Among The Wolves

Salute

I could feel myself waking up. A shrill ringing in my head made me want to groan in annoyance. The 5 o'clock bugle was fiercely despised by all recruiters. And by despised I mean, believe it or not, a kid threw the little trumpet in the baker's compost bin… he was given a punishment of compost sorting for the rest of his duration of the training. I had no sympathy for him. The ringing, however, turned into a fading high pitched squeal.

I frowned when I felt a small warm breeze. Memories slowly poured into my pounding head. Training, Wos’Theon wall, Bratir, werewolves.
Werewolves! I wanted to jump up and run in a panicked frenzy but held still to my nerves. Oh canned crows feet. Please tell me we made it back to Vakusi,  oh please.

The squealing faded and was thus replaced by low murmuring, weeping, people walking close by and far away, and growling.

A hard shove to my side made my eyes snap open.

An unnaturally rough voice barked (figuratively) at me. "Get up!"

A huge man was towering over me, blocking the sun. His denim blue jumpsuit fit him snugly. I could see the Wos’Theon symbol printed on the sleeve collar. Bared canines pointed upward that transitioned to claw marks going down. Between the teeth was a circle holding a capital W. Suddenly, passing out seemed like such a dumb-brained idea. I flitted my eyes around. The werewolf that I was tending to was gone. Now, I began to wonder how long I was out. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? I swallowed hard.

I'd taken too long to respond. The towering man painfully grabbed my upper arm and jerked me up. "Get moving!"

A hard shove sent me stumbling in a direction I did not know. Hurriedly, I took in my surroundings.

I was still in the woods. There were few transformed-to-humans werewolves. Yet, most were still the vile looking creatures. Massive canines, bared teeth, lethal claws. To my horror, a thin brown one, who was looking at me nonchalantly, had some blood stains around its snout. Nausea came over me all over again. I think I am going to throw up.

To my surprise, three co-recruiters were being shoved in the same direction as myself. The girl about 30 feet away shared my bunkhouse. The other two boys I might've seen before but knew nothing of them.

I got shoved again, the harsh force of gravity tried to yank me to the forest floor. I caught myself with a nearby tree and steadied my balance before giving to the command and walking forward. What is going on?!

I glanced behind me and instantly recognized the creek from which Bratir hid in. Beyond that a rickety, wire wall. Commander Tevit stood stock right next to it. Seeing him made me stop moving. At this distance he was as small as a slice of apple. He was looking at me. I could imagine his cold stone colored eyes half hidden by his burrowed bushy eyebrows. Why is he looking at me?
To further my confusion, he saluted. The brute Commander was paying me respect? Why? The salute was short before he then ran the opposite direction. Disappearing behind a sign... The sign. I could distinguish the words on it.

VAKUSI
ALL TRESPASSERS
WILL BE KILLED

I was on the wrong side! My gaze swung over to the girl. She was the one weeping. With a loud gasp I peered at one of the Vakusian boys. He was holding his head high as if he was trying to prove something, still there was no mistaking the fear etched on his face.

No… no no no no. This wasn't supposed to happen! I turned to face the man behind me. Blood drained from my face. I just had 39 more days! My breath hitched and I gasped for air. No no no.

I finally heaved a breath but it came too fast. I began hyperventilating. The image of Commander Tevit trotting away replaying in my head.

The werewolf growled and shoved me once more, pushing me away from Vakusi. "Get moving!"

I could not keep my balance this time. My rump rammed against some tree roots and crunched brittle tree leaves, I covered my mouth, eyes wide with shock. Reality won in the end.
Captive. Prisoner.

__________________

Thank you for reading! Please don't forget to vote!