Vulpes Vulpes

Chapter 1- The Book

~8 Years Later~

 

The doors to the run down school opened up and all the small children ran outside across the field of dead grass. Their bare feet kicked up dust, adding another layer to their already grimy clothes and faces.

It was easy to spot who ran the school, even at the age of eight and nine. As soon as the kids stepped on the filthy, makeshift playground, the bullies showed no mercy when it came to stealing their piers' scraps of food and hand me down supplies.

3 young boys in particular never failed to show the rest of the students who was boss whenever necessary. The small pack's leader was called Fang, and his ever present sidekicks, Mange and Mutt, were the ones to do his dirty work. Their names were filthy insults to anyone else, but they wore the obscene nicknames with as much pride as a Lion Chief.

Fang had a scruffy mess of black hair. A white streak flashed through the front of the fluffy mop. The mix of colors showed off what would have been his high ranking in any other Wolf Tribe, had his family not been banished to the Outer Rings years ago for reasons that were never spoken of. Mange and Mutt were two twin boys. The brothers sported a matching head of strawberry blonde hair. The otherwise beautifully swirled colors revealed that their parents had been of a high ranking White Wolf and the always low ranking Red Wolf. They had no need to explain why their family had been cast out to the Outer Rings. The disgraceful clash of hair color was explanation enough.

Fang was watching Mange and Mutt knock down a young girl in a dirty dress covered in mismatched patches. She scraped her knee on the dry ground and promptly burst into tears, hoping a teacher would hear her from the school house. She had nothing they wanted. The young boys just loved picking on her for the sole purpose of watching her cry.

The boys' backs were turned to the school, so they didn't see another young girl quietly stepping out of the doorway. Unlike the other children, she kept herself as clean as she possibly could. Her light yellow dress swung around her pale legs as she quietly stepped over the rough wood of the school porch. The wind blew slightly, making the whole thing creak. One day, the school will fall over. It was already half way there. The wood had warped enough over the years of harsh rain and wind that it was leaning straight to the side. The splintered wood only showed hints of it's original red paint and white trim. But now it was splintered and dirty, matching the small clearing where it sat.

The young girl hugged her slightly worn blue book tightly to her chest as her bare feet met with the dusty ground. Here in the Outer Rings, shoes were a luxury, not a necessity. And some books were a rarity. Especially in the condition the girl had it. She had stolen it out of the den she lived in. The book was just getting good and she didn't want to put it down to go to school for the day. She had spent all lunch up in a tree, reading as quickly as she could before her teachers had called the small class back in to finish the days studies.

The girl was clever enough to know how to hang back so it was harder for her to be seen by the rest of the children. It was a tough skill to master. Her hair, unlike the other kids, was brushed neatly every day and free of the filth that seemed to be forever clinging to the children. Her skin was scrubbed spotless in the small stream outside her den and, since her fathers had had no children previous of her, they spent their money on lightly used clothes down at the grungy market whenever they could.

And it wasn't just the fact that her hair was clean either. No. It was also noticeably red. A very deep red, like blood, or a rose. It grew down to her midsection and complemented her pale complexion perfectly. Everyone knew she was going to be beautiful when she grew up. If she hadn't been a banished child of the Outer Rings, and if times were different and the color of her hair had no use of social ranking, she would have attracted the attention of Chiefs and Kings all across the Kingdom. Battles could have been fought over her hand in marriage, wars could have erupted... But this was not like some book the girl held protectively close to her. This was the Outer Rings. The Kingdom was many years dead, broken, divided, segregated and split by the impending war. This young girl was incredibly unlucky in her state of poverty. And it wasn't just because of her ranking, either. Fang, Mange, and Mutt had spotted her before she had managed to slip into the forest. Her day had just become a million times worse.