Heartbeat
Chapter 1: A wolf in the woods…
The night was dark, but the moon was bright and big. Hanging in the sky, illuminating the ground. The trees stood still, there was no wind blowing on this particulate night. Regina walked quietly as possible as she could. She looked around her surroundings but saw nothing but bushes and trees in the lightly lit night. She could hear the night critters screeching away. She took few more steps. 'Just a little further' she thought to herself as she wrapped her black cloak around herself and picked up her gown around her ankles to step without tripping over herself. She continued marching on careful with her steps. A little further down the way she finally approached her destination. She stepped out from the shadows of the trees and stepped into the grass meadow. She approached with quick steps towards the single tree that stood still in the middle. This was her favorite part of the forest, the apple tree that she had been growing since she wondered about on this place as a child. She touched the tree with her hands feeling the rough texture. She looked up and could see the apples hanging from it. She closed her eyes and took a deep breathe in letting it settle in her body. She opened her eyes and released a soft sigh and smiled. But the tender moment was broken by the sounds coming from the trees and the darkness from behind her. "Whose there?" She asked out loud. As she put her back against the apple tree and looked apprehensively around and across the meadow.
"What or whoever it is, better come out now or else…?" She tried to threaten as she took a blade out from underneath her cloak and brought it up in front of her to defend herself. She continued looking around and as she scanned the field, she happened upon a dark figure running in circles around the field. Her breathe got caught in her throat as fear took over her body and her hands holding the blade started shaking. She gulped as she traced the dark figure circling her, trying to keep it in sight. But the figure was so fast and blurry she couldn't figure out what it was that was taunting her like a prey. The dark creature slowly started circling in closure and closure and soon it was about a couple of feet away from Regina's sight. She finally spotted the creature as it had slowed down quite a bit. She braced herself against the tree, still holding the blade in her hands and gulping in fear. As it stood couple of feet in front of her, the moonlight helped her see the night creature, it slowly started to straighten up. She could hear the bones cracking and the creature groaning in pain and agony. She could see it thrashing around and then it was on its knees crouching down on the ground still screaming in pain. She noticed the figure had gotten smaller and was hard to spot now with the tall grass. Soon it was all quiet again as if she had imagined the whole ordeal. But she was brought back from her thoughts when she heard some more groaning along with mumbling sounds of a human. She stepped from under the tree and approached towards where the creature had been standing. As she got closer, she could see a human figure lying face down. She quickly ran up to the person and crouched down. She touched its shoulder and felt the warmth of the body. She turned the person around and looked in shocked as the creature was now a naked unconscious young woman.
Regina quickly took off her clock and draped it over the unconscious woman. She stayed crouched down next to the woman not knowing what she should do. She then decided to drag the woman toward the apple tree and laid her against the tree trunk. She tried to cover up the woman as much as possible, making sure she didn't feel cold. Once she was done wrapping the woman around in her cloak, she finally looked at her sleeping face. The woman had jet black hair, which currently looked all ruffled up as if someone threaded their fingers through her hair, making a mess of it. As she scanned her face, she finally noticed the blood stains around her mouth. She gasped at the fact, finally realizing it, that this woman she was tending to might be a werewolf from what she had seen so far.
Regina knew of the present war against these creatures. Her mother made sure to keep her in the known of the political matters of their kingdom and the surrounding kingdoms. Majority of the kingdoms had made a pact to fight these creatures off together. But there were some that didn't want anything to do with it. There was a time when the werewolves and the remaining kingdoms were at peace with each other and whenever it was necessary fought together against common enemies of the land. But things started to get tense when the kingdoms decided to move out the werewolves from their homes and put them as far away from the humans. They feared that these creatures would one day attack them and take over. This migration caused the werewolves to lose their food source and forced them to fetch for themselves with whatever was left over after the humans would get their fill. This slowly started to build up resentment in many of the werewolves at the time. This resentment and treatment from the humans caused the werewolves to become violent towards them and attack them out of hatred and hunger.
Werewolf attacks were common appearances around the Enchanted Forest realm. The kingdoms did their best to protect its people and made sure the commoners never wandered off at night in the forests.
Yet here was Regina, tending to a werewolf, which could wake up any minute and devour her. Yet the fear she had earlier disappeared completely the moment her eyes landed on the sleeping woman in front of her. She didn't know why but she couldn't bring herself to hate this creature and dig her blade through her heart like any other person would do without a concern in their mind. She gazed at her face again and stood up to put her blade away. She should be leaving soon or else her mother would send out a search party for her disappearance. She turned around to leave but couldn't help herself but take a quick glance back at the unconscious woman behind her. Once she was done, she started walking towards the trees and disappeared out of sight.