Animosity

1

"Can we at least-"

He was interrupted by a branch snapping.

"Shh," Perry slowly made her way towards the noise on silent feet. They approached a hut and snuck along the side. The wind was picking up, this helped to drag the creature's sent towards Perry. It was a singular being, luckily. Carefully she gestured for Liz to stay silent. Her heart rate sped up as her adrenaline kicked in.

Silence.

Perry leapt round the corner and jumped on the unsuspecting creature.

"Argh!" The being's yelp was familiar.

Liz darted around the corner, "Rex! Thank the gods."

Perry let go and stood back, "s-sorry. I... I didn't know it was you."

This gave room for Liz to barge past and engulf Rex in a humongous hug, Rex barely had any time to recover from her previous assault.

After a moment Liz stood straight, signifying the end of the embrace, "You're alive," she screeched as she hugged Perry. Despite her cheery tone her face was wet from tears. Perry gestured for Liz to join in trying to comfort Rex.

At first Rex was calm but as she felt Liz's embrace she started to tremble, "this can't be happening." She clung to Perry's shirt and berried her head, "they're gone! They're all gone! T, Dawson, even Canis!" Her screams of pain were agony to hear.

Perry had to clench her jaw in order to keep it together. A low throb ebbed through her head as she held back tears. Her time for grieving was not yet. She needed to focus on the living and not the dead.

After what seamed like hours the three pulled apart and looked around. Everything seamed so tranquil and calm, but they all knew what was on the other side of the hut held a nightmarish scene.

Perry broke the silence, "they'll come back, w-we need to leave. Get what you can carry, I'll meet you by t-the old oak. Don't be long." She headed off to get the things she needed, the others shortly followed suit. Rex stopped on her way past her old hut.

Rex's mother smiled down at Rex as she handed her an old book. Books weren't a common sight in the village, but her mother had snuck one in after a trip out to investigate the expanding human territory. The book was cased by what smelt like old cow skin, inside was everything 7 winter old Rex could have wanted to know about the human body and how they function.

"Now don't go reading that all at once, you'll need to save some for a rainy day."

Perry was by the oak knelt down when Liz and Rex finally approached. She was messing with something on the ground, occasionally blowing on it.

"Perry? We're... We're ready," Liz slowly stated.

"W-we don't have time to bury them..." She took a long deep breath, "but... We can s-send them off." A spark lit in front of Perry as she held up a branch. The flames became as clear as her intentions. Leaving the bodies would have done them no good.

Liz walked with Perry towards the centre of the village, where Perry had already gathered the bodies into a pile and collected dried sticks and logs. She stopped just before the pile and handed the branch to Liz. A careful look was exchanged between the two before Liz dropped the branch on the pile. "Goodbye," his whispered as his eyes started to water again.

Perry looked over to Rex as she comforted her friend. She frowned as Rex avoided her eye contact.

Perry encased Liz in a hug and let him grieve, he needed this as much as Perry needed him to be able to focus. They stayed like that for a while before Perry finally got them all moving, staying in the village wasn't safe for anyone.

Centuries of peace, undiscovered tranquillity, and a state of equilibrium all turned meaningless in one night.

~=~=~=~=~=~

People in a sort of soldier's uniform rushed about trying to get samples of what was left and remove the evidence. No-one could find out what happened and due to the fire the nearby guards would have surely spotted them. This gave them no time at all as they gathered up their dead soldiers and tried to peace together how the fire was caused.

The peacefulness of the forest was once again disturbed.

A tall lanky brunette walked up to a man, whose posture screamed authority figure. "Boss, there were no survivors. The fire took everything."

He looked around, took in a deep breath and sighed, "and that Johnson, is why you never got the promotion. There were survivors. Look around, the wolves didn't put the bodies in a pile. The deer didn't set a fire." He turned to Johnson, "get our best tracker out here, before the trail disappear. No matter how human like they think they are, they can still be hunted like the beasts they are."