Blue Moon (A Fire Moon Novella)

Part 1

I raced through the earthen-scented undergrowth, my heart was hammering in my chest as my red hair whipped out of its neat braid behind me in the open air. My bare feet crunched against sharp twigs and dead leaves.

A sudden movement! A flash of dark brown became visible around six feet to my left. I veered right without giving the sleek torpedo-like creature a second thought, my green-brown eyes widening. I could feel sweat on my brow. How long had I been running... seconds? Minutes? Maybe even an hour?

A hidden stick snapped in front of me. I swerved around a tree that I had almost hit while running in this direction just as something lunged from a holly bush and landed in the spot I had been in only seconds before. I heard a crack followed by a meek whining sound.

Pride welled up inside my chest. Ha! Take that! I thought, as it seemed that my attacker had run into that very same tree I had just managed to avoid. I looked over my shoulder quickly to see what exactly had happened to it and-

"Oof!" I exclaimed as I was suddenly thrust backwards. My hands flailed as I landed on my back, receiving the brunt of the ambush as well as numerous scrapes as the palms landed on sharp rocks and jagged twigs. Hard paws fell firmly on my stomach, pinning me to the muddy earth. The wind was knocked out of me when I hit the leaf-covered ground and I could do nothing but look up at the amused amber eyes and the cold, wet nose that was only inches from my face. The creature -a rather large and oddly-colored canid of some sort- seemed to sigh and then stepped off of me so that I could get up. His brown fur was streaked in a strangely natural green and white speckles ran down his blunt muzzle.

Sophie...

"I know, I know. I have to stay focused." I mumbled, pushing myself into a sitting position to examine my already-healing cuts. "But I dodged Frost."

As if on cue, the white she-wolf emerged from the undergrowth. I couldn't help but notice a small scrape on her muzzle that looked as if she had recently run into a large, wooden object of some sort. That's true, Splash. She told him, her amber eyes proud as she settled down next to her mate.

Frost, it's just that I'm worried about the girl. She's fourteen and we know that her parents are like us but she hasn't shifted yet. The alpha male turned his head, giving me another glance of the white streaks on his face which had given him the name 'Splash'.

She's just a girl, she probably just hasn't changed because she's been under so much pressure- you know that the others used to tease her when she was younger. Frost argued, and as much as I loved how my adopted mother always tried to defend me, I was my own person. It wasn't like me and her were connected at the hip or anything.

I'm just concerned for her health. Bluebell shifted three years ago.

Ooh, that burned. Bluebell was probably my closest friend in the pack and the oldest -and most skillful- of Splash and Frost's children, though she did tend to make up stories a lot. Blue had first phased three years ago at the early age of eleven, which proved that she was a therian, like her parents.

A therianthrope, or therian, is a person who can take the form of an animal... or vice versa. To be more specific, Bluebell was a lycanthrope -or werewolf-, to be even more specific, she was an Earthwolf.

An Earthwolf, is a type of lycanthrope that can control the earth, or at least, plant growth, depending on how diluted the genes are. Their fur is usually one of numerous shades of brown, but sometimes, black, white or green can get thrown into the mix. But there aren't just Earthwolves, there are also Snowwolves, like Frost, that can sometimes control the weather and usually are white, but a Snowwolf could also be many different colors, like brown, black, red or blue. Nightwolves are darker colored lycanthropes, with their fur being black, gray, dark brown or dark blue, but sometimes speckled with gold or white. Oceanwolves are usually blue or green with the rare ability to control water and Firewolves are... you know what? I think you get the jist.