Mythology: Night's Bane
Chapter 3: The race and the gunshot wound
-787- (Just a few minutes after previous events)
A familiar red wolf half demon and her friend, a white wolf half-demon, strolled out of the hall that they were just in, two younger half-demons behind them, Luna and snowstorm, tailed along beside the older wolves
"So guys I never really asked what do you guys do here." Luna asked the group of wolves
Anna was the first to speak "I just keep the kids in order, that and I help keep jack and miyako's den cleaned up, it the least I could do for them"
"Den? You mean the hall? Okay, how about you snowstorm?" Luna asked the boy clad with white and grey wolf features
His left ear twitched, the one closest to Luna "oh me? I just hang out; miyako says I'm too immature to handle any jobs yet…." He said brooding at the end
Luna narrowed her eyes, not really surprised, miyako nodded "it's true, he is a good guy but can't handle a job"
Snowstorm just growled at the comment, too which his alpha leader growled back, except lower and more threatening, that made him shut up
"and I help jack and take care of the medical needs of the pack, you would be surprised about how many people get hurt around here, I get the occasional gunshot wound from demon haters that decided to hurt my wolves, it just….(growls)makes me So mad! We aren't bullet proof, just resistant to some forms of injury" she explains, she unintentionally starts getting mad, Luna has to shift over to avoid her thrashing tail
"Uh….miyako watch where you're swinging that thing" she said as she stepped away and looked at her seriously with her blue eyes
"oh uh….Sorry about that…" Miyako said, she looked upset at herself, she quickly changed the subject
"So you ready for school on Sunday? It's only a day away" miyako says smiling a sweet smile at Luna who groans
"Okay, I guess" Luna says not too interested in the subject
"good, I'll see you then, well bye guys, see you in a little bit, I'm going to make sure my medical supplies are stocked then I'll join you" miyako shouts to them as she runs to her shop up the road a bit, she enters the building and disappears, leaving only 3 wolves in the group
"So do you have to do anything today Anna?" snowstorm asks the fellow pack member as he scratches his wolf ears
She shrugs "not much snow, you want to go run in the forest?" she suggests looking over at the teenager with her emerald eyes
"Sounds awesome, hey Luna you want to tag along? You do know how to shape shift into your wolf form right?" snowstorm asks, pushing some of grey hair out of his face
Luna's eyes light up "would I! And of course I know how to change form! How do you think I got caught?" she said her demeanor becoming engulfed in her natural hyper behavior
"Don't you hooligans forget about me! I was going to see what you guys were up too anyways, might as well join you" a baritone voice was heard from behind them, jack sat their arms crossed playfully
"No sir! We would not forget you!" snowstorm says faking a soldier salute
"Well then let's line up! Enough talk" Luna shouts
The four wolfs stretch their bodies and transform into their corresponding species
Jack in his grey and black German wolf form, Luna in her smaller red wolf form, Anna into a pure white wolf and snowstorm into a white and greyish wolf with thicker fur
They then line up on a line that snowstorm just made by dragging his paw in the dirt
The lowered themselves to the ground, ready for Anna's howl
Anna howled and they sprinted off the line like racing greyhounds, but much faster, the four of them sprinted past citizens of the pack, some yelling, some laughing, they ducked and weaved through the obstacles as they reached the edge of the mountain's bowl, jack had the lead obviously, he was fast and had the most endurance, Anna held a close second, but snowstorm was nowhere to be found, Luna was behind Anna, fatigue beginning to come over her
A howl rang out and snowstorm out of nowhere jumped off a building roof and landed in front of jack and sprinted with a burst of speed out in front, the roof where he had jumped from had been broken from the force of his jump, Luna winced at the damage he did, hopefully he will go back and fix it, snowstorm jumped to dodge tree as they entered the forest area, soon they all jumped to the left, right up down, any which ways to avoid the tall trunks of the trees
Now snowstorm was out in the lead, jack was lowering his speed for some reason and Anna took her chance to sprint ahead, Luna unfortunately was in the rear of the pack, her top speed was good, but her endurance was almost shameful
She began to pant, her tongue lolling out of her mouth as the wind flew past her face
She could see the finish line at the bottom of the first slope of the mountain; snowstorm was nearly there, Luna felt a bit of disappointment in her
Then another red blur shot past her, it was speeding fast and flew around Anna and jumped over jack and swooped in next to snowstorm, it was miyako, apparently she didn't want to miss out on the fun, the two wolves in front of Luna began to slow down, and Luna took her chance and pushed herself to her very limits, she passed Anna and jack, she was only a few meters behind snowstorm and miyako, her heart wanted to spring out of her chest , but Luna was stubborn, she still pressed on, now nearly neck and neck with the other two wolves, the finish line a few seconds away, the finish lines location? Lys' house. The five of them pushed on, snowstorm crossed first, then miyako, Luna, jack and Anna, and they all tumbled and slammed up against a wood building, all in a furry dog pile, the whole lot of them laughing and panting
"I told you I was the fastest!" snowstorm bragged in his wolf form as he tried to keep his breath
Luna clonked him in the head with her tail, as she too tried to keep her breath
Miyako, Anna and even jack were covered in grass and were laughing, they were so winded they had trouble getting up, their run had been quite exhausting incident, and if you were there I bet you would have trouble catching your breath too
Snowstorm got up and transformed back to his half-human form, he chuckled and crouched down next to Luna, he rubbed his hand on her head, petting her vigorously, she melted into the touch, enjoying it
"That was some run newbie! I'm surprised you could keep up! Keep that up and you might just match me…. might…" he got back up, but still looked at the small red wolf
Luna smiled to the best of her abilities and barked in approval she looked at snowstorm
"You didn't do half- bad yourself mister" she said smirking, talking was hard in wolf form but not impossible
Snowstorm shrugged "eh it's what I do"
Miyako, jack and Anna got up from the grass, they as well changed into their half-human forms, they all brushed free the grass and twigs that got stuck in their clothing
"Ah crap…." Anna groaned, everyone turned to her
"What?" jack asked
She just pointed at the 'wooden building' that they smashed into. Lys' front door was now smashed in and the hinges broken off
"Oh …..We will have to apologize for that" miyako said scratching the back of her head
"You think he will be upset?" snowstorm asked in general
Miyako shook her head "yea he won't mind, just we have to be more careful next time"
"Well….I don't know about you guys, but I'm hankering for something to drink, lets head on in" Anna said licking her lips, everyone agreed, but just as they started up the hill Jack and miyako's ears shot up, a look of alarm on their faces
"Someone's here…..and it's not Lys or my wolves, the smell is not familiar…" miyako warns as her head shifts over to the right of them, Anna then picked up on the scent, her scent a bit better than the rest
"That's a hunter! And he is Close! I can smell the gunpowder on him!" Anna whispered heavily
The wolves got uneasy, snowstorm got up against the wall of Lys' house, looking to the right trying to spot the hunter
"I can't see him…we should get moving back up the mountain…." the white and grey wolf said growling
Miyako, jack, Anna and snowstorm all looked over to the right, Luna held back a bit
Luna heard a crack behind her and she gasped softly, she slowly turned to look in the direction of the disturbance, she looked into the brush as hard as she could, then she saw it
A glare off a scope
"Run guys! He's got a gun!" Luna shouted in her wolf form
The half-demons scattered, each taking cover behind trees or Lys' house or piles of logs that said wolf had stacked up, they all stayed tucked close to possibly their only source of protection
Shot after shot rang out of the brush in front of them, bullets skid past their hiding places and dirt flung up from the impact spots
Luna grit her teeth as she heard the gun fire, she looked up and noticed snowstorm cowering behind the pile of logs that lys had stacked up, behind him and to the left was jack hiding behind a fallen tree, he stayed perfectly still, something told Luna that this was Definitely not his first firefight, Anna and miyako clung to the wall of lys' house, opposite to the shooter.
The bullets stopped flying
'Perhaps he ran out of ammunition?' Luna thinks
Jack must have been thinking the same thing because he poked his head up from the log, slowly he tried to eye the shooter, his Golden sharp eyes scanned the forest area in front of them, in a split second his expression changed to 'oh no' the shooter must have seen him and shot through the rotten log he was hiding behind, striking him in the abdomen, he clutched his stomach and fell over, Luna could see blood beginning to pool around Him, Luna stood their mouth open in shock, what could she do?, panic began to well up inside her, she began hyperventilating, before she could process anymore miyako sprinted out of her hiding spot, tears on her soft face as she ran to jack, the shooter pulled off 3 more shots, all nipping at miyako's heels, she practically flew over the log and hid behind it with jack, she began to check him and make sure the bleeding was properly stopped, jack, although in a great deal of pain, seemed calm as calm as someone that was just shot could get, miyako took his hand, and she placed another to his abdomen, a Green light emitted from her hands as she pressed down on his wound, a yelling stirred Luna from her daze
Snowstorm cursed out loud, his face twisted in an angry scowl, he was still behind the log pile, but Luna could tell he was not happy to the fact that he couldn't do anything
His eyes darted their focus from Luna to the ground beside him, he was thinking of something, and Luna didn't like it, Luna saw him make a quick cross on his chest and he took a deep breath and jumped out of his hiding spot
"Hey! You crazy gunman! Bet you can hit this!" snowstorm shouted to the shooter, the taunt got the man's attention as a volley of bullets impacted right where snowstorm just was, lucky for snowstorm that he jumped out of the way in time,
Luna watched as the young wolf darted back and forth across the plain in front of Lys' house, bullets constantly hitting just where he was a split second ago
"Some race this has turned out to be, we should have been more careful! Its hunting season! We should have known some hunter would have gotten bold and decided to try and bring back a half-demon pelt! Now here we are running and jumping around for our lives as this crazy hunter tries to kill us! Oh man this is…..this is so messed up….." Luna screams in her head, she was scared out of her mind, but all her brain could do was work overtime trying to find out what to do
Amongst the fire Anna gritted her teeth, she couldn't just sit in her hole her and watch as her friends get cut down by some hunter!, her mind raced as she tried to think how she could help, her mind shifted to the road leading up to lys' house, her body acted quicker than her mind, she a darted over to the path and ran down the sloped and curving path that lead to the fixing wolf's house, once she reached the next slope she ran into the forest cutting around to come around the side of shooter, hopefully she will be able to take him out
She ran about 300 feet behind to shooter's position and turned around, sprinting to the spot of the hidden pelt taker, she ran as fast as she could, using the concussive sound of the shots to mask her approach, she searched until she spotted the tell-tale muzzle flash of a rifle about 100 feet in front of her, she ran to the man covered in camo, the man was behind a log, his rifle steadied on it, he crouched behind it, he began to line up another shot, but Anna was faster, she jumped and slammed her elbow into the back of his head, his head went forward and smashed into the scope of his rifle, she then hit him again, slamming his head into the log, a visible streak of blood ran down his face, the log he was near stained with the red substance, Anna growled in his face, a warning that she could kill him now, he gasped for air as his eyes were full of fear as the wolf-woman bared her teeth in his face, Anna pointed her finger to the city and growled once more, the man got the hint and ran, tripping a few times as he ran until he was out of sight
Anna huffed and turned to the pricy rifle that he had left behind, perhaps jack would like it?
-787-
"Heck yes I want it!" the grey and black half-demon shouted from his bed, his eyes glued to the .338 bad news sniper rifle in Anna's hands
They had trekked on home after their very eventful day, thanks to miyako's quick thinking jack had made it out with just a bad scar, Anna, Luna and miyako were currently in the room with him, although they were happy that he was alright they all felt a bit disturbed at the fact that when they took off jack's jacket and shirt he had dozens of Scars of what looked like bullet wounds and lacerations on his torso and back, no one prodded him about it, but Luna couldn't help but think what this Young man had been through, Anna to make jack feel better brought in the rifle that the man had left, and Jack apparently LOVES it
"Anna I swear this is the best get well present EVER!" jack said with elation, they all had to admit it was a bit weird to see their Strong leader so full of happiness, but they were glad that he was happy
"glad you like It jack, well I see you guys later I'm going to head home and get to bed, take care guys" Anna said as she walked out of the room, the door slammed shut as she exited the building
Luna walked over to the window, she opened the curtains and looked out at her new home town, she smiled at all the kids playing and the men and women walking on the street, they all looked happy, to be away from persecuting eyes and the angry people, her mind drifted to the race they just had today
'Why are humans so mean to us?' She thought as she blew some of her Light red hair out of her face
She really couldn't say, maybe they are scared, maybe they just hate demons, who knows, Luna is just glad she can be away from them, she looks to the building snowstorm jumped off, her jaw dropped, it was completely fixed
"What the?" she said out loud
"What?" miyako said as she adjusted her long red hair
"The roof is already fixed, I just saw it broken 3 hours ago!" she said puzzled
Miyako chuckled as she adjusted Jack's IV bag "lys works fast, that just how he is"
Luna nodded and looked back out at the street, a young man catches her attention, he was easily 5'11 and 17 years old, he had brown hair and blue eyes, his clothes were just a grey shirt and denim pants, grey and black sneakers, his ears and tail were black with light red detail, beside him were two large German shepherds, who looked very obedient as they stayed right next to the boy the whole time
"Who is that?" Luna asks as she points to the young man
Miyako looks over, she smiles
"Oh him? That just R.j., he is a German wolf, he works at a job too like lys, except we know his job, he breeds German Shepard's for military and police applications, very skilled in his work, and makes a great deal of money, nice kid really, just wish he would talk to more people, he just talks to lys, jack and me, that's most likely it…..unless you want to count his two dogs, Adolf and Zhuk, lys named the larger one Zhuk, it means bug or something…." Miyako said as she turned to the monitors next to Jack
"I'll be right back I'm going to check up on the other patients, sit tight I'll be back, oh and you'll get to know R.j. more at the camp fire next Sunday night, but tomorrow you have your classes with Jack, if he gets better in time that is….." miyako said as she looked at the sleeping leader of the clan
Miyako left leaving just a sleeping jack and a young red wolf girl, who watched as R.j. turned a corner and disappeared out of sight
"R.j. eh….."