Golden Wolves, Silver Eyes
Chapter One
A small fire burned in the middle of the forest, the smoke rising into a small covering above it. Just above the burning coals and twigs, roasting rabbit meat sat on a spit made of branches. A small form shifted slightly beside the fire, a blanket drawn up to the girl's nose.
Her brown hair tumbled down past her shoulders, stopping mid-way down her back. She was clothed in a simple shirt and pants, a long blue button up coat over that. Next to her, a wooden bow and quiver filled with arrows layed on the ground beside her.
The girl stirred under the blanket, a soft pleading whine escaping her lips. The cause was her dream, another nightmare or memories she wished she could forget. "Kalya..." her gentle voice begged, dreaming of the fretful day her sister was taken away from her. Kalya was her only known living relative.
Kalya smiled at her sister, watching the small girl run around her. "Big sis!" the younger smiled at her big sister, hugging her leg.
"Yes?" Kalya's caring voice replied, picking up the silver-eyed child.
"Can we go outside and play? No one's out there." Renalee asked, laying her head on her Kalya's shoulder.
"You know not to go outside, its dangerous. There might be humans out there." Kalya said, her tone gaining a slight, cold hatred.
"Okay..." Renalee nodded, snuggling into her sister's arms.
Kalya had the appearance of a sixteen year old girl, while Renalee looked six at the time. But they had lived alot longer than their appearances suggested.
"Big sis." Renalee looked at Kalya, her silver eyes looking into Kalya's good ones.
"Yes Rena?" her sister's reply came. Kalya sat down on the couch in their living room, keeping the younger in her arms.
"Why did the mean people have to take mama away?" she asked softly. Kalya's gaze fell from the girl's eyes to the floor.
"Humans don't really take well to our kind." she almost growled, but she kept her tongue, not wanting to scare Renalee.
"Why though?" the brown haired girl asked, twirling a bit of Kalya's blond hair in her small hands.
"They're scared of us, humans don't know about magic or what else we can do. They're scared of our kind." Kayla explained.
"But mama-" Renalee started.
"Yes, I know, mama wouldn't do anything to hurt anyone, but humans... they're dangerous, okay?" Kalya was doing her best to stop the conversation.
"Yeah, but-" Renalee pressed on.
"Renalee, no. Stop." Kalya said as sternly as she could, but the crack in her voice let Renalee know she was on the verge of tears. So she stopped.
Renalee and Kayla's mother had been taken away from them at a young age, and ever since, Kayla had been the one to raise her younger sister. Their mother had been killed when Renalee was only one and Kalya was eleven. Kalya became cold and distant towards the human world, so she stayed in the woods with Renalee in the house their mother had made to raise Renalee.
From then on, it was just her and her little sister. Or so she had hoped.
Renalee woke up, jumping slightly after hearing a twig snap. Sitting up, she looked around and noticed a small rabbit darting off in a different direction.
Going back to the fire, she turned the rabbit meat over and looked at the woods spread out in every way she turned. The trees ranged from simple pines to large oaks, the sun's rays peeking through the canopy of leaves. The girl smiled. She felt at ease here, this was her home. The solitary feel of the forest gave her a sense of security.
After a while, Renalee took the rabbit meat off the fire and removed the magic barrier between the smoke and the sky. She watched it float upwards, taking a bite of the food she had cooked. Quietly, Renalee at and listened to the melody of the birds in the trees.
Their voices rose and fell with each note, a simple harmony of music being created. 'So peaceful' Renalee thought as she leaned against a tree. The birds continued the gentle forest song as she ate. Once the food was eaten, Renalee stood and snapped her fingers.
The birds paused their song as they heared the sound, watching the fire magicly exstinguish. After a few minutes, they resumed their tunes and Renalee gathered her things.
She sat her bow and arrows on her back and folded up her blanket, starting to walk further into the thickening trees. She walked quietly, her knee high lace up boots making no sounds on the bed of pine needles that covered the forest floor.
The birds trilled softly in the trees, continuing their melody. The sounds ran through the forest, ringing through the trees. Every note was perfect to Renalee, she just wished her sister and mother could be with her to hear it.
Eventualy, Renalee got back to her home; a large, two story house in the middle of the woods. Several parts of the roof had caved in, but it was home to her. She looed around at the broken windows and chipping paint, it was good the house was being held up by her sister's magic from many years ago. Renalee didn't dare fix the house from the outside. She didn't want a human to think someone still resided in it.
Walking inside, she pulled off her boots and set her bow and arrows by the wall near the door.
The house on the inside wasn't all that different from the outside on terms of repairs. Chipping paint, rotting wood, and small beads of water were littered along the walls. Renalee went up to her room on the second floor, to one of the cleaner rooms in the house.
This house was neatley kept, no paint was chipping and the room was clean. A normal sized bed sat in the corner next to a dresser. On the oppisite wall, a desk with various books sat on the wooden surface. A large closet took up a single wall, filled with books, clothes, and a few hunting items.
Renalee sat down on her bed, taking a small book off her bedside table. In it were various journal entries and drawings of plants and animals. She laid the drawings on the bed and pulled a few leaves out of a bag she kept on herself when she went into the woods to hunt or gather.
She flipped through the pages, looking for a picture or description of the leaves she had picked. While she looked, she could still hear the birds chirping their song of the forest. Renalee smiled, enjoying the sounds of the forest.
She heard the birds, along with the chirps of crickets and the gentle "crunch" of a rabbits feet on pine needles. The sounds of the forest calmed her, making her start to fall asleep. She dozed off, her head on her pillow with the notebook next to her.
The next morning, Renalee was back in the woods, moving along the branches of the trees. Her bow and arrows sat on her back, her silver eyes scanning the ground for small animals.
A few yards away from the tree line of the forest, a tall man with slicked back blond hair worked quietly at the auto shop near his home. He looked up, his blue eyes looking for the source of the sound he heard. "Hm? Is someone there?" he called, his voice carrying a heavy German accent.
He looked around, seeing the source of the sound. A small rabbit was scurrying around the workshop, frightened by the loud noises. "Vhat are you doing in here?" he muttered, picking up the small animal. "You'll get hurt." he carried the rabbit out of the shop and to the forest's tree line.
"Why am I so soft to animals when their stupid enough to get themselves in situations that get themselves killed?" he sighed, placing the animal down in the grass.
Renalee's wolf ears perked, her eyes darting around the woods. Had she been imagining things, or had she heard a person? A human? She wasn't sure, but if she did, she didn't want to stick around to find out.
She hitched her quiver of arrows up on her shoulder and started walking along the branches of the trees.
The man looked around the trees, hearing a small crack of a branch. Was something there? His eyes landed on a wolf's tail dissapearing behind the trunk of a tree a few yards to his left. He blinked. Was he imagining things, the wolf's tail in the tree? Shaking his head, the man decided he must have been seeing things. "I must be tired." he murmured.
Renalee stood in the tree, hidden behind the trunk. Her heart raced in fear. "He saw me," she thought franticly. "he saw my tail." She pressed herself against the tree, listening to see if the man had left.
The German man glanced around the woods, spotting a deer a few seconds after Renalee did. "Well, it is a buck. It'll make a few good meals." he said, pulling a gun out of his pocket.
Renalee's ears perked when she heard the gun cock. She looked around the tree carefully, her bow loaded and drawn, seeing the gun in the gun in the man's hand. Anger filled her, that was her deer, she saw it first!
She drew the bow back, but paused. The man would see her, and she wouldn't risk exposure over a deer.
The birds in the trees took off at the sound of the gunfire rang through the forest. The deer dropped to the ground when Renalee flattened her ears, blood pouring steadily from the deer's head wound. Renalee growled softly.
"That was my kill!" she said in a loud whisper. The man looked around, hearing her.
"Huh?" he sounded startled, but calmed thinking he must be hearing things.
Renalee wouldn't let the lure of fresh deer meat slip through her grasp so easily. She jumped down from the tree and shifted into a large, black wolf with white paws and under tail, running towards the fresh kill.
The man looked up from the deer, seeing the large canine. "Hey! Back off you wolf!" he barked at the animal, jumping infront of her. The large wolf barked and growled at him, running around him to the deer.
The man glared and let out a high pitched whistle, calling his dogs. Three dogs came bounding from the tree line, their teeth bared at Renalee's wolf form.
Renalee barked at them and tore a large chunk of meat off the deer, running into the thickening trees of the forest. The dogs chased after her, the German man following. The wolf glanced back, seeing the large dogs still chasing after her.
She growled and put on a burst of speed, trying to put as much distance between her and the canines as possible. Still they chased her, relentless on giving up.
The owner of the dogs kept his pace, following the dogs with the gun in hand. His dogs, Aster, Berlitz, and Blacky, kept the chase going on the black wolf.
Renalee rounded a corner, going out of sight from the dog owner. The man slowed to a stop, panting. He caught his breath, starting to walk towards the sound of his barking dogs. "Have they cornered it?" he thought, heading to them.
But he didn't see the wolf when he reached his dogs. Instead, he saw a girl, about the age of 15 by the looks of it, in a tree with the dogs barking below her.
The girl bared sharp fangs at them, her lips pulled back in a snarl. The dogs returned the sound, barking at her. The man was confused. They were supposed to get the wolf, not this girl. Who was she? The man looked closer, seeing the unusual sharp fangs in the girl's mouth. "Thats odd..." he thought.
He took another step forward and stopped, seeing her eyes.
The girl's eyes were pure silver, not grey but silver. His first thought was that she was blind, but she couldn't be. How could she have gotten into that tree? "How is that possible?" he muttered, knowing something about this girl seemed dangerous.
Renalee perked her black wolf ears, hearing the man. She looked at him and their eyes met. She saw his eyes had a mixture of confusion, fear, and interest in them.
The man stared at her, not daring to move. Renalee stared back at him, ignoring the sounds of the barking dogs below her. Just as the man was about to call his dogs off, the girl suddenly vanished from sight, almost as if she had turned invisible.
Berlitz, Blacky, and Aster moved back a few steps, startled from the sudden dissapearance. Even the dog owner was surprised when he looked back up. Then, he heard the rustle of leaves and turned his head.
He saw the girls brown hair dissapearing behind a nearby tree, heading back in the direction of the tree line. "What in the world..." he said aloud, highly confused. He shook his head and headed back to the deer he had shot, his three German Shepards following behind him.
The girl had reached the deer before him, in her wolf form and tearing away at the animal when the blond man got back.
"Oh come on! Shoo!" he yelled at her, waving his gun threatingly at her. The animal looked up at him, the eyes the same sterling silver as the girl's he saw in the tree. "W-What?" he stuttered out, not blinking as the wolf's eyes looked into his. The man shook his head, deciding it must be some coincidence.
"Go!" he yelled again, raising the gun. The wolf stared at him for a few more seconds, her face clear of expression. She grabbed one last peice of deer meat and escaped back into the saftey of the woods.
"Great..." the man sighed, looking at the scraps and bits of deer meat left on the carcas. He finished his work for the day and headed home, Aster, Berlitz, and Blacky in tow. He kicked a branch out of his way as he got to his house. It was a simple cabin he had built for himself in the woods. He put the dogs in the fenced in backyard and to the river in the distance. "Well," he murmured. "maybe I could try to catch a fish." the man started towards the river.
Renalee walked along the bank of the flowing river, watching the small fish in the water.
The river was one of Renalee's favorite places in the forest. It offered food, a place to rest, and water to drink and bathe in. She smiled, starting towards a berry bush and picking off the sweet fruit. She rolled it between her fingers, looking it over carefully. Renalee took out a small knife she had taken from a human camp a few years back, and punctured a small hole in the fruit.
She watched the purplish liquid and decided they were safe, stripping the entire branch and popping them in her mouth. She smiled at the sweetness in her mouth and continued her stroll along the river bank, the fruit in hand.
The man reached the bank of the river and looked around. "Maybe I could get a good meal out here." he said, looking up and down the banks. Before he could start towards the water, a sound of branches snapping made him look upstream.
Standing with her back to him, the same girl the man's dogs had treed stood by a berry bush.
The man watched her for a few seconds, seeing her place berries and roots in the small pouch at her walked forward. "Um, hey, my dogs didn't you did they?" he asked cautiously, now behind her. Renalee turned around quickly, the berries in her hand falling onto the forest floor. Her eyes were wide when she saw the tall German man behind her.
"Are you okay?" he asked, seeing a small bit of deer blood on the coner of her mouth and mistaking it for her own. The brown haired girl backed up and turned around, jumping a good twenty feet onto a branch.
The man's eyes widened. "W-Wait! I'm not going to hurt you! I just want to talk!" he called up to her. Renalee pressed herself against the trunk of the tree. "H-How... how did you do that?" he asked, amazed at how high she had jumped. The girl stayed quiet, flattening her ears and wrapping her tail around her ankles.
The man's eyes glanced across her ears and tail, finally noticing them. He recognised the black coloring, the exact same shade of black the wolf had. "W-Wait a second..." he looked at the girl's eyes, which were the same bright silver color as the wolf's. He remembered the eyes from the deer, and the girl's from when she was in the tree.
Was she...?