The Darkness Within

12 - Sparring and Riding

For the next week, Ciara found it harder and harder to get up in the morning. Her nights were filled with nightmares of the night she almost died and the many nights before then. Oftentimes, she only got up in the mornings after breakfast had been finished, and only then because Tala would pull her out the door by the grey werewolf clothes that were unfairly sturdy and did not rip under the girl's weight. Sometime along the way, the wolf had learned to open the door, so there was no keeping her from dragging Ciara out into the hallway, down the stairs, and out into the freezing snow.

Ciara rarely slept in her bed itself anymore, preferring the comforting warmth of Tala as she let the huge wolf curl up around her small frame every night. The position brought her little relief, and she usually still threw up her dinner every night, but it helped a bit with the panic.

The kitchen left meals out for the huge wolf so she could eat every morning, but Ciara didn't touch breakfast. At most, she picked at lunch and forced herself to eat at least half her meal at dinner.

She was falling back into the horrible patterns that she had developed after the night with her father and his friends that nearly killed her, and she could only watch internally as she piece by piece withered away. She was losing weight from her lack of eating and nightly vomiting, but Tala still forced her to train every morning and to be outside when the werewolf pups were outside too. Evelyn became another source of support in addition to Tala, and on the especially bad days would let her cry in her arms. Sometimes the female asked if she wanted to talk about it, and sometimes she did want to, but could never bring herself to actually talk with her friend about it.

She had entered the forest a year and a half ago to force her body to be so tired that she didn't have time to think about these things. And it had worked, her nightmares had faded and she was constantly hungry so she ate, but now in her new life, those things returned. She knew the werewolves could smell it, and they treated her like she was fragile most of the time since then, and that only made it worse. Only Evelyn, Lila, and the pups treated her the same, minus the times that Evelyn let her cry.

Because of this, the twins had become Ciara and Tala's fighting opponents. Ciara enjoyed the physical work and was thankful her friends didn't go easy on her because of the scent she put out. The twin's movements were faster than most werewolves, and they moved with each other so well that they seemed to be of one mind.

Ciara attempted to avoid the incoming punch from Evelyn but she noticed it too late and the female moved too fast to avoid completely so the punch landed on her ribs, definitely going to leave a bruise.

With a grunt, she ended up on her butt in the snow for the fifth time that day. Looking over at Tala, she was pleased to see that her companion had managed to knock over Lila, her opponent. It was rare that they managed to outmatch the twins, and she felt her annoyance growing at herself.

With determination, she stood back up and grabbed her sword from her back. Evelyn got a wicked glint in her eyes and drew her own sword to match. A brief glance at Lila and Tala showed that they too were ready for round six and that Lila had shifted into her grey wolf, the same as Evelyn's. The twins had the same wolf form, the future-alpha's form was just bigger.

With increasing annoyance at not being able to land a hit on her sparring partner, Ciara attacked Evelyn with ferocity. The wind howled around her, swirling the light sprinkling of snow that was falling from the sky. It seemed to match her movements, making her faster and stronger. As her sword met Evelyn's, the satisfied smirk on the female's face disappeared and a look of shock replaced it. They disengaged before Ciara attacked again, aiming for her exposed thigh. Had the sword made contact, the female's thigh would have been cut deeply but the werewolf managed to just about her attack and Ciara altered the path of her sword to block Evelyn's oncoming attack. With her free hand, she pulled her dagger from its sheath on her hip and moved to stab the female before her.