Wolfheart

~Wolfhearts~ (1)

At twenty years of age, I had expected to be leading the regular life of a young man; maybe having even been married at this point, with a stable job and a happy house.

However, my life was not quite what I had been hoping for, and never was it to be, for many years looming ahead of me.

I sat singularly, isolated from all other human life, somewhere far out in the eastern edge of the vast Evermore Forest. The fingers of my right hand were slightly wrapped over the top of the collar that was tight against my skin. If only I could remove it... yet, due to the powerful magic that bound it to my body and soul, I could not efface it had I wished to. I could not use magic, and knew of no one who had the ability either. I had taken it upon my shoulders, ever since learning what this collar truly had the power to do, to separate myself from all other human life forms.

Leaning back against the trunk of one of the Evermore trees, I gazed up calmly to the branches it held high over my head. Birds and other small critters flourished in this forest, and I watched as a pair of squirrels argued over a rather hefty pile of nuts and small fruits. I began to lose focus on the world around me as my mind shifted into my past. I had been but a small boy of six winters old, the Magician and his men had taken around fifty children from their homes. Each of us was tossed like trash into tight, cold cages - much like one might with a dangerous animal.

Years passed, and soon, fifty children dwindled to a tiny and depressing three. Every one of the other fourty-seven children had perished during the merciless tests which the Magician executed upon each of us. I was one of the three who remained alive, and now as a success alongside the other two, we could all change the shape of our bodies into that of gigantic, horse-sized wolves. What the Magician was trying to accomplish with his experiments, I have yet to unearth and learn. I can only recall being in absolute torment from watching the evildoers burn the other childrens' bodies in front of myself and the other two survivors. How did my companions scream... I can only remember standing still, watching, frozen out of undiluted terror as the Magician slipped a collar onto each of us three younglings, dubbing us 'Wolfhearts'.

Some time had breezed past since the burning of the other children, and somehow, in one, horrific freak accident, the entire place the Magician had fabricated was destroyed and ground into the earth, everyone but myself and the other two children were killed.

Since that day, I have never shared my name with anyone, and never have I seen the other two Wolfhearts since. Should I ever share my true name, the being in context would be able to control every aspect of my life, all thanks to this wretched collar.

I blinked as one of the squirells' nuts bounced off my nose, dragging me back to reality with a sudden jerk. "Did you want this...?" I carefully picked the little acorn up off the earth, offering it to the hopeful looking squirrel that had scrambled down after it as it had fallen. It crept forward then snatched it out of my fingers quickly, retreating whilst stuffing the little nut into its cheek.

"You are welcome," I chuckled, bringing myself to stand. The critter scampered off, and I watched it go for a second or two then instructed my legs to move, and began to carry myself in another, random direction.