Purple Blooded

Red and Blue makes Purple

Mathew approaches me. " Hey, we've been here a few weeks now. The other two are getting antsy. Are you down to move on?"

" With all the way too close slip ups that I've had in the past few weeks, getting out of such a high density area would probably be good for me" I say to him with a chuckle. He responds with a small smirk. Recalling all the times he's covered for me. We begin the process of packing and preparing for the next trip. The others join us with packed bags, and soon we are heading towards the gates. Humans are in groups of two or three. A man from a group on the sidelines speaks loudly.

" Word is that those blue blood animals are starting to show up in our cities... They need to be eradicated." Disgust dripping off his tongue. I flinch a little at the malice of his words, locking my eyes on the gate. I can be rid of this place soon.

Cody pipes in "I agree with you man, I tried to get most of the survivors after that last battle, but you know some always slip through the cracks." A shiver runs up my spine. I don't think I can travel with them anymore. We exit the city and leave it's sight. I slip to the back of the group over the course of a few minutes. None of them seem to notice. Then without a trace I disappear into the trees. I keep them in ear shot, but make sure that I am out of reach of their poor quality human ears.

" Wait, where'd she go?" Mathew is the first to notice. After a moment they seem to try to call for me only to realize they never knew my name. They all stutter for a time. Backtracking to try to find me.

" Guess she split." Cody deserns first. They continue traveling without me till nightfall.

" It almost feels like she was a ghost. She joined us in a weird way, and now she's gone without leaving a trace." Justin says, hanging his head. They're all quiet for hours on end, slowly they doze off. I move to a tree where I have a view of their campsite. A direwolf howls in the distance, sounds like it's on the hunt.

Kaiden wakes up and bounces into the living room " You're looking a lot better now. All healed?" Katherine asks.

" Yup all better. Thank you for all your hospitality, but I think it's time for me to be moving on." Kaiden replies. He begins to pack his stuff, and soon he heads out on his way.

Six direwolves enter the camp snarling. Looks like tonight their prey is human. The three men wake up seemingly from the danger itself. " Damn, doesn't look like we'll be able to make it out of this one intact" Cody says almost with a chuckle. The wolves lunge and almost seem to freeze in mid air as my adrenaline flows. I drop from my perch and fly into the fray. Within a matter of seconds I've dropped three of them. Mathew and Justin seem to be holding their own, each against a direwolf, but Cody is fighting a losing battle against the biggest wolf. Looks like an alpha versus alpha fight. Joining him I wrap part of my cloak around the wolf's face, restricting air, but more importantly blocking vision, then in one smooth motion I slip onto the wolf's back. He bites a hole in my cloak and tries to buck me off. The wolf maneges to rip away the cloak. Cody goes to help the other two. The alpha weakens gradually. By the time the other two wolves are dealt with, I've snapped the alpha's neck. His limp body lay beneath me. My ears and tail are exposed. Justin approaches me slowly and reaches out for my ears cautiously. I dip my head to let him and he feels my ears for a second, his hand goes back under his cloak.

"Is that why you left?" Justin asks looking me in the eyes. I nod my head, he hugs me. "That doesn't matter to me". He lets go and takes a step back. Cody looks at him emotionlessly.

"How can it just not matter? We literally just finished a war with her people." Cody asks Justin.

"Have you already forgotten about the big cat, or I don't know the direwolves we literally just fought? There is no way we would have even survived without her. She has saved both of us." Justin reasons.

"All three of us, several times." Mathew pipes in. The two of them look at him for a second. "The first night we camped a bear wandered into camp" He recalls. "It would have killed me if it weren't for her. She even risked getting caught." He gestures to me. I shake my head. His eyes plead with me. I huff and pull up my shirt to show the partially healed wound the bear left. Their eyes go wide.

"Wait." Cody looks at Mathew. "How long have you known she wasn't human?"

"Since day one.... I had suspicions from how fast she moved to take out the bear. I stiched her up the next morning."

"And you didn't tell us?" Justin asks

"Well I knew at least one of you would not take it well."

A human campsite soon becomes visible to Kaiden. He approaches silently. A familiar smell, from a lost time. He scales a tree to check out the camp. The blood of direwolves fills his nose.

The wind whistles through the forest and a second later it starts to rain. I wish the rain could beat down the tension like it beats down the plants around us. Each layer of rain hits with a new level of cold, soaking closer to the bone. The fire dies plummeting us into darkness. They stumble around blind. I find a tree with enough leaves to be noticeably dryer than the surrounding flora, and lead the humans there. Mathew lights a torch from under his cloak. We scale the tree and tuck into it to wait out the rain.