Out of the trees sloped out a low growling beast of an animal, teeth baring and dark eyes seemingly staring into Juliette's very soul. The girl's breath hitched, and then started to come out more panicked. It was a large gray wolf; it dwarfed Juliette in size. It looked old, and it's bones were sticking out unhealthy through its side. The way the animal stared at her suddenly made the girl feel like she should runaway. Perhaps she could outrun the animal, even with her bad limp…
"Juliette?" A soft, scared voice asked. It came from behind the girl, and Juliette suddenly realized that she could hear the soft whimpers of young children behind her. She recognized these whimpers; hadn't she just heard them hours before?
Turning her head as slowly as possible, the freckled girl's green orbs went wide with alarm. Behind her, Gemma, Alex, and Ara were huddled together, fearfully staring at the wolf. They'd followed her, the orphan teen realized. They'd followed her all the way out here, and she'd been so wrapped up in her thoughts and so selfish that she hadn't thought to think that one of the children had seen her, or had tried to follow her. Stupid, stupid, stupid, the girl chastised herself.
The children all stared from the growling wolf to Juliette, shaking in fear. They were all still in their nightclothes, the only thing they'd thrown on over was their cloaks and winter boots. They looked so young out here, so childish in this one horrifying moment. The girl felt bad that the children would most likely see the wolf chase after her…or wait…how come the children hadn't taken their eyes off of the animal for about thirty seconds now?
Turning slowly back towards the old wolf, Juliette's green eyes went even wider than she'd thought they could go, and her breath started to come out panicked. She was having one of her fear attacks, the girl realized. She couldn't move, she was panicking, and she was so terrified that she thought she might die. The wolf was staring straight at the children, having dismissed Juliette as a possible target and realizing that the children would be easier to obtain. And the poor girl could do nothing about it.
She was frozen solid, stiff as a stone. Inwardly, she felt like she was trying to scream, but outwardly, she could make no moves. The wolf was going to get the children, and she was too scared to do a thing.
Maybe this was a good thing though. Maybe this was a sign that she, Juliette, was to live and that the king was finally going to feel as hurt as she had. After all, what worse pain than to lose something you held so dearly to your soul? All Juliette had to do was step away, and the wolf wouldn't even pay her any mind. If she did all this slowly, she'd be able to walk away with her life, and the king would only have himself to blame for this terrible misfortune. Looking back at the children, Juliette had already pre-decided to try and memorize their tiny faces and remember them and all the times they had together.
The way they'd sneak into her room and give her tiny treats. The way they could make every little thing into a game so that they could cheer up a sick Juliette. The way they asked her innocent questions, and never once teased her about her sorry predicament. Arabella, who was slightly bossy, but had a headstrong personality that you couldn't help but admire. Gemma, who was always up for a new game and kept her best friend Ara from floating off into the clouds. Alex, who was always excited and talking, even when it was hard to do. And these children were going to die.
Juliette felt her heart lurch. No! Those children hadn't done anything wrong. It was all her fault they were out here in the first place; had she not left, they would have never followed her. She had to do something to save them; they were just innocent victims of this entire situation. Juliette had no home, no family, no money, no food, and barely any clothes. But these children had all that and more. They had an actual future; she did not.
Forcing herself to push away all feelings of fear, Juliette turned away from the children and stared hard at the wolf. She stood tall, swallowing once to keep herself calm, and softly started to speak.
"D-Don't move." Juliette warned the children, keeping her eyes trained on the old wolf who was now starting to lick his lips in anticipation. His eyes had already locked onto the smallest of the children, Alex. The child who was most whimpering in fear.
"Juliette…I'm scared." Arabella whispered, her heart pounding and her arms hugging Gemma and Alex at the same time. Was the beast that had taken control of Juliette gone, or was that wolf the beast that had been inside of her? Either way, the animal did not look friendly. In fact, it looked downright homicidal.
"D-Don't be scared. Be c-calm." Juliette answered her lips barely moving. The wolf as already starting to lower into position to attack, his old bones poking out of his flesh as he did so. He was starving. And Alex was to be his prey. "W-when the wolf j-jumps, runaway. Go b-back home and d-don't come b-back." Juliette did not know much about animals, but she did know about being hungry.
She knew that when she was starving, she would take anything she could get. The first thing that popped across her view, she would snatch up and eat without a moment's hesitation. And that was what she had to do with this wolf. He was old, he had most likely been abandoned by his other wolf friends, and he was hungry. He wouldn't go after Alex when he saw that Juliette was trying to runaway.
"B-But…" Ara trailed off, the only one of the children still managing to keep a conversation going on even while she was in the face of near death.
"J-Just do it." There was an almost begging note in Juliette's voice, as though she was trying to make sure that Ara and the other children would not wait around. There was no telling what that wolf could do if it was hungry enough.
"But Juliette…" Ara continued, swallowing in fear. But Juliette had stopped listening to her.
The orphaned teen was now staring at the wolf, who was just about to make his jump. She gave a soft breath; she couldn't believe she was really going to do this. She, the girl who was terrified of her own shadow, was going to let a wolf attack her. Swallowing once more, Juliette took her eyes off of the wolf and tried to run.
One leg was exhausted from walking so long, and the other leg was a horrible limp. The girl only made it two or three steps before she felt something slam into her. It felt worse than a cane, worse than anything the girl had ever felt before. She felt something crunch underneath her, and immediately a horrible pain shot through her bad leg. Juliette tried desperately to cry out, but all the air had been knocked out of her. She was on the ground, nearly in tears already, squirming as primal instinct told her to do. Swinging one arm wildly, the girl could hardly see a thing; there was snow in her eyes, and all she could feel was the heavy animal against her. It snarled and growled, baring it's teeth from what Juliette could see. The girl's arm finally made contact with something, the wolf's snout. She pushed against it, trying to keep the animal from coming to close to her face. It was a natural instinct to protect herself like this.
And then she felt it.
It's hard to explain 'it' exactly. She'd thought that awful pain her leg was horrible, she thought Master Bry's canning techniques were something to hide from, but never in her life had Juliette thought that an animal sinking it's teeth into your skin, and crunching through your bones could hurt so much. The pain in her hand suddenly felt worse than anything she'd ever felt in her entire life, and it nearly made the girl pass out from the pain. She felt the wolf scratch at her, ripping apart her rags, and then she felt it sink it's teeth into her again. This time, the animal decided to bite into the place where Juliette's neck attached to the rest of her body. The girl was in too much pain to even scream; she just let out moans of pain, wishing, praying, and hoping that she could just die already. Death would be a relief from all this pain.
Ara, Alex, and Gemma had watched Juliette go down. They had watched the wolf bite through her hand as though it was clay, use it's sharp nails to tear wounds into the girl's skin, and then sink it's teeth into her once again. They had seen all that, and they were horrified.
"Juliette!" Alex cried out finally, breaking the stunned silence between the children. The boy only took one step in the snow before he was roughly pulled back by his older sister.
"Alex, the wolf'll eat you too if you runaway!" The girl said in an urgent tone, her chest heaving up and down and tears starting to spill from her eyes. She was finally crying, along with an already-bawling Gemma, and pathetic whimpering Alex. "We have to go back home; Juliette said so." Ara decided to follow out on the teen's wishes, looking over at the girl with a quivering lip. The wolf was really doing a number on her, and all Ara could do was stand and watch. She was too small to do anything else. "Let's go." Roughly grabbing her little brother's hand, the princess tried to do the same with Gemma, but the other girl would have none of it.
"Non!" Gemma shouted at her friend, refusing to leave. Tearing her hand away from Ara, the small girl looked at Juliette and heaved another sob. "Nous avons pour l'aider! We have to help her!" Gemma shouted, her sobs and anger mixing into one. Arabella suddenly looked anything but the group leader at the moment, torn between what her friend was saying, and what Juliette had said. In the end, it was only one look at Juliette that made up the girl's mind.
"Okay, let's help Juliette!" Ara declared, before her shoulders slumped as she realized something. "But how are we gonna—"
"Ara! Look at that—Look at that branch!" Excitement coursed through Alex at the moment, but it was a different kind of excitement that he was used too. Usually, his excitement came from happiness. At this moment, his excitement came from the fear to help his friend. "See it? It's cracked! It's gonna—It's gonna break!" Gemma's eyes grew wide as she realized what the prince was saying, and she quickly turned to Ara.
"Ara! If you use your lance-pierres, slingshot, then it can fall down and hit the wolf!" It was true. The branch was heavy with snow, and almost cracked off the tree at the moment. And, as an added bonus, the branch was right above the wolf's head. It would injure the wolf, and Juliette would be saved.
"Quick! Look for a rock that I can use!" Thankfully, Arabella did not go anywhere without a slingshot these days. Usually, she would have taken credit for this entire idea, but at this particular moment, that didn't even cross her mind. She looked up at Juliette for a moment, and her heart pounded so hard in her chest that she thought it might jump right out. The orphan girl was all covered in blood now, and nearly silent. Ara only had limited time before Juliette got even more hurt.
Dropping to her knees, along with Alex and Gemma, for the first time the children all worked together. Their hands pushed away feet of snow, digging for even a pebble. A minute passed. Another minute after that passed. And then another. Right when Arabella was just going to chuck her slingshot at the tree itself because she could not find a rock, Alex cried out.
"I found a big one!" The boy shouted, immediately handing it to his sister. Ara wasted no time in getting off of her knees and pulling out her slingshot from a cloak pocket. Gemma and Alex were silent as the young princess loaded the rock into the contraption that she'd made (with Chip's help). Closing one eye, sticking out her tongue, and then aiming to the spot where she thought the branch would most likely break off it hit by a rock, Ara could have sworn that she heard her heart pumping in her ears.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thu—
The rock flew from the slingshot and hit the branch perfectly. But it did nothing. The branch still stood on the side of the tree, as though mocking Arabella, Gemma, and Alex. All three children looked at one another with tears. They'd failed. They hadn't been able to save Juliette. Their friend was gonna get hurt, and it was all because—
Crack. Crack. Crack. Craaaaaaaack.
Suddenly, an awful cracking noise was heard throughout the small forest clearing. The branch started to droop further and further down, releasing more and more snow on top of the wolf. The animal looked confused for a moment, lifting up its head away from Juliette to investigate the branch. Sniffing at the air, the wolf only had the chance to look around the forest for a minute, before a heavy branch landed straight on his neck, and then rolled off of his body to the snowy ground.
The wolf collapsed on top of Juliette. Warm blood seeped from the animal's broken neck and spilled all over the girl, though it hardly mattered. The moment Juliette felt the wolf stop its attack on her was the moment the girl lost all consciousness. Her mind clouded over in pain, her eyes closed, and the girl slumped lifelessly against the snow.
She wasn't dead, but oh, did she wish to be.
So I'm not dead everyone, yaay! That's good news, isn't it? Aren't you all happy? I am. I've been beating myself up for weeks for not writing or updating, butschool is really demanding. Luckily though, I'm on spring break now and finally have had time to write! You guys don't know how long i've been dying to write out this scene; it's been at least a good year. No really, I'm serious. For some reason, I just had this idea come to me one night, and I've been holding onto it since forever. Now I finally got to write it! But, the fun's not over yet. There's still a few more chapters I've been dying to write out for a really long time, so I'm just going to keep at this story until I can finally finish it. :)
This was originally one huge chaper, but I broke it down into three smaller ones so that everyone can follow the story a bit easier. I think it's just me, but I really can't stand when there's a fanfic that's like, a million words in one chapter. I don't know, it's kind of hard to read, don't you think? Anyway, please review all the chapters and tell me what you thought! I'll update asap! And for those who're following my TLM fic, it also got updated. :D Please review, even one word reviews are nice!
P.S. My high school put on a production of BATB a few weeks back, and I have to say, I was really impressed. They incorporated the movie AND the show into the production, which I found to be really nice. Now I want to go see the broadway show, but I think it went off broadway, oh, ten years or so ago! Lol :)