BRYNMORE

Chapter Three

Bryn.

The trees begin to shiver and moan, the sky darkening with the oncoming dusk. I look up at the strange pale woman, my eyes dilate from what I know will soon be vicious for not only her, but I. The howling. The ominous, ever-ringing cries that I know all too well from those I love. They're getting closer. The woman's face locks up in terror, her body facing the direction of our hollowed out hide, frozen in place.

"Run..." I stutter out. "They'll come for me... family." But the stranger responds with shaky hands, grabbing my tunic as she tugs militantly. 

"You're hurt Brynmore... I- I can't leave you... The wolves they- they'll kill you!" She shouts as if I'm the one in danger. I shake my head. Why doesn't she understand the danger she's in? 

"Can't leave... Home." 

An eerie sniffing traces across the horizon, tracking my scent with a deadly precision. Another savage bellow leaks from the surrounding forest. Without warning, the woman tears me off the ground, jolting my sound box onto the the dirt with a thud.

"We have to go, Bryn... I-I can hear them- my car's just across the river... w-we can make it." She splutters, dragging me several feet before I reach back to the soil, retrieving the music player. 

For some reason, as much as I know the ultimate outcome of this chase, something urges me to follow. 

I match my pace with hers, her hand clasped tightly in mine as if afraid I'd let go. The palm of her hand is warm, and slightly damp, her fingernails digging ever so slightly into my knuckles. It wasn't until we started heading for the creek that I realized how far off my path I had traveled to evade the furious moose. The grass was so much greener, unaffected by the footsteps of any creature until today. 

Her pasty white shoes were covered in stains of the dirt we kicked through, the trees passing us in a haste as we reach a small log laid atop the water. 

One long and minacious sigh snaps us back to earth. I turn my head to see three wolves, each the color of midnight, arranged in a formation with the eldest in front, snarling and salivating onto the sediments. Vega was her name. 

The woman wails in sheer terror, shoving me forcefully across the creek as I fall to my knees along the shore. Her eyes, as dreadful as they are, stare down the ferocious beasts. She stands there, the back of her dirty, navy blue hoodie all I could see. The wolves inch closer, as she wraps her fingers around a black tin can in her pocket, labeled with the face of a bear. She doesn't move from her guard, as if her life depended on protecting me. 

Vega flashes a glimpse of her sharpened teeth, huffing grimly as she prepares for a feast worth celebrating. 

"Go Bryn..." She states with a trembling tongue, but I couldn't speak nor move, too afraid to defy the wolves that raised me. "Go... NOW!" Her voice gains power, but Vega had moved too quickly.

The wolf lunges, mouth open and prepared to snap shut against the tender flesh of the stranger, but the metal canister in her hand defies all odds. 

I hear a sharp hiss, a cloud of mist targeting the wolf and all of its might, causing the creature to jolt backwards with a booming whimper. The woman grabs hold of me once more, hauling me with caution as I trail behind her over the hills, spotting an odd looking red machinery. With a quick beeping tone, lights flash on the front end and she swiftly guides me, slamming the loud metal door as she dashes to the opposite side. I look over at her as she fumbles with a pair of keys, when a loud crash hits the window, a wolf scratching and clawing itself into the vehicle. Before I could even manage a sound of fear, my head snaps backwards, the machine roaring to life as it jolts between the elm trees, moving almost at the speed of sound through the remainder of the mountain range. As fast as the car is, the wolves had managed to stay close behind, until we reach a lonely disheveled road and they pause in their tracks as if knowing they could not pursue us further into civilization.