Shun

I caught Alice just in time before she hit the ground. Her eyes were glazed over, and she didn't seem aware of where she was. Way behind me, Cynthia had stopped running. "What's wrong with her?" I picked the dart that had hit Alice, and held it up so Cynthia could see.

In an instant, she understood what happened. I was shaking Alice. "Come on. You have to wake up. You can sleep later when we're out of here." She made a noise, but kept her eyes shut. What was in that tranquilizer? Whatever it was, it was strong. I got her up to her feet, but it was quite obvious that she wasn't awake enough to help hold herself up.

My own legs were wobbling underneath me from her weight. She doesn't look that heavy. It wasn't that she was heavy, which she was, it was the fact that I had been run to the brink of exhaustion all night and could hardly hold my own self up. I laid her gently back on the ground.

Cynthia came running up to me and snapped, "What are you doing? Pick her up and let's get the hell out of here while we can!" I retorted back at her, "I would, but after tonight I don't have the strength or energy to carry her weight." Cynthia rolled her eyes and threw one of Alice's limp arms over her shoulders. She said to me, "You get her other arm. We'll both carry her out of the forest."

I nodded and mimicked Cynthia's actions. There was a considerable difference now that I was sharing Alice's weight with somebody else. We were moving much slower through the forest as we tried to keep the same speed as we walked. My eyes went to the place where the tranquilizer dart hit Alice's leg. The shooter still had to be in the forest, but where? Had he been in the air?

If he had been, then wouldn't one of our group heard the motor of a helicopter? I couldn't recall ever hearing something like that. The shooter had most likely been in the forest, and still probably was. But why had he shot at people?

Had they seen us shift from wolves to humans? That would make sense as to why they wanted to knock us out instead of shooting us dead. A discovery like this, could make anyone filthy rich. And it wouldn't be of any use to them if their proof was dead.

Cynthia and I were pretty much dragging Alice. Occasionally, I tried to shake her awake. Even if she was just conscious enough to stand on her own, that would have been good enough for me. Next to me, a dart appeared in the tree. I stopped and stared at it, then started to look around for whoever was shooting them.

They had to have known about what we were, or else they wouldn't have been trailing three people through the forest. Cynthia glared and me and hissed, "Why'd you stop? We're almost out of the forest." She shifted Alice's weight on her shoulders.

I shushed her and said, "I think we were followed." Cynthia raised a questionable eyebrow at me. "What gave you that idea?" I pointed to the dart that was stuck in the bark of the tree. "Oh." Now, both of us were looking. The sooner we found our tag-a-long, the better.

That way, we could try and shake him off. But, all I saw were trees. There weren't many places for a person to hide, being that the forest was burned to a barren dust. All anyone could hide behind would be a tree, and even those trees weren't large enough to hide a small child behind.

But what if they hadn't followed us? My eyes went up further to the hillside, and just a little under from where Blair had once sat, I saw the gunman. Just barely though. He was a faint little dot against the trees, but I knew this had to be the person who was shooting at us.

When I squinted my eyes, I recognized him as the man that I had saved from the frozen lake. Could he tell from that distance that we weren't wolves? Or maybe he really had caught a glimpse of us shifting. He was so close to where Blair had been, and I started to wonder if this person had shot the pack's Alpha. Whether with tranquilizer or a bullet.

Either way, it wasn't good for Blair. The man on the hillside appeared to be reloading his tranquilizer gun. Cynthia was still holding Alice up when she asked, "Can we go now before he shoots at us again?" I kept my eyes on the man and said back to her, "You get Alice out of here. I'm going to look around for Blair." I could feel Cynthia's dumbfounded expression looking at me.

"Are you crazy? We're right here at the edge of the woods, and you want to go looking for Blair? I'm sure he's fine, Shun. Now, help me carry this girl." I shook my head. "I'm sure you're right, but I want to know if Blair is safe or not." Cynthia sighed behind me, and I soon heard her footsteps stomping down the hill and out of the woods.

She would be mad at me for a while, but it would be worth her complaining to bring Blair out with us. Besides, after the help that I received from Blair, this was the least I could do for him. Whether he was safe or not. I tried to see the sun, which should have been rising at the time.

I couldn't see it, and that made me believe that it hadn't quite gotten over the horizon yet. Now that I had my timing straight, I turned my attention up at the man who had knocked Alice out with one of his darts. He would be my only obstacle to get around.

He had a clear view of all of the forest from that hillside. And the burned woods weren't giving me much cover either. Alice, Cynthia, and Wesley all should have made their way out of the forest by then, which left only me and possibly Blair.

Something had distracted the gunman above me, and I took advantage of this. While he was turned around, I hurried to more denser trees. I doubted it would make much difference in how much I was or wasn't covered. I at least had a better chance of escaping his sights.

I snuck my way up along the hillside, making sure to stay in the hunter's blind spot. I was now right behind him. He was still looking out into the forest, not even awake of my presence. And that's how it needs to stay. I watched my footing as I ran behind the cave to look for Blair.

Alice

Being drugged was an understatement. I felt like I had been doped up to no tomorrow. My body was still limp and numb, but I knew that I was being carried. Or, more like dragged. When I stopped moving, I felt my body being laid down against something like a wall.

As the drugs began to wear off, I saw that I was against a wooden and steel bench. No longer was I in the forest, which was the last place that I remembered being before things got all weird. But instead, I was out in the Bay City Park.

The first thing I saw, was the forest in front of me. I looked around, expecting to at least find the person who carried me out. Sitting in the grass next to the bench, was the wolf girl. She was panting and dripping sweat, despite the cold temperatures.

By her appearance, she had been the one who toted me out. Behind me, leaning against a tree trunk, was the other wolf person. The one that I had heard the wolf girl call Wesley if I recalled correctly. He had also been the one standing over the injured wolf back in front of the cave.

I kept looking around, hoping to spot Shun. Last I remembered of him, he had caught me as I blacked out. Now, I didn't see him anywhere. I looked down at the tired wolf girl. "Where's Shun?" She glanced up at me, her shoulders heaving as she tried to regain her breath.

She looked at the forest, telling me silently that was where Shun was at. Had he somehow been knocked out like I had, and this girl left him for dead? She didn't seem like that kind of person. Then why was Shun still in there? Did he not know of the danger we had been fortunate enough to escape from?

Not too far away from us, there was a mob of TV reporters, just like they had been before I went back into the forest after Shun insisted that I not get involved. They probably wouldn't step foot in the forest until somebody told them that all of the wolves were dead.

Then, they'd probably do something like video tape all of the hunters and the wolves that were shot. I thought about them videoing the wolf who helped me out back in the cabin, and cringed at the idea that he truly was dead. A person that I would never know as anything else but a wolf.

I wasn't able to count all of the cameramen that were standing around. How had we snuck past all of them without being questioned why we were in the forest during the hunt? I rubbed the back of my leg where I had been shot with a tranquilizer dart.

I rolled up the leg of my pants, and stared at the red area. There was a small, pin-sized hole in the center of all of the redness. The skin in that area of my leg was still numb as the last of the drugs wore off. I looked above the trees, and saw the very top of the sun beginning to peak above the horizon. It was now dawn.

Shun

It was getting brighter and brighter and brighter as time went by. I was back at the lake that I had saved the delusional hunter from. There weren't very many trees around on the other side, and I could see the outline of the sun. Let's hope that Blair shifted back in time.

I hadn't seen any sign of where the Alpha could have gone too. No tracks in the snow or broken branches that would have suggested that he ran. Everything was just like I had left if after helping that hunter. "Blair," I whispered faintly in case any hunters were around. "Blair."

No answer. I was starting to grow tired of the silence that was building in the forest. After an entire night of hearing gunshots and screams, silence was alien to me now. I placed the palm of my hand on a tree trunk, and leaned against it. It was a nice feeling, having hands and walking on two feet again.

I would have thought that stress and panic built up inside me would have made me shift again, but I guessed that the Wolfsbane Moon probably had something to do with the uncontrolled shifts as well. There was probably a lot about that moon that I wasn't aware of.

But I wouldn't ever have to go through another one, unless I lived to be over a hundred somehow. "Blair," I whispered again. I was walking around the frozen lake; broken platforms of ice were still visible from earlier in the night. "What are you still doing here?"

I froze, and whipped around to find a large wolf looking at me. I smiled and blurted out, "Blair." Then, I realized, he was still a wolf. My smile faded. "No. Don't tell me you didn't shift back in time." He shook his head and paced to his right. "No. I've been like this for a very long time."

I stared at him, not quite understanding what he was trying to say to me. What had he meant by being like this for a long time. He stared out into the forest and sighed. "Another moon down." I kept staring at him, the words he was speaking not registering in my mind.

"What are you talking about, Blair?" He turned around to face me. "I'm a lot older than you think. I've been through two Wolfsbane Moons, this will be my third. Seems like each one gets crazier each time." Zap. My mind was fried. "Wait, you're telling me that you're 300 years old? How is that even possible?"

This was something that I wasn't expecting. Blair didn't look much older than me. Then again, I never saw him as a human. When I thought about it, I had never once seen him shift, and the others never talked about him as a human before. "My first Wolfsbane Moon, I wasn't lucky enough to shift back. I got trapped like this. But the Moon did something to those of us that got trapped; we lived way beyond what we normally should have." I blinked, finally coming to terms with what he was saying

. "So, the Moon gave you something like immortality? In that case, why not give the others in the pack the option? Some of the wolves might have wanted to live for a long time."

Blair shook his head, and his sad expression grew even sadder. "I try to keep the pack members from being trapped like this, because I don't want them to go through what I did of having to watch so many of my fellow pack die of sickness and old age. That's something none of them should have to witness. Then again, there are hardly any of them left."

There wasn't much denying that fact, and his views on the 'immortality' were agreeable as well. I know I wouldn't have wanted to sit by and watch Alice or any of the others die while I went on living. It was bad enough watching the pack members that I hardly knew get shot to death.

"So, I do my best to keep them from falling victim to this curse as well. You still haven't answered my question, Shun. Why are you still putting yourself at risk by being in this forest?" I shifted my weight back and forth on my aching feet. "I came back to try and find you. I thought you may have been shot or something."

I could literally see Blair smiling, even though he was still a wolf. "There's no reason to worry about me. I've been making it over 300 years, and I'm sure I'll make it another 300. You should get out of here before something happens to you though." I nodded my head, feeling sure that Blair would hold his own.

He would end up vanishing into the forest, hidden from the last of the hunters' eyes. Just like he always did. I walked back around the cave, shielding my eyes from the sun that was now higher up in the sky. The hunter with the tranquilizer gun was gone now, and I felt as if the forest was at peace again.

As I walked back down the hill to finally leave the forest, somebody came crashing through the trees and rammed into me. I fell to the ground, angered that somebody had knocked me over. When I saw who it was, my eyes widened. Rubbing his head with his hand, was Orion.

"Orion! We all thought you were dead!" He was as cut and scratched up as I was, but covered in twice as many bruises. He looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, I thought I was dead too. That is, till Blair showed up out of nowhere." I blinked. "Blair helped you?"

Orion nodded his head. So that's where he vanished off to. "Yeah. I had just made my way out of one of the safe houses, and was being trailed by those hunters when Blair jumped out of nowhere and scared them off. After that, he told me to shift as fast as I could and get out of the forest.

I tried to get him to come with me, but he refused. I don't even know where he's at now." I looked up at the top of the hillside. "I know where Blair's at. Don't worry, he's fine." Orion tilted his head to the side. "You sure?" I smiled and nodded my head, then stood up from the ground.

"Positive. Now, let's take his advice and get out of here. I'm sure Cynthia, Wesley, and Alice will be happy to see you're still with us." Orion laughed and stood up as well. "Yeah. I bet you're right. Because, I know I'd be pretty happy too." Off behind me, I heard Blair's howl.

chapter title based off the song Cry Of The Brave by DragonForce. if you havent been able to tell, i like their songs. o.o sorry for not uploading yesterday. my dad decided, 'hey, let's go on a two mile walk then go to walmart and get back home at 9:30.' yeah. thanks dad. -.-'' well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~