"I will never let you get me! Never! I am the last wolf on this pitiful planet you miserable little creatures call Earth! You slaughter my brethren and wear the pelts as trophies! You are a disgrace to my home! I will never let you get away with this!" Wheeling around, I face their leader. "Feel the wrath of Mother nature! Feel the pain of my brethren! Feel the anguish I feel every day I live!"Yowling, I slam into their leader. i feel my teeth hit it's throat and taste it's coppery blood.It's followers gasp as their leader hits the ground. Then.... I feel an arrow hit my shoulder and I drop to the ground, crippled. I've lived a long, painful life full of loneliness, and now, in my last breath, i finally get to feel a little happiness. I've searched my whole life for this feeling. Sometimes I got a little spark of it tumbling through my depraved heart, but it was always ripped oh so violently of of my paws. I feel someones hands picking me up. I hear her soft voice whispering in my hear, "Sister, how did you become this evil beast?" I whispered back as best I could. "I'll tell you, sis. It all started on that day. The day Mother disappeared."
It was that day. The day that Mother never returned. That day started my swift and tragic downfall. Sis [Eli (el-le)] and I (Sasha) were 11 moons old. Sis was nearly a month older, 27 days to be exact. We knew how to use knives. Mother was teaching us how to use a bow. We were human. Or at least my sister was. I was mostly human except I had slightly more wolf-like ears, a wolf tail, and the sight/scent/hearing of a wolf. To my big sis I was the family's puppy. I usually kept my tail wound around under my body and I never, NEVER, wore tight clothes.My eyes were (and still are) a blue-gray color and no, I was not color blind and I'm still not. That doll sis carries is still blue no matter how many stains there are on it. I keep long hair to cover up my ears. The first time I had short hair I nearly gave my best friend Narla a heart attack. I said it was just a prank by my sister. Thankfully my hair grows really fast so the next day my hair was back to normal.
That day mom went out hunting with a couple of other parents (including Narla's mom and dad, Sis's friend Coby's Mom, Dad and a few other parents. We soon heard gunfire. It was not our parents- It was too close to be them.esides, our parents used bows, not guns. Then some loud men barged into our house, grabbed me and my sis, tied us up and hauled us up over their shoulders. They spoke into this weird 'magic box' thing on their shoulder
"Yo, I got a couple more kids here." ,
"OK, Charlie, take them home". The words spilling out of the magic box made no sense. Take them home? I remember thinking. This is my home!
My sister, mirroring my thoughts, yowled that out and got rudely thrown into a cart and then hit on the back of the head. Charlie lit a match and tossed it into our house. Our house- my home- was soon engulfed in flames. "Not no more. This ain't your home now". I could tell my sister was struggling not to cry. I shifted myself over to her and hugged her as we set off in the back of a wobbly cart heading away from the only place we though of as home. soon we came to a stop. Another body was roughly thrown into the cart."Ow,ow,ow!" someone yelped as she was thown on top of my sister and I. I knew that voice! It was Narla! Narla was here! "Narla?" I asked the voice. "Yes? Sasha?" was the reply. She looked up and saw me and my sis. "You too?" she asked."Yup," I answered sadly. She moved to sit next to me."Any idea where we're going?" she asked. "Charlie," I said, pointing at the driver "said we were going 'home'. He burned ours.". "
He burned mine too." Narla replied. "Any idea where our parents are?" I hesitated, then answered. "No, but the gunfire so close and the arrow wound on that one's leg suggests that they were ambushed and...." I had no need to continue. oon we came upon these huge gates. The guard let us in. We rode though the center of the city (which is the capital of the continent) and everybody turned to look at us. A couple other carts with other kids in them joined ours. We soon left the busy central district and started going down this really fancy lane. Suddenly, the cart screeched to a halt outside a large castle. Charlie threw us out roughly. "I hope the king likes this batch. He sent the last ones to the basin. I heard the kids didn't even survive the trip." He let out a grunt.
I hope the king likes us. From what I hear I don't want to be sent to this place called the basin. Some royal guards came out, undid our bonds, and led us swiftly inside. The castle looked ven bigger on the inside. The king was sitting on a throne with (what looks to be) his kid at his feet on a really expensive cushion (or at least more than i could ever afford). The kid looked us over. He pointed at my sis. "I want her as my nanny, dad. She's pretty. That one on the right is too short." he pointed at me. "That one on the left is too ugly" He finished by flicking his hand at Narla. "I am not ugly, short stuff!" Narla screeched back. The king flicked his hand at my friend and she was dragged off, still screaming at the startled prince."That one was too noisy. She needs to be put down."said the king with a blandness in his voice. I knew what he meant by put down. He meant to kill her. But before I could launch myself at him and rescue my friend, I was bound, picked up, and carried off to a ship. I knew where I was headed. Next stop: death by jungle.
Chapter 2
I hate boats. I'm not seasick or anything, it's just the constant rocking and the wetness, plus the people who are seasick doesn't make the trip even more enjoyable. Add that on top of the fact that I'm going to certain death without my sis or my best friend (who is dead anyways) really makes this the worst trip ever. I know I'm gonna survive the trip.I'm not the only one who is not at the rail........there is another girl who looks like Narla. I walk over to the girl. "Hi I guess that your not seasick?" I ask. "Nope. Guess we're heading towards death together. At least let me know your name. Mine's Wylde (wild)." She says. "Mine's Sasha" I answer. We turn and look out at the sea. "Friends?" she asks. "Friends." I answer. "Look, there's our new 'home'!" I yell to Wylde. We are the only ones who survived. The rest fell off the boat, ate a bad fish (they caught it the cooked it them selves (stupid people)),or died from seasickness (not pleasant ways to die....) but we survived. The crew was surprised. The captain was bland (as usual). We were rudely kicked of the boat onto the the middle continent.
There are five continents. The North, the South (both are very cold), the East (home of the wild things), the West (my home), and the middle (the basin in the center with mountains to the north and lots of sparse plains A big river leads down from the mountains though the basin and ending at the sea. Over time, it has made a very low, sloping trail down to the basin (basically it's carved a 12ft wide hole in the basin wall. Once we arrived at the middle continent, we were loaded onto another boat and taken up river where we where dropped off in the middle of the jungle. One man, apparently taking pity on Wylde and me, gave us a few pointers."This is the only fresh water in the whole zone, but you still need to boil it. There is a cat out there that looks different then the ones you see around you. She's an albino cat with blue spots. If you manage to catch her you might be able to impress the Western king, enough to be set free." our 'guide' said as he cut our bonds and let us go. He also handed us a dagger, a bow, a pack, a quiver with 50 arrows. "Don't waste them. There are lots of ruins around here from boats crashing and sinking." This was his last advice as he sailed back to the port.
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"I caught a saber!" I announce as I walk proudly into our camp ("Saber" is what we started calling the cats that live around/with us. I found a kitten in my bed by the fire once) I glance around and flash back to creating and settling our new home. An old boat crashed on the shore a few walks up from where we were dropped off, and was flipped up side down. We dragged it next to the stream, removed the bottom (the deck) and used the extra wood to patch up holes in the roof (the haul) to make a cute little boat shelter. "Good work, Sasha!" Wylde called from where she was sitting on the bank with one of the homemade fishing poles. "I caught one measly little fish." She sighed with disappointment. I place my catch down on the roasting board to cook and got to work on the arrows I was making. "I saw Yuki (you-kee) today." Yuki is the white rare beast that we are supposed to be hunting to gain freedom. "I think she likes me!...Oops!...Crud...Dang it! Twenty arrows left in the quiver and this new one is being stubborn!" I growl in frustration. "I think she likes you to--" Wylde stopped suddenly. I turned and froze, seeing what she saw. Yuki. Standing no less to a foot away. I can make out some faint words "Danger...Danger...Snow king comes too close.... Burning.... Then... cold... bitter cold.... Need help... Your help... Her help too..... Please... Or we all perish."
Wylde heard it too. I stood up and said "We will help. We never asked to be here. I'm guessing you never asked to have your home be destroyed." "Good." Yuki answered. "Call me whatever you want, I don't care." "Is Yuki good?" I asked. She looked at me for the longest time and answered, "Yes... Yes, I like that name. It's a good name. Very... very good." (to be continued.....)
