Hegemon

Prologue

NANOWRIMO 2013-Winner

This is the book that I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2013, so it's already written. I'll be editing it as I'm posting, so there may be a few mistakes that I'm still fixing. Enjoy!

Prologue

The pack ran, dark skin flashing through the trees, glinting with the moonlight. They skidded though the mud, their claws leaving gashes in the soft soil and their movements upsetting bushes and breaking branches. Even so, they were still silent as they had always been, going undetected and unknown to the rest of the forest.

The leader stopped suddenly, leaning forward onto its bone-like arms and jerking its head upward. The others did the same, listening for the sound of a predator.

A twig snapped to their left and in an instant they were growling at a dark figure with the remains of a broken twig between his fingers, smirking. They hissed, forked tongues spilling through their sharp, unorganized and crooked teeth.

"Runner," they hissed, speaking the word like it was a swear. "Foolish of it to ambush a pack," the leader said in a voice like gravel.

"A pack, sure." Another Runner stepped forward out of the trees in front of them. "All four of you," he said sarcastically. "I'm so scared."

They growled, spines arching, protruding against the skin on their backs. The Runner on the left laughed softly, his gold eyes glinting in the light. He twirled a knife around his index finger, careful not to let it cut him, and then caught it in his palm.

"So, will we do this one at a time, or—"

They didn't wait for the end of his sentence, lunging forward toward the two of them. They reacted in an instant, immediately slashing at the demonic creatures, their screeches and hisses echoing through the air.

As the last angry growl sounded and the night became quiet again, another Runner stepped through the trees, looking around with a slight smile on her face.

"I see you've taken care of things around here," she said.

"And at your end?" the Runner with the golden eyes asked.

"Alex is finishing up at the south part of the forest," she said. "Cody, you're bleeding," she said, glancing at the boy with the brown hair.

"Where?" he asked, searching his arms and legs.

"Forehead," the golden-eyed boy said. Cody wiped the small trickle of blood off of his forehead with the back of his hand and put away his knife, now coated in the black blood of the Bones. Already it had started disintegrating into the ashy substance that they all became when they died.

"Right then, Jasper, Leah, shall we go gather up dear Alex and hope he hasn't made too much of a mess?" Jasper laughed, nodding.

"But when hasn't he?" Leah nodded, smiling.

“Come on,” she said and lead them through the forest. It was quiet now, not poisoned with the howls of the Bones. The beasts had been running through the forest for too long now, but they had finally killed the last of them in that part of the woods. Even though they knew that there were so many more, it was satisfying to know that there were this many less than there had been. As they neared when Alex was, the strong sent of something like bleach and rotten food and flesh penetrated their senses.

“I see you’ve made a mess again,” Cody said, walking into the clearing to find Alex clutching a knife in one hand and covered in the black blood of the Bones. He smirked, wiping it off of his knife with his thumb and putting it back into the pocket of his cargo pants.

“And I see you three are spot free as always. It’s not fun unless you get dirty,” he smiled, wiping the black smudges off of his face. They scattered to ash as they met the wind. “And besides, you were the ones who left me alone to take care of them, I can do it however I want.”

“Sure, but Cecil’s going to kill you if you clog the plumbing with mud and blood again.”

“I’ll shake rinse off with the hose. Are we sure there are no more of them around here?” Alex asked, wiping mud off his jacket.

“Yeah. Cody and I got the last of them,” Jasper said. “We should head back, Cecil will be worried if we’re not back right when we say we will be.” Alex nodded, flinging mud off to his left and walking back through the woods, the others at his heels.