Castle in the Forest

Chapter Twelve: Gone

Deliah's eye snapped open and her limbs were numb with ice. Winnie and Colton were gone. Deliah wildly looked around the roots but, they were gone. 

"No, no, no, no. NO," Deliah chanted over and over again. She closed her eyes trying to reach out and grasp..for anything but, more ice flooded her veins. It was such a sharp contrast from the scorching hot tears that were streaming down her face. 

The little girl scrambled out from underneath the roots of the birch tree only to be met with walls of vicious fog. Everything looked so monstrerous and unnatural in the fog. Trees leered and shadows danced to an unknown saveage melody. And Deliah was truly alone. She sank down into the earth and wailed. Her wailing was sharp and peircing. It sounded like a wounded animal more than a wailing human child. Very fitting for a girl who had lived among wolves. She had never known such agony until today. 

Never in all her seven years of living did she experience such despair, not even at her packs monthly ritual. It was a feral despair something that gnawed at her heart but, never fully devoured it. It was the worst kind of despair. She cried and cried until her eyes were as dry as her throat was sore.

The little girl lay curled up in a small heap. Her eyes had glazed over with despair that layed nestled in her heart. She could feel her fraternal tether to her sibling growing more brittle by the second until something finally shattered it. The cold she had felt was replaced by a nothingness that seemed to devour her more than despair. How was it possible that nothingness could be greedier than despair?

Deliah closed her eyes to the world.

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"Deliah? Deliah? Deary? Where are Winnie and Colton" croaked the old Forest Witch. Tears were streaming down the old hags face as she gently craddled the human child in her withered arms. The forest witch gently slapped her cheek to try adn awaken the child. It was no use. Deliah was unresponsive. The hag pressed a wizened ear to her chest and the faint beating of her heart, gave the forest witch renewed hope. She was unresponsive but, alive. The forest Witch sighed in relief. The child had been blessed with the title Saint of Wolves. She would live. Though the witch could see that she had a deep wound on her heart.

"So, you are alive Witch," commented the monotone voice of Alpha Twelve. His tall muscular human from was painted with blood. It smelled of alpha blood.

"And your still a child," commented the witch. She craddled Deliah closer to her chest. She cast a weary eye in Twelve's direction. Alpha Twleve was still young. Only about twenty which was a short time since wolves could live for centuries at a time. Of course even as a young cub he had a fiery temper. It seemed to only have compounded since he become taller and an Alpha. Especially after the bloody meadow that was brimming with injured and dead wolves. It was just as bad as the last time. 

"I'm as childish as you are young," chuckled Twleve with cool mocking. "Now, hand over the girl."

"Someone so young is giving me orders," mused the witch to herself. He was definetly young and stupid. Such a shame. "I do not take orders from alpha cubs," Spat the Witch. She stood, still gently cradling Deliah to her chest. Her face had taken on more ghostly shape and her eyes shined too brightly. She was feeling the beginning of her anger. Anger she hadn't felt in a long, long, long while. Not since that other time. She sucked in a breath and closed her eyes trying to quell her anger.

"She will destroy us all. Just like last time," said Twelve, "spirit of the forest be damned I won't let it happen again."

"Alpha 13 was right," mused the witch again. Her anger ebbing away to pity, "You speak of something you know nothing of."