Author's Note: I'M BACK! :DDDD Are you happy? Yes, you are. You know it. Thanks for staying with me! Cookies for everyone. Implied swearing and other things in this chapter. Be warned, it's not a very nice chapter.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing!
I have been telling you our group's story for quite a long time. But you need to know this. The only way you can truly understand this is to read it for yourself.
A large, wolf-like creature with patchy skin and fur so that shiny muscle was visible in places was curled up beside her pups. They'd been born only an hour or so ago. To her depraved, twisted eyes, they were perfect. One female, three males. The runt of the litter was a tiny little thing, small and helpless. He was just as strong as his litter-mates, though. She knew it had to happen... But not yet, surely...
Her spirits sank as a large male with a missing eyes and whose fur and flesh was laced with scars padded into her cell. In a harsh, raspy voice, he said, "The runt and the she-hound. You know the rules, b****."
"All too well, Red," she spoke meekly. She nudged the two he had indicated. They whined as he picked them up roughly, and his sharp fangs pierced the female's scruff. The mother of the pups couldn't help but whimper as blood ran down the tiny pup's body and dripped to the floor. That whimper earned her a whack on the muzzle that sent her reeling. "Quiet, you." Red turned and left with the two pups.
The she-hound shook her head confusedly and lay down. At times like these, she couldn't help but imagine what would happen to her precious pups...
The male... He'd be brought to the experiments. They always did that with the runt. Sharp things poking at him, a pair of cold-hearted scientists gazing curiously down at him, they'd tear him apart, picking at the remains like vultures. To tell the truth, the she-hound thought that the scient in the king's employ weren't really doing it to find things out. They just liked toying with different, creative ways to kill and torture, the sadistic monsters. Her little pup would be subjected to who-knows-what. It would not be pleasant. It never was.
As for the female... she growled bitterly to herself. There were precious few females of her species-one in each litter, at most. Therefore... all of them were used.
The she-hound sighed. She had to care for her remaining pups before they were dragged off to the army...
Meanwhile, another hellhound stood on a lonely precipice, looking down upon the castle. A demonic smile stretched across his face, too terrible to look at without going mad. He was large, even for a hellhound. The Smile Dog had needed time to think. He had sought the refuge of this cliff in hopes of being able to do just that. This was his place. No one else dared traverse the steep, winding trail to the tip of the outcropping. But he was strong. He was clever enough to find a safe way up. Now, he sat and let his worries envelop him. These last few days had been stressful. Rumors of a Star Wolf had been whispered here and there, and they set all the hellhounds on edge. The last time there had been a Star Wolf in the kingdom... that was around when he had been born. He let the memories come back as he closed his eyes...
The runt. That was a phrase he remembered. The runt of the litter. He'd been taken to the scientists and poked and prodded. They twisted his features and his mind, and they tore him apart and put him back together again. By the time he was full-grown, he was a monster. They'd been short on soldiers, so he'd been shoved into the army... The others at first avoided him. He was different. He was deformed. He was scum. Once he killed the Star Wolf, they began to think differently.
The Star Wolf's death... he relished that one. That didn't stop him from worrying about this supposed new one. The leader of an army has rather a lot to worry about.