words, a request to head back to the lions despite the fact they didn't know where they'd left the ships stopped short as a feral howl riveted through the valley. The red paladin's jaw set, his dark blue eyes widening in surprise. Keith's tone of voice took on a slight tremble of fear. "What was that?"
The blue paladin turned to him, Lance's bottom lip jutting out as he smirked at Keith. "What? You scared?"
"Considering we don't know what that is, yeah." The red paladin folded his arms. "I would think you would be at least a little bit cautious."
"There is a difference between being cautious, and downright paranoid. Which is what you are? Plus, didn't you ask me what to do in this situation?"
"Because I thought you knew, having gone through more of the Garrison's training than I had!"
"Drop out."
A sharp pain of anxiety hit Keith in the chest, the memory of getting kicked out of the space exploration program still raw despite all of the time having passed. The red paladin's mouth didn't open, knowing full well he couldn't think of a retort which wouldn't end with the two of them in a fist fight. Instead, Keith turned his head, catching out of the corner of his eyes something moving through the shadows. A shiver ran down his spine. "Seriously, what was that?"
"Come on Keith, you're just..."
The loud feral howl came again, this time much closer, way to close. The red paladin turned his head in time to see something lunge out of the darkness at Lance, knocking the other teen to the ground with a sickening thud. Keith heard the blue paladin move slightly, indicating the other teen scraped himself up rather bad. The red paladin's fingers moved to his hip, summoning the red banyard, letting the weapon charge out, startling whatever attacked Lance as he lunged forward.
The beast darted away, leaving a rather pale Lance lying in the moonlight, blood on his shoulder, the blue paladin's breath coming in a ragged fashion. The fact Lance was pale said something, as the other teen's skin color was normally a nice ruddy tan. Keith leaned over, his banyard disappearing so the smaller teen could examine the other teen's wound. One of the red paladin's hands reached down to touch the wound, only to flinch back when Lance let out a groan. "It's not that bad."
"Not that bad?" Keith swallowed, knowing full well it was pretty bad. "Lance, what am I supposed to do?"
"How should I know? Honestly, I think you paid more attention in survival class then I ever did."
A sickening feeling hit Keith in the pit of the stomach, his tone of voice becoming sharp with the feeling of annoyance. "What?"
"I liked holding that over you."
"That was stupid! If I'd been in charge..."
"Yeah, yeah. None of this would have happened." Lance let out a sigh. "You let me though be in charge, which was pretty cool."
"No, it wasn't." Keith leaned back, thinking carefully about what to do. "It wasn't because..."
"Cool, it Keith. You need to learn to lighten up."
"We need to get that wound bandaged." The red paladin glanced around, before settling on the rather large leaves. Swallowing, Keith headed over, hoping the leaf wasn't poisonous. Coran wasn't here to tell the red paladin otherwise, leaving the sickening feeling even deeper in Keith's gut. The leaf broke away from the plant with a resounding tearing of the stem, as the sweat began to evaporate from his body. He headed over to Lance, carefully wrapping the injury in the leaf.
"What's it look like?"
"Claw marks."
"Oh, so I got mauled by a werewolf." Lance's comment sent a shiver down Keith's spine, his dark blue eyes looking down at Lance's vivid blue ones. Despite everything that happened, Lance had a smirk on his face and seemed amused. "Ah, Keith didn't think you could get any paler."
Keith swallowed, his head darting away, embarrassed slightly that Lance mocked him for something that felt all too natural given the situation. The red paladin stood up, holding out his hand to help Lance up from the ground. "Let's get going. We need to get back to the lions."
Lance's feet crunched the undergrowth as he stood up, no arguments coming from his lips. The two headed off in a random direction, hoping that was the way to safety. Every so often Keith would look over his shoulder to see if Lance was keeping up, only to see the blue paladin looking around at the two moons which looked to be overlapping each other.
The red paladin let out a sigh, frustrated with Lance's lack of focus, particularly since the other was injured because of the beast lurking around the area.
A growl from behind made Keith freeze, his head turning slowly to look behind him. The sight made his blood freeze, a beast now standing where Lance was before, blocking the moonlight. The red paladin felt a sharp pain in his throat, accompanied by a bitter taste. His dark blue eyes watched the beast lift it's head up, howling an eerie cry to the moon above before lunging after him.
Instinctively Keith's body dodged to the side, still finding his body scratched lightly by the beasts claws. The red paladin's legs pushed off the ground, taking off in a random direction, the smell of the beast's nasty breath permeating his nostrils, choking at his oxygen reserves. Keith's legs pumped hard to get away, hoping the beast wasn't faster as his hand drifted to his banyard, only to stop upon realizing the beast was Lance.
"Crap."
The curse came in an audible manner as he dove and wove through the trees, the beast's howl every so often sending a shiver down his spine. In the moonlight, a narrow ridge came into view. Keith pushed forward, hoping the beast didn't see him and dove into the pit, his knees, and elbows scraping against the sharp rock. He bent his body down, hoping the small fallen trees above him would prevent the Lance beast from finding him, but that the beast also lacked the capability to track via smell.
Keith's eyes snapped shut, the sound of large paws crunching down on sticks and leaves coming from above. His throat felt dry, his lips starting to split due to the cold weather getting worse. The red paladin felt his stomach lurch, and a hand clasped over his mouth as the werewolf's ragged breathing became audible. The beast sniffed the air while Keith held down the bile, lest the creature smells the vomit, the hope still there that the thing couldn't catch his scent. Sneaking away wasn't an option, as the sound would attract the creature.
The red paladin took a deep breath, as drool suddenly hit the top of his forehead before his breathing stopped entirely. The creature let out a soft woofing sound, and he opened his dark blue eyes to see canine features now looking down at him, slowly coming closer as the beast crept into the ravine, closer to its prey."
"Lance..." Keith muttered, his mind wanting to tell the blue paladin to remember him. Instead, he found himself snapping his eyes shut, yelling loudly. "Lance!"
The sound of a gun went off, and something hot splattered all over him before something large crashed down on him. The red paladin felt the air pushed out of his lungs due to the heavy weight and began to desperately push the creature off, only to fill something else tugging from the other side.
The first thing he saw was a monstrous creatures face, the canine features dripping with drool, the eyes glazed over due to the hole in the head sitting between the two eyes. Keith's entire body shuddered, his adrenaline starting to settle. "Keith?"
Lance's voice jarred him away from the creature, allowing Keith to see the blue paladin standing above him, the moonlight lighting up the gun swung over the other teen's shoulder. The scowl plastered to Lance's face matched his tone of voice. "Keith. Why didn't you use your banyard on that thing, and chop it to bits?"
"I thought it was you!" Keith's voice strained, watching as Lance's hand reached down for him.
"Seriously, I was joking about the werewolf thing." The blue paladin pulled the smaller teen up, wrapping his free arm around Keith's neck. The attempt by Lance to prevent the red paladin from falling caused the younger teens cheeks to heat up, one of Keith's hands gripping suddenly Lance's injured shoulder.
A yelp escaped the blue paladin's lips, and Keith held up his hands. "Sorry!"
"No bother." One of Lance's eyes closed, before letting out a sigh. The blue paladin's breath was a mist upon the cold air. The taller teen glanced down at the beast, some of the paleness having faded away. "Though I've got to admit, that alien thing is rather freaky."
Another howl pierced the night, and the two teens looked each other in the eye, their eyes widening in fear. "Let's move carefully, and find out lions asap."
"Yeah..." Lance's voice trembled, another howl piercing the night. Keith felt wobbly on his feet, but continued after lance, a hand on his own shoulder. The howling seemed at times to get closer, and then a growling sound was heard.
Both teens turned, watching as one of the native wolves stepped out of the forest, stalking the two paladins while drool dropped from their mouths. The creature suddenly moved forward, it's muscles flexing as it lunged at the two. Keith's hand moved to his banyard, only for Lance to grab him tightly, a rather pitiful scream escaping his lips.
A flash of purple light appeared, and Shiro appeared, his own breath appearing as a mist as the huge beast crumpled to the ground. "I'm glad I found you guys. Why didn't you stay with your lions?"
Keith turned his head, his eyes narrowing at Lance., only to shudder, remembering how close the face of the creature came to his own, and how close of a call the blue paladin's shot had been, realizing now the shot hit just above his own head. A smirk played across Lance's face, only for the blue paladin's mouth to form a circle. The dark skinned teen turned towards Shiro. "It's my fault. Sorry."
"Your fault?" Shiro's dark eyes widen.
"I made Keith think I knew more than him because I took more survival classes at the Garrison then he did."
"Yes, well, survival classes..."
Keith suddenly felt his body go limp and saw Shiro's hands reaching out to grab him. The red felt lifted up onto the black paladin's shoulders, before the feeling of being jostled around set in. Keith's dark blue eyes snapped shut, not opening until Shiro set him down inside of the black lion, patting his cheek gently. "Your injury's not stopped bleeding."
"Funny, mine did." Lance glanced over his shoulder. "Keith put this funny leaf on it, and the bleeding stopped soon after. His injury though should also have stopped. It's been just as long, if not longer."
Shiro pressed at the injury. "Must be something to do with those claws. I'm going to find the plant."
"No." Keith let out a deep breath.
"No? You're bleeding to death Keith."
"Don't go." The smallest of the paladins there kept his eyes shut. "You won't come back."
"Oh. I'll come back."
Keith drifted off, arousing when a loud metallic sound was heard, his eyes opening up to see the creatures face inches from his own, scraps of Lance's clothing hanging off the bulky body. A strangled scream escaped his lips, the stench making him choke.
The werewolf reached out to grab his chin, shaking his face. "Keith? Keith!"
This time, Keith's eyes snapped open for real, seeing Shiro in front of him. The red paladin's mouth opened. "What..."
"You were having a bad dream buddy. I'm back, I'm safe. You're all patched up, and the bleeding's stopped. Lance also feels really bad."
"Werewolf..."
"Don't worry. When the sun rises, I'll use Black to find Red and Blue, then we'll get out of her. Black can carry Red if you don't feel up to piloting.
