ONE

Chapter 18 Survival of the Fittest

     It was as she thought. More leaders important to the rebel cause had fallen, more armies captured or demolished completely. It didn't look good for the people against Sky.
      More importantly, the riots were getting worse and worse every day, and it didn't matter who was caught in the middle.
     So Flurry was careful as she reached town, creeping through empty streets and hunting on the outskirts, sleeping in the forest and drinking at the streams that ran through the abandoned fairgrounds.
      But some things just couldn't be avoided.
     The deer were mostly decimated due to Sky's wolves charging through the woods on patrols almost every week (Flurry had to be careful of that, too), and besides, she couldn't really catch a full grown deer on her own yet.
     She was pretty sure she'd scared off every rabbit within a mile of where she was camping out, and no other food was available.
     So going to market was her only option, and that was the most crowded place in the city (besides the prison, unfortunately.)
     The wind was sharp and cold, so she hoped that would scare off any potential shoppers that day.
     She chose a market on the east side of the town, one that looked extremely worse-for-wear and pretty much abandoned. An old lady was selling a few salted strips of meat up the road.
     Her stomach growling, the white wolf hungrily trotted up to the broken-down old tent. Only a few people were milling around.
     But then six riders came thundering down the narrow walk and chaos broke loose.
     Someone must have tipped them off that a resistance force was holed up near that street, or that the market was supplying the rebels with food, whatever. The General's round-up team were upon them.
     People who were caught during "round-ups" such as these were either forced into work for Sky's cause (blacksmiths, horse trainers) or sold as slaves to who knows where.
     It was like a bomb had gone off. Everyone was tearing into their houses, no screams, no pushing or shoving, just running. Flurry desperately searched for a place to run to but only saw locked doors and an empty street.
     Soon she was surrounded by a ring of men on horses that looked as if they hadn't bathed in a couple weeks. (The men. Not the horses. The horses were filthy as well too though.)
     The man closest to her right dismounted, swinging a rope. "Part of the rebellion? Are you?" He asked with a dry laugh as if it was some sort of hilarious inside joke.
     No, actually. I'm just a wolf named Flurry who escaped the disease that killed the rest of my pack and the wolves who probably killed my mother.
     "No, sir." She said, not exactly sure how to respond to that sort of question. "I'm just Flurry from the Lakes." She said simply.
     "Okay then, 'Flurry from the Lakes'. Queen SkyFire would love to have a pretty little servant like you in her castle." He moved forward, still swinging the rope in loops around his wrist.
     Then a group of wolves burst through their ranks, barking like crazy.
     Flurry was quite tired of people bursting out of nowhere, either to save or to harm her. But she didn't get a chance to finish her annoyance before a horse's panicked hoof struck her in the head.