Protectors of the Blood

A Monster at Heart

A/N: So, this is the second to last chapter I have already written, and well, the updates will probably be coming a lot less frequently. It's become quite difficult to write, for many reasons I wont burden you with. I hope to bay to continue this however, and hopefully, well you get the idea.

Hope you enjoy.

(7)

A Monster at Heart

            Sara sprinted into the forest as the game began, and ran as fast as she could in a straight line for about twenty yards before she made a great wide arc to her right. She knew Cross would be somewhere in that direction, and hopefully he was heading towards her the same way she was heading for him. She had always been able to count on Cross before, and she was pretty sure that today of all days he wouldn’t let her down.

            Her problem was the other wolves, and Griffith lurking somewhere in the forest just waiting to have his go with her. But she wanted that to happen. She would fight him this time, with every ounce of strength she could muster. She would fight him.

            She was running as fast as she could, glancing every which way possible to ensure that no one was tailing her, or sneaking up on her for that matter. She could just barely hear the sounds of wolves fighting off in the distance, and she did her best to stray farther from those sounds. She didn’t want to fight, she would if she had to, but she didn’t want to. She wasn’t nearly as strong as half of these wolves were, and she wasn’t going to pretend to be.

            In fact, she was more than positive that if her and Griffith ran into each other here and fought it out, she would surely lose. But that didn’t matter to her. It was okay that she lost as long as she went down fighting. More importantly though, she wanted to see what he was up to. There was no way he would’ve gone to those lengths just because he wanted to help out. He was hiding something, and she was going to find out just what.

            Then she heard it, a slight noise; a twig snapping, breaking in the distance. She skidded to a halt abruptly and looked around nervously. There was someone there, she knew it. She sniffed the air for the scent, trying to register anything out of the ordinary, but she caught nothing except for the beautiful scents of the forest; the wood upon the trees, the grass on the floor, the leaves in the treetops above. Nothing else. Then she heard it again. Her ears shot up as she turned left, the direction she could’ve sworn the noise came from.

            Sara peered through the forest, cautiously inching her way in the direction of the noise. There was something there, lurking just beyond what her vision was capable of, and though there was no physical evidence of that, she knew it was true. Every fiber in her being was telling her so.

            Suddenly it was there, staring at her. Barely visible through a thicket of trees were two glaring blood red eyes. She held their gaze for a moment, the slightest moment, but they stuck with her. She knew those eyes; she had seen them before, and not just earlier during the voice’s interruption. Almost as instantly as she met the gaze of the eyes however, they were gone. Sara looked all around, but they were nowhere to be found. Someone was definitely lurking out there in the forest, perhaps even watching her, but why?

            Then a noise caught Sara’s attention. It was nearly inaudible at first, but it definitely was there. She could hear the paws of another wolf closing in extremely fast. Her senses kicked in as adrenaline surged throughout her body at the thought of an impending fight. She prayed for a wolf she could take on, and then she prayed it was Griffith, so she could end this right, here right now.

            She could hear the wolf now more clearly, panting as it ran, and not growling. Perhaps it was another wolf just looking for a place to hide, but that wouldn’t be so. This wolf was making much too much noise to be trying to remain unnoticed, and it was moving way too fast. This wolf was running away from something, and directly towards Sara.