Running With The Wolves (A Nuts-and-Dolts Wolfwalkers AU)

Chapter 4

Wandering through the deepest parts of the forest, Penny searches for her pet falcon while quietly humming the "Kill the Wolf" song. She soon comes upon a circular clearing in the woods, where she finds one of Merlyn's feathers.

"Merlyn! Merlyn, where are you, buddy!" Penny called out.

Then she hears rustling in the trees and grips her crossbow tightly. And suddenly, Merlyn flies towards Penny and hovers in front of her, chirping happily.

"Merlyn! You're okay!" Penny smiled.

"For a second, I thought that wild girl was gonna eat you." she sighed, letting her bird perch on her forearm.

More rustling came from the bushes, causing the hairs on the back of Penny's neck to stand on end. She turns towards the noise and sees a pair of shining silver eyes in the shadows. Then a reddish brown wolf comes out and begins to slowly stalk towards Penny. With shaky hands, the girl places an arrow in her crossbow and points it at the wolf. But before she could shoot, Merlyn swoops down and snatches the arrow off the crossbow...and he repeats this each time Penny tries to reload the crossbow.

"Merlyn! Cut it out! What are you doing!?" Penny whimpered.

With each step forward the wolf took, Penny took a step back. Penny backed up until her foot got caught onto a snare trap and now she was hanging upside down by her ankle.

"Get away from me, wolf! Stay back!" Penny said flailing her arms and free leg.

The wolf stares at Penny, cocking its head to the side, then the other, twitching one ear at a time. As the wolf gets closer, Penny starts swinging her fists and kicking her leg. A fist collides with the top of the wolf's head making it grunt. Then when the wolf jumps up and tries to bite at the rope...a foot collides with its jaw, causing it to yelp and fall on its back. It gets back to its feet and shakes its head with a huff. Again, the wolf jumps up and tries to bite at the rope, but Penny was flailing too much, so as it bit the rope, it also bit Penny's arm.

"OWW!" Penny cried out.

The rope snaps and Penny falls on her face on the grass. She gets to a seated position holding her bitten arm and hissing in pain. When the wolf saw the bite mark on Penny's arm, it folds it's ears back and whines.

"No! Get away!" Penny said fearfully, shielding her face with her arms, shutting her eyes tightly.

Unexpectedly, Penny feels the wolf lick her wounded arm. She opens her eyes and sees an almost apologetic look on the wolf's face.

"Um...thank you?" Penny said.

Out of nowhere, a slightly larger blonde wolf with lavender eyes comes out and gets in between Penny and the first wolf. The blonde wolf growls at Penny, scaring her and making her scoot back with a shriek. The red/brown wolf gets in front of the blonde wolf and nudges it. Next, the wolves run away, with the blonde one looking back at Penny with narrowed eyes, and Merlyn flying after them.

"Merlyn, wait!" Penny shouted standing up.

She grabs her crossbow and straps it to her back, and follows the wolves and her bird. While chasing the wolves through the forest, Penny's vision changes slightly...as if she was seeing what she was smelling. Then she shakes her head and her vision returns to normal.

"Weird..." Penny mumbled to herself.

Penny doesn't really pay attention to where she's going and soon tumbles down a hill into a pile of leaves. Following the direction the wolves went, Penny pushes past some trees and vines and comes upon a cliff and waterfall. She saw the wolves go behind the waterfall and follows them into a dark cave. Going deeper into the cave, she sees drawings of wolves and humans on the walls.

"Wow." Penny said quietly in awe.

Penny stops and hides behind a rock when she sees the wolves enter a large circular den area illuminated by torches on the wall. Wolves laid asleep all over the den...but in the center was some grassy bedding with four humans laying on it. Two of them were adult men, one with blonde hair and the other with dark black hair with silver specks. The other two were young girls, one with messy blonde hair and the other was the wolf girl Penny saw earlier that day. The blonde and red/brown wolf stand next to the two girls and suddenly they transform into golden glowing wolf-shaped spirits and jump right into the girls's bodies. The girls open their eyes and sit up, causing Penny to gasp and cover mouth, ducking behind the rock.

"It's no use hiding!" a voice called out.

"Yeah! We can smell you!" a higher pitched voice added.

Four wolves come in front of Penny causing her to run into the den and be surrounded by more wolves.

"GAHHH! PLEASE DON'T EAT ME!!!" Penny screamed cowering.

"Hahaha, we're not gonna eat you, you silly." the silver-eyed girl laughed.

"Are you a...?" Penny slowly asked.

"A wolfwalker? Yeah, so what? You should thank my sister, she saved your life." the blonde girl replied with attitude.

"Saved me!? She bit me!" Penny said holding the arm with the bite mark.

"Well, you did kick me in the face..." the silver-eyed girl muttered.

"You were attacking me! What was I supposed to do!?" Penny defended.

"Nuh-uh! I was trying to help you out of that trap!" the silver-eyed girl argued.

"You shouldn't have even been in our woods!" the blonde girl snarled in Penny's face.

"Woah! Yang, just back off!" the silver-eyed girl said pulling her sister away from Penny.

"She was only looking for her pet falcon." she added.

"Yeah, that she shot." Yang scoffed.

"That was an accident!" Penny shouted in defense.

Merlyn flies over and lands on Penny's shoulder.

"Did you heal him?" Penny asked the silver-eyed girl.

"Yep. And give me your arm, I'll heal that too. I'm Ruby by the way." the silver-eyed girl nodded.

Penny cautiously holds out her arm and Ruby gently takes hold of her wrist. She places her hand over Penny's wound and begins to howl. As the other wolves join in, glowing wisps come from Ruby's hand and wraps around Penny's arm, healing it. When Ruby pulls away the bite mark on Penny's arm had completely vanished as if nothing had happened.