Disclaimer: The author does not own any of the characters written of in this fanfic. She wishes she did, but she doesn't.
Kia's Wings
Chapter One
Family
Kia stared blankly at the English assignment she was supposed to be writing, pencil poised just above the paper. Sure, she had an 'aptitude' for writing. But that didn't mean she could write assignments worth a wooden penny.
"Why did the new moon have to be tonight?" She growled, throwing down her pencil and glaring moodily at the thin crescent that hung in the night-black sky. On new moons Kia was almost normal, lacking her typical razor-edged intelligence and wit. And it made her more prone to raging headaches, too. Ack, none of this was helping her write that bloody assignment…
"Oh, to heck with it," Kia grumbled, standing. Twenty minutes later she was trotting into the dimly lit forest with a pack slung over one shoulder, heading for her usual rendezvous point dead-center in the thickest patch of trees in the woods.
Ornlu, a noble silver-streaked steel-grey wolf with intensive, penetrating blue eyes that held all the intelligence of a human, if not more, stood alone in the clearing.
"I've been waiting for you, Shadowhawk," He remarked in his deep, mellow and reverberating voice.
"I know, sire," Kia said submissively, dropping to one knee before Ornlu and averting her eyes. A tick later she felt the wolf's warm breath on her cheek, a signal for her to look up and acknowledge the pack leader.
"You don't have to call me sire, Kia," Ornlu reminded the human girl he had adopted into his pack, playfully butting her over backwards. Kia landed flat on her back in a pool of muddy water, chuckling in amusement. For a supposedly dignified, straight-laced pack leader, Ornlu was a goofball.
After the rather rough-and-tumble greeting was finished Kia grasped the pewter-and-copper howling wolf's-head pendant around her neck and whispered 'Khalas'. A blinding flash of light sent lightning bolts of agony into her eyes, but when her vision ceased its disconcerting spinning Kia was a wolf.
Kia cocked her head and gazed at Ornlu with intensive, feral emerald eyes. Those eyes held a new respect for the great grey alpha.
"What are we waiting for Kia? The pack has missed you," Ornlu grinned, speaking his words not in human but in the slightly guttural, half-instinctive language of wolves.
Kia yipped once and sprinted into the forest, a silver shadow in the grey night. Ornlu grinned a canine grin, taking pleasure in the delight of his adopted daughter.
When among the wolves of the Oregon Coast, Kia was no longer her confused, unwanted human self. She shed her human skin like a bird shedding its old, broken feathers as it freed itself to once again wing through the sky, master of the clouds. She had no inhibitions, no fear, no consciousness of rank. She was free to be who she couldn't be in the human world.
Ornlu and Kia raced through the forest's shadows, masters of the woodlands and focusing only on the elusive cry of the pack. Finally the trees thinned and the pack, flourishing at fifteen members, appeared in their favorite clearing.
"Kia!" A small, familiar squeaky voice shrieked as Kia skidded to a stop. A moment later Kia was belly-up on the ground with Inu, a half-grown near-white pup from last year's breeding, staring down at her with his tounge hanging out. "I knew you'd come back! I knew it, I knew it!"
"Chill, Inu," A yearling reddish-brown wolf growled, forcibly pulling Inu off Kia. "That is not how we treat visitors!"
"I don't mind. Too much," Kia grinned as she rolled to her feet, grass sticking to her silvery-grey fur. "Next time, not quite so hard- that hurt."
Inu sneezed, half-embarrassed but too energetic to be contrite.
"Hate to interrupt the reunion," A soft, silkily malicious voice remarked from the shadows, "But you have company." In an instant all twelve adults and yearlings were in a protective circle around Kia and the three pups, fangs bared and at the ready.
"Who goes? Show yourself!" Ornlu commanded, standing tall and proud with his hackles raised.
"Oh, no one of importance," The voice replied mockingly.
"Answer the question!" Ornlu snarled.
"Really? And why should I?"
"Because if you don't, you won't see the next sunrise," Ornlu growled softly, almost kindly. "Now… come out here and face me!"
"I don't take orders from wolves," The voice retorted.
"Who is that?" Inu demanded, rather loudly.
"Oh, no one of importance," The voice repeated. "Only the White Rose."
At that Kia's heart froze. She had heard about the thief calling himself the White Rose, and the rumors that said thief wasn't entirely human.
So… what the heck was going on here?
End Chapter One
Author's Comments: MWAHAHA! I love cliffhanger endings! Yeah, I'll try to get the next chapter finished in a hurry… don't know how well that'll work, but…
Chapter Two
The Lights are On, But Nobody's Home…
A snow-colored fox with crimson eyes stepped from the shadows, practically drawing blood with his accusing, half-insulted glare.
"I'm here for the one you idiot canines call Shadowhawk," The fox told them lazily before sitting and licking one paw in complete and disdainful ignorance.
Kia's hackles went up and she shouldered through the protective sphere of her wolf friends. A threatening, icy-cold snarl echoed in her throat as she stared down at the fox, her jade eyes narrowing to resemble emerald arrows.
"You're a canine too, bushy-tail," She spat, snarling her words through bared and clenched teeth. The fox stared back, unconcerned and thoroughly disinterested.
"You don't scare me, you know."
"Whoop-de-do. Get out of here, or I'll rip your throat out."
The fox cocked one ear and narrowed his red eyes. "Oh, really? You and what army?"
I may never get to use this line again, Kia reflected briefly as she replied tightly, "This one." The wolf pack pounced as a single entity, landing square on top of the fox while scrabbling to get a tooth-hold on their foe.
Then all action ceased as the fox gripped Ornlu by the throat and neatly severed the alpha's windpipe.
"Now that I have your attention," The fox hissed as Ornlu thrashed in his death throes, "Hand Shadowhawk over. Or you will die- just as your precious alpha did." He glanced meaningfully down at the alpha's writhing form and pointedly licked the crimson stains around his mouth.
Kia could feel herself shaking; she knew she was a millisecond away from thoroughly destroying this bastard that had killed Ornlu.
"You'll pay for that…" She whispered, standing stiff-legged above the fox with her ears flat against her skull.
The arrogant little white creature simply sneezed once before looking innocently up at a thoroughly pissed-off Kia, as if asking 'what'd I do?'
"Now now, Shadowhawk, don't make any foolish moves," He reprimanded lightly, still looking infuriatingly unmoved.
A snarling panther or leopard is a an impressive, intimidating sight, but not nearly as much as a snarling wolf with a vendetta; yet this fox, this White Rose, seemed completely, almost brazenly unafraid. Abruptly he pounced in a nearly feline manner, knocking Kia flat and standing on her chest.
"I know who you are, Shadowhawk… or should I perhaps say, Kia?" The fox bared his teeth in a vicious smile, then lifted his bloodstained muzzle to the sky and unleashed an oddly deep, intimidating howl. It made Kia's skin crawl and her starlight-colored fur stand on end, and Kia wasn't an easy person to scare.
"Come with me," The fox whispered in Kia's ear.
"Why should I listen to you?" Kia snarled in reply. She yelped abruptly as the fox's canine teeth cleanly pierced her ear.
"Because it will hurt much less if you cooperate," He breathed.