Legend

Chapter 1

It was dark and cold until something pushed me forward, my nose hitting a soft, warm wall. The wall was my mother and beside me was my sister. I heard a whine from somewhere in the darkness that was all I had known for as long as I had been being pushed around by my mother's nose.

My mother licked my left eyelid and I could feel it twitch. Only, this time my mother let out a soft whine. Her and the other thing had been going through this routine for a while now, only now...now my eyelids continued to twitch, suddenly there was light...

I blinked, a lot. Why was it so bright? Where did the darkness go? After much blinking, the light didn't hurt as much, and I could make out a big, furry thing in front of me. This must be my mother.

I moved my head to the right and saw my sister beside me, staring at me curiously with wide, brown eyes. I crawled around and faced the brighter light that was behind me and saw another furry thing sitting in front of the light. This must be my father.

I kept crawling forward and I looked down. There were little black things under me that moved where I was moving. Suddenly I thought the word paw. Yes, that's it, these are paws! My stubby legs were against the ground, it didn't feel right and my body started twitching before I stood up. This felt better.

"She's a quick learner," I heard my father say. I felt my ears move in the direction of his voice.

I was fascinated as I moved my paws in front of me, then I moved them back. I fell and this brought a new feeling I hadn't felt before. I whimpered as some part of me hit the hard ground. I swiveled my head around, falling on the ground. I pushed myself up with my two paws, using them to help me turn to see the part of me that was bringing a feeling that...hurt.

There was a fuzzy thing behind me. It was just long enough for me to grab with my teeth. I squeezed it and the new feeling intensified, causing me to cry out.

My lip lifted on its own accord as a rumble came out of me. This surprised me and I did it again, this time on my own. I looked behind me once more to see I had two more little legs and paws, I moved them and the rest of my body tingled as I gained full use of my small body.

The fuzzy thing behind me fluffed out as I saw something fly past me. I jumped back, my lip lifted again as a rumble came out of me. I felt the rest of me fluff out, my ears flicking back.

I shuffled all four paws back this time and didn't fall. The fluffy thing behind me, my tail as I figured out, touched something soft and cold, something I hadn't felt before. I jumped forward and rumbled at that, it rippled as my breath touched it. I rumbled again, and it moved! What was this strange thing? Was it alive? Slowly I reached out my stubby leg, quickly flicking it with my paw before jumping back and rumbling again.

watched the strange substance for a moment before slowly approaching it again, this time when I went to touch it, I fell forward. I frantically kicked my stubby legs and cried out over and over again as I was swallowed by the wet stuff. It was eating me!

I heard my father jump up in alarm, but before he could make it over to me I touched the hard ground again and pulled myself up. I stood, shivering before I shook myself to get rid of the wet stuff and my mother nudged me back to her warm belly where I stopped shaking, falling asleep with my sister beside me.

Two Months Later...

Brenna (the name my sister was given) and I grew fast over the two months after we had opened our eyes. We could speak with each other and our parents, we could run and we could play.

"Angel! Brenna!" We heard our mother call out from the den.

We looked at each other, deciding, without words, that we were racing each other. I leaped forward without hesitation, bounding up the hill to our mother. Brenna was hot on my tail the whole way and by the time I tumbled into our father, we were neck and neck.

"Whoa there! Watch where you two are going!" He growled playfully as he wrestled us. He playfully knocked Brenna down, but not me. I was a feisty little devil, darting between his legs and around, latching onto his leg with my sharp little teeth and growled as I shook his leg. Brenna got up and before he could swipe at me she jumped onto him. Together, we tackled him.

"All right you three that's enough of that, it's time to eat," my mother called over. At her paws lay a small, dead deer. After we all ate our fill, Brenna and I laid down next to our mother, bellies extended. Our father laid a little ways away. Before I knew it, I was asleep.

***

I awoke to my mother snarling above me. I had rarely seen her like this, but I had never seen her this angry, or scared. Her lips were lifted to reveal two rows of long, sharp teeth and her snout was wrinkled. Her fur was standing on end as she was crouched down. Brenna was huddled under her back legs with a look of pure terror on her face.

I heard a ripping noise and yelping as I turned to see my father battling with another animal. This one was what my mother had called a bear, only it smelled different than the one I had seen a few weeks ago. This one had the same hint in its smell as my family, my father had explained this smell to me; it was the trademark scent underlying all creatures like us - Shapeshifters.

I jumped up and let out a pathetic sounding growl of my own. The hair around my shoulders, spine, and tail fluffed out as I tried to make myself look intimidating. I knew it was useless with how tiny I was, but I wasn't about to cower like a rabbit.

Two wolves appeared behind the bear after my father managed to kill the bear, or at least it seemed that way. My mother picked Brenna up and tried to grab me but a third wolf charging at her kept her from grabbing me. My father was occupied by the other two. Before she left me, my mother gave me a pained look. This allowed me to see what she was trying to say in her eyes as she whined and ran past everyone, out the entrance of the den.

The wolf was about to give chase to my sister and mother, but instead turned towards me. I snarled, this time when I snarled I sounded a little stronger as I backed away slowly. He followed me and when he lunged I jumped to the side, running past everything and out into the night. My fear consuming everything.

I didn't pay attention to where I was going, I just knew I was going as fast and far as my little legs could carry me. After my legs began to hurt from running, I stopped and crawled into a bush.

I crouched there as I caught my breath, until my legs were no longer shaking with exhaustion. I waited until the sun started going down the next day, before I somehow found my way back. I was terrified the whole time I would be attacked by one of the strangers.

When I came back, I was met with a scent of death. The bear was dead, flies were gathered around its body and the three wolves were gone. My father lay by the stream, near the hill, covered in blood. I could faintly see his sides rising and falling, as I crawled over to him. After I curled up under his front leg, he noticed I was there, safe. He took one last shuttering breath, the light slowly leaving his eyes and his body slowly stiffened and went cold.

I kept nuzzling his chest, trying to get him to come back and wake up...but it was useless. I lay there until the moon and her crown of bright, cold, lifeless stars rose up above my head. I slowly got up before I lifted my nose to the sky and sang my sorrow to the moon in all her glory, until the sun slowly turned the sky a rosy pink and I fell silent as I collapsed. A soft breeze brushing over me, sorrowfully.