• A.K.A Wolf Act XXI-Unexpected


    ‘Destiny rarely calls on us at out time of choosing.’

    A Halfling? But, she was a lynx, not a wolf. How can this be? I mean, sure, Surt-Lim invaded countless wolf packs but to go as far as into the feline category is just overkill. How could one person be so cruel as to want to wipe out not one, but two entire species of animals just for his own amusement?

    I stared with my wolf eyes down at the girl who was once a lynx kit. “What do you want?!” I barked angrily down at her. My muzzle was rather close to her face and I could feel her shivering in fear under my paws and breath. She only whimpered and began to cry a little. Then I heard a male lynx call out, “Sara!! Sara, dammit, where are you?!?” She finally mustered up enough courage to cry out, “PAPA! Help me!!” Before I could retaliate for even a second from the voices that rushed towards me, there was a group of adults, about 30 to 40-years-old and there stood around six of them, and they just stood there gaping at me with mouths and eyes open widely. Was it the fact that I had their young one pinned down under my paw or that Spark’s tail was still on fire a bit?

    I stepped off of the girl and she immediately sprinted to a human man with long grey hair tied back and a slightly fatty belly. Even as the girl sobbed for his attention at his side, the man simply stood stiff and in awe before Sparks and I. I didn’t become human in front of them, thinking they would take out a gun and fire it at me. I walked backwards to Sparks. His tail finally extinguished and he walked behind me, “Momma, I don’t like this.” “It’s alright, Sparks. Maybe they’re lost or some—”

    “The fire spirit spoke!!” the white-haired man shouted with a fat finger jabbed at Sparks. How did he know what we were saying? The man slammed a closed fist firmly against the little girl’s back and she let out a pained cry. “How dare you Sara!? Disturbing the fire spirit!” Sparks’ paws began to glow red and his ears were tilted back. He got angry? That just wasn’t like him but that’s another thought for another time. Just to make sure, absolutely that they could understand what we were actually saying just the fact that we were barking, I spoke up. “Hello?” The crowd gasped and the first man transformed into a lynx. It wasn’t in a quick switch like it was for us, his change was much slower and it seemed painful. Once he was fully an animal. He bowed his head to me and soon, the rest of his pack became all lynxes and bowed to me.

    “What are you doing?!” I asked with a bit of panic in my voice. Their bobbed tails were low and their pointed ears laid flat against their lightly spotted heads. It was like I was some kind of God to them. Only the most bottom positions in the pack required that you do exactly what these little cats were doing. “We have only heard tales about you, Silver Toe. Where are the others? There should be four more of you, shouldn’t there?” I bared my teeth down towards the miserably small male lynx leader. “Listen, cat!” I spit the last word. “I don’t know how you know us, but you better explain yourselves . . .”

    “DINNER!” Zero came howling back with half a moose carcass in his mouth and Ichio was sure to follow.

    “The Scarred One . . .” A lynx amongst the crowd murmured. I charged at the in a short burst and they all cowered in fear. Pathetic little things. It didn’t take long for Zero to notice why I looked so pissed off. He trotted over in front of me so that his left side blocked almost all of my vision of the lynxes. Damn his tallness. “What’s going on? Who are you guys?!” Zero barked angrily at them. The leader walked forward slowly, crouched down in submission, “We are simple Halflings like yourself only . . . we do not possess powers like you . . . the Scarred one and Silver Toe as well as the fire Spirit.” Zero raised his head with ears fully erect. “Who the hell is that?” I growled deep within my diaphragm. “They’re talking about all of us.”

    The leader spoke up again. “We mean no harm towards your Wolven kind. My whole life has been to find and capture a Wolven Halfling.”

    “CAPTURE!?” I found myself blurt out, trying to shove Zero to the side so I can tear the throat out of every single on of those despicable cats. I had also had enough of capturing and kidnapping and all of that painful nonsense.

    Every lynx jumped back. “O-only to ask questions and discover why you of all species were chosen to have Abilities.” I was getting really tired of that male’s voice.

    “Well we don’t feel like answerin’” Zero sneered. “So beat it before I make mulch outta ya!”

    “As you wish . . .” and they all left in a mass. I also found it odd how cooperative they all were all of a sudden.

    “That was too weird.” I muttered to myself as I popped back into my human form. I turned to look at the moose food and just then Ichio came into view. As I expected, with the other half of the moose. But there was something wrong. I could feel it in my bones.

    “Hey, Sister?” I heard Ichio whimper with a mouth full of moose fur. “Where’s Sparks?”


    ~Kumori’s Perspective~

    After the dust and everything cleared from the air and I stopped coughing up my lungs. I looked up frantically. I begged out loud that this wasn’t happening. Hotaka didn’t just get smashed all to hell against a tree and he was still being annoying as ever at our campsite. But, no. The boulder was still there, Hotaka as still gone, and the blood still trickled out from behind the huge rock. My heart dropped and I couldn’t feel anything. All I knew was that Hotaka was dead behind the rock and I, like a selfish dumb a**, caused it all. I don’t care about Hotaka, that much I know and still it kills me to know that he’s not livin’ anymore because of something I did. I let out a scream as I got up and ran to the boulder. “H-Hotaka!” I tried to move the rock with just my arms and body weight but that damned thing didn’t even budge. I guess I got a little hysteric because I had no control over my common sense beyond that point. It was kind of like one of those out-of-body experiences where you can see and feel everything, but you don’t really have any control over just what the hell is goin’ on. So I guess something along the lines of me using my water to move the boulder came up and then . . . I dunno . . . I just remember seeing this broken and beaten body lying like a sack of potatoes at my feet. It took my dumb a** a long time before I could register that that body belonged to Hotaka. Now I was starting to come back mentally to the situation.

    I slammed my open hands on his chest; the hollowness of the impact scared me, honestly. Like there was nothing in it. I laid my head down so that my ear was on Hotaka’s torso. I listened for a heartbeat and I got one. It was, like, really faint though. I took off the crossed belts he had over his shirt and then I removed the remaining shreds of his red scarf. But as soon as I did, his eyes slammed open and he sat up extremely fast with a massive gasp. I looked at the raggedy scarf with disgust. It smelled mega nasty. I looked back at Hotaka and his ripped up hands were clutched at his throat. “Ya know . . .” I began, holding back the feeling I hadn’t had in so long, “this thing was cuttin’ off your air. Pssh! Good thing I was here, huh?”

    The glare that he gave me made my breath catch in my throat. He was pissed. Very pissed. “Are you okay?” I asked in a boring tone. He stood up and snatched the removed articles of clothing out of my hands. “I’m fine,” he stumbled slightly. “No thanks to you. Dammit, Kumori! You’re head is so thick that you can’t even listen to me when your life is in danger and. . .” His voice started to trail off and I just stopped listening to him. I guess it started to set in that he was ok and not dead and just . . . here. Like I always did when Father Octa would come back from a long-distance “priest job” I lunged at Hotaka and, I guess, hugged him. At first, his body was like the rock that just got done crushing the life out of him. Then he kind of molded around me. And it felt nice.

    “I’m sorry, Kumori.” He placed one hand behind my head.

    “Me too.”

    I didn’t want to let go and I felt sick to my stomach.