Running Red

Chapter 9 - The Silver Wolf, the Other, and the Secret

I uploaded! Amazing right? It was annoying. I had wrtiers block and very little time to write so it was making thing difficult. Sorry it took so freakishly long. Anyway, enjoy! -FlyOn97

P.S. I'm dedicating this chapter to Firebender_Zeke because she's stuck with me on RR since I started it pretty much and she's always giving me the coolest comments and usually the first person to drop by and read what I've written even if I've been gone for months on end. Thanks for being such a cool internet buddy Zeke!

A battle raged in the dimension that was my mind. I mentally grappled with a conscience that was not human. It rolled over me like a wave and I fought to keep in from snuffing out my tiny presence. My vision grayed, brightened, and gave a quick glimpse of light. With this light came a flooding sense of pain in a stretched and convoluted body and I reacted by falling back into the dark void.

I thrashed and writhed in a mental world that is indescribable because there is nothing to describe. I gripped and pulled at something that wasn’t real, but still there, and made the other aware of my existence. It resisted and pushed against me, but I sensed a weakness there and seized it.

And wicked, snapping tangle ensued between us, my own willpower against that of the other. I was driven by a fear of the dark realm and a desire to be free of this black world and pushed with all I had.

Again, I sensed some kind of weakness and the other, very angrily, retreated.

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I much more aware this time. I remember waking up on the ground and standing on four legs. I remember the smells: wet air and acrid smoke and the musky stench of the thousands of creatures that roamed the earth. I remember the colors being slightly washed out, leaving trees pale green and the dirt a faint brown. I remember feeling the power in my shoulders and the shivering in my belly that told me that I was hungry. I remember adjusting to the strange way that my face was suddenly stiff and unexpressive and a long wet tongue that I could not seem to keep centered in my mouth. I remember my hearing being amplified. Yards away, I could hear the crunch of leaves under footsteps and somewhere far away the crashing of torrents of water on water on rock. Everything was new and exciting and strange.

The only thing that I wanted more than to explore was blood.

I remember the blood.

From every direction was the stinging odor of that metallic red life force. This one sense overpowered all others.

My very first impulse was to chase after it. Wherever it was coming from, I didn’t care. As soon as my legs were underneath me, I bolted for the forest. I had taken three frantic and powerful strides before I was stopped.

A wolf was standing in my way, brilliant white teeth flashing in a ferocious snarl. He (he because I could sense that he was male) was iron gray from head to toe with black markings: marks on his eyebrows, stripes down his forelegs, a black splotch on his spine and under his ribcage, and a black tip on a long tail. The hair itself was rough looking and thick. He also had a scent. Something thick and spicy like some sort of liquor. . .

I was not myself and I reacted without any thought. My hackles rose, my teeth were exposed, and a deep rumbling growl issued from in my throat.

This only made the other wolf angrier and he flattened his ears and barked twice in a jarring and attention grabbing baritone. Impulses kicked in a second time and I instantly retreated, dropping my shoulders, flattening my ears, and whimpering very softly. The other wolf stopped growling, stood straight, raised his tail, and perked his ears. Then he bent his head and sniffed my cheek and my neck and, satisfied, turned around and lazily began to move away.