Bite Me! | lavashipping

1 | Hunted

Except for the path they followed, the forest was thick with lush trees. Their needles rustled as Kai and Cole pushed the branches out of their faces. Twigs snapped under their feet, almost muting the sound of their breathing. The forest was silent as if it was holding its breath. Something about the quizzical atmosphere made even Kai quiet down.

Funnily enough, it was Cole who broke the silence, despite being the one welcoming it with open arms any other time, "All right, am I the only one who thinks it's weird there's literally nothing? Shouldn't there be birds and deers, does, and fawns, and stuff?"

"We probably just scared them off."

"We would hear that, though."

"Jeez, Cole, what's your problem? At least there's no trouble."

"It's weird."

"You're weird."

"And you're even weirder." Despite the lack of any echo, their voices seemed to rumble through the whole place, almost shaking it like an earthquake. Cole was certain they were not being obscenely loud, although the forest seemed to disagree. They wrecked the stillness of the place like a thunder. Something about it made his nerves tingle, made all his hair rise, while he could not spot anything remotely dangerous. All he knew at the moment was that they had to get back to the others as fast as possible and get away from the strange place as far as possible.

Kai snorted, about to poke fun at Cole, who just caught his arm and made them both come to a stop. "Did you hear that?"

"For the sake of spinjitzu, Cole–" Rolling his eyes, Kai turned around, only to freeze on the spot. His eyes were glued to another pair of eyes staring right back at him. The forest was not significantly dark, they arrived around noon, yet the wolf's eyes still seemed to glow. Cole did not hesitate to follow Kai's stare.

"How did we not...?"

"Because you were too busy complaining that there's nothing!" It was probably not the best time to be glad about Kai's volume coming back. But hearing his usual intense tone brought a sense of familiar comfort.

"Calm down before you freak him out!"

Until he felt claws sink through his clothes into his skin, Kai had no idea there were more than one. When he managed to get the second wolf off himself, he learnt that they were not only surrounded, they were absolutely outnumbered. And even when there were so many that Kai could not even see Cole anymore, more and more wolves still seemed to be coming. Kai tried to fight them off but all that did was help them get his skin torn until he felt his blood dripping all over his body as if he just got out of a bloody shower.

"Cole!" he yelled over all the growls and barks and snarls to no avail. All he could see was silver fur and their sharp pearl white teeth and claws. Their eyes seemed almost dead despite the shine but the burning of his wounds was more than enough to confirm that they were, in fact, very much alive and bloodthirsty.

Their bodies kept smashing into him, knocking the wind out of his lungs until he was not even able to call for his teammate. To top it all off, all the sudden noise gave Kai a headache, as if there was not enough piercing pain. If he does not stand his ground, it all might as well be over.

After throwing off another one with a growl of his own, Kai noticed a living pile at the bottom of which surely must be Cole. It was the exact scenario replaying in his head whenever one of his feet lost touch with the ground.

And it couldn't be good, especially once he heard a pained cry that was unmistakably Cole's. A cry that haunted his days and nights.

"Cole!" He had no time to ponder over the fact that there was zero echo, as if they were in open space and not surrounded by hundreds of trees. Once again there was this burning feeling inside his chest threatening to swallow him whole from the inside until he redirected it into his hands and onto the wolves. The pain mixed with frustration was blinding.

Physical strength was not going to be of any use, however, fire was a very effective way to fight his way out. Soon their growls changed into yowling and their numbers went down as they ran back into the trees where they came from. Kai began firing at the pile over Cole with no mercy for the animals until they were all gone and burning and slowly the forest fell silent back again. He didn't worry about where the animals had gone, once his vision cleared again, all of his focus was on Cole. A habit that surprisingly did not get him killed yet. Although it got close a few times.

"Cole." Both of their gis were torn into shreds with blood seeping all around, getting easily lost in their respective colours. Kai dropped to his knees next to Cole and as carefully as he could, turned him around. For the sake of his sanity, he tried to mute out whines and avoid looking at the raw wounds but one called for his attention nevertheless. Cole was clutching his shoulder with blood running all over his arm and when Kai finally pried his hand away to check it, he saw a bite mark. Most likely the reason for the yell.

Kai never had an issue with seeing blood and all kinds of wounds, he was used to administering first aid, it was all a sole part of his life, however, the thumping of his heart and all the adrenaline rushing through his veins and seeing Cole covered head to toe in blood made him sick to his stomach. He never should have tried to ignore his gut, the forest was weird and they had to get the fuck away from whatever was going on in there before they get tangled into another huge mess.

Ironically, it was supposed to be a quick and simple mission. As per usual.

He should have known better. Now Cole was clenching his jaw shut in pain. Lucky for them both, he didn't have to struggle with his sleeve for too long to tear off some to tie the wound. It should be enough for the quick walk back to the rest of the team.

"Where the fuck did they come from?" Cole muttered, his breath rigid. He had only on eye opened to stare at Kai.

"No idea." Kai took his not-really uninjured hand and helped Cole get back up, supporting him to continue on their way. "Come on, we shouldn't be far from the others, we'll get you patched up."

"You need patching up yourself, you look like a mess."

"A hot mess, baby. Come on."

Cole spat out some blood. "I am so going to murder Jay for this."

"Well, we are a team, so I gotta help you with that."