A Ripple in the forest

Chapter fourteen

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Listen to Trampoline by SHAED and Zayn

15th December, 2017
Alpha Gabriel's Territory, Nivadia
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I washed my feet of dirt and blood. The silent cry of pain whimpering from their souls carrying nothing but a whisper of my attention. The sponge scrubbed at the grime as if the action would clean my spirt. I had heard a quiet cry in the winds, a faint calling for safety. The woman's voice was a distant wave of emotion, but I heard it. I can still hear the echo of pain in her voice, the ache in the simple words she called.

"Let me die. Let me die. Please, let me die."

My body moved as if the words she begged was an invisible force pulling at my heart. It carried me to the depths of the forest. Sharp objects forced their way into my skin, wanting to taint my blood. Her desperate cries kept me from turning back. The sounds of her sorrow turned my bones cold and rigid, the helplessness in her whimpers joined muscles and joints into strides. I did not think of the thorns piercing through my simple cream nightgown, the markings they left on my soft skin. For no pain could amount to the greater she felt. She was a siren in the night, calling for me from the south. I felt her pain the closer I walked through the forest, away from the Palace, away from safety. Safety the woman cried out for. I could feel the hollow emptiness in her gut, the burning through her chest, the ringing in her ears, the blood leaving her body. If I tried hard enough, I felt the salty droplets trailing down the skin of her face. I was in a dream, no, I was in her nightmare.

I walked through the silence of the night, the only sound was her breathless jerks of pain. Her voice was so far yet had the power to overthrow my senses. I walked and walked, my body no longer feeling. I accepted the pull towards the woman's voice until a barricade of wolves blocked my path. Their large dark eyes looked at me with worry and relief. I stared at them with empty eyes.

"Let me through," I whispered a silent command.

One of them shifted. Cracking, and popping and tearing until his human body glowed in the rays of light from the moon, but he is not human, not completely. His muscled form showing me exactly what he was, a weapon.

"Luna, we have been looking for you for hours! What are you doing out here?" the man asked with worry coating his tongue.

I looked past him into the distance, into the south.

"Do hear that?" I asked, wondering why they were so worried about me when a woman was begging with such conviction.

"Hear what, Luna?" the man asked.

"The woman's screams," I answered.

The man looked over to the wolves, sharing a look of concern. He raised his arms in an action that told my disorientated mind that he meant no harm.

"Your Ladies are coming here now, Luna. We must take you back to the Palace," he told me in a voice crafted to soothe. 

He stepped forward only a few steps. I could tell he was afraid that I would be scared away like a frightened animal. I wasn't the one they should have been worrying about, for a woman with more pain than imaginable called for help, called me for help.

The ground grumbled with fury from behind me. The heavy platoon of wolves arrived in a quick furry. I turned and looked through the mist of the lands. Their eyes had glowed through the fog, I remembered, and I could make out three glowing purple spots running towards me. No fear rippled through my bones like my first encounter with wolves.