Shadows of wolves

Chapter 9

wow just wow! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR THE VOTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope this is a good enough chapter for you guys!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadow

My irritation of the hide pieces around my neck seemed to disappear as I watched in absolute fascination as the shape changer squeeze the teats of one of the four legged creature's udder. He worked them for a while before milk began to squirt into a deep bowl like thing that he had placed under the udder. For a long time he did this, completely absorbed in his work, until the bowl thing was half full. He pulled the bowl out to the side and put away the circular thing with three legs and looked like it was made of wood. he made his way out of the box, bowl thing in hand. I stood and followed him out sticking to the shadows nearest to him.

He made his way to the other structure and made motions for me to stay in place. Reluctantly I obeyed and slunk into the deeper shadows and hid behind a stack of wood, keeping low. He returned after a while with a pocket of long sleek pieces of wood with feathers stuck to the tops and slight indentations at the same ends, I couldn't see the other ends for they were hidden in the pocket. In one of his hands he held a carved piece of wood that was flexed over by some kind of string.

He motioned for me to flow him as he made his way towards the woods. I hid as well as I could behind him and kept low, hoping the other two Legged creatures wouldn't look this way, despite what the shifter had said about the leather around my neck. He made no move to draw attention or make me move out of his shadow, obviously he wasn't confident in his little theory either.

We quickly reach the tree line and I could start breathing again, not that I had noticed I had stopped. After he was absolutely sure we were far enough in the forest that no one else could see us, he removed the wood objects and placed them at the base of a tree then motioned for me to stay put as him moved to the other side of the tree. He was a very strange being.

He came back around a few seconds later, gingerly holding the funny smelly hides he wore. "what are the hides you wear made of?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me. He put down the hides on to of the wood objects before turning to face me. "they are not hides, they are made of woven plants called cotton. My people as well as the human call them clothing when they are woven, cut and sewed so we can wear them," he answered, sitting down before changing the subject. "We have not yet share pleasantries, I am Ash Wolski son of Elisabeth Wolski, the half Narrian and Mark Asre of farmer and cow herder." He finished bowing his head then looking at me expectantly. Most of what he had just told me meant nothing but I would learn the reason of it later.

Now in the dappled light of the forest I could see the coal colour of his coat and that his legs were a darker black, like he had been walking in a pile of ashes, suiting to his name. His wolf form was strong and sleek and amber eyes rose to mine but there was no challenge there, the oddities of him and his ways grew ever deeper. "It is your turn, tell me all about you," he gently urged.

Such a strange request he had asked but I bowed my head anyway before speaking, "I am Shadow, my mother died giving birth to my litter so her name is lost, my father unknown. me and my surviving siblings were raised by a she-wolf named Lipizen who had lost her whole litter of pups so she took the six of us in. She was brown with green eyes and as soon as me and my remaining two siblings became yearlings she attacked us but ran before she could do much more than a cut on my shoulder. Three of my siblings died of cold and famine. I am now part of the Lightning pack under my brother Thunder, who is the alpha. My position in the pack is hunter. Our sister is Snow who is mated to the alpha of the sun pack and seeks to harm my brother, I will not allow her to do so, that is why I am here now. I wish to learn your ways and to be able to shift as you do," I held my head high challenging him for the right of my learning his ways.

His eyes held no such challenge but rather an emotion I was accustomed to. "Your story is that of a sad one and I feel sorry for you," he softly spoke adverting his eyes. Confusion filled me, what was sad about my story, it was  the what life is like for my kind, reality and why was he sorry for me? It seemed I was getting more questions than answers. He dismissed my body language and said,"I will teach you if I can."

I was relieved with his answer and straight away began asking questions about who where the other creatures and what tools were they using and why. Ash seemed taken aback for a second before answering that they were human twins that held the names of Ted and Ronald and were his half brothers. I didn't understand what 'twins' or 'half brothers' meant but I decided I would ask later as he contoured to tell me that Ronald was using a thing called a wheel barrow and Ted was using a hoe and they were chipping thistles from the fields to feed to the 'cow', the creature he was milking before we came into the forest. The thing that held the milk was called a 'bucket' and he had been sitting on a 'stool'.

~~~~
Ash

Shadow, what a strange name. I wonder who named her that. Her siblings had names just as odd, Thunder and Snow. She could teach me as much as I could teach her. We continued to talk long into the afternoon and I had stop her and told we would talk later. I still needed to hunt as a human to show I has done some hunting. "Shadow,"the name was so strange and foreign on my tongue but also so right for me alone to say," will you help me hunt?" I asked grabbing my clothes carefully.

"I will help," she replied turning from me and moulding into the deepening shadows. Narrian people where mere shadows of the wild wolves, they where too tame and separated from the forests to ever truly be a part of it like the wolves were. Quickly I shifted and put on my clothes before I got to cold. I tried to follow Shadow's tracks to see where she was, but she had somehow hidden them despite the snow.

Something tugged me backwards and I feel to the ground, off balanced from the sudden movement. A heavy weight sat on my chest and I saw green eyes look in to mine. Shadow. She was unpredictable. I smiled and shoved her off me. I sat up and she nudged me, gently at first than harder. I got up and she ran away in a direction then turned and waited for me expectantly. Still smiling I ran after her.