Shadows of wolves

Chapter 10

Hunting with Shadow was the strangest thing I had ever done. She would disappear from sight and I would wait for her to return then she would lead me on the game trail through the snow and trees. I wasn't sure we were even tracking anything or if she was just playing around again.That was until I was about to move around a tree and Shadow dragged me backwards with her teeth silently snarling at me. I put my hands up in surrender and crouched down behind the tree, she stop snarling and licked my hand as if to apologise.

She moved so she could see around the tree ears pricked up, she looked between me and a whatever was behind the tree. When I didn't get the meaning she walked back to me and grabbed the front of my coat, pulling me to where she had been. I crawled on my hands and knees awkwardly, bow in hand and my arrows sticking into my side from their quiver on my right thigh.

As we inched doing the tree I got sight of what we had been tracking. A majestic young buck, eating bark off some of the trees. I moved back around the tree and stood, nocking an arrow in my bow and half drawing it. I took a breath in, turned away from the tree taking a moment to aim and fully draw my bow before letting the arrow fly to find it's mark. I could feel Shadow's eyes on me the full time, studying my movements and watching to see how the bow worked.

The buck's beauty was flawed as it fell and blood began to flow out of the wound caused by the arrow. It had hit it in the heart, a perfect shot, killing it almost instantly. I walked towards it Shadow followed somewhat behind me. When we stood in front of the dead buck Shadow looked at me expectantly, then made move to bite into the buck. I stopped her before she could damage the skin.

Shadow glared at me but stepped back. I reached into my quiver and brought out my skinning knife. She stepped further away from me, her head slightly tilting to one side, eyes glued to the knife. I unfired her and carefully cut the skin away up to the shoulder. I cut a large hunk out of the meat and held it out to Shadow. She moved forward and took it out of my hand gently before running off a bit incase I tried to take it back off her.

I laughed lightly at her and her ears pricked but she kept chewing at the meant, eyeing me in suspicion. I laughed harder at her. Shadow picked up the meat and hopped off into the woods, apparently sick of me laughing at her. As I continued to delicately skin the buck I had a smile plastered to my face, she was so different from anything else in my world and I was glass she had stumbled onto my farm and came back to talk to me. A thought occurred to me, could Shadow shift like I could?

Maybe she was a wild Narrian and didn't know it? That would ahead light on the reason the Narrian couldn't enter the forest, because unlike Shadow and her kin, they where too tame and every year got closer to the humans and their ways. The forest didn't recognise them anymore, but why could a quarter breed like me enter when they could not? I shook my head, questions piled on more questions, and I needed answers. I could take Shadow to Cota, but she would need to fully trust me first or she wouldn't agree.

~~~~~
Shadow

Laughter. I was so unaccustomed to the noise and hearing Ash laugh was somewhat unsettling. Somehow I knew he didn't laugh much and that reminded me of Thunder, not even a day and I was already missing him. Every single day of my life was spent by my brother's side a well as being around wolves, yet here I was with a... what had he called himself? A quarter Narrian. Something about Ash made me feel safe, like a pup surrounded by it's pack,  and strange emotions always swirled around when I was near to him.

I had dismissed these emotions to the fact that it was because he was a shifter. Something he said when we were exchanging information about our ways of living, echoed in my mind, he had asked if I could also shift. Why would he ask such a thing? And was it even possible? I had asked why and he had said it could be possible I was Narrian, but said it was something to discuss at a later date.

I finished the meat that Ash cut for me and got up from my warm spot in between the roots of a tree where the snow hadn't yet reached. I stretched and made my way back to where I had left Ash. He had cut away the skin of the buck, including the shin of it's head, and had laid it flat on the ground, putting chunks of meat in the middle of it

I moved silently behind him and stuck my head under his arm, making him jump and mutter in his language, shaking his head at me. He cut off a small bit of meat and offered it to me. I gently took it from his hand and ate it, making myself more comfortable at the same time. After giving me some consideration he went back to carving the carcass.

After he thought the pile way high enough he pulled leather thongs from his pocket, he began folding and tying the skin around the meat. Once he was happy it was tight enough, he cut two branches and tied them to the bottom of the large bundle. With that sorted he turned to the remains of the buck and dragged to the the base of a tree and started to cover it with snow. I began to dig in the snow, directing it towards the carcass and hitting Ash at the same time.

A large ball of snow fell on my head. I trimmed and jumped on Ash, giving him my most sloppy lick on his face. He tried to push me off but I just gave him another lick. He put up his hands in surrender and I jumped off him, with a parting kick of snow.

He wiped his face in a hand full of snow and stood up. With the remains of the buck hidden and being kept cold under the snow, it was time to leave. Ash picked up one of two knotted and weaved piece of leather that was connected to the bundle of deer skin and meat. He motioned me forward began to put the thing on me. I snarled and backed away. He held up his hands on defence and moved to the other one, tying it to himself and pulled against the bundle's weight, making it move. He stopped and stood before the knotted leather and motioned me forward again.

I inched forward sniffing the leather and inspecting his. Once satisfied I allowed him to tie me into the leather and together we heaved against the bundle, it refused at first then let go and moved easily. Ash started to run against it so we would move more swiftly and I joined him, it would do no good to be in the forest after dark with a bundle of meat. The sun was just meeting the horizon as we finally reached the forest edge and Ash was greeted by his kind and I was regarded by one with long hair that reached down to touch my face. I growled deeply and Ash caught her hand, moving it away from me and looked me in the eye. I quieted down and adverted my eyes. Something told me to only trust Ash and that only he would be allowed to touch me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Took forever to wright this chapter because I had to re-wright after half of it got deleted somehow

30 votes for next chapter.