Breaking the Cage

9.

Chapter 9

Willow

Willow looked at the abundance of berries bunched in the skirt of her dress. They were going to eat good tonight. She got out a small piece of fabric that she had used to as a blindfold for Sarah when she had taken her out of the cage and gently laid the berries in it. After tying the makeshift package to the strap of the bag the doc had given her she looked around for any sight of Sarah. She walked in the direction that she had last seen Sarah head. She stopped when she came to a stream and looking at her fingers and the bluish purple stains left there from the berries she stooped down and plunged her hands into the cold water and vigorously rubbed her hands together in an attempt to get the color off her fingers.

Willows head came up and her hands stilled in the water as a shrill scream bounced off of the trees. Her heart began to beat a cadence she was beginning to be familiar with as she looked around for the source of the scream. The trees made it so that the noise seemed like it was coming from every direction. She didn't have a wolf to make things easier for her. She picked a direction that seemed most likely and set off at a jog. She ran through the trees as fast as her tired and starving body would allow. The wind was sharp and cool against her heated flesh as she tried to push her body even faster. Her mind alive with thoughts and fears and what if that she wished weren't there. She had no doubt that the scream had come from Sarah and the thoughts about what could have made her scream invaded her head. Scenes of dismembered limbs, of gun smoke and blood, of wild animals, or even hunters traps. Her brain worked overtime to come up with the most disastrous and sometimes believable things as to why her friend would have screamed.

Willow skidded to a halt when the thought that maybe Sarah had screamed not for help but as a warning entered her mind. A new fear bit at her insides as she once again set off in the direction she believed her friend to be in. The forest flew past her in a blur of greens and browns that she didn't see as she made her way up a small hill only to stop before she hit the crest.

"I asked you a question, I deserve an answer." The voice was male and older but still strong and steady. Willow ducked to the ground and listened, figuring that if she was going to help her friend she would first need information then she would need the element of surprise on her side. She decided that not revealing herself would be the safest option in this case. So there she lay on the cool forest floor trying desperately to calm her raged breathing as she listened as hard as she could to what was happening on the hill top.

"I am hunting" Sarah's reply was deceptively strong and Willow could just about see her straighten her spine as she said it. She knew that her friend would physically bolster herself when she felt weak or at a disadvantage.

"This is pack land. Our pack." His chin jutted to the trees behind Sarah and the hill. "You have violated our lands. And the law clearly states that any rogue found on pack land can be subject to death."

Willow watched Sarah as she stood tall against the threat of death. It wasn't the first time the she wolf had been threatened with the end of her existence, the pack breaker had even come close to fulfilling that promise several times over the years. Willow knew that this wolf held a streangth that many missed because they could only look with their eyes. Sarah was tall and frail looking. Her bones jutted from her stretching her skin into odd angles in some places. Her skin was so white and thin from being held in the cage most of her life that Willow could almost see right through it. Her veins that weaved dark trails over her body were plainly visible. There were scars that criss crossed the fragile looking skin caused by silver weapons and the sores on her wrists had scabbed over but were not healing at the pace most supernatural beings healed. Willow wondered if that was because the wolf inside her was too busy trying to keep her alive, staving off starvation or if it was because the medicine that the camp doc had always injected her with contained silver as well.