During the Dark Ages, the world was an uncertain place, especially for anyone who isn't human. In a time of strangeness and obscurity, there's only one safe place: a forest guarded by the creatures who dwell within it.
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A sudden downpour had sent the family scrambling to secure coverings over the crops. It was looking like flash flood weather, and we had to get the rain barrels and gulleys set up around the perimeter of the field to deal with the excess run off before it washed out the rows and our entire harvest was lost.
Rain was a good source of clean drinking water for when the surface of the river froze over in the winter, so whenever there was a deluge like this one, we collected as much of it as we could and kept it in the old cave, which protected it from freezing.
My brother, Kurra, and I had just finished setting out the last one, completely drenched and shivering, when I caught it, a faint whiff of blood.
"Kurra," I said, lifting my head and sniffing the air. "Smell that?"
Kurra paused and mimicked me. "Is that blood?" He asked.
"Smells like it. Human."
He shrugged, eager to get back to the house and lay in front of the fire. "Maybe one of the girls started their monthly courses."
I shook my wet head. "You know that smells different. This is... this smells like a wound. Like deep blood, near the heart." I got down on all fours and prepared to sprint. "Come on, let's find it."
Kurra sighed and got down on all fours as well, and we took off between the trees.
My kind are notorious for our speed and stamina when running, so in no time at all we had covered miles of distance and stumbled into a thicket that reeked of blood on the very edge of Asker's territory, which was not small in the least.
"I don't see anything," Kurra said.
"Sniff around, there's something here," I said, searching the ground. "There's so much blood, I can't smell anything else."
"Yeah, I think I found it," He said, lifting his paw. Red seeped up from under the soil in the impression of his paw print. The ground he stood on had been recently disturbed; it was a blank span of earth with no vegetation growing on it.
"Dig," I said, scooping the soil and throwing it between my back legs. Kurra followed suit. As we dug deeper, the blood was wetter, fresher, and I stopped once I realize one of my claws had gone through the flesh of an arm. Panicked, I used the sides of my paws to scoop away the dirt to uncover what had been buried there. I was startled to uncover a young human woman.
"It's a girl!" Kurra said in shock. "Is she alive?"
"Help me lift her!" I said, and we pulled her from what was to be her grave. I pressed my ear to her chest. "She lives! There's a heartbeat, but it's faint. Run! Get Mama!"
Kurra sprinted off like a loosed arrow and I tried to shield the poor woman from the rain with my body. She was bleeding from several wounds to her chest and stomach, not to mention the clawing I had just given her arm, as well as an ugly, ragged gash on her neck that she had her hand wrapped around, keeping the dirt and water from getting in.
