Capture (Book 1 in the Wolfen Brethren Series)

Tales and Trials

This has been edited but there may still be mistakes.

A couple of days later Neema sat in a library with Jana and Caillum, she was trying to help Caillum with his reading and Jana with the alphabet. Being in the underground villages meant that resources for learning were few and beyond. In all honesty most people did not even bother to learn, there was no actual need. Neema's mother had been one of the only people who could actually read and she he had encouraged her whole family to learn to read, even their stubborn father.

Neema had tried to continue in her mother's footsteps but being the single parent to two children in a place that just about had enough food to keep them alive, was difficult. She was ashamed that she had become lapse in their teaching but she would make amends now.

Her mother had said that reading was the key to humanity. Neema had asked her once, when she was little what she meant by that and her mother had told her that if they could read, they could learn the past and never repeat it again. To this day Neema still did not understand what her mother had meant, it was a known fact to humans that the wolves had forced humans to live this life of hardship and strife.

The tales told the end of the old world as the annihilation of the human race. The end had begun when the werewolves could no longer hide among their pack any more because the male and females were struggling to procreate together. Their population had started to decline and so they had sought out the humans who they viewed as lesser beings. In their desperation to procreate they attempted enslave the human race but humans were a proud species and had instead waged a war. How the war took place and where it took place no one knew all they knew was that the wolves had won and the humans had been left to suffer.

Neema was not naïve she doubted that humans had truthfully recounted the events that took place especially as it had occurred nearly a millennium ago and hardly any humans could read or write. Still, she doubted that the true version was much different from the fanciful tales of human perseverance that they had been taught. 

Her train of thought was interrupted by an impatient Caillum, he wanted to get through a book called 'Winnie the Pooh' which was extremely old looking. When he had first found it, it was covered in dust but after a good wipe down it went everywhere with him. She had read the book to them every night this week until she encouraged him to try and read it.

He was about 5 pages in and stuck on a word. It was a bizarre word and to be honest she had never seen it before, maybe it was the name of a character.

"Use your phonics Caillum, sound out the letters" she encouraged as she stroked at the slight scar on his cheek. She did not want to give him the word right away lest he get lazy but she knew that she would struggle with the word. 

His eyebrows drew together as he focused on the letter on the page.

"Eh - eh - yaa - Oh - rrr - eh, umm Eeeyaa- ohrre. Eeeyooreh" he asked quizzically, not sure if it was correct.

"Well done Caillum its Eeyore, see you can do it." She congratulated.

His smile at getting it correct was such a rare one, she was glad he was slowly reverting back to himself, the young boy he was when he had been under their parent's care. She only hoped he continued to improve.

Their celebratory moment was abruptly interrupted by the banging of the door against a wall.

The broad shoulders of Khan were the first thing she saw, then she took in his permanent scowl. He looked like he was ready to do battle and gods forbid it was Neema he was fighting, her body couldn't take another round she had just about recovered from her first beatings and had only started to get decent nights sleep now. She did not have the energy for him.