In Another Life

The Hunt Is On

A year has passed since the fateful battle of the four kingdoms against the god of war. Each kingdom has honored those who have passed and recounted the battle in the records, making sure they went down in history.

Rico and Chimi have been together since then, living in an area between Luna Island and the Jungle Lands. They would sometimes be summoned by the rulers of their respective kingdoms when they needed advising or a task done. They would often visit the King and Queen of Teca to see them and to see how Jaguar and Eagle were growing.

One night, during one of their visits to the Teca kingdom, Rico and Chimi were taking a walk in the nearby woods. It was a peaceful night with a clear sky, the bright moonlight shining down on them.

"You know, I'm pretty sure Eagle and Jaguar are gonna be a lot like their sister." Chimi said.

"That'll be a fun story to tell." Rico said, "When they're old enough, of course."

"Who says I'm not already telling them?"

"They're one."

"So?"

Rico was about to respond until Chimi held up her hand, telling him to be quiet. Something caught her eye, and it didn't take long for him to notice what she was looking at.

Standing on top of a tree was a tall woman. She seemed to be miles away from them, but Chimi could still see her. From what she could see in the moonlight, the woman had pale skin, long gray hair, darker gray wolf ears and tail holding a large spear.

It didn't look like the woman noticed them.

She tilted her head back and howled. It wasn't like when Chimi howled, that it was clearly a human. This woman's howl was eerily similar to a real wolf's.

After she howled, she seemed to be waiting for something. It wasn't until another distant howl was heard that the woman leapt down from the tree, disappearing into the forest.

"Who is that?" Rico asked.

"I don't know." Chimi said, "But there's something off about her. I can feel it."

She started to walk toward the direction they saw the woman.

"Chimi!" Rico said, "What are you doing?"

"What do you think? I'm just gonna make sure she's not up to anything. You go the other way, we'll cover more ground that way."

Before Rico could protest, Chimi was already gone into the forest.

Rico groaned and walked the other way. He didn't have Estefan with him at the moment, but he could still do magic just fine.

"Hey." He said to the trees, "Strange wolf lady." He didn't get a response, but he didn't know what else to do.

"We don't want any trouble, we just want to know what you're doing here. As long as you're not here to kill anyone, we'll just be on our way."

He froze at the sound of snarling.

When he turned around, he saw a pair of icy blue eyes staring back at him in the shadows. The creature walked into the moonlight, revealing itself to be a wolf.

It wasn't just the fact that a wolf was in front of him, snarling with its teeth bared. It was the unnatural largeness of the wolf that was the most terrifying. There was no doubt that this creature could rip him to shreds without blinking.

Were there even any wolves around this part of the woods? He's seen wolves around before, but never near the Teca kingdom.

Rico backed away slowly, but the wolf kept creeping closer.