((hey, guys! whoo finally a nice, long chapter. first of all, CONGRATS TO MARCY AND PB FOR ACTUALLY BEING CANON. we all knew it anyways, but it's still a very important moment for the fandom! second, sorry for not updating often. school's only getting tougher and I gotta keep up. but anyways, sorry, about this chapter being a little confusing. so for clarification, scroll to the bottom if you want clarification as to what's happening... and omg, the lack of parallel structure is killing me. I think I ended up writing this pretty fast but please bare with me here TT^TT... (and don't forget to be ready for change!)))

"Woahhhh!"

A young girl's voice spoke breathlessly.

"Do it again! Do it again!"

A woman laughed. "Alright, alright."

Two wolves, one a adult with tail, fangs, and all, and one an child, too young to even hunt, sat along a tree branch. Both were positioned in a way that the branch ran between their legs as they hunched facing each other comfortably.

'Is this a dream or a memory...?'

"What do you want this time?"

"Ummm, how about a flock of mini morrow!" The girl swung her feet in excitement.

'It's me and mom... this is probably a memory...'

The woman cooed aloud strangely. Similar to a birdcall but so odd as to seem impossible for wolves, humans, or any other beings for that matter to imitate. She paused and they both waited.

Suddenly, a couple dozen small golden feathered birds swooped in, flapping their wings to land all over the branches around them. They cawed with small, but screeching cries. The young Marceline giggled as one landed atop her short black hair and she raised her arms to allow a few more morrows along to drop in them. The woman smiled to see her visible happiness and her ears perked.

"Wow, mom, you're amazing!" she looked up. "Creature calls are real hard!" Marceline made a weak attempt at a call, only to sound like some kind of dying animal. They both laughed. "How do you do it?"

She chuckled. "Sorry, Marceline. I can't tell you. Maybe when you're older," she grinned.

Marceline pouted. "But you always say that!"

"Well, you always ask," she laughed.

Suddenly, they heard an odd, bellowing roar from above. Past the leaves of treetops even further above, the two of them witnessed the passing by of a terrifying, and massive winged creature. It had four leathery wings and several limbs. It's underbelly contained held a glowing, yet dark pouch. The monster didn't scare Marceline much, but the woman seemed distressed.

"What's wrong, mom?"

Still looking towards the now empty sky, she spoke. "You know Marceline, there's this old saying that if a soul dragon passes overhead, then something bad might happen... Kind of like an omen..."

"O...men?" Marceline repeated.

"Yeah." She looked down to Marceline, only to see a confused little girl. "Ah, but it's nothing you need to worry about at your age," she corrected herself.

"Not the age thing again!" They both smiled. They talked for a while longer. But their conversation was suddenly interrupted when the woman grunted and hunched over.

"Um... mom?" Marceline leaned in towards her.

It kept happening. She seemed to be in a sharp physical pain occurring in consecutive waves.

"Mom..? Mom?! Are you okay?!"

She exhaled sharply. "Agh, don't worry, Marceline!" she managed to strain. "Remember? It's just my-my chronic tummy aches."

'She always had those really weird stomach aches...'

"But mom!"

"I'll be fine, I'll be fine, Marceline. I-" she stopped groan briefly, "I just gotta go down for a second okay?"

"Mo-"

She struggled, but the woman had already hopped off the branch, startling the morrows and causing many to drop down as well. Marceline immediately swung over to search the floor below. All she found were the morrows rushing back up in retaliation to the plunge and flying past her above the leaves. She continued staring up at the golden flock. Though, she'd noticed that one of them had had a strange black pattern, distinguishing it from the rest.

Marceline struggled to climb down the tree, going down branch by branch as a regular human would. But she'd accidently misplaced her foot and slipped. She began plummeting far below, screaming along the way down.

"Yipe!" She squealed as somebody caught her.

"Marceline?!" It was Hunson. "What did I tell you about climbing trees?!"

"Mom was just showing me some really cool tricks up there!" she glowed, completely unfazed of the fact that she could've gotten really hurt.

Hunson sighed heavily, holding Marceline with one arm and pinching his brow line with his free hand. "I thought I told that woman not to take you up there..."

"Yeah, well mom says that 'it's good for skill building and experience for a young and growing wolf such as yourself,'" she recalled the exact words she'd been told to say if she were ever asked.

He gave her a glare. She only giggled in response. He put her down and grumbled under his breath. "Well, just make sure to stay safe okay?"

"Okay!" she smiled. He looked down and stared at her little, grinning face for a while. He cracked a slight smile and knelt for a second to give her a noogie and she laughed.

Then he left. Marceline watched him leave. But something felt strange.

He kept on going. He kept going until he was out of sight.

'That's not what I remember him doing... he's supposed to head back to the den...'

Suddenly things change. It's night. She was a little bit older now. She hears the same roaring call. The call of the soul dragon. Upon glancing up, she sees the creature flying around and gets scared. She looks back in front of her.

Everything's dark, but a figure makes out a shape as to being even darker compared to its surroundings.

It's a person. A wolf. A cub. But the cub hunched over something. Something laid along the ground.

No. Another person. An adult. A human. It's dead and bloody.

They're both bloody. Marceline takes a closer look.

The boy turns his head towards her. His eyes burn golden, the same color as her own eyes. His face is covered in a mess of red.

Marceline realizes what'd just happened. She gasps and wants to cry. It's Marshall. And he's eating a human.

'But mom always said that it was wrong to eat people...'

Marceline felt sick to her stomach. He must've killed that human himself.

'No, he did this more than once, didn't he...? He killed a lot of people... didn't he?'

Hunson came back from the darkness. He walked forward and stopped next to the young Marshall. And he patted him on the shoulder. He congratulated him.

The young Marceline felt her heart drop. She turned and ran, tears streaming down her face in fear and disgust.

'A dream... This has to be a dream...'

She hears the woman call her. She looks up and sees a hand. She takes it.

Marceline was lifted up on a tree branch. She was there.

"Mom! Mom! I saw it! I-I saw the soul dragon!... And- and then I saw-…"

"I know. I saw it too..." the woman interrupted. She noticed Marceline's panic and pulled her into a hug to help calm her down.

"I was disappointed..." she paused. "But it's in our blood. Just because I think don't think our means of hunting are very nice, it doesn't mean that I can force him not to do it. We are wolves after all, aren't we?" She looked at Marceline with a reassuring, yet still desolate smile. It didn't help much but Marceline tried her best to cope. She slowed her breathing and tried to forget what she saw.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"I think so..."

"Okay. I have to go alright? It's time for me to take care of some of the younger cubs okay? My instincts tell me that your sister needs me." It was morning before she knew it. In fact, a few more years had passed again.

"O-okay..."

She jumped down and vanished mysteriously as she always did. Marceline decided to take a nap in the trees alone then. She normally only did so when her the woman was with her under the stars, and would otherwise sleep in the den like everybody else whenever the woman was out hunting, or doing whatever she did at night. But that morning felt as if nature, or fate, or something like that was calling her to stay.

But as soon as she closed her eyes, she heard the frightening roar again and it was night now. Still the same day. And the same damn creature flew above.

Marceline sat up in a panic once more. She checked around her quickly and felt anxious. Something was going to happen.

She stared to the sky again, having nowhere else to turn. The monster was still nearby. She watched it fly overhead. But it appeared afraid.

It zigged and zagged, as if avoiding something. She examined it closer. It was different from usual.

Not only did it's pouch appear empty and the creature seemed less evil overall, but it had the same strange markings as the mini morrow and many other creatures she'd seen throughout her childhood. She was beginning to believe that they'd all had something important in common.

But there was a bolt of blinding light that'd come from somewhere within the forest. The creature had been struck down. It screeched deafeningly.

Marceline gasped and nearly fell back. It was so unexpected to her.

A second bolt struck the dragon as it plummeted. It all seemed to happen in a blink of an eye.

Within the second blink, she swore that what'd been shot down was not a creature, but a person. And something else along with it.

Everything was happening so fast.

And in the third blink, all that was left, was the smoke in the sky.

In the fourth, she was back on the ground, standing in front of the den.

The fifth, she watched Hunson break down.

The sixth, she was running.

The seventh, she had someone new.

The eighth, she lost him too.

The ninth, she had someone new.

'A memory.'

'A memorm.'

'A dmrem.'

'A dream...'

'I wish this was just a dream.'

In the tenth blink, she lost her. Her eyes flickered open. She was finally back to reality.

However, it felt as if she were still dreaming. She could still smell her. Bonnibel from the dream.

Marceline sat up and looked around in the den. Nobody was there. To her dismay, she slowly stood up and felt tense. She walked out of the den in a slight daze, with the outside only being slightly brighter than the pitch black cave thanks to the scattered stars. The moon wasn't very bright tonight.

'How long was I asleep?' She began to wonder if she really was still asleep.

She proceeded to investigate the empty den and Bonnibel's lingering scent outside. She adjusted her vision to a see the wood a little bit further beyond her.

She made out several figures creeping-almost stalking something-in the darkness, all headed all in the same direction. It took her a second of staring, but she eventually realized something.

'Oh god, this isn't a dream...

Bonnibel was nearby and the wolves were coming to get her.

"Damn," she exhaled and raced to climb the nearest tree. "Shit like this always has to happen, doesn't it..." she whispered to herself.

Marceline squatted on a branch at a decent height and searched for another one to grab onto anywhere nearby. She never really had very good practice with it, but she attempted to hop between branches of trees a few feet apart.

As she flung herself awkwardly amongst the treetops, only barely grasping every other branch and clinging for her life until she found the strength to pull herself up, she thought of the first Hunson from her dreams. She imagined herself falling and being a cub again. Hunson would catch her and nag her all over again.

But as she kept on moving, she thought of the last Hunson. The proud Alpha. Patting Marshall on the shoulder. Showing pride in a- a serial killer.

Marceline shivered. She became scared.

But then she thought of Bonnibel. She was in grave danger. And it was probably her fault. She thought about it more and more. Her ears perked up and she felt a surge of strength. She began to heat up in anger and determination. Nobody was allowed to lay a finger on Bonnibel; let alone kill her. Not even anyone from her own pack.

Marceline felt the pulsing again. It was strong. But she didn't let it faze her at all this. In fact, she went faster. She needed to go faster than them. The wolves. She might've accepted the fact that they ate humans at times, but she wasn't about to let Bonnibel get hurt.

As the pulsing increased, she sped up even more and moved in on the scent. Eventually, she was able to catch up to it. She looked behind her and knew that she was able to make it far before the others could, but they were still coming. Marceline looked below and saw the hooded girl headed in the direction that she'd come from. She knew she only had a few minutes. Marceline made sure to remain silent and hopped down.

((okay so the whole thing is actually a mix about three or four separate memories, but marceline is still dreaming the whole time, except for the last few paragraphs when things go back to the present time. everything in single quotations are actually the conscious, present-tense marceline throwing in comments on her own dreams/memories. so basically, it's like a flashback, but a lot more emphasized in her mind. it's nightmares like this that ended up making marceline a really worrisome and anxious person at times actually. and also there's still some stuff I left unexplained so that's for future chapters to come!))