Gemralts: Hey! Gemralts here! Back with another—
Prim: Incomplete story ..
Gemralts: No, I will finish this one! You will see.
Prim: Sure, sure...
Gemralts: Anyways, Malik is Vladimier Norton's OC (Check out his story.). And here's a surprise, I don't own Spice and Wolf.
The lone hunter stalked her prey, hidden within the thick undergrowth of the forest. Daytime was not the best of times to go hunting, yet the skilled hunter was able to follow her prey without notice. Only the chirping of the birds and rushing of the nearby stream was heard during this time; the hunter instinctively knew not to make a sound.
Carefully, as if mere thoughts would give her location away, the hunter thought, "This might be my biggest triumph yet. Even the 'wise-wolf' Holo will be jealous of my greatness." She waved her gray tail in glee. Suddenly, the prey looked back, leaving the wolf only a fraction of a second to react. Of course, the hunter easily hid herself from view. The prey became worried, though, and started to move faster. For any other hunter, this would prove a challenge, but the wolf silently ran after her prey.
The prey stopped. "Who's there? I'm armed and highly trained in fighting."
"Pitiful," the huntress thought, noting the fear in her victim's voice, "I thought this one would put up more of a fight." Deciding to have a little fun, the wolf shook the bush slightly, enough to make the human check. Once he did, the wolf sneaked into another bush and making her new location known.
This cruel game wore down on the human's sanity. With more fear than before, he said, "Come out from wherever you are hiding." Only the sound of the stream answered him. Out of desperation, the human used his sword to massacre the helpless bushes. The hunter, needless to say, was not hurt. Instead, her prey's woeful act of strength only increased her enjoyment in the hunt.
The hunter thought, "Enough of this, I must kill him now before I end up as weak as Holo." Without any warning, the wolf pounced her prey. Despite being the same size as a regular wolf, the hunter still sparked fear within her prey. "Boo," she thought to herself, inwardly laughing at the scared look on the human's face. Wishing to have more fun, the hunter gave her prey a chance to defend himself.
When the human gathered his wits, he took a sloppy stance and held his sword defensively in front of him. "You're just a wolf," he tried to calm himself, "Just a wolf." The hunter only laughed. Pouncing once again, the wolf bit the man's wrist, making him drop his sword immediately. With no defense at all, the prey tried to run away.
"There's no use running from Aayai, the Master Hunter of Yoitsu!" she yelled, knocking her prey down before he had a chance to escape. The prey began begging the wolf for mercy. Luckily for Aayai's soon-to-be kill, she was thoroughly amused by their little game. With her single act of kindness, the hunter snapped her prey's neck, killing him instantly. "Oof, I have to carry you back home, now, do I not?"
"Stop that Prim!" Holo yelled, "We are supposed to act with dignity, are we not?"
"Oh c'mon, Holo! Have some fun. Just because you call yourself 'wise-wolf' doesn't mean you have to be so boring!" The white wolf went back to chasing birds into trees. Distracting her from the birds, though, was a white object in the corner of her vision. Seeing this new adversary, Prim chased said white object in circles.
" 'Tis your tail, Prim. You are making yourself look like a common dog," the other wolf complained.
"Humph, you sound just like those older wolves. C'mon, we're still young! Let's do stuff!" Prim said, doing a flip.
Aayai walked into the clearing the two were in. "Holo, Prim, would you like to share my latest kill."
"Is that a human?" Prim asked in disgust, looking at the already rotting body. "Please, don't tell me you killed a human."
"Yep, I killed a human, my greatest feat so far," the gray wolf boasted. The smell of dead flesh, imagined or not, overwhelmed Prim's senses. Prim could not stand to be in the clearing anymore and started to walk away. "Where are you going, Prim? I always knew you were weak," Aayai mocked, "You know what they say, hunt or be hunted."
"But... humans aren't like another other prey. They have strong emotions and thoughts. They are more like us than a regular wolf is," Prim said.
Aayai laughed. "I have seen the humans myself. They may tell themselves they are noble, but they are cowards at heart. They are weak and therefore should be hunted like another other animal."
Prim tried to say something back but could not, instead, she left the clearing speechless. Holo said nothing and did not think of her friend, Prim. The 'wise-wolf', after all, believed she was the best hunter in the group and should always catch the biggest game. "I guess you will be stuck with killing rabbits, Holo."
"Humph, I am Holo the Wise-Wolf of Yoitsu. This small feat in nothing to me. I can easily kill a human myself. Humans must be easier to kill than I thought, if you can catch one." Holo already began thinking of the place humans are usually in the forest.
Holo went down to a clearly marked road a ways away from her home. There, she hid within the trees surrounding it. Her trained ears listened for any sounds that might be made by her prey. Unknown to her, though, the nearby town had shut its gates, reducing the traffic on the road to almost none.
"Where are those humans? In this area, they should be more common than ants," Holo thought. Eventually, Holo had to go down to the stream to get a drink.
Downstream, only barely visible to her eyes, was a figure. The wolf sneaked towards it, hoping it would be a human. To her dismay, it was just a deer. Suddenly, a hunter jumped out of hiding and killed the deer with his dagger.
This surprised Holo, as she was used to detecting everything around her. Surprise turned into interest as she wanted to know what kind of being could have outwitted her. She stalked the human from a large distance, forgetting about killing him. The human led Holo back to his campsite. There, the human made sure not to waste any part of his kill, which Holo noted as uncharacteristic for his species. Holo wondered what a human would be doing living outside of a town.
When the human went to sleep, Holo did not think of attacking him. Instead, she went to sleep as well.
Holo spent the next day observing the human. "I am learning more about my prey," she assured herself, "To better kill it." Although Holo had seen humans before, this one was different. The way he hunted was surprising, yet familiar to the wolf. The human's sense were definitely stronger than those of non-wolves. At times, the human surprised Holo by finding prey that even she did not notice. "I am only focused the human; that is why I did not notice the deer," she told herself. The human would stalk his prey, much like how Holo was. With the skills of a great hunter, the human did not make a single sound while following his prey.
Holo had seen how humans fight. Sloppily, they would swing their swords their target, hoping to hurt it. This caused non-life-threatening wounds that only caused pain to the victim, as well as a chance to fight back. This one was different, though. This human would attack his target, and it would die almost instantly and painlessly.
Over the period of less than a day, Holo had learned much about her 'prey'. Although she denied it, Holo developed a respect for the human and his wolf-like ways of hunting, but she remembered her original goal. "I must kill you and show Aayai that I am a better hunter," she thought. With more care than she would would use for any other being, the wolf slowly closed the distance between her and the human. She readied her stance, anticipating for the perfect moment to pounce on her prey. The moment came and Holo's mind screamed for her to attack... but she didn't. The human looked directly at Holo's location and she immediately ran away.
"Why did I hesitate? Why did I not attack the human? What did he do to me?" she asked herself as she ran back to her den.
Gemralts: Well, that's the end of chapter one! Hopefully, I'll post the next chapter up soon, but probably not. R & R!
