The Huntress Race

Chapter One: The Chase of Life

The night was pitch black, the forest was silent and cold. Nothing stirred, not a single leaf or blade of grass. A small shape flitted through the trees, barely skimming the ground as it ran through the forest of trees. It made no sound, even its breathing was silent as it sped on. It silently splashed through a small river, no ripples were left in its wake. It leaped in to a tree. The trees grew so thickly in this part of the forest that the shape could run from one branch to another without making a sound or touching the ground for a second. As it ran along, the night was finally pierced by a sound. The shape froze and surveyed the ground below. Flashlights cast bluish coloured beams of light through the inky darkness. The figure drew a breath through its nose and took in every scent, the fresh scent of dew, the smell of crushed pine needles, crushed by trampling feet, the scent of a squirrel that had passed this way an hour before and the terrifyingly familiar stench of the shape's enemy, humans. The shape could easily work out where they were and how many had come this time without the need for sight, even though it could see their shapes clearly standing out against the darkness. These humans needed to learn not to wear silver when hunting at night. What they were hunting for the shape knew without having to follow them or listen to their conversation. These humans were some of the only races left on the planet since the invasion. Every human being would, some time in their life, go on a hunt. Their latest idea however, was to catch their prey out by hunting at night, a nice idea but one that would be better discarded. In the shape's opinion these humans were more visible at night than in the daytime. Humans did not hunt for food, or shelter, or water, or for sport. They had no need for these things as they were already provided. Humans had been hunting for one specific thing for ten whole years, they obviously, still, hadn't found it. Between one million people, four races of human and they still hadn't managed to find it. The thing they were searching for was unique, there would never be anything like it in the world ever again, the invaders wouldn't allow it. It was in fact, the invaders' idea to track down the thing they were searching for at this very moment, ten years and they were still failing. The shape just watched the humans attempting to track it, it was quite funny to watch, not a single living thing could be deaf to the sound these humans were making. How could they not hear themselves? Every human was categorised by the invaders and put in to one of the four races of surviving human. The different races weren't on friendly terms, they fought wars and generally hated each other. The shape had seen many squabbles between them since the invaders had taken over. The races only came together for one day, that day was the day new children joined their race at the age of thirteen. The first race was a group of toughened men and women who lived in the icy mountains, maybe that was why they were so cold in character. They had pale skin and wore silver clothes except for some who wore battle gear twenty four seven. They were skilled in the arts of ambushes, the other races were well aware of this. Every race had a race of huge animals that they used as transport, soldiers, message carriers and companions. This particular race had a race of huge scaly dragons that they flew through the skies on raiding missions. In combat they would dive bomb their enemy and set fire to other villages. They were the race who were below the shape tonight, their dragons had obviously been left at home. Race two were the people who lived on the wide open plains and boiling hot areas of the country. They were hard people to track down and were handy at fighting. These people had a race of humongous wild cats the size of horses. Tigers, leopards, lions, cheetahs you name it they had it. The shape was well aware of race two's cats, it had run in to them frequently and had grown to despise them deeply. Race three lived close to the water and had a race of specially bred phoenixes who specialised in water, not fire. Race three never strayed to far from water, and had a steady diet of fish and other assorted critters. They were the most gentle of the races and the invaders' despised them for their serenity but they were anything but peaceful, they were crafty and full of battle tricks up their sleeves. They were strong but short and used weapons that fired from a distance like crossbows. Race four lived in the forest but the shape knew that they had a network of secret underground tunnels. The people were smart and could easily fight their own battles. These people had a race of horses that were unafraid of battle. The shape knew that it should flee but the humans showed no signs of searching in the trees, stupid humans. Though, the shape couldn't really say the humans had all fault, they had their uses, without them the shape would not have seen so many things. The shape watched with curiosity as the humans grouped together and the head of the hunting party spoke. " Our target must be close, we need to search for tracks more thoroughly," a woman with silver hair said commandingly. " Katrina, the target leaves no tracks, how do you think it got away for ten years?" a man argued. The shape was interested, it hadn't heard human voices for months, it had been staying out of range so as not to get on their destroy list, funny, it already was. " Spread out and report when you find something, we're getting close, I can feel it," Katrina said. A fork of lightning split the sky. "We are close, the lightning is the sign," Katrina added with an evil grin. The shape cursed silently at the lightning, it hadn't meant to stray in to a storm, the shape had definitely not thought this out. A young man climbed the tree next to the shape to get a better view, the shape froze. If this human found it, the shape would be killed or taken away for sure. There was only one choice, climb down the tree and escape once on the ground. The shape silently crept down the tree but halfway down the man, trying to turn on his torch, succeeded in flashing it on straight in the shape's eyes. The shape let go of the tree and crashed limb over limb to the floor. It got up and ran, no sound came from it's body as it ran in panic, you got used to fleeing after a while in the forest. The shape knew they would be following, humans always did, it couldn't blame them really. Shouts and footsteps were heard behind it and the shape ran on, hardly breaking stride. A sharp whistling sound made it swerve as a white arrow tipped with a blue feather embedded itself in a branch centimetres from its face. More arrows followed and it swerved them all. These humans were out to kill or capture the shape, for ten years humans had. She herself was a human, not a mere shape, but she wasn't an ordinary human, she had unbelievable powers, she was Alex, The Huntress. No one had ever shown her mercy, ever since she had been able to see she had had to protect herself, her father was still out there but the girl could never go and live with him, they would find her. Humans needed her but they didn't know it. The invaders wanted to use her or get rid of her, she was too powerful to be left to roam alone. When she had been a toddler a pack of wolves had taken her in and raised her, those wolves would come when ever she needed them, they were her family, but she didn't want to endanger her friends too soon. She supposed she had become wolf like in her nature, her once in a month party trick could definitely prove that. Seriously, she even looked like a wolf with almost black dark brown hair and amber yellow eyes. She had beautiful skin and a tall figure. She wore a basic battle ensemble and a black cloak that hid her in the shadows of night. She had plenty of weapons to defend herself but she didn't want to kill unless she really had too, at that time, she figured she could outrun them. These people were way older than her but she was smarter and swifter. But she hadn't banked on one thing. Another white arrow sailed through the air and as she swerved to miss one coming on the left the arrow hit her square in the right shoulder. The huntress almost screamed but settled for an almost inaudible growl. She had learnt the hard way not to show any visible or audible sounds of pain, the details of how she had learnt this fact could drive anyone listening insane. The girl ran on but could feel herself growing weaker and slowing slightly, this was going to be close. The last resort was to fight but Alex knew she hated killing without reason, sure they were trying to kill or enslave her but that didn't seem a good enough reason in her eyes. She knew there were two more choices, one of which seemed more likely to come out well for her in her present state. Without breaking stride she let out a chillingly realistic howl. Another howl answered her and she kept her pace. After a short while a silver wolf veered up from behind her and she grinned at it. " Thank you my friend," Alex said as she drew close enough to leap on to the running wolf's back. The creature was easily as big as a horse and shone like the moon with her silver fur. The she wolf spoke in a deep, throaty voice. " My dear, are you okay, your howl was slightly off pitch," the she wolf said. " Silver Frost, I did not mean to let my thoughts interfere with my howl, I am afraid I am not in top shape tonight, I didn't pay enough attention," Alex said with a hint of resignation in her voice. The wolf picked up on it instantly. She turned her huge, sloping head and her ice blue eyes fixed on the arrow still embedded in the girl's arm. " You have no need to apologise, you did the best you could. The pack got to safety and they are safe. You did well to lead them away but you are hurt, you were right to call me," Silver Frost said. " And before you interrupt, you must not use your powers or fight humans for a while, if you are hurt you should take it easy. Don't bother telling me you aren't hurt, I can sense you are, even a normal wolf can see a red soaked sleeve," Silver Frost added before Alex could speak. Voices sounded again, closer this time. Alex felt her eyes grow heavy as the wolf tensed beneath her. " Oh no you don't! Just because you have minor healing powers that I gave you doesn't mean you can use them on me. I know what you're doing and you can't do this when we're being shot at," Alex said, whatever else she was going to say was punctuated by a yawn. Silver Frost gave her pack leader a wolffish smile, " It will do you some good, I can't have you fidgeting and making your arm worse on the ride back," she said to the small girl. Alex's heavy eyes looked in disbelief at the wolf and the girl got desperate, she knew if she fought it the wolf would make it stronger. Alex turned as a sound alerted her and she saw a huge group of horse riders come from the right, race four had decided to hunt for her tonight as well! " No! I told you, turn it off," Alex growled with a yawn on the end. " I can't! It is already to strong to stop," Silver Frost said desperately. There was only one more thing she could do but she would definitely pay the price for it later. It had to be done. " Don't you dare, you can't!" Silver Frost growled at her, she could read her expression. " Too late," Alex answered between long yawns and sighs of tiredness. She thrust out a hand and a dark mist appeared in front of them. The wolf leapt through it as the race four men and women pulled up their steeds. Alex had done her job, they had been transported to safety. On the other side of the portal Silver Frost had turned her head to watch as Alex lay still, passed out from the wolf's healing powers on the wolf's silvery back. The blood still flowed freely but the wolf knew that the girl felt no pain anymore, she was finally asleep and she looked so peaceful the wolf could almost forget that the kid had had a rough life. Ten years old and had she was already powerful enough to destroy the world with one flick of the hand, even though she never would. " It's okay my dear, no one can kill you here," Silver Frost murmured as the kid smiled in her sleep. Life was hard when you were on the run but for now, the world was summed up in one contented smile. With a slow amble the wolf carried her small bundle towards their family, towards home.