I sit up and look down at my arm. There are two neat dots on my elbow, which appear to be mostly healed. Dove looks up when he hears me moving.

"Oh. Hey, Wolf. How are you feeling?"

"Fine. What were you saying earlier?" He hesitates, debating over his words.

"What were you saying?" I repeat when he doesn't respond.

"I was... Maybe... Maybe look at your head," Dove says slowly, wincing a bit.

"That's impossible." I look at him flatly.

"I-I know. But... Look, Wolf. I'm not really sure how to word this without freaking you out." He sits down beside me.

"Without freaking me out? What's that supposed to mean?" My voice rises slightly.

"Calm down. We can't attract the Guard and Soldiers."

"You'd better tell me what you were talking about, Dove." I stand up, and Dove follows.

"Take a dee-."

"What were you talking about?" A mixture of anger and fear simmer within me.

My hair shifts as I glare at my brother. Wait, what? How'd that happen? I frown and reach up. Half of my hand touches hair, but the other half touches fur.

"Wolf, don't freak out. It's alright," Dove starts, but I cut him off.

"What happened? Why are there wolf ears on my head?" My heart rate spikes.

"Remember that wolf spider?" Dove's voice trails off.

"How do you know that? You shouldn't know that; you weren't there. Wait, but you do. Were you there? Did you follow me? Do you have some magical power? Can you see the future? Can you see something when you're not there? Did you follow me? Do you not trust me? How could you! What did I ever to to y-."

"Wolf, quiet. You're yelling. I didn't follow you, I promise. I wasn't there. I stayed in our tent the whole time."

"Then how? How did you know there was a wolf spider?" I glare at him.

"It's... Well... This-this has happened before." Dove rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, and he doesn't meet my gaze.

"Liar. This hasn't happened before."

"It has. I swear I'm telling the truth. You and me, we're trapped in a loop. Every time this happens, you get killed, and it starts all over again. I know I sound insane-."

"You do."

"You've gotta believe me, Wolf. You gotta believe me."

"But why? It doesn't make any sense. Why do I even have wolf ears?" I tug at one of the ends of them.

"You're going to turn into a wolf."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The ears are just the start."

"So tomorrow I'm going to have a tail and fangs and claws and fur and stuff?"

"Probably just one or two, but yeah." Dove nods.

"That's bizarre." I look down at my hands and try to imagine them covered in fur.

"Wolf. We've gotta go. Guard and Soldiers at four o' clock." Dove grabs my arm and pulls me into motion.

I spring into motion, running after him. Branches slap at my legs as I sprint away from the Guard and Soldiers who are shouting for us to stop. I soon lose track of how long we've run for. The fir trees gave way to what appear to be maple trees a while back, and those are now thinning out to bushes.

"STOP!" One of the Guard roars. Dove glances over his shoulders and pushes me to the right. We change directions.

"Stop running! You'll never escape us."

"My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV wants to see you." The Guard pauses for breath frequently as he speaks. That's a mouthful.

"W-where... Are we. Going?" I pant.

"Away from... The White T-Tent Sea," Dove replies. The sun beats down on us from overhead.

"Stop for My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV!" It's one of the Guard again. His face is red with fury.

Sweat pours down my back in a river. Dove stays a few feet ahead of me, and he looks back over his shoulder every few seconds. Each time he shakes his head when the Guard and Soldiers are still right behind us. I duck under a branch.

The Guard and Soldiers gain on us.

"Please! Stop running." This time it's a Soldier. He's running close behind. I jump, going a little faster, when I see him right beside me.

How much longer?

My question is answered when Dove suddenly stops, picking me up and almost throwing me at a nearby tree. I scramble up it, expecting my brother to be right behind me, but he's disappeared, having run off to somewhere unknown.

"Where'd you go?" I whisper between breaths.

An arrow lands with a thunk in the tree bark directly to my left. The Guard and Soldiers have gathered at the base of the tree. The Soldiers hang around at the back as they only have swords, but the Guard cluster in close and draw arrows from their quivers and nock them in their bows, pulling the drawstrings tight before letting their arrows fly.

I flinch when another flies past me and nearly fall out off the branch, but I manage to hang on. One grazes my leg, cutting a neat line of red, and another blows through my hair.

"You, you, you, and you, go fetch all of the fallen arrows." The Guard who appears to be leading the group points at all of the Soldiers to get the arrows.

One of the Soldiers meets my gaze and gives me a small smile before running off.

A shriek echoes through the forest, which makes the Guard stop and turn around. My grip tenses on the tree as I scan the forest for whatever made that noise.

What lives in the forest? Whatever that shriek belongs to can't be good.

The shriek sounds again, longer and louder this time and accompanied by the sounds of cracking branches.

A monster-sized grey bird bursts through the trees. Its wings are splayed out to the side as it leaps into the air to catch two of the Soldiers in its taloned grip with yet another ear-shattering screech. Blood sprays, splattering on the ground, as the bird's talons pierce the armor of its victims.

It's gonna kill me.

I reach up to a branch above my head to climb higher in an effort to evade the bird. Its wings are tipped with black feathers, and the outermost flight feather on both wings is white.

My fingertips brush the bark, but I'm just an inch or two too short. I stand up a little taller on the branch, yet I still cannot make it any higher. Cracks splinter across the branch I'm standing on. 

Uh, oh.

It lurches, and, just before it breaks, I jump and manage to get my hands wrapped around the branch above me. I bite back a scream as I desperately try to gain purchase as my fingertips slip on the bark.

"DOVE!" I cry out.

My nails dig into the tree bark in an attempt to hang on. Even after my nails turn into claws, I still fall. I get the weightless feeling in my stomach as I plummet to the ground.

Instead of falling onto the dirt and branches like I had expected, I land on soft feathers. Wait, what? Oh, no! No, no, no, no! This is so bad! I roll over and push myself up to find myself sitting on the back of the bird.

"Sorry!" I squeak as I try to look for a safe exit, but the Guard and Soldiers are all around us. The bird glances over its shoulder before turning its attention back to the people standing around us in a circle.

My fingers curl around clumps of grey feathers and my stomach lurches as the bird lunges for the nearest Soldier. After killing two Soldiers and a Guard, the bird breaks into a sprint, racing away from its enemies.

And mine.

A few scratches and gashes riddle the bird's feathers and scaly legs. I look over my shoulder and see the Guard and Soldiers running after us. They're shouting for us to stop.

"This is probably a stupid question, but why haven't you killed me yet?" The bird chirps in reply, and it sounds like a laugh.

"STOP RUNNING FOR MY SOVEREIGN, HIS EXCELLENCY, HIS HONOR, HIS HIGHEST OF ALL HIGHNESSES, KING GARONDA XIV!" the lead Guard roars.

"Where are you headed?" I ask as I duck under a flying arrow. The bird jerks its head forwards with a twitter.

I can see a break in the trees up ahead. Just beyond the tree line is an expanse of black rock.

The Lava Flats, I realize. The only thing covering the Lava Flats are a few dead clumps of grass which are scattered sparsely across the terrain.

Just before the bird reaches the rough rock, one of the Guard fires an arrow. It whistles through the air before lodging itself in the bird's ankle. An echoing shriek rips from the bird's mouth as it stumbles before unfurling its wings. Arrows whiz past us, blurs of brown and silver. One slices a shallow cut across my cheek, and blood drips from my jaw onto my shirt. I try to wipe the blood away, but I just smear it across my skin.

The bird launches itself into the air, rising off the ground with powerful beats of its wings. 

"SHOOT THEM DOWN!" The lead Guard violently jabs a finger at us.

"So aim for the heart?" I can just barely make out the Soldier's question.

"No, you idiot! My Sovereign, His Excellency, His Honor, His Highest of all Highnesses, King Garonda XIV wants them alive; he wants the honor of killing them." The Guard's reply is just as quiet.

We make it over the top of the trees, and the bird keeps climbing, going higher and higher. The lead Guard keeps shouting to shoot us down. Wind bites at my cheeks, and I squint against it. I glance at the ground. Droplets of blood have splattered on the lava rock, and the sunlight glints off of the shiny circles.

An arrow shoots through my hair. I fall forwards onto the bird's neck with a shaky gasp.

That was... That was too close for comfort.

A high-pitched scream echoes through the air. 

Thank you for reading this chapter! 

Who's screaming?

Where is Dove?

Why didn't the bird attack Wolf?

-Werewolf14-