Runners

Chapter Three

Wesley shivered. The rain soaked him from his head to his feet. He watched the stranger that had saved him pull out a strange weapon. It was long and slim, similar to a sickle. It faintly glowed a navy blue. Wesley could feel the heat radiating off the weapon even though he was a couple of feet away. The stranger cloaked in black moved the weapon toward the chain on the gate. Squinting through the downpour, Wesley read the letters engraved on the stonewalled gate. LAM. Wesley believed that's what it read. He wondered what the letters abbreviated. His savior lowered the weapon to the lock. Wesley started to get worried.

"What are you doing?" Wesley interrupted him, shifting his weight off of his newly sprained ankle. The man in front of Wesley had saved him from the wolf that threw him off a cliff. That much he remembered. Wesley walked away from the wolf attack with an injured ankle, various bruises, and a missing brother. The stranger had refused Wesley a name and a description as to what exactly happened.

"If I'm correct, I told you to keep your mouth shut, or I would return you to the bottom of the ravine where I found you." His response was terse. Then he whispered something that Wesley was unable to comprehend. The man lifted the luminescent weapon and signed three letters in the air. Wesley saw that the first letter was a K, and the last was a W. He missed the one in the center altogether. Wesley shifted his standing position again. The cold of the rain was helping his swollen ankle. He prayed that it wasn't broken, because he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to get to a doctor anytime soon. He had always hated doctors anyway.

Wesley jerked back quickly as the gate exploded into pieces, sending stones flying. Wesley ducked to dodge one. Other pieces of stone pelted into the ground, daring to strip the earth away. An ominous fog settled from the dust of the stones. Wesley tried to see the man through the murky air. When he couldn't, Wesley tried to see anything. He finally made out a silhouette in the fog, and the three letters that the man had signed were singed in the air. Wesley brushed ashes off his arm.

Cloaked in shadows, he watched his savior strode through the gate. He didn't tell Wesley to follow him. For fear of being left alone in the rain and the dark, Wesley forced his aching ankle to move and trudged slowly through the mud after him avoiding the chunks of stone.

An acute light dissipated the fog and shrouded Wesley's vision. Wesley guessed the previous explosion had alerted someone inside. Adjusting to the brightness, he scrunched his eyes and saw that the light fell from a high window. The light made most of the surroundings visible through the rain, but Wesley had to struggle to watch the two quick objects darting in and out of his sight. He gasped. He could finally make out what they were. Two-winged beasts flew strikingly, slicing through the water and the air. The man in front of him stopped to watch them, too. Wesley had a hard time keeping up with them. For some reason, he longed to know more about them and tried hard to keep his eyes locked on their magnificence. After a few moments, he noticed there was only one. Wesley turned sharply, feeling pain from his ankle and his head. He searched for the other animal while his increasing fear of an attack weighed on his shoulders. Amber jewels shone through the blackness of the rain, and Wesley was reminded of that girl outside of the drug dealer's house. He remembered all the events of the night before, including losing his brother.

A low growl brought his mind back to current events. A slender snout peeked out through the shadows. The light from the window glistened off of ivory fangs. Paws crept out of the blackness, claws extended. Pointed ears held back with an angry defiance. Wesley cursed his karma with wolves, because apparently he was about to get ravished again.

"Back up slowly," Wesley was commanded from the man behind him. He backed up, catching his injured ankle on a rock and falling on his back.

The winged-wolf landed over him, jowls open and wings extended. All hair was raised, and Wesley forgot how to breathe. The monster that caged him to the mud-caked floor was astonishingly beautiful. Its fur was completely pearl white with its wings tipped a deep blue. It raised its head and howled at the moon. Following the wolf's lead, Wesley's eyes snapped to the moon. He felt them dilate, the pupils stretching wider. He lost all fear of the animal baying on top of him. Wesley's heart rate increased. He could feel the pulse dancing through his veins. His blood was on fire, adrenaline burning through his arteries. Lycanrein. Something inside of Wesley whispered the word to him. He didn't comprehend what it meant or what it was, but something inside of him just accepted it.

"Change." The man behind Wesley whispered. The winged-wolf seemed to be smiling, daring him to try anything to escape. His body took charge before his head did. Wesley's eyes, still focused on the moon, began to view things in black and white. His nose stretched out and his teeth increased, fangs sliding out underneath his upper lip. Fur coated his face and spread down his back. Wesley's arms and legs turned into stronger limbs followed by paws. He rolled out from under the winged-animal and jumped up. Landing on four feet. He had transformed into a black wolf unless it was a trick of his newly found lack of color. A rumble formed in the hollow of his throat, and Wesley recognized it as a growl. The white wolf landed, lowering into a fighting position. The man that had been with him earlier had disappeared.

A swirling pain came over his vision right as the wolf lunged at Wesley. Amazingly, Wesley dodged the attack and the wolf went rolling off, picking himself up with his wings and preparing to lunge again. Wesley looked to the spot where he had just been standing and saw a puddle of blood. His snout followed the smell to the lower part of his leg. His ankle had ripped open during the transformation. The pearl white wolf sliced through the air, coming at Wesley again. Wesley jumped, attempting to fly but fell, and the monster collided into him. They fought on the ground, snapping and growling. He wondered why he hadn't taken flight, only to realize that he didn't have any wings. Wesley heard a desperate howl in the distance.

The bigger wolf picked himself off of Wesley and lowered his body to the ground, readying himself. Wesley hopped up, holding his back leg and trying to keep more blood from escaping. He lowered his head, creating the growl on his own this time and starting to enjoy the thrill of the fight. He tossed his head. A brown wolf circled overhead, distracting the white wolf long enough for Wesley to jump on him. With his front two canines, he clasped down on the fur on the white wolf's neck. The bite wasn't hard enough to bring blood, but Wesley had a good grip. It wasn't strong enough, though. The other wolf slung his head, sending Wesley soaring through the air and his body slammed into the base of a tree. Wesley slowly picked himself up, watching the white wolf fly to meet the brown one.

Wesley's fur was coated with mud. His injury still hadn't let up, and the pain pounded through his head. He tried to shake off as much of the mud and the rain as he could. With an urge not to lose the fight, Wesley braced himself and paced after the other two wolves, soaring high above his head. He ran, pushing himself to go faster and faster. He managed to get right underneath them. Wesley jumped into the air, trying to reach them, but they were too high. He felt talons pierce the fur on his back and cried out. He kept running, trying to shake off the striking claws.

"Stop!" Wesley heard someone yell from a distance. He fell into the mud as the needles slid out of his back. It swamped him. He struggled to lift his body but couldn't. The other wolf had landed beside him. Wesley saw a boy with blonde hair smirk and then he blacked out for the second time tonight.