The Huntress Race

Chapter Seven: The Huntress gets Angry

"Why didn't you tell me?" Iris yelled. I shrunk away from her and shielded my face so that I wouldn't have to look at them. This was exactly why I hadn't told her. No one ever became my friend when they found out who I was, who my dad was. Think your dad is embarrassing and gives you a bad rep, try living my life! My dad just had to invade countries and attempt to rule the earth. Now that Iris knew, I didn't exactly expect her to stick around. " I, I couldn't. I've never had a human friend," I stuttered reluctantly.
" You still should have told me!" She growled back.
" If I had, tell me honestly, would you have stayed?" I asked. She thought over this for a moment.
" No, I guess I wouldn't have stayed," she said.
"Exactly," I answered. Sally's face was becoming more and more furious, John was looking calm and thoughtful. Danny, on the other hand was looking utterly terrified. With a scream if anger Sally threw herself at me and bowled me over. I pushed back and we went rolling across the earth, locked in combat. Finally I landed on top and planted my hands on her struggling arms. " Stop," I growled at her.
" No! You killed my mother. She was killed by the invaders when they attacked," Sally snarled viciously.
" I didn't kill her, my father did," I snarled back.
" So? What's the difference," she snarled back.
" I am not my father!" I screamed in her face. Fury darkened my gaze, I was NOT my father, I was not a murderer and a villain. I was NOT the bad guy. Sally shrunk away from my furious glare and I breathed deeply for a moment before loosening my grip. We both stood and dusted off our clothes.
"So, what do we do now?" John asked. I knew what they meant, what were they going to do with me. Breaking Dawn and Shadowed Moon stood in front of me and braced themselves to fight for me. I was so grateful for their loyalty in these times of trouble.
" She's right, Alex is not her father. She deserves a chance," Iris said blankly. My hope rose, maybe she would still think of me as a friend.
" I agree," John said boldly. He looked me in the eye and smiled gently, he knew I was not my father.
"I don't agree," Sally huffed angrily.
" You never agree with anything," Iris muttered to her. Sally glared at her but Iris just glared back
. Danny had been silent for the entire conversation but now spoke up. " You don't realise, do you? You don't realise what this means. The invaders won't let her live if they catch her. If the invaders issued the orders for this contest then they obviously don't care about her," Danny said. I was hurt by the fact that he was implying that my dad didn't care about me.
"What are you getting at?" John asked him.
" What I'm getting at is that, if someone doesn't capture her soon they will mass war on us until someone gets her. They don't want her getting older and more powerful. So, the question is, how long will it be before The Huntress gets hunted?" Danny implied cautiously. I thought about this, it had occurred to me that his might happen someday, gladly, it hadn't come to that just yet. My dad wouldn't let me live for much longer, soon he would take matters in to his own hands.
"Um, people, what's that?" Iris asked as she stared up at the sky.
"You mean that speck up there?" Sally asked.
I looked up and saw a tiny speck growing bigger and bigger as it descended towards us. " No way, is that a scroll?" Danny asked. It was, an old fashioned, yellow coloured scroll. It landed with a thump on the grass at my feet. On the top of it was a tag. " Hi Alex! Love from Dad," it read. I picked it up cautiously, was it going to explode? I unrolled it and instantly was swamped in a tide of anger and grief. I dropped the scroll and just stared blankly ahead as tears formed in my eyes and freely spilled from my eyes. " Alex, what is it? What's on the scroll that's made you so upset?" Breaking Dawn asked anxiously.
"Yeah, what is it?" Iris asked.
"Read it! I suppose nothing else could go wrong," I snapped as I spun around and sprinted away in to the forest, tears blurring my vision until all I saw was my family.

"Can I look at it?" Sally asked. Breaking Dawn nodded and Sally opened up the scroll. After skimming the page Sally made a choking sound and passed it to Danny as her eyes filled with horrified tears. "What is it?" I asked anxiously. Sally couldn't reply, she just wept. Danny passed it to John, "that was truly horrifying," Danny said with horror. " What is it?" I repeated. "Here Iris, see for yourself," John said as he stared away in to the distance. I took the parchment and read the words written in red ink. "Dear beloved daughter,
Regarding your brothers and sisters, I have enclosed a picture of them below," I read. I looked down and saw the picture I still have nightmares about. Dead bodies lay mangled and terribly disfigured on separate tables. Below the photo was more writing. "P.S. This was written in their blood, Sincerely dad," it read. I dropped the scroll and buried my face in my hands as tears enveloped my face. That truly was the most horrible thing I had ever seen, the glassy, staring eyes of those dead children were haunting my thoughts. " Do we go after her?" I choked out.
" Shadowed Moon and Breaking Dawn already left. Maybe you should try and find her," John said blankly in reply.
I made my way towards the deep forest. As I walked I barely noticed where I was until I saw the trees clearly. "Oh no," I said in shock. The leaves were black and the grass was black, The Huntress was angry. I knew from past experience that when things turned dark The Huntress was not doing well. "Alex!" I yelled. No reply came as I followed the trail of black trees and grass. Tears still blurred my vision and I failed to see certain obstacles such as trees and fallen logs. " Ouch," I yelped as slammed in to a reddish brown tree. That tree turned and stared at me. "Sorry, Breaking Dawn," I apologised. The wolf blinked at me and I saw wolf tears streaming down her face.
" Oh Iris, we can't find her. Alex can't be expelling this much dark energy in a time like this," Breaking Dawn said anxiously.
"You are a wolf, why can't you just track her scent or something," I suggested.
"After ten years you'd think that The Huntress has learned to hide her scent," Breaking Dawn snapped. As Breaking Dawn spoke the sky was ripped by a fork of lightning. Rain tumbled down, soaking us to the skin.
"This is not good," Breaking Dawn muttered.
I was scared, never before had I seen a storm of this scale before. " Where is Shadowed Moon? Wasn't she with you?" I asked, suddenly noticing the absence of the white wolf.
" She went ahead, I doubt she'll find anything in this weather though," Breaking Dawn informed.
"Why don't you go left and I'll search from the right," I suggested. The wolf nodded and took off to the west. I went to the east. After a while of walking I was freezing cold and wet. "Alex!" I called. There was no reply, there never was. I found no signs of her as I continued to search the forest. Then I found something, a small footprint. Next to the footprint was a paw print, the paw print of a massive wolf. I instantly thought that Shadowed a Moon had found Alex. Only one thing puzzled me, the tracks continued but there was only one human print and the other was wolf. Eventually the tracks became all wolf, maybe Alex had been trying to climb on to Shadowed Moon's back? " Breaking Dawn," I yelled. I waited for a few seconds before the huge she wolf came in to sight. The wolf had gotten here with inhuman speed. " What did you find?" She asked breathlessly. I gestured to the tracks I had found and Breaking Dawn crouched lower to inspect them. Her amber eyes sought out the tell tale footprints of The Huntress but she was disappointed. For a second I saw her eyes flare up with sudden alarm and she quickly glanced in my direction. She didn't say anything but her panic was still evident.
"Stay here," Breaking Dawn said urgently but sharply as she took off in to the trees, following the tracks carefully. Something about her panic caused me to obey without question. She had seen something in those tracks that I hadn't, what had it been? Then, with a sigh I decided to lie down and enjoy the weak sunlight. As I lay still I heard nothing, no sounds of birds or rustles of undergrowth. Nothing. It was eery, the leaves were black and the grass black, it was strange knowing that such a small girl could do this much damage without trying. I tried to close my eyes but found that I saw the picture of those dead children, it was too much to bear. I had my eyes trained on the sky when a huge white and black head appeared above me.
"Have you found anything yet, Iris?" Shadowed Moon asked.
"No, Breaking Dawn followed those tracks and told me to stay here," I answered.
Shadowed Moon inspected the tracks and her eyes widened in worry. I thought of my earlier thought about Alex riding Shadowed Moon and I instantly was alarmed as well.
"Wait! You haven't found her yet either?" I yelped.
"No, why?" Shadowed Moon asked quizzically.
"I thought she was with you already and that's why I can only see wolf prints further along," I said in anguish.
"No, she is not with me," Shadowed Moon said.
" Then is another of the pack with her?" I wondered aloud.
Shadowed Moon stared at me with a very serious expression. "Listen closely, I have something very important to tell you," she said.
"I'm listening," I answered.