Under the Stars [Skephalo Wolf AU]

6) Running

Skeppy's eyes widened in panic, and by instinct, he did the only thing that came to mind. He pushed himself forward as fast as he could with one goal in mind. Protect Bad. He brought himself between them, feeling the very second his side made contact with a6d's jaws. The bite itself wasn't that bad, but what had happened only a few moons ago made everything hurt worse, making it feel like every rib in his body had been crushed.

He fell to the ground with a whimper. He decided to wait a few moments before getting up again. He knew that closing his eyes was the worst thing he could do, but it was so tempting. Eventually, he convinced himself that sleeping off the pain wasn't the best idea, mostly with the thought that Bad still needed his help. He smiled through a grimace knowing that Bad was safe and that he had actually done something useful. That was enough for him to keep going.

His instincts were howling at him to run, but he didn't want to leave Bad to fend for himself. He very clearly could not defend himself.

And neither can you. Not in this state. His mind argued.

Bad has wings, he can fly away.

The voice in his head had a good point. Maybe he should run. He tried to see something without moving his head. After seeing a great nothing, he detected noise from somewhere out of view. He reckoned it was Bad since it sounded like it was from the trees. He listened to the indiscernible voices. They seemed muted and far away. They aren't that far away, right? Is my hearing that bad? Based on Bad's behavior earlier, Skeppy could only assume that Bad was still trying to reason with a6d.

Most of the wolves were out of his sight, but there were a few that seemed to be watching him. He could hear barking around where Bad's distorted voice was. There were probably more wolves over there trying to get to Bad. Ha, it would take some level of climbing skill to get to a place where Bad could easily fly.

Luckily for him, he wasn't too far from the exit that he picked out from earlier. He sat still and waited for the perfect opportunity. As soon as both of the wolves in front of him had their heads turned, he got up as quickly as his body would let him, immediately alerting the wolves guarding him. So much for that plan. One snarled, and before he could react, another wolf from behind had lunged toward him, and locked their teeth firmly on his neck.

He was forced back to the ground with jaws still locked on his neck. His snout was shoved into the ground, where he could only breathe in the smell of dirt. The one that snarled stepped forward and stared him in the eyes.

They spoke with force and with teeth bared, "Don't you dare try anything."

A loud crash came from behind, followed by more barks and growls. Skeppy decided to make the dangerous assumption that Bad had seen him pinned to the ground and was flying over to help him. The wolf in front of him ran off, maybe to help the others with Bad, who somehow wasn't dead yet. He took the opportunity and used all of his strength to stand up and push the other wolf off of him. It worked, and he immediately started running towards the exit. Hopefully, Bad would fly off to safety.

Skeppy weaved through the trees tracing the same path from which they came. He could hear the sound of another wolf running after him; it was probably the one he pushed off. He thought his injuries would have slowed him down, but seeing how the other wolf had not caught and killed him yet, Skeppy guessed that he was going faster than he thought he could because of his adrenaline kicking in. His ears told him that they were the only one chasing him. He was confused why there was only one wolf chasing him, but he didn't mind. He had a better chance of outrunning one than three or four. All he focused on was escaping from the enemies.