The Maiden and the Wolf---- *A Fantasy Romance Story*
*Chapter 1*
Dakota POV
The scents of the forest once had been so confusing to me but now after three hundred years I had grown used to them all; to everything.
The way the damp earth felt between my pads, the feeling of ferns snatching at my shoulders as I ran through them, the way I heard and smelled everything around me.
But one thing I hadn't and I don't think ever would get used to was the overwhelming empty ache in my chest. The worst thing was I knew how to get rid of it; I just had to find her.
"Only one of pure heart can release you," the sorceries' words echoed around my head and a deep snarl escaped my lips.
Shaking myself hastily I glanced around at where mu paws had carried me this time.
I stood in a spread our forest, the trees thin and grey trunked, silver birched trees, I noted. The strong stench of human made my wrinkle my nose up in disgust and my ears to lie flat against my head.
Every one of my wolf instincts was snarling at me to avoid humans but if I did that then I would loss myself completely.
Padding as silent as a ghost through the trees I found the course of the strong scent; it was a trail, a horse and cart had come through here, the wheels had left engraved lines in the soft soil.
Now I was closer I could tell that three humans had passed through with the cart, two male and one female. The smell of death clung to the tracks too.
Despite myself I stepped onto the make shift path and followed the tracks, my nose close to the ground.
Eventually the mud turned to grass and the forest fell away and I found myself standing on the edge of a clearing. Gravestones surrounded the edge of the clearing and in the centre was a rectangular pile of logs and on them laid the body of a woman.
It's a cremation, I thought surprised.
My eyes moved to the female human, her long red hair falling down her back almost reaching her lower back. My breath caught in my throat.
Elena POV
I turned around at the sound of what I thought was a gasp but only the darkness of the forest stared back at me.
Unnerved I wrapped my arms around myself and turned back to watch my father lay the torch down next to the body of my mother.
The flames from the torch quickly took to the dry logs and grass and within seconds the entire pile was in flames, engulfing my mother's lifeless form in smoke and fire.
Beside me my younger sister Ren whimpered and stepped closer to me and I put my arms around her.
Ren was only eight, ten years younger then I and unlike me she had still needed her mother. My father to was grieving but he held his sobs back in front of us; he knew that he needed to seem strong now more then ever.
I gazed into the fire, watching the tiny pieces of ember rise into the air, being lifted up by the wind and then whipped high into the dark night sky.
With a muffled grunt my father put a hand on my shoulder then takes hold of Ren's hand and led her back through the forest back home.
I however didn't leave; I stayed, rotted to the spot, no longer crying but still my body shook with loss and sorrow. Not moving until the fire had died into nothing more then a pile of ash and soot before me.
An icy wind suddenly whipped around me, snatching up the ash and sending it straight into my face. I recoiled; clamping my eyes shut and brought my hands up to protect my face just in time.
The wind suddenly vanished as suddenly it had started and I relaxed again.
Taking one last look at the scorched ground I turned on my heel and headed back into the trees towards the village.
I had only got a quarter of the way home before I became aware that I wasn't alone.
Ahead of me a figure stepped out onto my path and behind me I heard another bar my escape root there.
I shrank sideways into the shadows of a huge oak tree, pressing my back up against its ruff trunk. The two men both now in my line of vision I raised myself up to my full height which was quite impressive for a girl and faced them with gritty resilience burning in my brown eyes.
Dakota POV
I watched the two drunken men advance on the girl with sluggish movements. My eyes found the girl pressed up against a tree and saw to my amassment that her eyes held no fear or dread but frustration and fire.
I moved closer, now only a few metres from her and the men, only a thin patch of bracken separated me from them. My black fur worked perfectly, breaking up my outline, making me almost entirely impossible to see.
My claws sank into the ground as I saw the largest of the two men raise his hand and hit the across the face and the other kneed her.
She crumbled to the ground, blood dripping from her noise as she raised her head to meet the next blow head on.
The metallic smell of her blood made my stomach clench and anger like I had never felt before rise up inside of me. An uncontrollable force ready to explode out of me.
I couldn't take it any longer.
I tensed my powerful lean muscles, a snarl tarring from my lips, my mismatched eyes burned as I erupted out of the undergrowth.
Elena POV
Pain thudded numbly in my nose but I refused to let my fear show.
Suddenly out of no where a huge animal rushed past me and leaped upon one of the men sending the man crashing to the ground under its weight.
The animal clamped its jaws around the man throat and sank his teeth deeply in. Blood gushed everywhere; the man gave one convulsing twitch then lay still.
I stared in disbelief as the huge magnificent black wolf raised its bloodstained muzzle from the man's body.
The other man yelled out, darting across the small gap between him and I. He went to grab me but the wolf got there first.
I felt the softness of the wolf's fur brush my arm as he leapt in between me and my attacker.
A growling snarl like I had never heard before grew louder and louder from the wolf. His hackles all along his neck, shoulders and back rose, making him look twice his already massive size. His lips pulled back from his teeth, quivering threateningly, ears flat and eyes burning slits of hatred.
The man froze, locked in the wolf's gaze.
The wolf took a step forwards and the man turned and ran as fast as he could, not even looking at the dead body of his friend as he fled.
With a snort that sounded like a sort of laugh, the wolf relaxed and turned slowly to look at me, our faces were inches away.
I gazed into the wolf's eyes, one golden one blue and they gleamed with human intelligence and mystery.
Then the wolf leaped away.
My hand shot out to stop him but he had already dissolved into the darkness.
I was left alone in the forest, my arms still raised, fingers closing around empty air.
A sob rose in my throat and I flopped back, letting my arm fall and put my head in my hands. Giving in to the emotions of the past dew days.
Not far away a wolf echoed my sobs with a long piercing, chilling howl.
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