"It looks like the red and blue one is the leader of the pack."
"The one that's hurt?"
"Yeah, that one. He won't let anyone get near the other wolves, especially the pups. Although I wished he'd stop growling every time we got close enough to help him. I can't send anyone in if they're gonna get hurt."
"I'll go in and get him out."
"No. He'll attack you. Trust me. I have the bite marks to prove it."
"Then what can we do? Wait for him to run out of fight?"
"I'm afraid that's all we can do. I won't let him hurt anyone."
"Ya know, that wolf's a lot like you. You're protecting us, and he's protecting his own."
"I know."
Sarah Lennox, a beautiful young woman with flowing blonde hair, sat with Annabelle, her 15 year old daughter. They were safely watching the wolves from the other side of a window. Across from them, the head wolf was limping back and forth from one side of the room to the other. The harsh wounds on his back were still coating his fur the deep red of blood. He was slowly losing strength; that was clear as day to the two human females watching him walk. The other dogs yipped to him every few seconds. "Can we help him?" Annabelle asked. Her eyes were pleading when she faced her mother.
"No. He wants to keep the other wolves in his pack safe. He will hurt us if we try," Sarah replied gently. Annabelle turned back to the window in time to see the wolf stumble forwards. He tried to get back to his paws, but couldn't quite manage it. He basically ended up crawling. For a second, Sarah turned her back to call for her husband, William. But it gave Annabelle just enough time to run and enter the room the wolves were in.
Every single adult wolf, minus the leader, growled instantly at the young girl's entrance. A pure black one got in front of the others. His fur was puffed up as he positioned himself in between the human and the rest of his pack. Slowly, to avoid frightening the wolf to make him attack, Annabelle got to her knees. She watched another wolf, a slightly smaller wolf with yellow fur which had a red line that reminded her of a heart monitor, stand and approach the leader. He wiggled his nose under the injured wolf's side and eased him upright. Together, the wolves made their way over to Annabelle. The head one pushed away from the yellow one. He reluctantly dropped back to watch the leader limp forward and sniff Annabelle. He then looked up at her with his unearthly blue eyes and placed his head on her lap.
"Hello," she said gently, and she rubbed the top of his head; unafraid of the wild wolf. Behind her, the door was thrown open and Will came in, followed by Robert Epps. The concerned father rushed forward and as a result startled the wolves. The pups yelped and back away while the black adult bared his teeth with a heavy growl. The leader, however, barely raised his head.
"Annabelle, what were you thinking?" Will demanded. Annabelle looked up but didn't pause her ministrations for the poor animal.
"He's not hurting me. You scared them," she responded. Her eyes flicked back down to meet the pained, tired eyes of the wolf resting his head in her lap.
"Yo, Epps! Get a stretcher. We need to see to his injuries. Annabelle, don't do that again. You scared us," Will said. Annabelle nodded as Epps brought in the stretcher. Together, Will and Epps raised the unresisting pack leader onto stretcher. The other wolves were the ones to be riled up. The black one rushed at Will, but a weak bark from his leader made him fall back and resort to merely growling.
Annabelle solemnly went to follow her father and her father's friend out of the room when a short yip drew her attention back to the wolves; a smaller yellow wolf, a pup, with black streaks on his back with a black-tipped tail had been following Annabelle and had recieved a short sharp nip to the tail and ear by the black adult. Now the larger yellow wolf was swatting back the fiercer black wolf, becoming protective over the pup. The fifteen year old lost interest in the door, instead pulling it closed from the inside to avoid letting out any of the wolves. She chose to watch them, for she had never seen such colorful wolves before. The yellow wolf then dragged the black wolf away, both forgetting about the black and yellow pup. Annabelle just sat down and watched the approaching pup, its unnaturally blue eyes glittering in curiosity at the being before him. None of the other wolves had taken such interest in Annabelle before and still none of them did now. Only the little yellow and black one.
'Hmm... he's completely unafraid...' Annabelle thought, 'But he's so cute!' The pup then sat, its black-tipped tail curled around his paws, and cocked his head to one side, carefully studying the girl. Annabelle couldn't help but copy the pup, her own eyes filled with curiosity that mirrored the younger wolf's. The pup then edged forwards slightly, sniffing around Annabelle's lap. The teenager barely muffled a giggle as the pup started nosing her knees, almost collapsing into hysterics when the wolf licked her left knee.
"Bumblebee!" a voice suddenly called. Annabelle jumped along with the pup who then whimpered and backed away from the human. "Get your backside away from the human!" The seemingly invisible voice barked. The yellow and black pup seemed to flinch at the voice before turning back.
"Yes sir..." Annabelle stared at the wolf pup, completely dumbfounded.
"Not possible..." She breathed, praying that she was hearing things. Then the big black wolf darted over and picked up the pup, turning and setting him down, away from the girl. Then the impossible happened... or seemed to.
"You stay away from the pups... or else." The black wolf snarled, the powerful canine teeth bared ferociously at the teenage girl. The wolf's voice seemed raw, gruff and incredibly powerful. But instead of replying Annabelle just stared, words failing her.
"Ironhide! Will you quite bothering the human girl!" A less rougher voice barked from where the larger yellow wolf was cleaning a black and white pup with a red upside-down arrow on its forehead.
"Ratchet, she is endangering the pups!" The black wolf, Ironhide, snapped back.
"Oh, leave her alone. Optimus didn't have a problem with her," Ratchet, the yellow adult, responded. Ironhide growled and moved back to the group and layed down in front of them, creating a barrier to protect the wolves from the girl.
"Hey girly!" A smaller, cheekier voice rang out, "you ok? Ya look a li'l spaced out there!" It seemed to be a other black and white pup, one with a blue strip across his eyes and nose, similar to that of a raccoon. Ratchet nipped at his adorably tufted ears.
"Jazz, leave her be." Ratchet said, lifting the other pup from his hold and taking Jazz instead; the pup squirming and trying to get away from the adult.
"Aww Ratchet! I don't need a lickin'!" Jazz cried out, trying to bat away the older wolf's head. The now-clean black and white pup snorted at Jazz, shaking his head and prowling back to two other pups; both were younger than him, both with the same upside-down arrow on their foreheads. All three seemed to be brothers of some kind, with the black and white being the oldest. Annabelle just continued to stare until a curious voice disrupted her, one that sounded much kinder than Ratchet's or Ironhide's. The girl looked down to find a white and grey wolf in front of her; again like the others its eyes were that same unnatural blue, the fur on the side of his head was a turquoise blue while the rest of his body was a strange mix of reds, whites, greens and greys.
"Hello. Please forgive the others. We don't usually take kindly to humans. I'm Wheeljack. And you are?" the newest wolf asked.
"Uh... Annabelle..." Annabelle said blankly, suddenly finding her voice. Wheeljack seemed nice enough but she wasn't about to forget that he had teeth and claws that could rip her to pieces in a matter of seconds. No sooner than she had introduced herself to Wheeljack the other wolves' heads whipped around to face the two beings confronting each other.
"Wait what?"
"She can understand us?"
"How is that-"
"- even possible?" A cacophany of voices, both old and young, filled her ears. All of them loud enough to make Annabelle clamp her hands over her ears as the panicked and puzzled voices ricocheted around her head.
"SHUT UP!" Annabelle yelled, all the wolves falling silent instantly. She was shaking like a leaf from the realization that she could obviously speak to them. The voices were strong, like when she spoke to a human, but the sound was different. There was something to it that she couldn't describe. They seemed softer, and almost not there, but strong at the same time. As if the moment she stopped focusing, they would fade away. Though it was clear to hear that she was actually hearing them, and it wasn't in her mind. The wolves were really talking, even though their mouths didn't move. "So not possible..." Annabelle whispered, her breathing turning shallow when Ironhide approached her once more.
"So..." he growled, "so... you can understand us, girl?" Annabelle swallowed nervously, suddenly aware of all wolven eyes burning holes into her fleshy skin.
"Uh... I guess?"
Anything Ironhide was planning on saying was stolen when Ratchet walked past him and stared up at Annabelle.
"No wonder..." he said.
"Aw, come on. More of that Prime stuff, you and Optimus are always spouting off again?" Ironhide groaned. Ratchet turned instantly and a growl left him.
"Lay off it, Ironhide," he snapped.
"Can you guys save it for later? We have other things to deal with," Wheeljack broke in.
"What's going to happen to Optimus?" the pup, Bumblebee, asked. The adults fell silent as the pups entered the conversation. Now that they weren't moving around, Annabelle was able to take a tally of them. Eight pups, and four adults, counting their leader, who was obviously this 'Optimus' they spoke of.
"Yeah, I mean, the humans just took him away," another pup, one whose fur was mainly red, added.
"What will the other humans do to him?" the black and white one asked Annabelle herself.
"They, my father and his friend, are gonna do everything they can to help him get better," Annabelle said, slowly easing out the wavers in her voice. The pups seemed to perk up at that, while Ratchet huffed and laid down away from the others.
"Good. I was... afraid he wouldn't survive. His wounds are... beyond our help," Ratchet said quietly.
Annabelle managed to build up just enough confidence to ask, "What happened to him?" Ironhide exhaled heavily as he joined Ratchet, and laid down beside the yellow wolf.
"Another pack. They call themselves Decepticons. Optimus fought the leader of the other pack to protect us," Ironhide replied, "Too bad Megatron doesn't fight fair. He cornered Ratchet, knowing that Optimus wouldn't let him hurt Ratchet. We couldn't help."
"We were lucky you humans showed up. Had you not, Megatron would've finished the job," Wheeljack finished. Annabelle fell silent, her mind slowly digesting the information that it had been bombarded with in the last couple of minutes.
The solemn mood was shattered by two of the puppies, the red that had spoken, and a matching yellow one, beginning a fight. The red offered a yelp when the yellow latched onto his neck. Wheeljack was quick to separate them with the help of the black and white pup. "Really Sunstreaker? Sideswipe?" The black and white pup sighed, swatting each one at the mention of a name.
'So,' Annabelle thought, 'Sunstreaker is the yellow one with black tufts on the side of his head and Sideswipe is the red one...'
"You tell 'em Prowlie," Jazz teased.
"Prowl, Jazz, Prowl. Not Prowlie," the black and white one corrected.
"And the moody one's called Prowl..." Annabelle muttered, risking a glance at her watch. 11:12PM. Getting late. No sooner than she had looked and noted the time Annabelle's eyelids began getting heavy, the girl slowly raising her hands to rub her tired eyes.
"Hey, you ok?" Wheeljack asked, gently pawing at the teenager's knees. Annabelle nodded. Ratchet harrumphed.
"The girl is blatantly tired, Wheeljack." Ratchet said. "Aren't you?" He asked Annabelle in much kinder tone. Annabelle could only nod as a yawn overpowered her. Ratchet then barked out a command, the adults and pups quickly following; the adults nudging at her to stand while the pups gently pulled at her jeans, willing her to come with them.
"What? Where are you taking me?" Annabelle murmured, her body getting ready to shut down for the night.
"You need to sleep," Ratchet said, "lay down rest for tonight child." The wolf then coaxed the girl down onto the pile of blankets that had been set up for the pack to rest themselves on, but all of them gladly agreeing to help the tired girl.
"Thanks but I-" Annabelle started, only to be cut off by the three adults in the room laying down around her, forming a strange kind of perimeter. The eight pups then clambered over their guardians, all of them yipping and playfully biting each other as they too settled down for the night. The smallest, Bumblebee, had somehow managed to get his small warm body in the crook of Annabelle's neck, the girl giving a short giggle as the fur tickled her skin before yawning a final time and slipping into a dream, one full of bright twirling colours and the wind rushing through her hair.
AlexisPrime: So, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of this new story. I started this a while ago, gosh, I've forgotten exactly when I did, but I offered it to ChloeBee as another story we can work on together.
ChloeBee: Yeah we seem to be doing a majority of our stories together... even ones on our seperate accounts...
AlexisPrime: That seems to be how it works now... Anyways, both of us are having computer troubles. Which really sucks.
ChloeBee: Ah yes. Daft old computers. My problem is that I don't have a computer. At all. Mine broke down at least a month ago where it just refused to switch on properly. Then Dad took it to the shop for diagnosis. Turns out the motherboard is fried and died completely... but the hard drive is safe! Yes folks! All my stories and ideas are safe! But now that means I need a new computer... which won't be for quite a while now. Hopefully though for not much longer.
AlexisPrime: And mine is that when my brother tried to fix something on it to be able to play a game on it, he made is so that my computer won't read the disc that holds all of my stories. And my mom's computer won't allow me to work on them. My dad's computer is totally off limits, so I have a major setback now myself. And I really don't want to start the chapters over again. I was lucky to save this one. I don't think I will be able to save my computer for quite some time. But we're going to try.
ChloeBee: Arhyup! Sorry quoting Cat in The Hat there... but yeah its terrible and I'm now checking FFN and everything else by my phone and I am staying in contact via the Facebook Messenger app on my phone.
AlexisPrime: It would kill me if you couldn't! Hope you enjoyed, author signing off.
ChloeBee: Same here my fellow author, same here. Signing off.