A Wolf And Her Girl

CHAPTER ONE: Surprise.
Winter had arrived in Jamaa, bringing a numbing peace and quiet to the recently troubled land. For a while, that is. Darling howled with happiness as she ran with her dad towards Eternal’s house. She ran past and said “ETERNAL! Something’s up at Snowflake’s den!”
Eternal grumbled and emerged, the for on side of her muzzle was flattened making her fur look lopsided. She moaned “Are you crazy? Bugging me this early..”
Jack yelped and said “Get dressed! Come on!”
Darling, Jack and Eternal ran to my den (I had changed it to my tree house). The other half was in my yard too. Including Mighty, me and Mya.We were crowded on the top floor, and something was curled up there. Eternal moaned and said “Snowflake, what gives?!”
I said “Sshh. Come over here and take a look.”
Jack peered over Mighty’s shoulder and gasped. “WHAT TH-”
Darling rolled over and fainted. Eternal gasped and screamed “A HUMAN!!! A YOUNG, GIRL, HAIRLESS, PAWLESS, MUZZLELESS, TAILESS HUMAN!!!”
For there, curled up on the top floor, was a young girl. She had long, blond and curled hair. She had a torn shirt on and ripped up jeans. Also a amulet on a strip of leather was tied around her neck. I feared the worst.
CHAPTER TWO: Homeless and no place to go.
We walked downstairs, only Jack flipped Darling onto his back when he came downstairs. I said as Jack put down Darling, “It looks like she was in a fight.”
Eternal said “Yeah, and lost BIG TIME.”
Mya replied “All I know is I smell blood. Human blood.”
A voice came from the top or the stairs. It was a female speaking, and her voice was stern. “EXCUSE me? Sorry, but I don’t appreciate people saying stuff about me like I’m not even here.”
Jack thought it was his daughter talking but instead he did a double take at girl sitting on the top step. Mya who was drinking water, spewed out her water on Darling, who woke up. We were wide eyed at the girl. I said “Great sky mother Mira….”
Darling finished the sentence and said “It talks.”
The girl said “Of course I talk. So what?”
I became a little braver and said “Well don’t you think it’s strange? I mean, you’re talking to animals?”
The girl said “Lots of things talk to me. Animals, Bugs, Water, even Trees. My people say everything speaks, but not everyone listens.”
Eternal snarled and said “YOU’RE PEOPLE? You mean WITCHES? The only people we heard speakin in animal tongues before was WITCHES!”
The girl opened her mouth in astonishment. I saw a brief glimpse of blood on one of her teeth, but then she said “Are you CR-AZY? I’m not a witch!”
Eternal gritted her teeth and said “Yeah, like a witch would tell the truth! I say we call Greely to check this out–”
The girl screamed and said “NO PLEASE! DON’T CALL ANYONE! Look, I’m sorry if I messed up your house but you got to understand! I ran away from home, and I’d rather die then go back there.”
I thought a little bit then said “Alright.”
Then Eternal screeched “WHOA SNOWFLAKE, YOU AIN’T SAYING–”
I replied to Eternal “She can stay with me until she’s better.”
Eternal started walking out and halfway down the ladder she said “AW NO! You can count me out! Cause no good will come of this I tell you! I can smell it like a two day old–”
Before she spoke the rest the Jamaa Journal blew into her face and all of us laughed as she struggled to get it off. Even the girl was laughing. Little did I know that on the cover of the Jamaa Journal was a series of photographs of a large, hairy wolflike beast that would stalk Jamaa in the next few days.
CHAPTER THREE: Foraging @ night.
As soon as it was dark out, we went feeding and clothing the strange girl. I knew a friend who had a rare sewing machine, so I borrowed it and sewed up some clothes for the girl. Afterwards, me and the Girl (I nicknamed her Taylor) stayed up the rest of the night, speaking in low tones about life and life itself. She told the story of her childhood, most of it unpleasant and cruel. Life on the road wasn’t much easier. She saw a fortune teller around the way to Jamaa, (don’t ask me how she knew her way there) and she pricked her finger on one of the wizardy stuff there. The next thing she remembered was waking up in Jamaa, scars and claws on her. I, in turn, told her about Jamaa, the legends, the phantoms and the sky Mother and sky Father. By the time sleep overcame us, we each felt as if we had recovered a long lost sister. The weeks that followed were the happiest either of us had known. When the sun ruled the sky, Taylor hid and slept shuttled behind dens, trees and stores. And when the moon took it’s place on the night stars, Taylor roamed free with her newfound friends. Although Eternal never got over her suspicions, she had to admit that she was in good paws. But then, almost over night, a change came over the girl. Her old nightmares returned, black and red visions of the fortune teller, the woods and faceless men chasing after her for something she didn’t do. She became more moodier and restless with each passing night and increasingly paranoid that her nightmares were somehow becoming reality. Some nights she refused to leave my house, while other nights she’d come back dirty and unwilling to speak about where she’d been. One night she didn’t come back at all. As we were looking all over the place, Mighty said “Well, maybe she just moved on?”
Jack said “Yeah, or maybe she’s hurt! You know how strange she’s been acting-”
Mya said “PSSSSST! Pssst! I see her!”
Eternal peeked over the ridge and said “Huh? What’s she doing in Canyon’s Pathway?”
Mya said “How should I know? Come on!”
We walked up looking at the back of Taylor and I said “Ugh. What’s that smell?”
She moved suddenly in a jerking move, her head yanking upwards, AND TEARING OFF A PIECE OF RABBIT FLESH. She was eating rabbits, gobbling down flesh, crunching bones and drinking the blood. We gasped and Darling rolled over and fainted again.
CHAPTER FOUR: Danger.
Next night Mighty, Darling and Mya were howling to summon Greely. Me, Darling and Jack stood over in the corner sulking and waiting for him. Eternal grumbled “Told you Taylor was freaky. We should have done this the MINUTE-No-the SECOND we saw her.”
I snapped at Eternal and said “Shhh! I like that girl. Besides, Greely can’t be too far away!”
Suddenly Taylor threw the door open. She had smudged blood around her mouth and she said “Hey whats all the howling for?”
We stopped howling and Darling stammered ”U-uh- It’s a summon-”
I motioned for Darling to be quiet and then I said “We’re calling for a friend of ours to visit. We have to howl loud or he will not come.”
Taylor slammed the door and said “Oh I see.” Suddenly she erupted into a long and chilling howl that made even our fur stand on end. She stopped and said “What? I was just trying to h-h-HRK-AHURRK COUGH COUGH-” Suddenly she clamped a hand over her mouth and she seemed to be strangled. She choked and said “O-hhhhhh… What’s happening to me???”
I said “Just hold on! Help is on the way!”
She said in a more deeper voice I’ve never heard before “P-PLEASE. LEAVE ME A-A-ALONE. I D-DONT FEEL SO G-GOOD…”
She crawled upstairs choking, “NNRRAARGH!!”
Eternal screamed as I started to go after her “SNOWFLAKE! GET AWAY FROM HER!”
I yelled back “DANG IT ETERNAL! CAN’T YOU SEE SHE’S SICK?!”
Taylor dragged the rest of her body upstairs choking the words “Oh god…. Help me… h-help..”
We stood on the second floor, fur on end as we heard snapping, cracking and her growling in pain. Darling said “Y-you hear all that WOOD snappin? She’s b-b-b-busting up your house!”
I yelped and whimpered ”Great sky Father help us…. that isn’t Taylor.” I saw a shadow at the top of the stairs. It was a large hairy wolflike beast, like on the Jamaa Journal. It had red eyes and was growling. I whimpered in response to Darling “And that isn’t wood.”
Chapter five: Werewolf!!

Suddenly the wolf-beast leaped down, and revealed all. Taylor was a werewolf! Taylor (now the beast inside of her) snarled and all of us but me scampered into the corner. I snarled and said “Leave Taylor alone! Go back to where you came from!”

Taylor the werewolf snarled and said “THE GIRL IS ASLEEP. LOST IN DREAMS OF RED. THERE IS ONLY ME.“

I growled and said “NO!”

Taylor snarled, said “YES!” and aimed for my neck, biting there but she released right away when I scratched her across her eye, and she only transferred half the werewolf virus to me. She pinned me to ground and snarled in my face “I’M LETTING YOU LIVE BECAUSE YOU’VE BEEN GOOD TO US. CROSS MY PATH AGAIN AND I WILL EAT YOU, BONES AND ALL.”

With that done, she released me and hopped over the side, howling. I got shakily to my paws and wobbled after her. Mighty yelped when she realized what I was doing and she said “Snowflake! Stop! There’s nothing you can do!!!”

We followed the werewolf far far into the human world. But still Taylor had gotten far ahead of us, driven by an uncontrollable rage and the strength to kill. We could follow the trail plainly. Monstrous paw prints in the snow, the air heavy with the scent of wolf and human, and finally, death. The sight of Taylor ripping the throat out of a human was too much. I walked back towards my house and Jack said “Good choice Snowflake! We can handle this!”

They pounced on the werewolf as I walked away. The werewolf howled with rage and said “YOU ANIMALS! WHAT DID I TELL YOU??? WHAT DID I TELL YOU?!”

Suddenly Taylor snagged her paw on a rock and took a tumble down a cliff. But Mya, Eternal, Jack, Mighty and Darling managed to leap back on land. But Taylor held on to a tree trunk and just hung there. Then she saw me, with a sword on my back and a feral look in my eyes. I had decided to go home to grab a sword to end Taylor. I would be sad, but I would find another companion. I said “Goodbye, Taylor.”

The werewolf growled and said “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” I hacked at the tree and finally it tumbled down the cliff with the werewolf hanging on. It yelped “NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!“

I jumped down with Taylor. She had morphed back to her human form and was getting crushed against the tree trunk. Her eyes were shut. She opened them weakly and said “S-snowflake?”

I said “Hello, Taylor.” But she didn’t seem to understand me. To her it sounded like “Wruff, Arff.”

She said “Oh Snowflake. I can’t understand you no more….” I cried as she held up a hand to me and almost touched me. “I…..can’t…..”

And suddenly she was still. Her hand dropped and a bloody tear leaked from her eyes. I cried, then sat down. Then I howled long and sad, and Mya, Eternal, Jack, Mighty and Darling came down. They also sat down and howled. Suddenly a shadow fell over us and Taylor. It was a medium age female bunny. I said “Y-you live in Jamaa too?”

But the bunny just shook her head and carried Taylor away. I suddenly realized that the bunny, was Peck. The middle aged female bunny shaman. That winter was the harshest anyone could remember. We never left home without each other, and nothing howled except the wind.