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[0.4] C H A P T E R F O U R
I had never been the type to be good at making crucial decisions. I was too indecisive, too unsure. Before, it may have just precipitated annoyance in the minds that had been exposed to my indifference, but even so, annoyance was something easily pushed past; something easily forgiven.
But I could feel it now. Right in the pit of my stomach. This would not be forgiving.
Any hesitation now would cost me my life, and whatever was left of it. If I dared think for a second too long, I would die.
How I had found myself here, I didn't know.
All I knew for sure was the that moment the white-grey wolf's mouth drew back over its fangs and roared, its body coiling back for the killing lunge, I had never run so fast in my life. The world had become nothing but a blur in my wake. I could hear all too clearly my predators pursuing me, their thundering footsteps sparking a type of fear in my chest that I had never experienced before, not even in my human years.
This didn't feel like some chance encounter, not at all. The way the white wolf had snarled at me with such rage felt personal. Like it's wanted to end me before it'd ever known I existed. I was confused. And terrified. No matter how often I lamented about my discontent with what I'd become, getting torn apart but wolves is not the way I want to go.
But not even the deep black of the forest is enough to obscure me from the sights of the wolves. They followed me with ease, with frenzied passion and they were gaining on me with every lunge. If I had a heartbeat surely the intensity of it would be fracturing my ribcage.
I feel the heat of the female wolf not twenty feet behind me. If I did not figure out something within seconds, those seconds may be my last. The white beast's razor sharp teeth chomp frantically at my feet as I launch myself upwards into the canopies of the trees, my last fleeting attempt at survival. One of her incisors grazes my heel as I leap from the earth, but not enough. I hear her snarl nastily from below me as I grip onto the trunk of a pine tree, out of reach. I let out a breath of relief as she and the accompanying wolf claw at my tree, but are unsuccessful in their mission to somehow force me down from it.
"You know," I say, recovering an ounce of my confidence. "Considering I just healed one of your pack mates, I was expecting something more like a thank you rather than a death chase through the woods."
The white wolf roars so ferociously from below it sends an electric shiver shooting down my spine and I have half a mind not to provoke her further. I need to figure out how I'm going to cross back over to my side of the woods in one piece. I'm not fast enough to outrun them, I can't devise a plan to outsmart them, and since I'm not getting the feeling that these wolves are up for negotiating, I'm going to have to evade them.
