The Wind in the Shadows

Chapter 2 - Clover

The evening light was fading ever so slightly, air rushing against my fur like in the movie Titanic. I lay alone, only the light being there for me. I heard odd noises, but my mind blocked them out.

I begin to scavenge the icy, cold cage. My mind may be loose in this thrilling moment, but my smells going haywire. I can strongly sense another figure in the dull room. Even though I can't see, as a dim clough is blanketing my cage, I hear a soft clawing noise from across the room. I took such pride in how I took what had just happened that I didn't notice if anything else was in the room. 'H..hello?'

I then hear some kind of critter scuttling towards my cage. 'Hello, Whos there?' That's when a small, delicate mouse ran under the clough and squeezed through the cold, iron bars. From it's ecstatic, dirty fur and it's petrified emotions leaking throughout its face, it's clearly been through alot, so I might as well comfort it until something hopefully good happens. It scampered towards me, pulling itself towards my fur. 'Are you ok?' I asked by mumbling.

'N-no! This can't be happening,' The sooty mouse responded in a whimper.

'What happened, please tell me! You'll only feel even worse'

'W..will you judge?' Her weeping eyes showed that it was probably even worse than anything that I've seen. Likely worse than any of my wildest dreams, for such a small, innocent heart should not deserve. As she told her tale, the words pierced my ears and processed through my brain, like it was sorting some files into order. Some of the information that I remember is that she said her name was Clover. Well then, clover said that she was from an old, broken down warehouse. Apparently she was also living with her hundreds of brothers and sisters. One day, apparently, she went for a wander and got captured. She then described the kind of trap they used and how terrified she was to realize she wasn't going to be home for tea. Along with that, she also said on how she was one of the more responsible one out of the bunch.

The light for the only window started to dim, making to setting around them more sleepy. My hips nudged her to make sure that she didn't fall asleep, as she could get caught more easily. She nudged back. I take a deep sigh of relief, knowing that I don't need to worry for that period of time. It does take quite a while to fall asleep here as all your thinking is "Please don't get picked, please don't get picked!"

Even though I had many thoughts swarming in my head, all I could remember vividly was the man's words looping round and round. I could remember each word, sentence by sentence, like they were written down permanently in my head. The mouse continued to lay still, every noise in the room filtered as she heard every movement. The rustling of the leaves like they're invading the branches, locks being opened then closed and of course the worst noise, the horrific shrieks of the animals being tested. Are they allowed to use big, wild animals like wolves?

It had been a week past now. Nothing has really happened but from starving to death, but finally something occurred. The mouse then suddenly sprang to her feet and peered over to the lab door. I looked with her.

The handle then began to jerk as the door bound open. A scientist, this time with a tinted dragon's blood coat, rushed into the room. And don't worry, I knew about the colour because there was a very unnecessary poster stapled to the wall of the coats. But anyway, the human looked terrified, petrified even. He slid across the room and began to sort through the selection of needles.

I peeked through the small gap that he made from slamming the door. The door had clearly been slammed many times before as the crack was growing larger, splitting at an alarming rate. The next second later, it shattered.

"Get 'em!," a researcher called as he halted to a stop at the sight of the broken, wooden door. "I knew we should've gotten a new door. Now it can escape!"

NOW I have a question, what's 'it?'

The boffins all then scrambled out the door, like they'd lost their minds.

Suddenly an ivory-white figure slunk through the empty door frame. It's fur was as natural as a fresh frost at dawn, spacing in and out at every slow step. The only part of its body that

wasn't completely white was the tinting of grey on the tips of its ears.

"It looks like it has caught frostbite!" I wondered as it slowly paced across the room. That's when it looked over in my direction, it's claws tucked neatly in like they've never come out.

I-it's a WOLF! Why would they be experimenting with one? They live so far away, so you rarely see them in the wild here.

You know, it's boring just calling the wolf, well.. 'wolf' and 'it' so I'll give it a random name... Frostbite. I know what you're thinking, what a really non-creative name. Well, when you're trapped in a cage with a wolf on your tail, imagination isn't particularly an option. And also, I just feel like naming something for once. But anyway ...

Frostbite peered straight at me, the eyes shaping out mini galaxies, thousands of them. There was mixed emotions stranded there. It's like Frostbite can't show the humans how what they're doing is affecting the poor wolf.

As my mind blurred with all the thoughts rushing through my head, a familiar voice from afar is what I heard.

"Hu-usk, where are you boy?" Eclipse then enters the room, with great caution about the broken door.

She takes a step closer to the wolf. He tucked his head into his rough, ears pointing down, showing great alert, but his eyes were still fixed on her. She brought her hand to his face, but he dodged to the left, banging his head against a corner of an empty cage. Blood started dripping along his necks fur, staining it crimson. Husk, I'm pretty sure that's what she called him, whimpered softly.

"No, boy, It's ok! I'm not going to hurt you... They are."

She tucks her hand behind her back, then pulls out a long chain.

"C'mon boy!"she snapped.

Her hand then flung a ring of chain over him. The chain was red, red as if it was coated in lava. Wait, I never noticed before but she had a thick glove on... Oh no.

Husk tried to slide out of the way, but he was too late. The burning sensation around his neck then knocked him out cold. Eclipse then dragged the body by the legs, around the brokenwood and back into the laboratory.

He was such a beautiful wolf. I don't know what kind, but he was.

I stood for a good hour on my hind legs, shock covered my face. Clover was even more stressed now that I wasn't available to calm her down. I was just staring from the shattered door, to the cage streaked in dry blood, to the lab room. I couldn't see much in the room but really, I don't want to know.