The Son of Artemis and Fenrir

Chapter 4 - First Surge

I regained consciousness with a ringing in my ears, I could not see, I was disoriented beyond all comprehension. I could feel my body trying to understand its surroundings. I could feel something warm brushing against my skin. It made me feel uncomfortable. I reached up to my face to feel strip of fur covering my eyes. The moment I removed it, I was almost blinded by the light. It burnt my retina unlike anything else. The smells in the air inflicted a greater pain then the light or the ringing in my ears. My nose was encased in the cloak of death and rot. I could smell the decay, slowly eating away at all the butchered animals.

I looked down to check how much damage had been done to my legs. Surprisingly it was only singed in a handful of places. The only real damage done was the burn marks on my feet. I then checked my arms, I was relieved to see that I still had my sleeve. But as I was checking my left arm, I felt a shallow, defined cut had formed on my shoulder. I looked to see that it was a rune, but I could not recall what for. Whenever I placed my fingers near it, I could feel something radiating out of it.

I then looked back at the interior of my cage. It was barely big enough to contain me, and I wasn't even stood up. For some reason though, whenever I touched the bars, it sent a ear-bleedingly, high pitched sound that disorientated me further. On the top of my cage, there was a large grizzly skin thrown across. The humans has placed two small bowls on the far side of the cage, these held water and food of some sort.

I could feel people looking at me, scrutinising me, begging for my blood.

I shimmied forward and snatched at the water bowl, draining it in two gulps. I looked up to see that the sun was almost setting. This filled me with glee. I would have an opportunity to escape once night fell. I needed to leave, to get back home. I needed to protect my family. I could hear cawing coming from above me, I looked up to see two ravens perched on the roof of my cage. They appeared to be watching.

Whilst no one was around, I decided to sleep. If all went well, I would need my strength.

————————————————————

When I awoke from my pretty shallow sleep, I saw that the ravens were still their watching my every move. I could feel a strange feeling in my body, as if something was lying dormant waiting to be released. When I looked at the moon, instead of the calming friend I usually saw, I was met with the rage inducing blood soaked moon. The moon was not alone in the sky, dark dense storm clouds patrolled the horizon. It was as if the world was trying to warn me. Warn me about what though.

I was snapped back to reality when I heard the pained screams of an elk, then of deers. I threw myself against the cage wall. I needed to stop this, I needed to protect the innocent life. They were killing for sport. I tried everything to break open the door. I even tried using my knife, until the blade shattered into multiple pieces. Luckily the handle was still in one piece.

I then heard a sound that chilled my blood to the very core. I heard them. I heard the cry of three Wolves. I growled as I continued to throw myself against the cage. I then felt angry, very angry. I could feel something channeling through everything hair on my body. As the cage started to close in on me even more, I lost more and more of my vision.

AARRRGGHHH!

I regained my vision with a sharp stab of pain near my liver. My arms were caked in blood and mud, my legs weren't much better. I could feel the stabbing pain start to weaken as it spread across the rest of my back. As I looked around, I realised I had escaped. I realised I was close to home.

I scrambled to get myself up onto my feet before hobbling the rest of the way. I could see the moon watching from overhead. I still did not know how I escaped, it was so confusing. As I started to hobble up the stone slope, I started to hear familiar voices. I heard a couple of the older Wolves complaining about having sentry duty. I heard Mum's authoritative voice trying to calm some of the older ones down. Then I heard Luna, I heard Luna crying.