Small Stories

(#7) Part of Prologue

Hello! This is part of a prologue I'm currently writing, feel free to tell me what you think! Enjoy! 

                                                                                               ~

It was a cool and quiet autumn evening. The silence was soon broken, however, by a cloaked figure of a woman running quickly through the forest. She was carrying a small girl on her back, who couldn't have been younger than eight or nine years old. The girl had dark red hair and was clinging to her mother tightly as they ran. Behind them was a small boy with a backpack, struggling to keep up. He couldn't have been younger than eleven years old and had raven-black hair that fell into his eyes.

"Come on Tadpole, quickly now!" The woman yelled over her shoulder.

"I'm trying mommy!" The boy yelled back, still trying to keep up even though his side was killing him from all of the running.

His mother could see him slowing down when she looked over her shoulder again and did the same. She looked back to see that they were quite a distance from the castle looming behind them and let out a sigh, letting her daughter off of her back and joining her son in sitting on a rock.

"Mommy?" Her daughter asked her once she had situated herself on her lap. "Why isn't daddy coming on vacation with us?"

The woman pursed her lips and looked out toward the forest beyond for a few moments. Her son, who went by "Tad", watched her as she did. He knew perfectly well why she was thinking of how to respond. Their father was king of the kingdom of Lux, and recently his behavior had been getting worse and worse. He didn't fully know why he had been getting so angry all the time. All he knew was that he could hear his mother arguing with his father almost every single day over what he was doing with the kingdom. There had been something called 'trials' too, in which there would be civilians brought into the castle. He never did see the majority of them again. After a particular argument that had happened, his mother had come out with her eyes slightly puffy and declared that they were going on "vacation" so his younger sister, Juniper wouldn't get worried. They had packed rather quickly and were out within the hour, running to The Barrier to escape to the neighboring kingdom, Tenebrae.

"He was..busy, June-bug." She replied.

"He isn't coming with us?" Juniper asked again, brown eyes starting to fill with tears.

"No..not this time. Maybe next time he will."

Juniper seemed to calm down after hearing this. Tad however, knew the truth. Their father would never join them. In fact, if he found out they had even left the premises there would be consequences.

The woman slowly rose from her seat, setting Juniper down. Tad followed his mother's gaze and saw what she was looking at. Four pairs of eyes glowed from the bushes, and he could now hear growling. The woman's hood blew off due to the sudden wind, and she drew a long silver blade from her belt. The woman had short fiery red hair and ocean blue eyes, like Tad's. She had a fair complexion as well as freckles strewn across her cheeks. She glared in the direction of the eyes, preparing to strike.

"Mommy..what's wrong?" Juniper asked, fear lacing her tone.

"Both of you get behind me."

"But why?.."

"Juniper Belle Rogers I said get behind me!!" She yelled back, her tone becoming dangerous

Tad and Juniper jumped but did as they were told. Juniper had tears in her eyes while Tad watched the bushes, waiting.

The four eyes that had been looking at the three now moved out into the moonlight until they took on a more canine build. Wolves.  

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-EJT