Vulcan

Chapter 1 • Unmarked Territory

Eli was your average punk guy with a love for all things music, and animals. He had a pet dog who he loved dearly like it was his own furry, stinky, son. He would spend his time writing bad music, and exploring the internet for new bands. His passion for music lead him to try and create his own band. Eli scoured the internet looking for ways to start a band, and even looked on How-To-Tutorials because of how badly he had run out of ideas. "I should just make it a one-man band." He decided. "You would love to join my band, wouldn't you Johnny?" He glanced downward at his dog, staring at him confusedly from the floor. Eli sighed in disappointment as he closed his laptop, and promptly fell asleep as quickly as light travelled.

A few hours pass and the sun goes down. A loud crash wakes up Eli from his long doze on the couch. "GAH! Johnny...?" He said groggily as he reached for his glasses. Eli slapped on his glasses and looked around his apartment with a confused expression painted across his tired face. He reached up and rubbed his eyes, smearing the eyeliner all across his face. Squinting his eyes he searched for the source of the loud noise, when he suddenly realized Johnny was nowhere to be seen. "J-Johnny...?" He quivered in the dimly lit apartment. The front door was wide open, and the draft blew his hair across his face. His eyes widened, and darted over to the front door. "Oh my god he fucking ran away again." He cupped his face in his hands groaning in pure agony.

Eli put on his shoes and hobbled outside, bundled up like a sausage roll, in his 3 winter coats. He tripped on the last stair and fell face first into the snow. Eli shot up and wiped the snow from his face. "Grrr... none of this would've happened if I didn't fall asleep like the lazy sack of shit I am!" He scolded himself. He wandered into the forest behind his apartment complex after thoroughly searching the streets around him. The chilled breeze in the air was enough to give anyone frost bite, and have their toes fall off. But this was for Johnny, his beloved stinky chihuahua whom he loved dearly. "How could a dog so short go so far?!" Eli yelled into the mist of the freezing forest. He stopped in his tracks, scanning his surroundings for a minute as he entered the thick of the woods. The mist blanketed the white ground leaving nothing to help with your depth perception. It was almost impossible for Eli to see anything through the fog and darkness.

He heard howling in the distance. Fearing for Johnny's life, he sprinted deeper into the forest, fully expecting to have to fist fight some coyotes off from his dog. The howling only got closer and closer the further he ran, when suddenly he stopped. The sudden silence of the forest was eerie enough to scare anyone away. But almost instantly the howling started up again, but this time it was all around him. Eli did circles, looking around fearfully when he realized what was happening. These weren't coyotes. They were wolves, and they were surrounding him for an ambush. He grabbed a large stick sitting in the snow next to him. His head swung around when a wolf abruptly pounced on him as if he were a small rodent. Pinning him to the ground he reached over for the stick, and bashed the wolf over the head with it. Eli jumped back up to his feet and got into a fighting position.

The next wolf came in like it had no time to spare, ripping Eli's jackets all the way through. Eli tore his jackets off and it was just his partially exposed skin in his tank top, and a pair of jeans now. He socked the wolf in the jaw and kicked it, tossing it to the ground. He fought knowing his dog could very well have been already killed by these wolves, and he could be next. Suddenly, all of the wolves circled him at the same time. His heart started racing and he was praying to god that he wouldn't die like this. "Hey god, It's me again. I know I said I didn't believe in you and all... but cmon man this isn't very cool. And I mean although it would be a pretty sick way to die, I still haven't become famous yet... so you can't do this to me! Anyways, I doubt you even care at this point so I'm gonna just fight these dumbasses all by myself. Amen!" He shouted at the dogs. Eli huffed out hot air before charging full speed at the wolves with only a slightly sharp stick as a weapon.

Suddenly, all the wolves stopped in their tracks, and so did Eli. A large white wolf traipsed out of the trees, glaring all of them down. Eli's eyes widened as he noticed this was no ordinary wolf. It had bright red horns, eyes, and a tail all matching that color. "What the-" he was cut off before it started lunging at him. Eli screamed in fear as this wolf pinned him down in the snow. All the other wolves were scared off and ran away, but now he had much bigger issues on his hands. The large white and red beast rested its teeth on Eli's neck, almost as if it were taunting him about his final moments. Eli was not taking shit from anyone. He grabbed a rock and slammed it against the wolf's head, knocking it out, onto the ground. Eli brushed himself off and let out a relieved sigh as he stood back up. But when he stood back up he was met face to face with a very large, hairy, man with a giant wolf tail. "What the fuck." Eli said as he squinted his eyes in disbelief.