"The Pianist"
~Chapter Two~

Her breath came out in frantic, erratic puffs as she ran through the now dark forests; pushing herself passed claw like branches reaching out to take her into their clutches. The wolf behind her seems to gain ground behind her. Her cloak's hood had fallen, her long hair flying behind her as she ran. Her ankle shooting a pain up her leg- why was she born with uneven legs? They are not of any use when running away! Her chest burns with the effort, she needs to rest...

'He blames himself, you know,' Lorana thinks in her wolf form, her head on her paws and her eyes looking at the pacing wolf form of her husband with his tail down and hears flat against his skull. She whines and stands, shaking out the loose hairs from her fur and she grabs him lightly by his tail to cease his pacing. 'Can you listen to me?' David looks at her, his wolfish eyes glinting in the just-risen moonlight.

'He needs to grow up, Lorana.' David thinks, shaking his wolf head and sitting on his haunches. Lorana sighs, sitting down on her haunches as well, before she nudges her husbands shoulder with her muzzle.

'He needs a chance too...'

'We've been giving him a chance!' David yells, standing up and pacing once again. Lorana whines and follows her husband's pacing body. David shakes his wolf head, stopping at the balcony that is just off his and his wife's chamber. 'Humiliating' he grumbles, flicking his tail. 'To be reduced to this...creatures on four legs-'

'Husband,' Lorana whimpers, coming up next to him and nuzzling his shoulder with her muzzle. 'Everything will be better again.' David sighs, turning toward her and looking at her with the same blue eyes that not only matched their son's but seemed to glow bright when he is a wolf.

'I love you,' he says in a soft voice; it's a wonder that he and Lorana can communicate as wolves, but their physical voices are nothing but growls, whines and howls. Like the animals they have been cursed to be. Lorana manages a smile in her wolf form, 'I love you too, dearest-'

"Help me!" The two of them raise their ears at the sound of the frightened voice, it had come from some distance away but not too far that they couldn't run the distance to see what it was. David looks at his wife and then turns to run down the foyer stairs, jumping over the fallen door that had once stood proudly in white garnished wood. Now it lies on the floor on it's side in the wooden frame. Lorana follows after him and they follow the screams of the terrified voice.

"Somebody!" She screams, trying hard to stay on the branch that she had climbed in her desperate attempt to escape the wolf that had sometime later during the chase been joined with another wolf and then two more after; all were either black or grey, and all of them frightened her. Gabriella's heart pounds loudly behind her ears and her fingers tighten their grip around the thick base of the large branch as she decides to climb higher if she can manage. Her hair is a tangled mess around her face from the running, her cloak is torn; her hood long since ripped off from when she had gotten snagged by a clawed branch. "Stay away from me..." she calls out to the hungry wolves below her, trying to climb up to get their meal. "I mean it..stay where you!" As if they can understand her, right?

The large wolf, the black one that had started this chase of hunter and prey lunges upward and nearly takes hold of her ankle, Gabriella lifts her leg out of the way so it's like she's sitting in an awkward position in the tree. She cries incessantly for help.

'This way!' David yells, his paws thumping on the ground and his heart behind behind his ribcage. Lorana picks up her speed and tails after her husband as they whip quickly around a tree and thorn bush with red berries.

'I see something just beyond this clearing!' Lorana howls at him, they run faster; their paws thumping on the ground and their nails clicking on any rocks that are mashed in the dirt. They come out of the bushes just as they see a pack of wolves jump at the young woman in the tree; on her face a look of absolute horror and fright, and then she pales and looks positively faint when her eyes see them.

'There's too many, David.' Lorana says, bringing her lip to growl at the four wolves. David growls and stalks forward slowly.

'I'll fight...you protect her.'

'I shall help you-'

'No,' David says, his tail twitching, 'you protect the girl...I'll call for your help when I need it.' Lorana growls but obeys, stalking over toward the base of the tree that housed Gabriella. David launches himself at the great black wolf and bites at his neck, Lorana fends off as best she can the other two wolves, 'you know,' she whines, 'two wolves against isn't fair!'

David grunts, growls and begins to fight this wolf again. 'I'm a little busy here! Just keep at what you're doing!'

She stares at the scene below in utter horror-struck awe, the two wolves - the reddish one and the white as snow one - came bounding and start fighting, almost as if they were...they are protecting her. Gabriella climbs higher in the tree, hanging tight to the branches that get thinner the higher she goes; her bum leg aching like hell in the middle of a quaking piece of land. Her heart pounds loudly behind her ears and in her chest till her ribs ached, her palms are cut from the sharp edges of the bark and her arms feel like jello from climbing; if she could just make it to that one highest branch...

Short? Yes, but that's going to be my plan...'Short, long, short, long...a little longer, long' anyway, I'm excited for this story. I really am.

Now, keep in mind that David and Lorana are woves from dusk to dawn; I gave them the little gift of telepathy but only with each other, if they are too try to communicate with humans in their wolf form it's just a bunch of whines and growls. Ha. Ha.

Anyway, let me know what you think of this chapter! I thank you all who reviewed the last chapter! Apparently the rest of you are shy, but that's OK. It don't bother me much.

~Elena xx