When you normally hear stories about monsters, you hear about how they terrorize a town or capture the damsel. Other stories explain how to find the beauty in the beast, how a monster isn't really a monster.

But I am a monster. I know it, and the ones I loved most know it too. It took me a while to figure out, though, as these things normally do. Because monsters aren't born monsters, we're born into the same world, and we experience the same things. Something inside of us... it eventually clicks, like a timer going off.

I, Angeni Zilth, am a monster. And this is my story.

I always knew I was different, since I was a little girl. I always loved nature, I loved being surrounded by it and I always believed that I was a part of it. I wanted to be a part of it.

My grandmother (or as I called her, análi) would find me outside, talking to the birds in the trees. I would write them farewell letters whenever they had to migrate south for the winter, and when they came home I'd insist on throwing a party for them. Análi would always oblige, convincing herself that it was just a phase and I was just being the innocent young girl I was supposed to be.

Then, when I was eight, I went missing. Análi looked everywhere for me, and she eventually formed a search party to go out into the woods in the backyard to find me.

They found me, and to their surprise I was fine and healthy. What was strange to them was that they found me in a bear den, my ebony hair strung with pine needles and specks of dirt. It was abandoned, of course, but I claimed that it was too good of a den to go to waste. So, I decided to stay in it for the night, it seemed to be the only reasonable thing to do. At least to me it was.

As I grew older I obtained a rebellious attitude, all within good reason of course. In my early teen years I would hold protests int he cafeteria; demanding that they tell us what was really in the so called 'meat' they served us. That earned me a few days in detention.

But no matter what, I never dared disobeyed my análi. She had raised me from age seven, when the divorce lawyers decided I would be better off with her. They claimed there was too much 'tension' in my parents' household and making me choose which one to live with would only make matters worse. So, I moved from the dusty lands of Arizona to the snowy mountains of Alaska. Análi thought I needed the space, and she always liked the idea of Alaska being the last wild frontier and all.

Análi would tell me stories every night to comfort me while I slept, I always had crazy dreams. Some of the dreams were formed from the monsters in the stories, that was when análi would place a dream catcher in my room. I normally wouldn't have bad dreams again, but once I did I would blow on the strings of the dream catcher. I believed that was how the nightmares left.

I still have the dream catcher, it dangles from my ceiling fan. Sometimes I'll clean it out, or put outside on a windy day. But most of the time it just dangles in the center of my room, begging to be the center of attention.

I stole a glance of it before I pulled a coat on and looked outside my window. It was raining, like it always was in the summer, but the rain seemed to be falling a little lighter than usual so that it was a light sprinkle. Taking the opportunity, I grabbed my notebook and pencil and ventured outside, quietly closing the door behind me so my análi wouldn't alarm me with various questions.

I walked down a small pathway in the woods and eventually found the perfect place to sketch. The sunlight strung itself through the trees, hitting the ground in small scattered patches of light. I cocked my head at the scenery, and backed up to a rock. I wiped some pine needles off of the rock's surface before sitting down and facing the sun. For a moment, I almost considered drawing the breathtaking tree line, but I had already sketched numerous scenes just like this one. Each one as gorgeous as the last. So, I sat on the rock and waited for something to come along or for an idea to pop in my head.

After a few minutes I heard the snap of twigs and the shuffle of leaves. I swiveled my head slowly in the direction of the sound and found myself looking at a caribou in the distance. Her head was turned so that she was looking behind her and I quickly took in the image. I began to draw right away, taking the chance before something came along to disturb the animal.

And, just my luck, something did. I heard the soft crunching of of the leaves again, followed by the squishing of moss. I pricked my head up at the noise, a little startled. I had just begun to draw in the details of the caribou's fur, but that could be done later. I quickly closed my notebook and stuck it into a large pocket inside my jacket. As I narrowed my eyes, all I could see were small tuffs of fur sticking up. The shape was too small to be a bear, and too tall to be a bobcat. I kept low to the ground as I slid off of the rock, keeping my eyes locked in that direction. I noticed that the animal was blocking the trail home and I cursed under my breath.

When it stuck it's nose up to sniff the air, I could immediately tell what it was. A wolf. Obviously a lone one, since no other wolves followed behind it, and it hadn't howled yet to let any other wolves know it found prey.

I frowned at the caribou, the obvious prey, I even felt sympathetic. But, I knew that I shouldn't get in the way of the natural order of things.

"That's bad luck." My análi would say. "We have to respect their natural way as they respect ours."

So, I stayed low to the ground and watched. The wolf took a few more silent steps in advance and I could see the full figure now.

It was a skinny grey wolf, the fur was missing in patches and it's tail, once bushy, now was skinny and leathery.

I furrowed my eyebrows in sympathy again, the poor thing must have been on its own for a while. That's what happens to lone wolves, whenever they leave their pack they either die from famine or are attacked by other desperate packs. Wolves needed to be in a pack, they were social animals. Like dolphins or chimpanzees, or even humans. Well, most humans.

I finally let it dawn on me that I was in the presence of a sick wolf. This creature had obviously been infected with mange. Damn, I needed to get out of there. I began to scoot back, the pine needles ruffling softly against my boots.

I figured once I got to the path, I would be safe. There was no way I was going to make it by crawling there, I would have to make a run for it. I slowly got up to a low crouch and ducked my head low, keeping my eyes on the wolf in front of me. It was a couple feet away, so if I ran fast enough I would make it. I placed my hands on the ground to steady myself and raised my head up one more time to check on the animal. It was gone. I checked again, I didn't see the wolf in its spot, and the caribou had trotted off to another clearing to graze.

It wasn't until just then that I heard the growl, I swiveled my head quickly and saw it, the wolf, staring right at me. It's teeth were bared and ears were bent back. Attack mode. I realized my stance and to a wolf, I was also in attack mode.

"E-Easy now." I said nervously, finding myself talking to the animal.

The wolf snapped its jaws.

"No, there will be none of that." I snapped back.

The wolf pricked its ears up at my voice, but quickly returned to folding them back. It began to stalk forward and my fear was replaced by something else... a sort of defensive feeling.

I narrowed my eyes and bared my teeth, the wolf looked as surprised as I was at the action. I waited for the wolf to back up a few steps before snapping my teeth and making a low growl. The wolf yowled and bounced back again, beginning to retreat. I stood up so I could look over it, letting it know that I would be the dominant one here. It immediately accepted the fact and sprinted off.

I brushed soil off of my jeans and rubbed my temples. What had made me do that? I had heard about humans doing strange things to save their own lives, and to that wolf I must have been it's dinner. But it was still strange, and it also felt natural at the same time. I combed my fingers through me hair and sighed, deciding not to boggle my mind with any more head splitting questions.

As I began the walk home, I debated on telling my análi or not.

A/N

Yaaaaaas chapter one completed :3

For those of you reading this and wondering if it's a werewolf book or not, I'll help you set the record straight. It's not, it's completely different. But I think it's a good different.

Tell me what you think so far in the comments, I love hearing any kind of feedback.

~ Cat out