That Night. . . (on hold for the moment, I'm a bit busy)

CHAPTER 4

A wolf-man stood before her, his haunches ready to spring.

Annie screamed again, frozen to the spot.

The man's features were rugged, and his body showed signs that he had been in a lot of fights, or one very bloody one by the look of the scars that ran down his arms and legs. A particularly nasty one, it looked recent, swooped from his left temple to the bottom of his chin. It was crusted with dried blood.

Marley responded to Annie's screams and came rushing to her aid. A collection of purple weapons hung from an intricately woven purple cloth around his waist. Annie remembered the wolves couldn't see things that were purple.

Marley had an advantage, didn't he?

The wolf-man drew a bone dagger from a deer fur pouch that hung from his waist. He attempted to slash Annie's face and Theodora's baby, but was blocked by Marley's spear.

Marley tried to stab the wolf, but his weapon was pushed away by the wolf's dagger. Marley changed weapons. He took out a sword around half a metre long and swung it at the wolf. The sword made a prick in the wolf's skin as he pulled away.

While Marley and the wolf blocked eachother's weapons, Marley said to Annie "Run, tell the others. G'on quick, and look after 'er baby!"

So Annie ran up the flight of stairs, skipping one step at a time to gain speed.

"HELP! There's a wolf in the kitchen, and where's Theodora?"

"Ok, stay calm everybody. gather your weapons and go downstairs. If you can't get him, leave it and he will hopefully go out the way he came so we can see where we have a weak point. Annie, you stay here. I don't know where Theodora has gone, but hopeflly she an Remmy are together." Larah the leopard woman said.

"Ok," sighed Annie breathlessly.

Once the others had gone, she heard grunts and shouts from the kitchen. The fight had been raging for fifteen minutes, and Annie was even more worried now. Where was Theodora?

As soon as that thought popped into Annie's mind, Theodora and Remmy walked through the front door, arm in arm, and being a bit too romantic than neccessary for the situation that was going on downstairs.

"Oh, Annie, you made me jump!" Theodora said

"Theodora, Remmy, there is a wolf in the kitchen and you just left without saying ANYTHING? Not even a note, I was really worried, looking after Mel !"

"No, no, NO! Not a wolf, please not a wolf, oh my, hey're the worst of the lot. What does it look like?" 

"Erm, he's male, lots of scars, one going from his temple from his chin, got a little deerskin pouch."

"NO! ANYONE but HIM. I fought him last week, he cut me with a poisoned dagger. Quite proud to give him that cut you mentioned, though! The poison dagger did this." she pointed to a large open gash in her arm, "I almost died. Anyway, let's go and help, quick."

"But, it's only one wolf. . ."

"I know. Normally we could fight one on one, but with Morilen, you need at LEAST two. AND now they know our location."

"Oh, by the way",  said Annie, "What was that poison dagger made of?"

"Bone, it was horrible, and it was kinda shimmery. . ."

"I'm sorry to say this, but he's carrying that weapon today."

"URGH. Never mind, we'll just have to do our best, but thanks for warning us, we can wear our purple outfits and veils, that means he won't be able to see us."

"I'll wait here with Melanie."

They walked downstairs into the battle . . .

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About three minutes after Theodora and Remmy went to join the fight, all went quiet.

There was sudden cheering, so Annie went to investigate.

The sight made her want to vomit, but Morilen had been defeated!

"The purple clothes worked!" Remmy said

"Well done everybody!" congratulated Annie

"Annie, there's someoone I'd like you to meet. Follow me." Theodora said

Annie followed her into a large room leading off from the room where she had slept the night before.

In the room, a teenage boy sat drawing with his back to Annie on a piece of parchment stretched over a wooden frame so it was ike an artist's canvas. the piece of graphite he was using to draw moved quickly over the makeshift canvas. Theodora whispered to Annie;

"I'll leave you to introduce yourself", and left the room quietly.

"Er, hello, I'm Annie"

The boy turned round. Annie sighed when she saw his features. He was possibly the most handsome boy she had seen in her entire life.

His dark hair was quite neat, but not perfect, and hung above the collar of his polo-shirt.. His fringe rested just on his eyebrows, and his tanned face complimented his sparkling green eyes beautifully. He was thin, but not skinny, and Annie realised his fingers curled round the graphite were long.

"Um, hi, I'm James."

"What are you drawing, can I have a peek?"

"Oh, it's nothing. It's not very good, but yeah, you can look."

What Annie saw in James's drawing was her, lying on her front across her hammock, head propper dup in her hands, her eyes on something opposite her. She was smiling. She thought this must have been when she was talking to Theodora the night before.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Annie whispered

"Thanks. It's not the best I can do, it's just a sketch and I might paint it if I can find the materials to make the colours."

"So where are you from?" asked Annie, curiously

"Earth. I've been here about two years I'd say, by Remmy's clock. It's in the hammock room, on the far wall when you walk in from here. It tells the time and date for here and on Earth."

"I'm from Earth, too!"

"Cool! So, what's happening back home, then?" James asked

"Well, the oil's running out , loads of gadgets have been launched. . ."

They talked and talked, and on that day they became friends.

At midday, Remmy called them for food and they hurried down the stairs into a room that Annie had never seen before, but James said that they ate here for every meal unless they were out somewhere or running from the dogs and wolves. They sat down and enjoyed a small but healthy and filling meal of corn with Loboysenraspberry sauce (a type of berry sauce, it went surprisingly well with the corn), Quorn (a type of food that tastes like meat but is made from soya) and garen peas.

They had a conversation about Earth and what was happening there. They also discussed the events of the past day.

Everyone started to yawn, so Theodora said

"Who thinks we should get ready for bed?" and everyone murmered in agreement because they were so exhausted.

Annie hopped into bed and snuggled under her blankets.

She could feel shivers running down her spine as she heard the wolves howling in the dead of night.

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Thanks for reading, hope you liked it!

If you did, there are more parts coming soon!

Please point out any mistakes, especially because my keyboard is going nuts and missing out / adding letters etc!