Beneath the Skin
Prologue
The night was young; a cool, sweet breeze blew through the air. A calm had settled over the small village of Aeris. The sleeping village lay quiet with the pale, silvery moon casting light and shadows over the land. The forest around them wasn't so deep in sleep, though. In the dark, evil still prowled.
"Food! Need food!" growled a cold-blooded, beastly voice. "Kill! Must kill!"
A large shadow crept out of the dark forest and snaked its way across the clearing to the nearest house. It leaped into an open window with cat-like grace. A growl and a small gasp sounded from inside, but none were awake to hear them. The creature then leaped out of the window and landed on the ground gracefully. A body lay in its mouth, blood smeared across the creature's face. It growled once and slinked off into the night with its kill. The only trace of it was a trail of dark red blood leading into the forest.
***
A scream echoed in the early dawn, with the sun just peaking over the trees in the east.
"My daughter! My poor daughter! Gone! Oh, she's gone!" screeched a woman as she ran out of her house, clutching a bloodstained sheet. Her blonde hair flew out behind her slim figure as she raced down the lane, past dozens of quaint houses with gardens and fences, to a small cottage at the end of the lane. Although it was small it was still larger by far than the other homes, except for the Mystic Inn, and it held a more respectful air than the rest, as well. The woman collapsed in front of the door, crying hysterically and screaming for the village leader.
A man opened the door and looked down at the woman with concern. He wore a simple forest green shirt and tan leather-hide pants. He was fairly tall, strongly built, and his brown bangs fell in a clump over one of his honest emerald green eyes, that now were filled with concern for the woman on his doorstep.
"What seems to be the matter, ma'am?" he asked her, as he helped her to her feet.
"My daughter…" she sobbed, "is gone. Her room is in ribbons, and I found blood on her sheets." She held out the stained cloth for him to examine and continued. "We heard nothing last night, but there is no sign of her this morning. I fear the worst, Trowa," she said as tears slid from her crystalline-blue eyes to her rosy cheeks.
"Everything will be fine," he soothed. "I will summon the men of the village and hold a meeting. We will search for your daughter and we will find her."
The woman bowed, thanking him, then turned back towards her home, still feeling uneasy.
***
A bell rang out, loud and clear from above the village square. Chime upon chime, calling and echoing through the village. Men heard the call and left their homes, their wives and children standing at the door saying goodbye. All men assembled at the Mystic Inn, the meeting place of the village, for no other place was large enough to hold all the men of the town, and to seat them as well.
"A young woman is missing!" Trowa's voice rang out through the crowd as soon as everyone had assembled. "We will search for her and condemn the one who has stole her, may he be beast or man!" The crowd cheered and Trowa continued. "We will split up into four groups and comb the forest. Should you find her and need help, send a scout back to ring the bell in the village square. The rest of us will come and the scout can lead us to you." The men cheered again. "I want fifteen men in each group. Each group should be skilled in hunting, fighting, and vision, so group yourselves accordingly. This is a dangerous mission. Whatever stole this young girl away may still be around. Do not be caught off-guard!" The men cheered again and drank from the mugs that had been set infront of them by the employees of the inn.
"May I come too?" piped a voice from behind Trowa. He turned to see the bright face of Quatre, the innkeeper. His innocent blue eyes looked up at Trowa as he smiled. His hands were clasped infront of his white shirt. He looked so angelic that it made Trowa smile.
"No," he replied, "not this time. It's very dangerous. I wouldn't want you getting hurt."
Quatre nodded. "Alright," he said, hugging Trowa lightly, "but be careful."
Trowa returned the hug and placed a light kiss on the small blonde's head. "Don't worry, love. I will."
The men separated themselves into groups of fifteen as they had been told and Trowa assigned each a direction in which they were to search. It was barely morning when the men grabbed their weapons and headed out into the forest, still dark with the night's evils.
***
It was almost midday before anyone approached the evil ground where the night's actions lay exposed. The birds were chirping gleefully as if they didn't care what mayhem should befall the humans in the forest. Animals scurried to and fro from tree to tree or bush to bush. And all through the forest, voices were calling, "Relena! Relena!"
"It's futile," said a man from the northern group. "We'll never find her." He slapped at a bug that had landed on his face.
"Don't give up hope," said another nearby. "We'll find her. We have to. She couldn't have disappeared."
"Maybe not," replied the other. "But we won't find her out here. More than likely, we will find her in the stomach of some beast."
"Don't say that," hissed the second. "Are you trying to curse our search?"
"No… it's just—hey!" exclaimed the first. "What's that?" He pointed at the top of a hill in the distance to the north where a lone figure could be seen stretched across the ground. The two men ran through the forest, dodging trees and shrubs, always heading northward. They climbed the hill with fear in their hearts. At the top of the hill they stopped and gasped.
On the ground lay the small figure of a young girl. Her nightclothes were tattered and stained with blood, so that not one white space was to be seen. Her blond hair was crusted with blood and spread around her like a bloody halo. Her throat was torn to ribbons and blood was crusted around her mouth and neck. Her crystalline blue eyes stared blankly ahead. She lay on her side, arms hanging limp; her body was twisted into an odd shape, as if it had been thrown to the side after death.
The men looked at one another and slowly, one of them nudged her and turned her over. A huge chunk of her midsection had been torn out. Blood was crusted around the broken bones of her ribs; the flesh that had been torn away, now lay beside her in a heap.
The man stepped back and ran into the bushes to vomit, while the other stared at her with disbelief.
When the first man came back, he looked at the other. "Who could have done this? Was it human?" he questioned.
"No," said the second man, examining the body closely.
"Then what?" said the first.
The second man bent down to the body and picked up what look like hairs off of the crusted blood. "From this hair, I think…" he began. "It's wolf."
To be continued…
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Authors' Notes: We hope you liked it. This is our first fanfic working together and we think it's going pretty good. We'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as we can, but high school keeps us very busy and we only have bits of one 80 minute to work, so please be patient. Thank you. Don't forget to review. Ja ne!