Looking To Belong (A Runt's Story)

Chapter 3

I checked my snares and collected the two rabbits I had caught, glad for the meat since I hadn't seen anything on my way back. I went further south to where I had built a small and well-hidden smokehouse to smoke excess meat. If I ate my fill in one form, I was full in my other shape. With my wolf shape being so small, I usually ended up eating as a wolf since it made my food supplies stretch much further.

I cut up the rabbit and put it into the smoker. I had no problem eating raw rabbit in my wolf form, but I preferred it cooked. While waiting, I took some big feathers out of my backpack and started fletching some extra arrows. I was decent with a bow and arrow, which was a good thing considering that any type of melee combat was completely out of the question for me.

I glanced at my reflection in a pot of water and my greenish colored eyes looked back at me. I was named after my eyes. My brown shoulder-length hair was pulled back in a braid. At just over five feet tall, I wasn't exactly the tallest person out there, but I had seen shorter people. My slender form was built for speed, not strength.

I paused and looked around as I suddenly felt uneasy for some reason. I swiftly climbed the tree that I had been leaning against and peered down out of the boughs. My instincts were sharp and I preferred not to doubt them, even if I didn't know what triggered them. It had kept me out of trouble many times in the past. I heard a faint noise below and turned in that direction.

I squinted through the thick leaves; there were eight wolves stalking silently through the forest. No, there were twelve. Several had been hanging further back. I didn't recognize their fur patterns, and the way they were moving had me on edge.

I stilled as I noticed their red eyes. Ferals. Bloodthirsty creatures that killed even when they were not hungry. They were as close to madness as a werewolf could come. They were unable to even shift; some of their human craftiness and ability to reason remained, although the human mind was nowhere to be found. They were just animals - and rather dangerous ones at that. Sometimes, certain ones seemed driven to kill anything they saw, almost as if they were rabid.

I remained still and silent until they were well out of sight. I quietly started moving through the forest, using big branches far above the ground. One guy had called it the forest highway when he had been showing me how to travel in this fashion years ago. It was rare for werewolves to travel through the trees since their wolf form was well suited to running along the ground, not to mention that they would have to be in human shape to travel from branch to branch.

I used it a lot since my wolf form wasn't an asset and very few people actually looked up into the trees. Another good thing about traveling through the trees was that scents high up in the forest were nearly impossible to track from the ground – that is, if anyone down on the ground even picked up the scent in the first place.

It was doubtful that the ferals would scent me. I had a habit of occasionally rubbing a mixture of local plants on my clothing and shoes to conceal my scent. Most rogues did it out of habit. We smelled like the forest we lived in.

When I was quite some distance from where I had been, I shifted into my wolf form while carefully perching on a thick branch. I threw my head to the sky and howled an alarm call into the evening sky. The pack sentries would hear it and would be on high alert in case potential trouble appeared.

I swiftly shifted back and used the forest highway to put distance between me and where I had howled. Those ferals would possibly try and track down whatever wolf had given their presence away.

I was very thankful that they were unable to shift into human shape and climb. It would be even better if they never found me though. I really didn't want to be shadowed by tenacious and aggressive wolves as they followed me on the ground below.

I moved quickly and silently through the tree branches. The only creatures that noticed my passage were the birds and squirrels.

       I kept an eye on the ground as I remained sitting high in a spruce tree. Luck must have been with me since I had not seen or scented the ferals as the afternoon and evening passed. I had not heard any noise from the border either, so the ferals must have abandoned their ambush once their cover was blown. I remained near the smoker as it smoked the rabbit meat. The smoke was carefully funneled up a long piece of pipe into the tree canopy to the point where the scent was faint and scattered.

I was uneasy and had been on edge since the ferals had appeared. I didn't want to be on or under the ground tonight. Ferals were persistent enough to break up bramble branches until they were close enough to the burrow to dig it up. It may take them most of the day, but rationality didn't really apply to them. There had been enough of them that I wasn't going to trust to the two other escape tunnels on that rabbit burrow either.

My small wolf form did have one perk though. I was small enough that I could shift forms without falling out of a tree. It was a feat that no regular-sized wolf could manage. Years ago, I had built a small structure in a tree not far from here. From the ground, it looked like an old hawk nest, but it had a hole in one side and it was hollow. The inside was a bit bigger than the rabbit den was and it was quite roomy for my wolf form.

The sun was starting to set and I didn't want to be out after dark tonight, so I used the forest highway as I headed over to the tree that I couldn't quite see from here. I climbed up to the shelter and ensured that the top would repel any water if it rained. I sat on a big branch in front of the opening as I dug through my backpack. I put some smoked meat inside for my breakfast, then I rearranged and fluffed up several warm winter scarves that were inside.

Once it was arranged to my satisfaction, I carefully shifted and walked into the opening. I curled up in the middle of my comfy nest and rested my head in the opening to watch the sunset.

The sunset was spectacular, and as I yawned, I noticed movement in the forest below. I peered down and watched a handful of wolves slowly heading east towards the pack border. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was those ferals again. I had already warned the pack, so I remained where I was. I pulled my head inside and drifted off to sleep.

Hours later, I woke to howls in the distance. It sounded like the ferals had launched their attack. Unfortunately for the ferals, I recognized the howl of this pack's only Enforcer along with dozens of other fighters. Ferals liked to hunt at night and the pack had obviously been waiting for them.

As I drifted back to sleep, I wondered if they managed to get all of the ferals or if some had run off. I hoped they had gotten them all.