Shun
A shot rang throughout the cave, waking up both me and Alice. Both of us were sitting upright and looking around. It soon came to me what was going on when another shot blasted out. Images came to my mind of when I was being chased by poachers, and the dream where I was ran into the ravine. I said quickly, "The hunt." Alice seemed to have caught on when I said those two words.
Several more shots broke the silence that once belonged to the forest. We both jumped up to our feet. I had still yet figured out what I was going to do. It didn't really matter which choice I made; both of them would put Alice at risk. And me as well.
Alice stepped towards the mouth of the cave and said, "We have to stop them." I grabbed her arm with my good hand and pulled her back from leaving the cave. "Don't you even start to think about going out there. It's too dangerous." She whipped around and looked at me with disbelief. "So you're just going to have us stay in here until they're done killing every wolf in the forest?"
I didn't say anything. It wasn't like I wanted the wolves to die, but I didn't want Alice getting caught up in the crossfire as well. She shook her head. "They're not going to shoot as long as people are in the area….At least, I don't think they will."
Everyone had seen how irrational the poachers were. Not to even mention how the people in the city reacted to the death of the man that I killed. I cringed. Nobody could ever know about that. Ever. But shooting a person didn't seem below the people out there who were shooting people at the moment, and not even realizing it. Alice was trying to walk from the cave again, but I ran in front of her to stop her.
"Alice, don't do something stupid and go out there. I know you want to do something to help and stop this, but trust me. There's not much you can do. Hell, as far as I know, there's nothing I can do either." There are several things, but they all involve dragging you into this mess….And I don't want that.
Alice stared at me with cold eyes. She must have thought that I didn't give two cents about the wolves. The only reason I care about them is because they're people. I could have cared less about them personally. Especially Cynthia or Rayden. Wesley was really the only one I could tolerate, but only because he had helped me understand what was happening to me after my wolf bite.
Alice was still giving me a cold stare. I sighed. "Okay. I'll think up something later, but for right now let's just stay here until the worst of it is over. Does that sound like something you'd agree on?" She thought for a moment, then sighed. "I suppose so." She walked back into the cave and sat down. I knew that she was thinking about what I had said about waiting until the worst of it was over.
The worst of this slaughtering would never be over. Not even after all of the wolves were dead. But I had to tell her something in order to keep her in the cave, and out of the forest where bullets were flying. I sighed and walked closer to her.
"You can hate me all you want, but I'm only trying to keep you safe." She looked up at me and said, "I don't hate you. A little surprised, but I don't hate you." In other words, you hate me. I didn't have any other choices to fallback on though. I walked back to the mouth of the cave, and looked up at the sky.
It would be a long time before dusk, which was when I was planning on getting Alice out of the forest and try to help whatever wolves were left alive. And until dusk, I'd have to deal with a pissed off Alice, who would probably give me the silent treatment most of the time.
More shots fired, then they stopped. They're probably looking for more of the pack. I sighed and brushed back with my foot some of the snow that had fallen into the cave. Underneath, the ground was damp. I kept scanning the charred trees for any of the pack that may have escaped the initial assault. Nothing.
The woods were as still and quiet as they had been before they were burned. Well, almost. Before the fire, you could hear winter songbirds singing. Now, they were long gone since their nests were burned as well. But there weren't even the sounds of guns firing, or wolves yelping in pain. It was just….Quiet.
Alice
I glanced up at Shun. He was staring out of the cave and down at the forest. A light wind blew his hair back, and I saw a quick glimpse of his face. He seemed more lost in thought than I had ever seen him, and there may have even been a flash of sorrow in his eyes.
I was tempted to go over to him and tell him to sit down and relax, but I was still a little fumed up over earlier. I would have thought he'd want to do something in order to stop the hunt, or even delay it. He was so against it. I thought back to when he was still in the hospital with a mysterious illness, which still hadn't been diagnosed.
That was where we first heard of the hunt. He was saying how idiotic it was, and how uncalled for it was. Now, he was letting it happen when we had the chance to try and slow its process down. I watched as he kicked snow that came into the cave.
My stomach then growled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten in a while. Shun glanced back at me and said, "Hungry?" I nodded my head and told him, "I'll be fine though. So don't worry about it." There may have been some slight harshness behind my words, but they weren't intended.
He nodded and turned back around to look out at the forest again. How long was he going to have us stay in this cave? Until he felt that the hunt died down? If he was planning that, then it sounded pretty died down now. There hadn't been a shot in hours that I had heard of.
I opened my mouth to say something to him, but closed it and kept my words to myself. He said that he thought I hated him earlier. Did I hate him? I hadn't ever hated anyone before, so I didn't know how it felt. But I was pretty sure that I didn't hate Shun for trying to play it safe.
I was still a little mad at him, but there wasn't any hate as far as I knew. If anything, I had been the one who took this a little over the top. By the looks of it outside of the cave, it was starting to creep up on late afternoon. It was hard to tell with the clouds that were still allowing snow to fall.
Shun was still leaning against the entrance of the cave. He also still had on my jacket that I gave him last night as a means of warmth and protection for his back. I stood up, and walked up behind him. He didn't seem to know that I was next to him.
Outside, it was crawling up on dusk. I looked up at the sky and saw that the gray clouds were shaded in a brown or light red color. How strange. The snow then stopped, and revealed the moon. It was completely full, and tinted red. I said, "Look at that."
Shun
I didn't even know Alice was next to me until she said to look at something. I stared at her, and followed her gaze up at the sky just as the clouds were moving away. Up in the sky, was a full moon that was tinted red. The Wolfsbane Moon.
I stared up at it with Alice, both of us were awestruck. I had seen it in one of my dreams, but it was nothing compared to the real thing. Then again, the one in my dream was a lot closer to the Earth unlike this one, which was still way up in the air. Alice said, "Wonder why the moon's full."
In everything that I read about this moon, which wasn't much, none of it said why it was red. It probably had something to do with the sun or something like that. But from what I had read, was another story. According to old articles, the Wolfsbane Moon was supposed to turn the wolves into savage killing beasts.
Yet, here I was. Still a human and not ripping apart anything that moved. Guess we disproved that theory. But what was so special about this moon? And what link did it have with the wolves, if there was one at all? Seeing the red orb in the sky, made me see that the hunt was truly today.
There was one shot off in the distance, and that's all there was. Odds were that one of the wolves decided to see if the hunters were gone, and walked right into their guns. By the sound of it, they were far off to the East. I could get Alice out of here without being noticed.
I took her wrist and said, "Come on. I'm going to get you out of the woods." She nodded her head, and allowed me to walk her through the trees. I mentioned several times for her to stay close to me in order to not get lost in the darkening forest. We made it through without being shot at.
I walked her further into the park, and turned back. She asked, "Where are you going?" I glanced back and said, "I have something that I need to take care of." I started to walk off, and she jumped in front of me like I had done to her earlier.
"If you're trying to help those wolves, then you're going to have to take me along with you. Because I want to help them too." I knew this would happen. I tried to step around her, but she mimicked my movements, not allowing me past her. "Alice, just go back to the others. I'm sure they're worried about you. I can handle this on my own, and I don't want you getting involved with this and then getting hurt."
A chilling wind blew between us. Her eyes were determined and stubborn. It would take some serious convincing to make her walk away from this. "You're going to get hurt if you follow after me. Please, just go back to Murucho's. I'll make sure that everything is alright. Please. Go."
She stared at me with her brown eyes, as if not sure what to do. "What do you think is going to stop me from going into the woods after you go in there, Shun?" I shook my head. "I don't know. Hopefully I can get through to you and make you walk away before something happens to you."
She bit her bottom lip as she thought this through. "Fine. Go on. I'll head back to Murucho's. But don't think this means that I like this idea." I nodded my head. "I understand." She then walked up to me and placed a kiss on my lips.
I felt my eyes widen in surprise, and slowly I kissed her back. My face felt warm with blush, and when we broke the kiss, I saw that her face was red as well. And it wasn't from the moon above us. "Well, you go do whatever it is you need to. But stay safe, alright?"
I nodded my head and watched her walk off, making sure that she didn't slip behind a tree and hide until I went back to the forest. She didn't hide, and kept on walking. Feeling that she truly wasn't going to follow me, I ran back into the woods. That was when the next round of gunfire exploded.
chapter title should be self explanatory. XP lol. nothing new to report in the land of my life. so read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~
