Ren awoke with a start. Another nightmare had plagued his unconscious mind on this night. Recently, he had been having nightmares as this one, and every dream had been worse than the last. They all contained a white eagle that flew around or sometimes even perched on his shoulder. In this particular dream, Ren had watched a huge wolf-like creature ripping into a young girl he felt a sort of fondness for, yet he was certain he had never met her. The eagle had been perched overhead, glaring down at him with sad eyes that almost seemed to scream at him, to try and make him understand something.
Ren sat up in his small bed and peeled himself from the warm blanket with reluctance. He tried to move about as quietly as possible, but that was difficult to do in a house full of werewolves.
Aaron, his stepbrother and best friend poked his black-haired head into the doorway. His icy blue eyes glowed in the dim setting, a sort of eerie yet beautiful look to them.
"What's wrong, blondie?" he said with a small yawn.
Ren shook his head in response. "Another nightmare," he replied.
Aaron stepped into the room fully. He was tall and somewhat muscular and he was seldom seen wearing a shirt. He sat down next to Ren and yawned again.
"Wanna talk about it?" he asked.
"Not really." Ren had always been the shy one, never talking back or stirring up any trouble of any kind-though it seemed to catch up to him every now and then. He stared at his lap, knowing the way werewolves acted when you stared them in the eye.
Aaron thought for a moment before standing. "Come on, then. Let's go for a walk. It's too late for me to sleep anyway," he said with his signature smirk.
----
They walked through the Main Street of the town they lived in. It was a wolf settlement, obviously, with only two people who weren't of the species, Ren and a young girl who was half werewolf, half human. Ren himself was a shapeshifter, a rare species that was close to dying out. Legend had it that, after the guardian of the race was killed eight years ago, the shifters disappeared one by one, leaving only a handful left in the world. Ren's own parents had been killed, and Aaron's father had found him as a small child. They took him in and raised him as best as they could. He was often picked on at school-as Wolves and shifters were often enemies since the Great War fifty years ago-for simply being what he was. Years of this has taught him to keep his eyes down and his mouth shut when in the presence of others.
Aaron was telling stories about a young girl he saw walking around in the forest the other day. Whether he was trying to distract Ren or to show off, he wasn't sure.
"I've never seen someone so beautiful in my life. If I ever see her again, I'll make sure she's mine!" he declared with a proud toss of his chin to the sky. "She was breath-taking. And she had blue hair, Ren! Blue hair! I've never seen someone with blue hair before. She must have dyed it."
Ren chuckled, letting himself be distracted by Aaron's obsession. Aaron was the only wolf whom he could converse normally with, though he knew Aaron had a temper at times, it was never directed at him.
"Blue hair, huh? Isn't that your favorite color?" he asked his excited friend.
"Why yes it is! And just think about it," Aaron responded, gesturing with his hands in big motions with excitement.
"What if her hair is natural? You have to see her sometime, Ren. She's just perfect."
"You say that about every girl you see."
"But I mean it this time!"
"Uh-huh. What ever you say."
About this time, they reached the tall electric fence that surrounded their little settlement. Soldiers were posted at every pole with their watchful eyes on the trees beyond. They wielded heavy guns and a large, curved knife strapped to each leg. Aaron frowned at the sight, all thoughts of the mysterious blue-hair gone.
His father was the leader of their pack and had ordered these fences and posts set up right before he found Ren. He had also cut all ties with neighboring packs whose alliances were older than the trees themselves. He said he set these precautions up to keep things out, but lately some rumors have been saying it was built to keep something in.
"I remember when there were no fences. No gates. No checklists, no searches. Where has my father's pride gone?"
Ren looked at his friend. His features expressed the sadness of a caged animal.
"When I am the pack leader," Aaron declared, loud enough for the soldiers to hear. "My first order is to tear these restrictions down and open up trade with our old allies once again."
There was a cold, whispering breeze as those words left his lips and both teens were suddenly filled with cold and dread.
They both heard a voice behind them, a scratchy dark sound.
"Shouldn't the both of you be in bed?"
(Image copyright: whisperfall from deviantart
http://whisperfall.deviantart.com/art/Dreams-144932089 )
