[~to the pain that they neither knew was there nor dared to admit, is always the relief of losing a burden. -Denise]
When I was younger, I was terrified of the dark. I was somehow always able to make out figures and shapes in the darkness. And they were all after me yet all they did was just simply stare at me.
But when I closed my eyes, I somehow felt safer in the darker shades of the abyss than those that seemed to have light.
Hey buddy," she called, "I have something for you." She smiled as she waltzed her way to the wolf.
He was basking in the heat of the morning sun on a spot above his cave. Lazily, he turned and looked at her.
"Come here," she called him.
Not exceeding her expectations, he simply stayed put.
She pulled out what she had from behind her back, "tada!"
In her hand was a ball of pink, white and green.
"Wondering what this is?" she continued without waiting for a response, "this, sire, is your all purpose, indestructible squishy- better known as chew toy. I bet you, you cannot wait to get your teeth on this."
Apparently, Denise discovered, the forest had more uses than being possibly poisonous. She had been able to scavenge some materials while looking for food. There had been a soft pink material that grew out like a fruit from a tree. It was soft, porous, was semi elastic and could be compressed to a smaller size. Meanwhile, the white substance was completely and also rubber. It was super elastic and extremely dry. The green were a bunch of odd vines Denise had used to tie her entire project together.
She had tried hard to mimic a chew toy. Heaven knew that it took hell for her to figure out a way to make the ball allow air in and out of it without collapsing. She also had to make sure that the surface wasn't easily fractured. What she hated the most was the fact that no part of modern education gave her any help during the process. It was merely a series of trial and error and retries until-
"try it," she said, throwing the ball towards the wolf.
It was massive in size and couldn't easily be hugged by her. Because her throw was poor, the ball ended up rolling into his cave. The smile that appeared on Denise's face because of the resulting situation was truly vicious.
"Stay put," she offered, "I'll get it."
She was really dying to know what exactly was in that cave. Perhaps there was a portal back to her dimension or maybe a hot bath.
Before she could even take a step, the wolf jumped down, landing between her and the cave entrance. In silence, he trotted into the darkness of the cave.
After a few moments, the squishy sound of air being forced out and in could be heard. In the next moment it was heard again. After a small pause, it was heard again.
"It's all yours. Keep it," she announced as she turned to leave.
Just as she had predicted, no dog could resist a squishy toy. If they did, then they were biting their owners.
As she heard the sound of the toy go off a couple of times, she gave herself a pat on the back for her genius.
She then started to count off using her fingers, "toys-check. Nice clean kennel- he can turn into a human he can clean after himself. I'm not touching half-dog-half-human poop. Lastly, tricks and rubs."
She had never kept a dog in her life and neither had her parents, her grandparents nor had her ancestors. The only thing that her entire lineage was good at was running away from dogs. Her grandmother normally joked that the only safe bet for anyone from their family winning the olympics was if they had a mad dog chasing after them.
But even with bare minimum knowledge, Denise's plan had become to seduce the dog into becoming her pet. In that way, she would have unlimited supplies.
She laughed wickedly. By the end of a week, she was sure she would turn that dog-no!- wolf into her slave.
So for the first time since she arrived, Denise started to count off days. On the charred back of her tree, she drew a single line using a stone.
Denise walked a few steps then ducked behind a tree. Animatedly, she peeped at the cave and rubbed her hands in villainous glee before picking up a green vine. Of course, that green vine snaked its way into the dark cave.
She could already smell her victory. Soon she would be able to control his mind.
Smiling about her great grand plan, she tagged the rope with all her might so as not to give any luck to chance.
As a result, her body was sent flying to the ground.
"Ahhh!" Even her scream was short lived.
There are two great laws in the world.
One; when you're about to die, your entire life flashes before your eyes.
Two (the law Newton forgot); before, during and after you get embarrassed, everything happens in slow motion.
Her voice sounded in low octaves. She saw the ground slowly near her face. Her eyes darted around, her brain seemed to work faster than her body. In the meantime, her hands till tightly clenched the rope. Her body was angled awkwardly. Clearly, her head was going for a touchdown.
Just when she felt she had stayed in the air for too long, she went crushing into the ground, her incisors digging a generous amount of dirt into her mouth. Her knees and shoulders painfully rammed into the ground, leaving her arse in the air.
She skidded in the soft soil towards the wolf's cave, gathering a mouthful of soil.
The wolf took the moment to exit his cave to find out exactly where the vine led. The ball was between his jaws.
Slowly, Denise raised her head. Clumps of moist soil that were stuck to her face fell one after the other. Her eyes fell on the wolf, her expression had no signs of amusement.
His gaze followed the vine to her hands. He gently placed the ball on the ground, shifted into his human form and said, "let it go."
One. Two. Three seconds. Denise slowly spat a lump of wet soil. She dusted her face in forced rough movements.
"It's mine, you let it go," she spat out more soil, "did you have to pull so hard?"
She picked up the vine and slowly stood despite the pain in her body. Her fall was pretty bad but she didn't even have a single wound as an account of the incident.
"I didn't pull hard, you're the one that's weak," he denied, "you said I can keep it."
"Yes, keep it and give it back not keep it for the rest of your life."
The wolf picked up the ball and raised it to his face, "what is this?"
Recalling her plan, Denise smiled, "what you want," she paused for effect, "and what belongs to me."
She turned around with the vine still in hand and took a few slow steps away, "you can have it and I can give it to you, free of charge but I have a few conditions."
Denise turned back to face him. He was staring at the ball as if in a trance.
"WOLF! Wolf!" She called.
He looked up.
"Like I was saying, I'll give it to you for free," she summarized.
"It's beneath me to take something from the likes of you," he said righteously.
Denise furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "wha-?" she asked in a whisper.
"I will pay for this and you will give it to me," he added.
"What do you mean likes of me?" she asked, getting worked up.
He answered simply, "I am male, you are female. I am strong, you are extremely weak."
Having lived with the wolf for a bit of time, she had some understanding of his character. If she didn't take time to understand his crude way of speaking, she would have already lost a bloody liver to anger.
She understood, from what he said, that he didn't want to take advantage of the weak for his own benefit. To him, it seemed females were always weak and incapable of a lot. She couldn't guess where that thought train came from since he didn't live with any females before her.
"Since you want to pay up so badly, how about showing me what's in that cave?" she asked.
"If you want to enter my cave, you must be capable of guarding it. To be capable of guarding it, you must fight me," he said.
Denise's mind worked quickly with the information. She found that she always had to think over the wolf's words in order to get what she was looking for.
She asked cautiously, "did you have to fight someone in order to enter the cave?"
The wolf's eyes were pulled back to the ball in his hands, "naturally."
It was the first time he easily answered her questions.
Within a second, it was easy for her to come up with the idea that the wolf was guarding something in the cave. Not only that, but there must have been several guards before him. He had been resigned to the fate of guarding since he was young. He seemed proud of his job and very dedicated to it. So it seemed that he must have been performing some honorary deed.
That somehow explained to her why he wanted to kill her in the first place. She had appeared out of nowhere in a forest that was holding some treasure. Her mysterious appearance could be viewed as a threat.
But he hasn't killed her. Probably because he found her too weak to be viewed as anything dangerous.
She looked at the wolf and almost heard herself scoff.
She looked past him into the dark cave and she suddenly thought of the fog's companion. A wolf and it's cave. A beast and a fog. An inescapable forest that lacks normal creatures. As she thought of them, she could almost see a gleam of light in the cave.
The wolf stepped into her line of sight. Denise's focused orbs dazed out for a second then refocused on the well sculpted face of the wolf beastman. She blinked. Those random pieces of information, whatever they meant, had nothing to do with how she could escape the forest. What she really needed was a 'take this direction to get out,' sign.
(A/N; I've been sitting on this chapter since like- when I last posted. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to post 2-3 chapters a day although it was my goal. So from now on, it will be, 1-2 chapters a week. I'll be writing over the weekend and posting during the week.)
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