Author's Note: Another extra-long chapter just for you, my dear readers, if by this time there still are any left. Ain't I an optimist? x3 Anyway, if you're reading this: congratulations for making it this far! (whether it was by honestly reading the whole thing or skipping out parts, and in the latter case you'll have to go back because there will be many unclear parts in the future for you. )
No, really. Sorry to drag this on, but I just couldn't make it shorter or skip over parts, trust me. So thanks for sticking with me all this way. I appreciate it. x3
4. Run
…Loki awakened to find herself hanging in mid-air in a strange, dimly-lit chamber. It was dark all around her; the only light came from some turned-on computer screens nearby, which gave off a soft, greenish kind of glow. This meant that the girl wouldn't be able to get a good look around anyway.
After a closer inspection, Loki discovered that she was actually bound to some sort of a metal construction. Her hands and feet were completely enclosed in some kind of strange spherical manacles which prevented her from ejecting her claws. She was attached to the construction by bright electric currents, which flowed lightning-like back and forth between the manacles and the four gleaming tubes in the metal structure that protruded from the floor and the ceiling. It was quite an uncomfortable position, but Loki had other things on her mind right now. She was still dazed after the silver-pellet attack, and her skin was sore where the accursed metal touched her flesh… which was pretty much every inch of her. Her head was bursting as the distressing light-purplish scent of silver still lingered around her in see-through fumes. Loki shook herself, and the electric currents holding her sizzled and turned blue for a moment.
After a while, the wolf-girl's mind cleared a bit and she was able to reflect on everything that had happened. She scanned her mind for any sign of the wolf-feeling, and realized that it was nowhere to be found. It must've been hiding in some far-off corner of her mind and recuperating. No wonder she wasn't feeling savage and murderous anymore.
Loki sighed, and shook her head to get the hair out of her eyes. How did she get herself into this mess? This was the first time ever she went… berserk like that, and now she didn't even remember what the whole struggle was about…
Ah yes, of course. It was about freedom, she remembered now. About that, and about finding her pack; if it existed, that was. Now that everything was over, Loki began doubting her earlier convictions. What if the Chief had been telling the truth all along? What if she really was manufactured?
But no, he lied; she had felt it in his scent. At first he had been slightly nervous, and then had grown steadily more so as their conversation progressed. Loki's nose couldn't be fooled. And that meant, she realized with a jolt, that the freedom was worth fighting for. She couldn't say what was so great about giving up the life she was already used to and wandering into an unfamiliar territory which she had absolutely no knowledge about, but it… sort of… called out to her. Like it was in her… blood, or something. It must be a werewolf thing, she figured.
A while passed, and Loki gradually re-convinced herself that finding her pack was important, and running away was the main priority. But she couldn't get out of this place by sheer force and rage, she had learned that much. Loki couldn't afford making another mistake like that. What she did was horrible; not that she cared about all the smashed places and hurt humans, but after a fit like that, she realized, she might not be given a second chance to begin with. Nevertheless, thought the wolf-girl, she should start making plans right now. To succeed, she would need to be sneaky. She would need to lie low and wait. But first of all, she would need to get out of this freaking… this… (Loki struggled for appropriate words, but in vain) this... chamber!
The Chief knew that the most sensible way to deal with this was to give the werewolf-girl the shot and get it all over with. But the problem was that this particular werewolf-girl was an abnormality, a rare specimen, and she was showing a lot of talent in battle. If she finished her training and became an elite warrior, she would fetch a lot of money. It would be a pity to throw millions of dollars away just like that. Of course, she could always be cloned and then put to sleep, but clones didn't live for very long, and there was often something wrong with them, anyway. Copies were never as good as the original. There was also the option of erasing, or, to speak in more... correct terms, suppressing Loki's memories, but as the incident in question had shown, it wasn't a very reliable safety precaution. Moreover, her memories had already been erased once, and meddling with her mind for the second time was quite dangerous – it could result in handicapping her brain completely; and it was a well-known fact that mentally disabled werewolves did not make good warriors. It had taken eleven long years to train Loki, and the Chief wasn't about to just throw eleven years worth of time, efforts and resources out the window.
In other words, the Chief wasn't very keen on killing Loki off. On the other hand, there was that whole questionnaire about her true origins that she'd given him, and then that horrible fit she threw afterwards that left half of the Section E-1 in smouldering ruins. Not that he cared a lot about all the smashed places and hurt people (they did take those jobs at their own risk, you know), but those were expenses he was thinking about here! And to cover all the expenses, you needed money. Not that he was a greedy man, but there was just never enough money. It was all about money. Money, money, money. Money was at work everywhere; you could never have too much of it (because if you did, it always managed to magically disappear in some bugger of a manager's back-pocket).
The Chief wasn't usually a greedy or indifferent man. But if gambling on people's lives by letting a potentially dangerous werewolf-warrior stick around meant making enormous profits, he was ready to take the chance.
Loki was staring blankly into space when the door slid open and a dark figure appeared in the entrance, contrasting sharply with the brightly-lit rectangle of the doorway. Her head snapped up at once. She recognized the scent. It was the Chief.
"I have come to talk to you," he said, a polite grin spreading across his face.
Loki was quiet. Well, what could she say? Somehow 'how nice of you to drop by, help yourself to a cup of tea' did not seem like a suitable and expected response.
Meanwhile, the Chief went on. Loki had already prepared herself for a nice long introduction to the topic, but apparently the man was very busy, because he got to the point straight away.
"You were my most trusted warrior, Loki. I created you, raised you, trained you with those very hands…"
Oh boy, there he goes with that whole 'you're manufactured' load of bull all over again, thought Loki grimly.
"…My men gave you life and purpose, without them you'd still be a shapeless lump of DNA floating in a test-tube somewhere…"
Scratch that about him getting straight to the point, sighed the wolf-girl. No, she didn't want to hear it all out again. She shook herself in her shackles, causing the electric currents to sizzle and send blue sparks flying.
"Just say it, old man," she said quietly, her voice grumpy and rough.
The Chief stopped for a moment and wagged a finger at the ominous dark shape hanging sullenly in her giant manacles. He wasn't afraid at all, he told himself.
"The point is that you've destroyed half the building, you got angry over some ridiculous ravings and you lost control over yourself! Being a warrior is all about controlling yourself!" He saw the girl's eyes flicker dangerously in the darkness. "You've been a very bad girl, Loki, and you will pay the consequences. You will not be returning to your training…"
In the darkness, Loki gulped. She wasn't going back? What did he mean? Was he going to have her killed? No, it wasn't as if she was afraid of dying or anything, but there were just so many things left for her to do; it couldn't be all over, not now of all times!
"…You'll be going away for a while to a… a reformatory centre. A reformatory centre is a place where… well, where bad werewolves are changed back into good werewolves. Understand? You'll be doing some hole-digging… and… stuff, and when you'll be ready, we will return for you and take you back. It's all in your best interests…"
There was a lot of gesturing and finger-fidgeting involved in the explanation. Loki could only hang and stare. 'Reformatory centre'? What made him think she wouldn't try to run away from some stupid reformatory centre?
Something at the back of her mind was nagging at her. It had been trying to get her attention for quite some time now, and was currently jumping up and down and waving its hands in a desperate attempt to get Loki to see it.
The Chief was still rambling on about the reformatory centre when the wolf-girl coughed, loudly enough to get the man to listen.
"There's something I wanted to know, er…" she said. "About how I got caught, you know, on my… rampage… thing." Her voice was quiet and steely. It didn't sound like a human voice at all.
The Chief listened.
"Those bullets… I thought I was going to die… Why didn't they kill me? They seemed deadly enough… How come I'm still alive? I was just wondering…"
Her voice trailed off. She hadn't really expected an answer. To her surprise, however, the Chief turned out to be fully willing to cooperate.
"Those weren't bullets. They were pellets," he said in a tone that suggested that this explained everything.
There was an awkward silence from Loki's end of the room.
The Chief sighed. "They weren't designed to kill," he explained in a slightly irritated sort of voice, the kind of voice one uses to explain to a really dull five-year-old what a potty is for. "They only attached themselves to your skin and expanded, encasing you in a shell and preventing you from moving or staying conscious. Do you know why you couldn't stay conscious? Because the pellets were made from silver. You see, Loki, as invincible as you may think you are, there are ways of taming a werewolf. Silver is the surest way to keep you under control. Let me demonstrate…"
The scientist pressed a button on the pedestal somewhere to the right of the metal structure that held Loki imprisoned. A thin antenna-like thing with a small sphere on its end protruded from the ceiling and lowered itself until it was level with Loki's face. The small sphere glinted innocently in the dim computer light. It was surrounded by a thin light-purple veil of scent.
Somehow, the girl felt what was coming up next. Silver, huh, she thought. She would dodge out of the thing's way, only there was nowhere to dodge. She could only hang in her shackles and take in the sickening reek. The antenna stretched down and out until the silver sphere could touch Loki's cheek. Her skin hissed and smouldered where the sphere was being pressed into it, and she could soon feel the scent of her own burning flesh. Loki winced.
"So you see now," the Chief went on. "Silver can cause a lot of pain to you werewolves. It is very unfortunate that I have to use it on you of all… people, but it cannot be helped. You did a terrible thing, and you're being punished. Now, if you'll be a good girl in the reformatory, your punishment just might be shorter by a teensy bit. Catch my drift?"
Loki was quiet. The Chief took her silence as a 'yes'. He pressed another button on the pedestal, and the silver antenna disappeared into the ceiling.
Loki had gotten the slightest of suspicions that she had already begun to understand what this whole 'reformatory centre' thing was going to be all about.
The official-looking truck rattled up the stony country-road. The city was a long way behind it now, and the forest was stretching away on either sides of the road. There was something dark and ancient about it, something that vaguely suggested that if you wandered into it after dark you weren't likely to come out in one piece. In other words, it was exactly the kind of forest that scared the patooties out of average city-dwellers, whatever 'patooties' were. The driver of the official-looking truck wasn't too happy about it, either. But work was work, and it had to be done.
The truck took a turn, and then another turn. Now the road was even rockier and muddier than before, and had a slightly abandoned look to it. The trees loomed high above, blocking off the sky with a thick canopy of branches. It suddenly seemed to be a bit too dark for four o'clock in the afternoon.
Finally, the truck arrived at a clearing. It was a very large, very broad clearing that harboured about a dozen of long, shabby-looking sheds and a very clean and official-looking five-storey building that didn't fit at all into its gloomy surroundings. A large area in the background was closed off to the outsider's eye by a tall, impenetrable-looking fence. And around the whole place one would see, if one looked around carefully enough, many intricate wires, poles and other objects that at first glance seemed to all be a part of the structure that gleamed oddly in the rare sunlight that penetrated the trees. If one had the vision, or rather the sense of smell of a werewolf, one would also see a veil of thin, light-purple smoke hanging over the place.
Six people in silver armour came out of the five-storey building and headed for the truck. Two of them exchanged a couple of words with the drivers, while the other four went to the back of the truck to unload the cargo. A long, rectangular box was extracted from there and heaved by the men into the building. It was covered by a silvery cloth-like material. In a strange and inexplicable way it resembled a coffin. The drivers came out of their cabin to watch the unloading of the box; and then, as the four haulers disappeared behind the doors of the headquarters, they spoke some more to the other two people in silver. After that, the drivers got back into the cabin, and the official-looking truck drove off.
Loki awoke to the sound of bustling activity. Her whole body was still stiff and sore from the tranquilizer and the scent of silver that had enveloped her all throughout the journey and had managed to penetrate even her sleep, heavy as it was. Even as she lay where she was, she could see light-purple flowing around her in distressing waves. Loki raised her head a bit, and found that it was hard to move. Her wrists and ankles tingled slightly with pain. She looked at them and found that they were shackled in silver. Loki groaned and lay back down onto the hard mattress. So I was right, she thought. There's going to be a heck of a lot of silver involved in this ordeal. Not looking forward to that…
The girl looked around to examine and take in the new surroundings. She found that the thoughts were moving much slower through her head now, and her whole conscience was enveloped in something like a thick, white fog. That must've been the silver affecting her mind.
Nevertheless, she didn't fail to notice that the room she was in was very strange. It was nothing like the dark, steely cells back in the laboratory. It seemed so light and fresh compared to them, except, of course, for the scent of silver. Loki could catch a cool movement of air on her face that was strangely enjoyable. It seemed to bring back memories… fond memories…
But she didn't get to think too much about it, because at that very moment the door swung open and a woman in armour appeared in the doorway. Loki raised her head an inch to see.
"Ah, the new girl," said the woman. The sound of her voice was pleasant enough, but her tone seemed brittle with ice. "Up!"
Loki heaved herself into a sitting position with great effort. Something about the woman's attitude made you think twice before disobeying an order.
"Welcome to the Greyfang Mining Corp, the National Werewolf Reformatory Centre," barked the woman, not sounding welcoming at all. "I'm here to familiarize you with the instructions."
The next few days passed in an excruciating monotony. It soon became very clear to Loki why there were no thick-wall cells in this place to keep the werewolves in, and why the guards around here were armed with nothing more than crossbows. There was simply no need for anything more. The whole place was saturated with silver; silver was in every room, every crevice of the sheds, and its scent slithered around in thick, nauseating fumes.
Well, nobody could beat humans in inventing torturous punishments, because only a human could come up with the idea of werewolves working in a silver mine. It all worked out, of course. You didn't have to actually pay a werewolf, and they were too weakened by the influence of the toxic metal to revolt. The shackles they wore prevented them from moving too fast, and the sickly scent poisoned their brains, making sure that no thoughts got across faster than a feather falling through cement. And by the time the full moon came the creatures were so exhausted that locking them up in their stables was all it took to ensure safety.
The place itself was rather old-fashioned. There were neither high-tech security devices nor modern mining technology around. It was a waste of money, the founders of the company had found, when there was so much free labour force about that could be subdued so easily and didn't require much more than good food in any case. And good food was a lot less expensive than acquiring the latest mining technology.
The overseer-woman explained to Loki what she had to do on her very first day in the Reformatory Centre, or more precisely, the silver mine. The girl's job wasn't too complicated. Since there were many werewolves already working around the place, the humans could afford employing some of them for smaller tasks. Loki's job was to help unload the carts that came up from the mineshafts and do other minor errands, like clearing the roads or moving big boulders around. She had to work among many other wolf-people in rain or heat and whether she was rested well enough or not. They were awakened early by the sound of the horn, and they worked their rears off until it was too dark for the humans to supervise them.
Loki was finding it a lot harder to concentrate on separate concepts now. Her head hurt constantly, and her muscles were always sore from the silver shackles she wore day and night. Since the silver around here didn't actually enter the werewolves' bloodstream (in most cases), it couldn't kill them as such, but it made them very slow and dim-witted. They became… zombies, in a way. They died a lot sooner than they would in freedom, too. The whole point of her coming here, Loki reflected in her first days in the reformatory, back when she could still reflect, was to make her forget. It worked sort of like a digital memory-eraser did, only it wasn't… as quick and destructive. In a way. Her strength would be restored once she returned to the laboratory, and the thinking process would regenerate itself with time, but all rebellious thoughts would be forgotten. Loki was already beginning to feel apathy, indifference. With time she would be broken, just like the rest of the slaves…
Only that day was never to come.
It was another hot summer afternoon. Loki had just finished unloading the cart and was waiting for another one to be dragged to the surface. Sweat was trickling down her forehead despite the cool breeze that swept over the clearing from time to time. There were trees in the distance, just like in the video she had once seen, but she was too exhausted to think about that. Those trees…
Loki glanced up at the merciless, glaring sun and tried to remember the wolves. It was something she often did, or tried to at least, in the short breaks she got in-between her tasks. It's been roughly two weeks now since she'd arrived at the reformatory, and she'd wasted the first week adjusting to the new environment and generally being too stunned to think about anything. But as the time progressed the girl came to realize that little by little her memories were ebbing away, and her mind was slowly filling with an animal indifference. She couldn't afford that, she knew. She had a goal now, and the more those humans tried to take it away from her, the more she hung on to it, out of sheer will and stubbornness.
The cart sure took its sweet time. Loki glanced around her, turning her head steadily to take in the surroundings. There was a thought she'd been harbouring in her mind, a thought she was afraid to lose in the thick, purplish haze. She'd been planning to run away from this place. It hadn't occurred to Loki that she had no place to go to and that she knew nothing about forests. The woods called out to her, and the wolf-feeling inside of her responded, faint and weakened as it was. Deep inside, Loki was a wolf; and right now she was thinking like one as well. The problem was, she had no clear plan in her mind, and she'd feel too weak to go through with it in any case. Something always came up, and Loki delayed her escape, day after day. That was the silver taking its toll on her brain.
But today, Loki felt… different. Whether it was because the trees seemed greener and more beckoning, or because the sun was hotter, or whether the guards seemed a bit more relaxed today, she couldn't tell. She just knew that it had to be today or never.
The wolf-girl looked around again. Here and there, werewolf-people lumbered about lazily doing their tasks, their shackles clanking softly as they moved. The guards were hanging around their watchtowers, exchanging short conversations and not really paying much attention to their charges. And there, at the far end of the clearing, the trees rustled softly in a passing-by breeze. Calling, calling…
Loki stood, swaying slightly. She was quite used to feeling dizzy now. The cart was still on its way… Now or never. All right…
There was a 'sling' and two claws appeared from under the skin just above the girl's toes. She made a sort of an awkward pirouette in the air, swinging her foot about so that her claws cut the silver chain binding her to the heavy lead weight-sphere. The blades then retracted as she stumbled forwards into the sand. The girl glanced around once again. Nobody appeared to have noticed her clumsy whirling act. Good… Trying to look casual and on task, she started towards the fence on the opposite side of the clearing.
For the guards up on the tower, it was just another ordinary day. They stood around, smoking home-made cigarettes, and were dying of boredom. Why bother looking after these things? They were too dim to do anything except what they were told to, anyway. Well, at least it was them that had to do the mining... Man, was it hot outside! A glass of whisky would be nice right about now…
By a pure accident, one of the men happened to glance down. By an even greater accident, he happened to have eyesight sharp enough to spot a small werewolf hobbling onwards uncertainly, with the weight-sphereless chain dragging along uselessly behind her in the sand. He squinted as he tried to examine the strange werewolf closer.
"Hey, guys, look… Why's that one doesn't have a weight on?" he asked, pointing. A couple more heads turned in the wolf-girl's direction.
"That's strange…"
"HEEEEEEY!!!" yelled another guard, "BITC-- WOLF… GIRL!!! Where'd you think you're goin'???"
Through the fog of silver stench blocking her senses, Loki was vaguely aware of the agitation on the watchtower. She kept going, however, staring straight ahead of her. Stay calm, she told herself, you can do it. She tripped over a rock, but steadied herself and kept going. Silver dragged her down. Hot sweat formed on her forehead. Her head swam, but she kept going.
"Stop RIGHT NOW or we'll SHOOT!" roared the guard that had first spotted the girl. Oh hell, why am I even bothering with the warning, he thought, loading his crossbow with a silver-tipped arrow. Human appearance could be so off-setting…
Loki felt it coming and stumbled over to one side as the arrow came whooshing past her and buried itself in the sand. Three more arrows came towards her back, slicing the air. Loki dodged those, too. Behind her, she could hear yelling. The men became more and more agitated as they saw her struggles. They didn't take her escaping attempt too seriously. They knew she wouldn't be able to escape anyway, so they didn't think it important enough to contact the headquarters right away. It was a boring day, and here was a perfect chance to have some fun… how could they miss such a great opportunity? Bowstrings strained as more arrows were being loaded…
Soon Loki became aware of a hail of arrows heading her way. She knew she wouldn't be able to dodge every one of them; but every one of them, she was sure, was crammed with a deadly dose of silver. Loki started running, slowly at first as her sore feet were getting used to the concept. The arrows missed her narrowly, and she was now aware of a few werewolves stopping in their tracks to watch. She was sweating all over. She was running in silver, through silver, with silver pursuing her… and with a streak of terrible pain, silver had just buried itself in one of her ankles. Loki fell forward, gripping the sand with her hands as blood gushed out of the wound. She felt tears streaming down her face as her flesh burned and melted under the accursed metal.
The men lowered their bows. The lucky firer grinned at the others proudly.
"Nice one," said the guard with the sharp eyesight. "Good hunt, eh?"
But the werewolves were still watching. The girl, her face screwed up in effort, was kneeling on one leg now, like a sprinter poised to run. There was a moment of stilled movement as the whole world drew its breath, and then…
"What?? She's up again! Damn her to hell!"
The bowstrings sang as more arrows were released into the air after the feisty girl. She ran on, dodging them, jumping, the purplish fog lifting slowly from her conscience as her entire body was awakening from a long, deep slumber. An especially ignorant werewolf was in her way, slowly carrying something wide and flat with rocks on it. Loki stumbled into it, ripping the flat thing from its hands and turned to face the incoming arrows, using the thing like a shield.
The men were furious now. How dared that mongrel resist them? On the other hand though, it was a good game. It was the first time an event like that ever occurred in this place, and it was worth the efforts.
The guard with the sharp eyesight stepped back from the others, who, pushing and cursing, continued sending countless arrows into the desperately self-defending wolf-girl. There was a pass from this tower to the next ones that provided a much clearer view of the struggling werewolf. Using a shield to hide behind, trying to be clever, she was. He smiled to himself. Two could play at this game… Unnoticed by anyone, he walked until he reached the perfect spot. The girl was too concentrated on deflecting the others' attacks, she knew nothing… He spat onto the wooden floor. Then he aimed at the rebel's unprotected back…
Loki was completely unprepared for the attack. She sensed the arrow all right, but at that precise moment about a dozen more came from the front, and if she turned this way she would dodge those ones, but that would leave her back open and that meant…
Her world exploded in a whirlwind of pain, blood, scent of burning skin and evil multicoloured lights. It was a torment beyond imagination, an excruciating agony that made every cell in her body scream in intolerable anguish. Loki's eyes glazed over and for a moment she could only see black as her limp body slumped lifelessly onto the sand. An arrow was sticking out of her back, half-buried in the girl's flesh, missing her spinal cord by a mere inch. Blood bubbles hissed and burst, as the dark-red liquid ran steaming down her sides. It was all over. She was going to die. Oh well, at least she knew that she'd tried…
"Giving up already?"
Somewhere inside of her, on an island of calm in the endless sea of pain, Loki opened her eyes. The wolf-feeling was facing her from the darkness, fangs bared.
"Get up," it said. "Remember what you're fighting for. Get up right now. Open your eyes!!"
'I… can't,' Loki said simply. The wolf-feeling sneered. And as it did, visions filled Loki's head, as clear as if they were a movie on a screen; no… as if she was living them. It was the laboratory at first. The chamber of glowing capsule-tubes, bodies floating in each one, slumbering forever. She was one of the bodies. Her eyes were shut tight. Loki shivered as she watched. But then the visions became brighter, wilder. Trees were groaning in a fierce gale. Wolves were howling their savage, beautiful song. And the full moon filled her vision, pale and shimmering.
"Open your eyes!!!!!" roared the wolf-feeling, as the visions merged into one big scene.
The Loki in the capsule-tube opened her eyes, full of anger, power, longing and determination. She had the eyes of a wolf, and the full moon reflected brightly inside of them.
…Back on the sandy clearing, the struck-down girl's eyes snapped open. They had the steely glint of those of a wolf, and their pupils were narrowed to slits. And if one looked close into those merciless orbs full of determination, one would see the full moon reflecting dimly inside of them.
Up on the watchtower, the guard smiled smugly. That was one clever idea he had come up with. He saw the other men running towards him over the pass, grinning broadly and shouting their congratulations. The atmosphere was like that after a successful hunt. He spit onto the floor again and then looked out from the tower once more.
"Show's over! Stop gawping and get back to work!!!" he yelled at the staring werewolves. With the last glance at the wolf-girl's body, they slowly resumed their tasks. Some of them, who still had some bits and pieces of their intellect left in their broken minds, were rather saddenned by this outcome. To them, this whole act of resistance was like a… like a symbol of… something…
Loki lay in the sand for a bit, staring at nothing, wind playing in her hair. For a while, nothing happened; but then, suddenly, she began changing. Her ears lengthened. Her claws grew. Her whole body twitched as she felt heartbeats pounding in her head… It was as if the wolf-feeling was awakening inside of her again, but this time really awakening…
The creature sprang up from the ground. It wasn't a girl anymore, it was a werewolf. The arrows in her back and ankle didn't matter anymore, she didn't notice the pain. Escape was the only priority. And it was there, ahead of her… So close…
It was a while before the guards noticed that the girl was up and running again. The sharp-eyed guard swore loudly. It wasn't funny anymore. There was absolutely nothing amusing about game that kept getting up over and over again. It began to dawn on him, as well as on the rest of the crew that this was getting serious.
Loki was almost at the fence when the howl of the siren broke out across the clearing, and a hail of arrows was up in the air again. She was aware of men running after her, shouting, but they were a long way off. They didn't matter. Not when the wolf-feeling was in control. The werewolf completed her transformation and stood for a second, sizing up the wall in front of her. It was tall, and had a silver spiked wire stretched across the top. That didn't matter. Loki crouched, every muscle in her lupine body tense, and then sprang upwards. Her claws, not the metal ones, but her natural wolf claws buried themselves deep in the wood as she made contact with the fence, six feet above the ground. It wasn't her best jump, but it would do. Vaguely remembering her survival exercises, the girl began to climb, higher and higher, getting closer to freedom with every inch. More silver-tipped arrows were whistling past her ears, one of them pinning her left paw squarely to the fencing. That was no problem. She just jerked it out, arrow and all, and kept going. There was no stopping her now.
The other werewolves were watching again. They were looking at the girl, no, the wolf struggle and something stirred inside them beneath the thick white fog of oblivion. Something was arising from the muddy waters of recollection in every one of them who wasn't completely broken down by silver and humans. That little female was fighting all alone, and she was so close to succeeding. If she could do it, then why couldn't they? One of the werewolves dropped the boulder he was carrying. A low growl started up on the clearing, spreading out like a disease.
The humans slowed down as they reached the fence. They were out of arrows by then, so they could only stand and watch as reinforcements were approaching at a fast pace across the clearing; and up on the fence, the shaggy, bleeding form of the wolf was scrambling over the top. Some of the brighter men tackled the woodwork at a run, almost causing Loki to lose her balance and topple back to the ground; but in the end she regained her position, and as the whole world drew its breath tensely once more, the werewolf plunged over the fence and down the slope of a sand-covered hill. She rolled over and over for a while, coming to a stop at the base of the hill, where the forest began. Then the wolf got up again, only to trot for a few feet and collapse, exhausted, into the thick undergrowth. The branches closed in over her, and in the shadows of the coveted vegetation, Loki transformed once more. That was it - she was too weak to go on. Was it over?
It damn well wasn't! A group of four men in armour was sent out to search for her. Since there were no gates in the fence except for the large ones at the end that faced the headquarters on the other side of the clearing, they had to take the long way around, presumably giving the werewolf more time to escape. They were given silver-tipped spears and the order to kill the girl on sight. She couldn't have made it far, they figured; though eventually, in order to cover a greater area, the small group had to split up.
Loki the girl was lying on her stomach, surrounded by greenery, when she felt a man approaching slowly and heard the faint sounds of undergrowth being moved aside. She would strike, but she was too weak to raise a hand, let alone her whole body. Her muscles were groaning in indignation, and the places where silver was eating away at her flesh were hurting like hell. There was no way she could escape this one, she thought. No bloody way… The man didn't know she was there, but he'd find her eventually, and then… She winced. Oh well. She tried. She'd led an… interesting life and struggled up to the last minute, but there was little fight left in her now. At least she was going to die free. The girl closed her eyes tighter and lay, waiting for the life-ending blow. The man kept advancing… She could feel the scent of his silver armour. Any second now…
But nothing happened. The blow didn't come, and Loki didn't die horribly and torturously but in absolute freedom. Instead, a faint voice called to the man standing mere inches away from the bush-hidden girl.
"Come, let's go! They need us on the mine site!"
The man approaching Loki stopped in his tracks.
"But what about the wolf-girl??" he yelled to whoever was calling him back.
"Forget the bloody girl, she won't make it far, she'll die from her wounds anyway… We'll search for the body later!" the voice seemed impatient. "They need us!" When that didn't seem to make an impression, the voice added: "They say the other werewolves back on the mine site are revolting, too! They need every man! Hurry up, will ya?"
"What??" The man near Loki swore under his breath. "Hold on!" he yelled, re-tracing his steps as he hurried out of the bushes and away from the wolf-girl.
Loki lay in the brushwood, stunned by the sudden turn of events. She wasn't going to be killed? That was… it was almost too good to be true… She wasn't captured! She was free! The word rolled round and round in her mind, like a little clockwork toy. Free…
Tired and bleeding, but strangely happy, she closed her eyes for just one moment…
Loki awoke with the start as darkness descended onto the forest above her. She could hear dull noise from the campsite, where the other werewolves were still losing a desperate battle. It must be almost over now…
The girl was exhausted. The sleep didn't much help her in regaining energy: she lost a lot of blood; the silver was preventing her wounds from healing, and in addition to all that, she was hungry. The happy sense of freedom wasn't there anymore, nor was the savage wolf-feeling. In fact, none of the emotions were present; her mind was almost completely empty of everything. And it wasn't a good emptiness, either.
Loki's head swam as she gathered her strength and pulled herself up into a sitting position. She had to go deeper into the woods. Sooner or later, the guards would come looking for her again, and this time she might not be as lucky as to be left alive. The girl got onto her feet with an effort. It hurt to stand. She glanced ahead of her, straight into a cloud of thick, white fog. She could see nothing, not even up close. Strange… The girl raised a hand to her face and moved it about. Nothing but fog. Horror dawning on Loki, she realized that she couldn't see.
Blind and broken, she wandered on through the forest, relying only on her sense of smell not to bump into trees. She didn't know where she was going, or what she was doing anymore – her feet seemed to be moving on their own accord, without the brain sending them orders. The century-old pines closed in over her head as night descended onto the Kallmanah forests.
From time to time, portals were created as the forest's enchanted pathways were twisted by powerful magical forces and ripped open into new dimensions. Kallmanah was like a border between different worlds; numerous pathways connected them, and if one were to stumble upon such a path, one would most likely end up… far away from home, in any case. That was also one of the causes responsible for the fact that few people that ventured into the forest were ever heard of again. Another cause was, of course, the giant man-eating vines.
Loki must've trodden onto one of such pathways. There was a slight shift in the atmosphere; the air was suddenly lighter and easier to inhale, there was less brushwood on the way and the wind blew a little differently. There were also strange lights and small electric currents sizzling at some point on the path, but the girl didn't notice those changes, and she didn't remember what it felt like at all afterwards. She was just hobbling mindlessly through the woods, on and on…
…When suddenly she felt sunshine on her face. She winced slightly as the rays fell on her, but was too tired to give it too much thought. It must be morning, pondered the small part of her brain at the back of her head that, against all odds, was still functioning. And morning meant guards setting out to search for her again…
Water sloshed nearby in a clean, cheerful stream. Loki had felt its pleasant, humid scent from some way off. She moved aside the bushes and stumbled over towards it. The girl sunk her feet into the cool water and felt it rushing over her hot, bleeding flesh in refreshing waves. Loki moved on across the stream. It wasn't very deep: the deepest place was up to her knees, but Loki swayed and wobbled as the water hit her legs, for she was too weak to stand. There was a large rock on the riverbank, if that small stream could be considered a 'river'; Loki felt its damp, mossy smell and lumbered towards it through the lapping waves. Finally, she slumped over the rock and as exhaustion took its toll, lost her consciousness once again.
A black-haired boy was picking herbs some way off. He was standing up occasionally to walk over to a new clearing, where more herbs grew. Eventually, he made his way further up the stream. He moved aside the thickets and stepped out onto a sunlit glade. A large mossy rock came into view, with a battered-looking girl sprawled over it, apparently dead. Two birds were sitting on the girl's back, chirping and sunbathing. The boy stared at the scene for a while in surprise, taking in the picture. Then, interested, he approached the body…
End Chapter! Yaaay it's… Haku! xD Haku found the half-dead cyborg-werewolf. What's gonna happen next? Stay tuned for the next episode and find out! He-he-he…