Wow I'm really letting myself go. Ah well. I'm five stories short, assuming I do one daily from now until the end of April, but I don't see myself closing that gap to anything more than three short. Oh well.
Hello Mr. Wolf (3)
A wolf doesn't have much to do.
The alpha male, the strongest, the biggest, the best, had nothing to do, on a perfectly good afternoon. It'd already hunted once, and that was enough sustenance for awhile. As a result, the alpha was undeniably bored.
The alpha male didn't blame anyone or anything. To him, that was simply how the world worked. Wolves were unchallenged in this forest. Nothing could compare to the pack, nothing could beat the pack, and nothing could stop the pack.
Thus, the alpha was rather bored, a quality that he'd found himself feeling more and more often in recent times.
Maybe that was why, in this sunny afternoon, the alpha male found itself following a tiny female human through the forest, for hours on end.
The alpha could barely understand what she was saying, if at all. He could however, tell that the human was scared. Of what, the alpha didn't know. Did the human not like the forest? Did the paper they kept reading trouble her?
The alpha prided itself on being a fountain of wisdom for wolves, but to not understand a human was humiliating. What would the pack do? Right, they wouldn't. Still, the alpha took it as a personal challenge.
By following the human for a passage of two hours, the alpha had taken note of several things. First off, the human had a habit of referring to him as "sheen-TAR-o". Whenever the human tried to tell the alpha to do something, it said "sheen-Tar-o".
Second, every few hours or so, the human would beckon the alpha to go away, again saying "sheen-Tar-o". Then, the human would squat behind a tree and fumble with their abnormal skin-coverings. It was very disturbing. Whenever the alpha tried to get a good look at why the human waved him off, "sheen-Tar-o" was repeated rather loudly, and the human immediately stopped doing whatever it was she was doing.
The alpha assumed it was some ritual or practice. Humans had a lot of them; very dumb things from time to time, like keeping their food out in the open. Didn't they know that it was dangerous to leave food lying out in a field where just about anybody could take it? For shame.
The alpha supposed that this small female human wouldn't have had much of a say though, assuming she would have an opinion. The human was always nervous, something that probably translated badly in relationships. Why was she so bothered? Was it that she lacked other human companions?
Humans were, after all, pack animals. They lived in packs, traveled in packs, and hunted in packs. That was it. The human female was afraid of being alone. To rectify this and confirm his suspicions, the alpha decided to nudge the human's leg with his snout. Just y'know, as a reminder that the alpha was there. As a companion maybe? A compatriot?
For whatever reason, companionship didn't comfort the human female. She jumped a little, showing signs of anxiety, worry. The alpha didn't understand. Was it not comforting? Perhaps this human was against being with others? That would explain the human abandoning her human dens.
The alpha spent hours observing his mark, his test subject. While not everything he gleaned from the experience was necessarily helpful in understanding the odd human, it was at least somewhat amusing.
Why do humans splash themselves with water in some places but not others? If the goal was to wash one's self, not washing everywhere seems awfully inefficient. Why do humans erect stones over their dead? It's not as if they'd stay there.
Humans were an open enigma, a mystery, a puzzle to the alpha. As the alpha watched this young human, he felt as if maybe, just maybe, with a little more time, he could piece it together. So the alpha decided to stalk this small female human awhile longer.
As time passed, the alpha realized that they were approaching the monster's den, the overwhelmingly powerful presence that surpassed even the wolves. The alpha had never challenged this monster, but despite his overwhelming superiority to other life forms, he was unsure of the possible outcome.
After all, no member of the pack had ever returned from challenging the monster. In recent cycles, never once had any wolf even dared to attempt, and a patrol was even set up to stop any suicidal wolves. The human was nearing the patrol line, treading awfully close to the cut off, the point of no return.
Yet nonetheless, the puny human kept going. Did she not know fear? Did the human lack basic principles of self-preservation? Humans were weak, but did this human intend to kill herself? Was it a rite of passage? To glimpse the monster and live would probably get one accepted in any community.
To back up that theory, the wolves had, on several occasions, caught sight of multiple humans heading the monster's way. They never left a single person short, but that was always a group of taller humans. This short, puny human didn't stand a chance. Or did she?
The alpha knew that the human wouldn't have a chance, since a single human could never match up to a single wolf.
But.
What if.
What if the human wasn't meant for combat? What if the human was a sacrifice to appease the monster, or an offering? A lowly service human, doing the dull jobs like sending gifts wrapped in baskets of tree fur? Was that was this human was?
That's when the alpha heard the growl. The low guttural growl, the dare, the challenge. These were the words of a wolf. That was the voice of someone in his pack, part of the shift on the borders of the monster's territory.
It was someone the alpha knew very well. In fact, the alpha knew her so well that the only reason this particular wolf was in this patrol to get her away from him. Simply put, they weren't the best of friends.
A moment's pause, a brief break into silence, and the alpha braced himself for impact. Or rather, relaxed his muscles, because that would reduce the bodily strain after being charged head on.
Did he mention that a wolf head on charged him? As proud as the alpha was of its physical and mental capabilities, a wolf was a formidable foe in and of itself, even when mindlessly hurling itself at its target. The alpha went rolling alongside his attacker, an annoyingly capable shewolf.
Face to face and snout to snout, they wrestled, the alpha getting some dreadfully long time with his smaller friend in. Her blue eyes flashed with irritation as the alpha pushed her down, but only for a moment.
"What are you doing here." She growled, freeing herself of his grip. She was a slippery wolf, no doubt, but the alpha had never missed out on a chance to catch her.
"This human amused me." The alpha muttered, pinning the shewolf down.
"You're nearing the monster." The shewolf warned, before craning her neck to nip his ear. How cute. For a moment there, it almost seemed like the shewolf cared about him.
"As is the human. I intend to follow as close to the monster's abode. I don't care if you follow me." The alpha declared, watching for the shewolf's reaction.
A blink, and the iris' of blue seemed to come to a conclusion.
"I'll go." The shewolf told him.
"Then let's get moving." The alpha turned to the human, who was noisily inching away, as if wolves didn't have ears.
"But only because you'd get lost without me~"
"On second thought-"
"Let's go!"
The alpha didn't press her any further, instead deciding to nudge the human onwards. The young human seemed to be having decision issues, after all. It was understandable to feel fear when so close to the lair of the beast. Even the alpha, the best, the greatest and the strongest felt the natural fear of the unknown, the fear of that which may yet prove stronger.
Still, it wasn't as if the alpha intended to meet the monster. The human could follow whatever crazy notions it desired; a more intellectual race like wolves didn't have to follow through, even if they did follow.
It would be another good chunk of time before the trees broke way to a clearing, a haunted desolate place of needless flowering plants, whose boughs were robbed from not by the birds or animals, but by the monster. It was the evil thing's den, its home.
Yet the human kept on going, the small female's resolution superb in every way. The alpha could almost admire the human's stupidity as it strode up to the unnatural structure. The shewolf beside him also gazed with an uncharacteristic silence, perhaps appreciating the loss of life the same way he did. In the short minutes they'd been together, the human had been quite impressionable.
It was a shame that the human was going to end herself.
Any pointless waste of life was a shame, after all.
The two wolves watched in silence as the human slowly sank to her knees in front of the structure, the life being drained from her body merely by the proximity. When the body had finally come to a stand-still, the wolves knew it was time to depart. After all, it was one thing to kill for sustenance. It was another thing entirely to watch a kill for sport.
Hint: Shewolf is Ene, even though "Ene" didn't come into existence until after Ayano died. She comes in now though, for reasons I'm not really sure of. Maybe I didn't want to wait until Ayano's death? Dunno.