Rage

7 - The Wolf in the Downpour

TW: None, please tell me if I missed any!

The road was muddy and the inhabitants of Yuliab's little cart were soaked. It had rained only an hour after they had left the ghost town, and they hadn't any place to take rest, seeing as it had been all plains for a while now, so the rain had been merciless.
"Why did it have to rain? Everything is drenched, and we don't have a change of clothes." Marlin groaned in complaint.
"And it's way colder than it was yesterday." Rain agreed.
The cart suddenly jolted to the side, throwing the passengers into the air. The girls yelped in unison as they fell.

When all had landed, Yuliab immediately scrambled up and went to Marlin and Rain to assist them.
"Are you both alright?" He panicked, not knowing how to help as Marlin rubbed her head and began to sit up.
"Holy cow, well that hurt-" Marlin looked towards Rain. "You good?"
Rain was sitting up, glancing behind her at the cart.
"I'm fine, but what the heck happened to the cart?"
Yuliab had moved to the side, and was tending to the the terrified horse who had been pulling the cart, but then moved to the front of the capsized cart to see what had happened after Rains comment.

"Well it looks like the mud got the best of it. It'll take a while to get it out, but it'll be fine." He answered Rain.
As the words left his mouth Yuliab felt a drop of water splash onto his forehead, and race down the side of his face. And then another fell. And another, and another, and soon enough, the downpour had resumed.
"Oh come on!" Marlin whined.
Suddenly, Rains head swung around, her eyes landing just behind the three travelers and their broken-down cart.
Rains head swung back.
"Yuliab, I don't think we have time to fix it." She said, her shaking voice laced with panic.
"Huh?" Marlin said as she looked in the direction
Rain had and her eyes became as wild as those of the horse. Yuliab had seen it as well, and grabbed a knife out of his back pocket. He paced back to the horses side, whispering something to it, and then cutting the reins it was tied to.
He smacked the horse's back and it took off.
Yuliab turned towards the girls. He nodded, and the three took off sprinting, as behind them, something emerged from the grass.

Marlin dared to look back as she ran. Standing in the spot Rain had been just seconds before, was a wolf. A concerningly big wolf. She questioned how it had been able to hide in the tall grass.
The wolves eyes met Marlins. Marlin swung her head back around and ran as fast as she humanly could, as the wolf sat still in that same spot.
Suddenly, they passed a tree. And then another tree. Marlin looked forward, and farther up the path was a forest. The first one any of them had seen since they had left her and Rains old home.

Within three minutes of running, they had reached the forest. Marlin barelled over from running so fast for so long, and Yuliab sat down to catch his breath. Rain leaned on a tree and looked back, only to see the wolf only about 50 feet away, sprinting towards them.
"No, no, no, no, no! We have to keep running!" Rain yelled to the others. Marlin looked up and realized what Rain was saying, and she had seen the wolf, but she could barely breathe from all the running they'd done. Marlin tried to get up, but she hit the ground as she passed out.

Rain panicked and picked Marlin up. She looked towards Yuliab for help. He could still move at the very least, but he probably couldn't run, and with all the energy he'd had used running, she didn't know if he could use levitation on them either. So instead, she motioned farther into the forest, and he followed her as she held Marlin on her shoulder breaking sticks, and moving leaves and branches to the side.

When they heard the wolf approaching, they each picked a tree and ducked behind it.
As the creature walked ever closer to the tree her and Marlin were hiding behind, her body tensed and she tried her best to hide the sound of her breath, struggling to breathe already.

She heard the wolf's bated breath as it stopped beside the of which she was hiding behind. She wanted to run, but she knew she couldn't, and even if she could, it would catch her. As her mind had begun to accept that it was the end for her, the wolf turned and walked away, deeper into the forest. She stopped holding her breath, and air rushed into her lungs. As she lay against the tree gasping, Marlin finally awakened.
"What the-" Marlin questioned.
"You passed out." Rain said.
Marlins eyes widened as they had when she had first seen the wolf, and looked towards Rain for answers.
"It's gone. It left into the forest." Rain responded.
Marlin sighed in relief.
Marlin stood up and held a hand out for Rain to do so as well.

Rain took a minute to balance her breathing once more, and took Marlins hand. She pulled Rain up, and they walked over to Yuliab.
He had gotten up as well and was inspecting something in the bushes.
"Hey, old man!" Marlin called.
"Oh hush." Yuliab rolled his eyes. "Come here you two, I've found something."
He had indeed found something. He had found a bush of blueberries, which the three picked clean, and stuffed them into a small leather bag Yuliab always kept in his pocket in the instance that an event such as this might take place.

They walked back towards the cart, and the girls helped lift it whilst Yuliab pulled it out of the mud and fixed up the wheels. After that, they looked and called for hours until they finally found the horse. They once again walked back to the cart, Yuliab sending Marlin out to find a vine to replace the cut reins. Marlin only took a minute finding the vines, and once the reins were fixed,  they were on the road again, and headed towards their next destination. A little town named Wisteria, which apparently sold food, clothing, and tools which they very much so needed. So down the road and off to Wisteria they went.

A/N: I know I haven't posted in a while, but I'm not sorry. I'm going to take this book seriously, and take quality over quantity. Sure, I'm writing this so my readers can enjoy it, but I'm also writing it for myself. So if that means I take a month to publish a new chapter, then I take a month to publish a new chapter, and that's that. I'm not going to push myself because that's how I lost motivation and passion for State of Mind. My stories are my passion projects, and I'm not going to let a deadline change that.

WC: 1084