I'm glad ya'll liked the intro, I'll keep playing with this and see where it goes.
This is short - is really just the end of Chapter 1 now that I know I'm going to continue...let me know what you think!
From my perch in the tree I had miraculously managed to climb I watched as the creatures attacked my would be assailant. I was so afraid and overwhelmed I wasn't sure, were they my saviors or was I next? The dark man screamed and fought the animals that had surrounded him. He was moving so fast, at times I couldn't tell where he was until I would see a tree shake and his body fall to the ground beneath it. I climbed higher still.
The creatures below me were huge. I would have said they were dogs or bear, but their faces possessed an intelligence that I couldn't place on a wild animal. They were killers, skilled and cunning in their group attack and they were enjoying it. Moving together like a colony of bees, connected through the hive mind, they surrounded the broken man. There were five of them, and as they surrounded him they each took a limb and the largest, black animal wrapped his jaws around the man's head.
I couldn't hear the sound of my screams over the deafening sound of my attacker's dismemberment. The animals pulled and growled, hunched down with the effort as the man flailed in resistance, but it was too late for him, there was no way to defend yourself from this kind of attack. Like synchronized swimmers each of the animals hunched down before pulling simultaneously with a force that pulled each limb apart from the whole, decapitation the final blow.
The creatures howled their pleasure at the complete destruction of their prey, emanating pride and joy. Their cries were piercing and loud. They were wolves, too large to be normal animals and not the grey wolves that had begun to move back into the area, these animals were something else all together. Something outside of nature.
I must have been in some sort of shock because I noticed the lack of blood, something as grizzly as this surely must be combined with a gruesome quantity of blood, and yet there was none. The wolves each picked up a part of the body and trotted away quickly out of my view. I watched as one of them returned for the torso that was still convulsing on the ground before me.
I stayed in my tree, the bark digging into my side, my legs going numb from holding position for so long, but there was nothing I could do, this had proven so far to be a safe place for me to be and I wasn't about to risk moving. As I sat and listened to the retreating howls and what sounded like laughter one of the wolves returned.
It was red and white, beautiful in its distinctive coloring. The wolf sat about ten paces away from the tree and looked up at me, head cocked. Its brown eyes piercing and intelligent.
"No, I'm not coming down for you to eat" I said to the animal, surprising myself. It cocked its head to the other side as if it was listening but hadn't understood what I said. But instead of repeating myself I sat still and looked in the other direction. Any interest this creature took in me would certainly result in my death.
I sat and watched as the wolf paced around the tree until it found where my eyes were looking and sat down, mouth open, tongue lolling to the side. "Go away" I hissed "I'm not food" The wolf's tail wagged as it lay down still looking up.
We must have passed an hour this way, me avoiding looking at the wolf and it somehow finding just where I was staring and going to sit directly in my view. It would sit and stare at me, or lie down. It did not growl or approach the tree at all, lulling me into a sense of safety. My legs were cramping and my toes tingling from the terrible position I was in, but the idea of getting out of the tree with the wolf still here was out of the question.
The wolf would pace the tree, lying down and covering its nose with one paw, as if trying to win me over with cuteness, but the image of this creature quartering a man not even an hour ago was ingrained in my vision.
A yipping sound pulled me out of my thoughts and I looked to find the animal below me looking at me expectantly.
"What?"
The wolf tilted its head.
"Are you getting bored?"
"Yip."
"Then go find someone else to bother" I said and the wolf laid down, covering its eyes with it's paws and tucking its tail under itself.
"I'm sorry" why did I say that? This animal was stalking me! But something about it was getting under my skin.
"Hey, can you speak?"
"Yip!"
"Ohhh, did someone teach you that?"
"Yip!"
"Do you know any other tricks?"
The wolf tilted it's head again, appearing to consider my question before standing up on its back legs and walking around, almost tall enough to reach me in my tree, but I wasn't worried about that, I was too amused to care.
"Well, you are a good pup aren't you?"
"Yip!" It stood below me wagging its tail.
"Ok, sit" and it complied.
"Lay down" and it complied.
"Roll over" and…he…complied.
"Go away" I said in the same tone as the other commands and earned what I would have called a glare from the wolf if he had been human.
"It was worth a try" I said and the animal's shoulders shook as if he was laughing.
I was hungry and tired and beginning to loose all feeling in my legs when I heard a howl in the distance. The wolf below me trotted away quickly, looking back at me before disappearing into the trees.
I scurried down the tree as fast as I could without hurting myself, my legs wobbly but complying with my desperate pleas that they not give out on me. I grabbed my bag and walked as quickly as I could back toward where I thought my house was. After walking around for another 30 minutes I had to admit that I was hopelessly lost. I was lost wondering the empty woods which were apparently full of giant, intelligent, killer wolves.
The trees were surrounding me, turning me in the wrong direction with each step. The stones were moving through the dirt, moving the path from where I was sure I had left it. Nothing was adding up, none of the land marks I remembered passing on the way here were anywhere to be found and I couldn't see past the trees ahead to know if there was anything in the distance.
As I was beginning to panic, tripping in my haste to find some trace of the trail I recognized I walked into a small clearing and saw the red wolf, standing there with my water bottle in his mouth. "Oh my…" I said, jumping back, barely catching myself before falling.
The giant wolf took two paces towards me before putting the bottle down gently and stepping back. He nodded at the water bottle and lay down on the ground, a paw over his nose.
"Okay…okay you promise not to eat me?" I said holding my hands out. This creature had found me out here alone twice, had killed someone in front of me, but in doing so saved me from something…I couldn't even allow myself to imagine possible.
The wolf whined and shimmied its body back, further away from me.
"Ok, I'm just going to come pick up my bottle" I stepped forward, hands still out. "Thanks for bringing it to me." I smiled at the red wolf who raised his head and appeared to smile back, his large sharp teeth making me catch my breath and remember, this was not some stray dog I had stumbled upon.
I was breathing quickly, beginning to hyperventilate from fear as I picked up my bottle, my eyes locked on the animal before me who stayed still and calm. "Ok, I'm going to go home now; you can run along to your friends ok? I'm fine now, see?" I said holding up my bottle. I backed up, slowly, not turning my back on the wolf. That's what you were supposed to do right? Never turn your back? I remember seeing that on the Discovery Channel, or was that about how to handle rutting moose…
"Yip!" the wolf said, hopping up to his full height, taller that me I realized now that I was looking up at him.
I continued to back up, unable to turn away. "Yip!" it said pacing around in place gesturing behind him with his head.
"No, no I'm definitely not going with you" I said to him, continuing to back away.
"Yip! Yip!" It said, stomping a foot. If the wolf were a human I'd think he looked annoyed. Before I had a chance to move away again the wolf ran towards me making me stumble and loose my footing. But instead of falling on the ground I was leaning back against a great big warm furry breathing…oh my…
I scrambled upright, moving toward where the wolf had been previously.
"How did you get over there so fast?" I asked, and was rewarded with a wolfen shrug.
"Ok, well, thank you, but you're the one who made me fall in the first place."
The wolf turned and looked in the direction I had been walking and growled softly before looking at me, gesturing the other way with his head and snorting.
"So I was going the wrong way?"
"Yip!"
"Well, how do you know I don't live that way?"
The giant wolf rolled his eyes at me. Now I knew I was in some kind of state of shock or delirium. Wolves don't roll their eyes; certainly not giant mutant man killing wolves. So that meant the only logical non-fairytale explanation was that I was insane. Certifiably, completely institutionable-ly insane.
The wolf snorted and walked slowly to me, so low to the ground his belly was rubbing against the ground. "Are you trying to be non-threatening?" I asked incredulously. "You do know you're like 800 pounds and terrifying right?" The wolf snorted and continued to approach me. But this time I didn't run.
As long as I was insane, I might as well make friends with the giant imaginary dog right?
The wolf snorted again as it was close enough for me to reach out and touch; he lowered his head to the ground before rubbing it gently against my leg.
"You don't have fleas do you?" I asked reaching out and scratching behind his ear, earning myself a grumbling purr. I let myself touch the wolf, running my hands along his snout and scratching his head. His fur was soft and I ran my fingers through it scratching at the skin underneath.
The wolf's eyes closed as he relaxed into my touch and I sat down next to him, letting his head rest in my lap. I stroked his ears, noting how long they were and so much softer then the rest of his fur. His breathing evened out and I watched as he allowed himself to sigh and sink further into me.
"Pup, can I ask you something?" I said as I stroked his shoulder. His eyes looked up at mine in response.
"Did you kill that man?"
The wolf looked away, as if it wished it could tell me something, as if it wished it could speak. But instead he lifted his head and looked at me, his eyes deep and knowing. He snorted and licked my face with one long slimy kiss.
"Oh my God!" I screamed, pushing him roughly off of me without thinking "That was AWFUL!" I screamed glaring at the wolf's face forgetting his size and the violence he could reap.
"Yip!" was all he said as he stood up and pranced happily.
"You're quite proud of yourself aren't you?"
"Yip!"
"Well, for that I'm not going to give you that belly rub you were hoping for."
The wolf stopped and laid down, rolling onto his back looking up at me. His tongue hung out of his giant mouth to the side, making me laugh at the ridiculous gesture of submission. If this was really happening it would be frightening, but since this was all a death's door delusion anyway I allowed myself to enjoy his playful antics and rubbed his belly, scratching with my nails, making his back left leg twitch in glee.
"You like that huh?"
Twitch twitch
"How about up here?" I scratched his chest kneeling down close to his large claws, allowing his paw to wrap gently around me.
"Alright, I have to go home now; I'm planning to go to a friend's house later."
The wolf looked down and away from me. I'd swear he was pouting.
"You would like him, he's fun."
The wolf looked back at me and appeared to raise an eyebrow rolling onto his stomach.
"Not like that, Jacob's just a friend If you weren't imaginary I'd take you with me!"
The wolf's breath caught and looked at me harder, studying my face for meaning as if he was looking for some kind of clue as to what made my skin this color or what made my heart beat.
"You ok Pup?" I asked stepping forward and placing my hand on the side of his muzzle.
"Yip" he said softly, leaning his head against me before standing up and bounding off in the direction towards my house.
We walked quickly for me, slowly for my new furry companion through the trees. He mapped out a course for me and waited patiently when I stumbled, all along yipping or snorting in response as I talked. I hadn't spoken that much in weeks, but something about him was easy, maybe it was that he didn't speak back, maybe it was that I was relatively convinced that he was imaginary and my body was lying somewhere in the middle of the forest unconscious and bleeding.
After a while I started to get tired and the wolf slowed his pace, staying next to me now.
"I was further out then I thought" I said, leaning against him heavily as I stopped and took my last sip of water. "Good thing you found me huh?" I asked looking at him. I smiled at the intelligent face looking back at me.
"Don't scold me; I don't need a lecture from a mutant."
He snorted and bumped his nose against my shoulder gently before standing taller, effectively pushing me off of him and beginning to walk.
"Are we close?" I asked as I saw a break in the trees ahead.
"Yip!" he sped up, making me increase my pace, happy to be near home.
"Bella! Bella are you out there?" I heard Charlie call from the house.
"Yeah Dad!" I screamed without thinking making the wolf jump back behind a tree.
"You don't want him to see you?"
The wolf shook his head no.
"Ok Pup, I'll go the rest of the way myself."
"Yip!"
"What?"
"Yip!" the wolf said looking at me with pleading eyes.
"You want a Scooby snack?"
The wolf snorted and shook his head no.
"You want…"
"Yip!" he gestured with his head toward the house.
"You want me to stay out of the woods?"
He nodded.
"Yip!"
"Hmmm…You want me to tell Charlie about you?"
The wolf shook his head and growled softly.
"No, don't worry, I won't, I don't want to have to start seeing a therapist for these delusions, at least not so long as they're the kind that keep me safe" I smiled at my guardian wolf as he turned and walked away, looking back at me one last time "Yip!"
"Bye!" I said, surprised at how much I was going to miss him. I watched him retreat into the forest sadly, hoping he would return someday…if he was real.
"Bella!"
"Coming Dad!" I cried running back to the house quickly. It I'd looked behind me I would have seen two dark eyes following my movements, making sure I reached my destination. If I'd looked toward the woods from my room when I changed before heading out to La Push, I would have seen a red streak running past my house, making sure to now always include the Swan residence in his daily patrol.