Seeking Solace

Ch. 12 Fire Drill

Deep in the seemingly infinite forest  was a small clearing with a few humble homes and buildings surrounding a rather large structure, filled with a group of a hundred or so individuals.  All were standing in a huge hall, "maybe not huge enough but it would do", the man on the small stage thought.  It was time though, to set his plan in motion soon and it was high time his clan got prepared for the up and coming... Expansion.

A short walk away from the building was a rickety blue shed, filled with gardening supplies and way too many tools.  But ignoring the clutter, one might hear the quiet hum of a machine in the corner.  A hose hooked up to the machine sat in a box, the other hose leading to the shed.  Follow the hose and you might find a door, a door with hole in it, just for the hose, a door made of plie wood, that sat in the loam.  A meager chain looped through it's mismatched cabinet handles as though it would actually do anything.  Yet it did, because underneath the door was a pack of wolf shifters, all dazed and confused as they breathed fluffy pink smoke, whether they liked it or not, most falling asleep, some hummed in their boredom or cuddled those closest, save for one odd wolf, who despite the daze in his eyes and the haze in his mind, something was very wrong.  This was not his home, nor his desk in his shared office, and it was most definitly not the diner he often had supper at, and he could certainly forget about it being his bestfriends house, being as there was not a weed riddled garden bed in sight. No, this place was a hole in the ground.... perhaps a cellar, but how did he get here?... whose cellar is it? 

The man started poking around trying to talk to other pack members, one of which was his neighbour, Ms. Cedar, who held her sleeping toddler close as she mumbled to herself.  "Ms. Cedar, do you know where we are?..."  she huffed, continuing her dazed mumblings.  He waved a hand in front of her face, "Ms. cedar... it's me, your... neighbour.  Im the pack.... accountant.... Em-Em-Emmett."  His words are slurred and slow, as he lifts his name tag up to the woman, as to give her proof.  Not that it mattered since she couldn't respond anyway. 

He sighs in defeat as he stumbles his way through the crowd, towards what little light bleeds through the cracks of the trapdoor.  He jumps up pushing and prodding at the door, until it lifts letting more light in, hope blossoms, althought short lived, as it abruptly closes.  "Imma... get out... of this.... hole.  YEEEAAAH!"  Emmett screams out, excited at the prospect, not the he knew how, he was gonna get out, but he'd think about that as he wondered back into the crowd of dazed wolves, seemingly searching for something.

A short strawberry blonde woman stands at the corner of the stage.  She has a scowl upon her face as she crosses her arms and puffs her chest out, in an attempt to look intimidating.  Not that it worked, since her big doe eyes and soft round face covered in freckles betrayed her, but she doesn't need to know that.  She had been rescued by the alpha of the pack after she was stranded by her adopted parents when she was nine.  They didn't know she was a shifter until they went camping and she shifted to go and chase a butterfly.  They had given her a strange tasting cup of milk before bed and when she woke up they were gone.

The alpha had been prowling through the woods when his pack had just ten people in it.  It was quite odd, seeing as cougars, even the shifters didn't like being in groups.  But the alpha was a charismatic man with massive ambitious and plenty of connections.  And one day when out marking his small territory, he found a half dead, kitten. Thinking it to be a true puma, he would take her in.  And she would try everyday to impress him but after she had shifted back into human form the first time, he had become uninterested in her.  But she kept on, she would once again win his approval, and become some one he could trust.  She was twenty-five now, and had wanted to give up but she couldn't... not yet...

Emmett stands on a foldable chair he stole from a bewildered young man, calling out for his teacher.  And he uses a cane he took from a sleeping old woman, who had quite the death grip in her sleep.  He rubs his tender stomach from the cane's recoil.  He sighs as he finishes taping a flathead, he snatched from some confused middle aged man to the end of the cane.  He takes a deep breath and shakily lines up the screw driver to the screws on the door.

Grey bursts through the bedroom door, determined to find Elliot.  Dashing through the halls as he follows the mad yipping.  The first set of stairs, then the second, then the third? He could here the barking echoing around the cavernous staircase.  He swallows, his hands quivering as he forces himself to take a step.  "Im coming Elliot, and we're gonna keep you this time!" Grey whisper yells into the abyss like staircase.

Lumaire slides a set of metal bars open, bars clanking against each other in a rhythimic pattern before hitting a stone wall.  He goes to drop the fox boy on the ground but his hand grazes the wolf's chest and  pauses.   Lumaire felt a tingling warmth when he touched the fox, but he had to ignore it.  He had held his pup hostage, and when he's brought onto the tertitory, his pack dissapears.  I mean where the hell was his beta and who was this guy... Bait!?  He sighs, setting the shifter down, chaining his wrists to the cuffs on the wall.  As he does so, he hears a whimper from the entrance.  His pup looked mortified.  Fraught with betrayal and rage, Grey growls as he runs at his uncle, claws out when he heres Elliot, "GREY!?"  Desparation seeps from his voice, "it's okay, I won't leave this time."

Thankyou so much for the support thus far, I truly appreciate it. And I'd like to apologize for not updating in a while, life and stuff.  But I'll try to keep on updating at least once a month in the future but you will defintely get an extra chapter this month to make up for the wait.  Oh and... sorry; almost forgot that part.🫠