Picture Perfect Love

Chapter 3- Fighting and New Allies

Every movement Kennedy made the rest of the afternoon was calculating. She watched every step she took, every sound she made, afraid giant wolf-like creatures were lurking around every corner watching and waiting in silence.

Her and Mina had failed to speak anymore of the dead wolf they'd came across, almost afraid as if like Bloody Mary, you could summon it to come suck the life from you. So instead, they remained silent, pretending it never happened. They knew they would have to talk about it eventually, but neither had the bravado to do so just yet.

The sun was setting and the storm clouds were moving in, an ominous threat of what was to come.

"We can stop here and set up camp. The rains coming and we need to get a fire started to cook while we have the chance," Kennedy suggested.

"Alright," said Mina, "You get the firewood and I'll start storing away supplies."

Agreeing, Kennedy nodded and set off away from the clearing in search of sticks and broken branches. Once she had gathered a handful of sticks, she heard a deep growl coming from behind her. She slowly turned around and raised her hands, dropping the sticks to show she wasn't a threat. Another growl was heard and this time, a giant wolf stepped through the treeline revealing itself.

This one was just as massive as the dead one, but a light tan, almost blonde. He dropped the deer in his mouth and began snarling and snapping his teeth at Kennedy, a show of hostility. His ears were pinned back and the hair stood on his back trying to make him look even larger. He crouched down, prepared to attack Kennedy and that's when she noticed the crazy glint in the animal's eyes. Kennedy instinctively knew something was going around making these wolves crazy. As he lunged, muscles coiling and springing in his shoulders, Kennedy screamed.

It wasn't even twenty yards away when out of nowhere, three more wolves jumped from the treeline and raced over to tackle the blonde wolf. The largest, a dark brown, went straight for the kill, trying to get his razor sharp teeth around his neck. The remaining two, both an average dirt brown sprang for the hind legs, clamping down on the hips and shaking their heads back and forth. The blonde wolf howled in pain and turned his head to bite at one of the brown wolves.

That was his downfall. It gave the dark wolf the perfect opportunity to strike, grabbing the wolf's throat and yanking his head, ripping open the jugular. When it was sure the animal was dead, it dropped its kill to the ground and the trio whimpered, as if sad they had to kill their fellow wolf. They laid down beside it, nudging it with their noses as if it were merely asleep and they were waking it.

Kennedy found the whole situation confusing on her senses. She was scared such creatures existed, sad to see the wolves in such pain emotionally and thankful they had saved her life. As if sensing her thoughts, all three wolves looked up, analyzing her. They looked her up and down and sniffed the air, making her feel uneasy. Then, as if unimpressed, turned and left as quickly and quietly as they came.

Her knees buckled underneath her and Kennedy fell to the ground. As the rain began to pour around her, saturating her clothes and hair, Kennedy began to sob. She pressed her head against her knees and thanked every god in the sky for watching out for her and keeping her safe. A few minutes later Mina came stumbling by barely noticing her friend laying so low to the ground and helped her get to her feet. She knew she needed dry clothes or would be in big trouble, risking hyperventilation, so she trudged through the mud and grime to get back to her tent.

She never said a word about the ordeal to Mina, not completely sure if what had happened back there was real or not. After drying off and changing, they had an easy dinner that didn't require cooking and Kennedy began to tell Mina the story. To say she was shocked would be an understatement, she fired questions left and right, even writing things down and attempting to draw pictures.