Eve

Chapter 3

"GUYS!!! EVE!!! BLIZZARD!!!!" Eve woke to Paint's voice screaming in delight. She fluttered out of the cave, half scrambling, half flying up to the top part of the island. Paint was in the center of the island, craning her neck to admire the large tan bird wings attached to her shoulders. Thank you. she thought to the Halloween Lord.

No problem. It's easier when the receiver is willingly asleep. Also, I left you a little gift. But that will happen when things start getting interesting. Eve did not know what to think about the gift part, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She would think about it later. In the meantime, she had to act like she did not know how Paint had gotten wings. And make sure Paint did not kill herself trying to fly. She walked over and said, "Wings like these are a great responsibility. Each day, you need to wash them, monitor feather growth so you don't fall out of the sky from a misplaced feather, and you need to keep leaves and dirt out of them. Proper wing hygiene." Paint's eyes lost their glimmer of happiness and she asked, "Really?"

"Nah! I'm just joking. Besides, I would have no idea. I don't have the same type of wings as you. If you want to know, ask Blizzard. Anyways, we should start showing you how to use those brand-new wings of yours." Throughout the rest of the day, Eve and Blizzard worked together to show Paint how to fly. As the sun started to set, Blizzard said, "I'm hungry. I think we should go hunting." Eve agreed, and Paint said she was hungry too, but she would eat the pine needles off a tree, her being vegetarian. They glided down to the snowy ground of the nearest tribe, the ice tribe, and Blizzard immediately took off after a stag. Paint walked over to a tree with branches lower to the ground, but the ones with more leaves were nearer the top. She fluttered her wings, hovering near one of the best branches to pull it off and settled on the ground again, hungrily stripping leaves off and eating them. Eve looked around and spotted a snow hare digging in the ice, looking for food. She pounced, easily snapping its neck. "Sorry," she muttered to the rabbit. She always felt sorry for killing another animal, so she made up for it by apologizing. But only with prey. She was happy to snap the neck of a wolf hurting a pup. But when she killed the rabbit, she felt a tingling sensation in her leg muscles. It faded quickly, and so did her thoughts about it. Blizzard came back, minus one deer. His muzzle was covered in blood though. "I did not think Paint would like it if I ate a deer in front of her," he said when he noticed Eve looking questioningly at his mouth.

"Oh! No, it's fine. I'm only part deer. Besides, I don't care about my non-wolf part." Paint added. "You kinda have to be, if you are a deer wolf who lives near wolves that don't care if you like deer as a species and will eat several right in front of you." While they were talking, Eve heard a faint rustle in the bushes covering the slope. "Wait, be quiet for a second," she said, listening closely. Blizzard and Paint quieted. Suddenly, a large group of assorted wolves had them surrounded in a tight circle. The apparent leader stepped forwards, a long, sleek raptor wolf. Raptor wolves are known for their agility, speed, and slender, pointed tails with a fan of feathers at the end, the tips of which could change color at the wolf's will, and abnormally long claws. He wore a skull over his face, concealing his identity. He growled a command to the wolves in the circle to hold their position, then snarled "You have been caught hunting on the Rouge's territory. Therefore, you will be taken to the Arena and will fight for your freedom."
"Oh? I thought this was free territory. Anyone can hunt here." Eve countered, hoping to keep him talking while she came up with a plan. "Not anymore. The Rouge has been expanding his territory in name of the wolves with no home, no family, and no friends. He offers them food and sanctuary, all for the small favor of working for him. Anyone who refuses is banished from the loner swamps or killed." In the time it took him to say his little speech, Eve had realized that none of the wolves around them had wings. If they could get to the floating island... While he seemed distracted, Eve shouted "FLY!!" and launched into the air. Blizzard and Paint did the same, following closely. But the skull-wearing wolf had anticipated that. The ends of his feathers turned pitch black, and he launched three of them with lightning-fast speed, one hitting each Blizzard, one hitting Paint, and one hitting Eve. Eve immediately started feeling drowsy, and she soon fell out of the sky along with the other two wolves. When she hit the ground, she blacked out. She was in blackness for what felt like hours, but when she woke up in a black stone cell with no windows, no bed, and nothing but tightly-packed bone-iron bars for one wall, she knew she had only been asleep for an hour at most. She walked over to the bars, a bit unsteadily, and growled at the guard, a fidgety brown wolf who did not really seem to like the dark of the dungeon, "Where are my friends? A brown deer pup with bird wings and a white vampire wolf with bird wings?" the guard jumped, turned around, took one look at her Eve's bared teeth, angry eyes, and lashing tail. He whimpered and said "The deer pup is two cells down and the vampire-" he shivered, apparently scared of Blizzard, "-is across the hall. Now please don't hurt me, I'm only doing my job." Eve, satisfied with his answer, circled back into her cell and started pacing. "By the way," the guard added, "Today is your group's arena day." Eve had no idea what that meant, but she decided to go along with it. After a few hours of doing nothing in the small, dark cell, larger guards, wearing more armor and carrying weapons, walked up to her cell, Blizzard cell, and Paint's cell and unlocked the doors. There where two guards for each wolf. The guards blindfolded each of them, then led them down hallways, several turns, and finally up a long flight of steps. Eve heard a large metal door close behind them, and the blindfold was removed. They stood at the end of a long tunnel with bars at the end similar to the bars in the cell. Besides the guards, there were several other wolves in the tunnel. Eve ran to the bars, determined to hear the rules a wirey gray wolf fluttering above the center of a large, round, sandy arena. "...on the animal rounds, where competitors fight each other and various wild animals, the terrain will change depending on a random selector. The first competitor to kill the other or the wild animal (without dying) will win and move up to a harder opponent. If they can make it through all the opponents without dying, they will fight Raven, the Rouge's second-in-command. And if they kill him, which there is a very slim chance of happening, they will fight the Rogue himself. If they win, which they most certainly will not, their group will be released, and the wolf will become the new Rogue. When an opponent is chosen to fight, somebody else from the same group can volunteer. But, if someone else volunteers, they will be moved up in opponent difficulty. On that note, let's start! First up, against one of the easiest opponents we could find, a wild turkey, is the prisoner Hawthorn!" large screens appeared above each barred door at opposite ends and the one for the other door showed a profile of a wild turkey. A little spinner appeared next to the picture, and it started spinning. In the end, it landed on mountain. The floor lowered into an abyss and came up again with a large mountain in the middle and a rocky terrain surrounding it to the edges of the tall spectator seating, which was packed with wolves of all types and color. The gates on both sides opened simultaneously, and a deep brown raptor wolf shot out onto the top of the mountain in the middle. He stood there, completely still, looking for the turkey. There was silence, then the turkey ran in front of the competitor's door and he spotted it. He shot down the side of the mountain and smashed the turkey into the tan, mud-brick wall. When the dust cleared, Hawthorn crouched next to a large crack in the wall, gripping the dead turkey's neck in his jaws. He dropped it and walked in front of the competitor's door and shouted "CAN YOU LET ME IN NOW!? I KILLED THE STUPID TURKEY FOR YOU." the bars raised, and he walked inside. Guards rushed out, dragging away the dead turkey and cleaning the blood off the wall from where Hawthorn smashed it into the wall. But when only one guard was inside, the bars started to lower. The guard that was cleaning the wall didn't notice until they were almost closed. When he saw he howled and ran to the now-closed bars. "Next up, against another turkey, we have Paint! Let's see what terrain she will be fighting in today."

Eve jumped forwards, determined to protect the little defenseless pup. "I volunteer!" she shouted from the bars.

"Oh! As it turns out, young Eve has volunteered to take Paint's place. And, per the rules, we will bump her opponent up to a higher difficulty. Instead of fighting a turkey, she will fight a small pack of rabid dogs! Where will she fight?" the spinner appeared again, and this time landed on a forest. The ground lowered, and the guard, screaming, with it. When the ground came up again, a forest this time, the guard was nowhere to be seen. The gates opened, and Eve instantly launched into the sky. For the first time, she realized that there was a cage over the open-air arena. Presumably to keep competitors and opponents with wings from flying away. She hovered above a large clearing, waiting for a dog to pass underneath. When a brown dog streaked under her, she shot down, slammed the dog into the ground, and killed it swiftly. She stalked through the woods, looking for other dogs. She heard a faint rustle behind her, then heard a voice in her head, not the Halloween Lord's but not hers either, shout "NOW!" and she whipped around to see three growling dogs behind her. She lashed out, putting a gash in one of the dog's face, then watched with satisfaction as it started bleeding but did not leave. The dogs backed up to about fifty feet, snarling. They stood there, panting, the one with the gash on his muzzle slowly bleeding. Eve paused, then charged. The wolves had probably been expecting that, but both them and Eve did not know what would actually happen.