Virals Pack: Reborn

Chapter 5: Encounter

A/N: *waves* Greetings! Dawnflight here (I decided to change my profile name, KatrinaStrider was only a persona anyways). It took some planning and research, but I have a good first encounter with the virals. I hope you enjoy, feel free to post questions or comments after you read! 

Nope, no full night of sleep for me. I bolt up, wide awake after a seemingly torturous eternity of bad dreaming. First there was nothing but darkness, but then there was smoke. Then there was a spark, then a flame. Before I knew it I was gasping for air, wide awake. I look at the bird clock on the wall across from me, it's barely midnight. I sigh to myself, it's going to be another long night. I decide to go out on the balcony and chill a bit, so I put on my blue sweatshirt, more for comfort than warmth.

Once I'm outside and slightly more relaxed, I realize there's actually a large tree that's really close to the house. Judging by the leaves, it's a magnolia, and it's an enormous one. In fact, it's so large that there appears to be a convenient branch that's relatively close to my balcony. All I'd have to do is a bit of climbing over the edge, maybe a good hop over, and I'm on. Dangerous, maybe, but I'm pretty experienced at tree climbing and have done such leaps from tree to tree before on even a slightly larger scale.

So guess what time it is? Yep, it's climbing time. I carefully hop over the edge of the balcony railing and cling there, scoping out my landing spot and whether or not I can get back up once I jump down. There's a nice open area for me to do a short hop onto and end with a crouch landing. As for getting back up, I am 90% sure I can. So I hopped down and stuck the landing well, landing in a catlike crouch on the branch I picked out. I decided to leave my shoes off mainly because I didn't really need them all that much, my feet are tough from years of running around barefoot in the woods whenever possible, once again to my parents dismay, so I can manage pretty much any terrain. I also left them off because for a first time climb on this tree, I would prefer to have a stable grip achieved with bare feet, just in case. Having landed successfully, I began to climb down cautiously, testing each branch and mapping out in my mind good paths for future descent and ascent.

This tree truly is a good climbing tree, thick, strong branches, no twigs poking out every which way (which was the major downside of climbing the pines back home), and a plain abundance of branches to choose from both up or down. When I reach the bottom, I have to do a quick crouch jump again, nothing too bad. I already noted a reachable branch to get back up by, so I'm set. I take one last look at the tree, then set out for the sea.

I relish the feeling of sand between my toes as I walk along the beach, ankle deep in the water. Eventually, I decide to move inland towards the grassy interior to check the area out. There was a lot of sandy hills and rocky ground. With no clear trail, I began to roam wherever I felt like. Cattails were scattered here and there, I steer clear of those, deciding not to disturb their root systems by tramping all over them. I eventually reach some waist-high grass and a scrubby area full of bushes, totally my kind of thing. I venture even further in, and after a couple minutes of weaving through the tangle, I find a nice hollow to chill in. 

I close my eyes and listen to all the night sounds, the waves shushing at the shore, and the breeze rustling the bushes behind me... Strange, that didn't sound like a natural bush rustle though. It was almost as if there was something...

The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly stood on end and my gut told me to turn around, but slowly. So, while in a crouch, I slowly turn around and look up. The sight that greets my eyes makes me gasp. Four pairs of what could only be described as flaming blue eyes stared at me in the dim light. I could only see the eyes and vague shadowy outlines of whatever they were. 

I froze instinctively, and found my gaze drawn to the pair of eyes from the smallest form, second from my far right. I swear they almost spoke to me, in a primitive sort of silent speech only known to those that are wild. The foremost expression in them was "threat", although whether that meant I was being threatened or it was me that was threatening I couldn't tell. Confusion, bordering fear seemed to be swirling around in those blue eyes too, but so was aggression. It was almost as the creature was halfway between running from me or taking me down.  With no definite idea of what the creatures were or what their intentions were, I was uncertain whether to play dominant or submissive. 

Suddenly,  in unspoken agreement, the four shadowy forms seemingly melted into the darkness with eerie silence and were gone before I could move. I stayed frozen for some time in case they came back, then relaxed after a while. What could those have possibly been?  I thought to myself. Their eyes seemed unnaturally blue, and they moved with complete and utter silence, excepting the small rustle that happened before I saw them. And they moved as one, almost like...

"A wolf pack"