House Of Fire

Chapter 4

Her boots crunched the snow under her feet. The heavy saddlebags were rubbing on her shoulder and the few loose strands of hair were floating around her face.

The day was slowly turning into night and a howl in the distance could be heard. She drew closer to the edge of the forest again and noted that any trace of the cattle had vanished under the now thick layer of snow. The temperature was dramatically dropping below freezing. The snow was now ice and each shard pricked her skin a bit at contact.

Opening the saddlebags she took out a rough wool blanket and wrapped it around her shoulder and covered her head. It was not only practical for conserving a little of her body heat, but also a good disguise for blending in with the trees.

Fighting against the wind on the exposed trail took her longer to reach the spot where she lost the three figures from sight. As the wind was coming in from her front now it resulted in limited vision.

Her eyes were nearly shut to avoid any damage that could be done by the shards of ice. One hand clutched the saddlebag strap under her makeshift hoodie while the other was grappling the loose edges of the blanket in front of her body keeping it shut tightly.

As she approached the place where the horse disappeared a large claw mark could be seen on one trunk of the trees. The gauge was deep and clean. The wood hadn't even splintered. The four smaller ones were more discreet than the first with two on each side of the big one.

Which one of the three could have done this? When they entered the tree line no noise could be heard. Although that could have been disguised by the wind.

It didn't matter she decided. She was hunting them now.

A thrill went through her blood. She loved hunting. She'd only been on a hunt twice. Both times were with the two local werewolf packs. One of those hunts had acquainted her with the Alpha wolf from earlier.

She began making her entry into the steeply declining woods. Placing her feet carefully in front of the other as not to make the snow crunch or slip on the slope.

It wasn't hard to pick up the trail. Every so often the same mark would appear on random trunks.

From her point of view it seemed that the two Angel like creatures were hunting the winged horse. The zigzag pattern of the claw marks was proof enough.

She didn't dare to open her wing though. Even if it would probably be easier to navigate the forest, she didn't have enough experience. Flying had always been too dangerous on the ranch so she had never tried. Her family didn't know that much about her true identity. She didn't know much either so it had always been a dead end. When her "tattoos" came she didn't tell them.

The night they appeared she had opened her wings for the first time.

They had been small. But again, there wasn't really anything she could have compared them to.

From the beginning they had been golden and black. At night she would open them for a few hours. Open and close. Open and close. Open and close, but never fly.

Her wings grew stronger each time.

She knew she had to really test them out at some stage. The only problem was that there had never been an opportunity.

On the hunts she hadn't taken them out. It had been too dangerous to expose them. Still, she had had no trouble of keeping up with the wolves.

Now she was contemplating on using her wings to glide silently through the trees like the Angel men had done. The only thing holding her back was the possibility of being spotted and her inexperience. For some unknown reason to her, the sight of the two males put her on edge. She couldn't describe it. It was just the way it was.