Rogue Moon

chapter 4

~seraphina

Opening my eyes I found myself in bed, I had ran home and fallen asleep. I could remember that I had a fight with gramps... I yelled at him and stormed out. I sat up in my bed staring at my hands. I know he only wants what's best for me, he wants me to live a normal life and be happy, but how can I?

How can I just forget all the trauma I went through as a child?...even the townsfolk don't treat me normally...they all know what I went through they all pity me...

I love my grandpa deeply, he took me in when I had lost everything he helped me to go back to normal...only things aren't normal with me... I can't stop thinking about the monsters...the ones that destroyed my home...

I want to know more about why, and how it all happend...maybe then id be able to move on. But I know nothing about my home, my family, or even the people.

Sometimes I wonder if gramps knows, but hurt refuses to tell me, last time I asked him about it he told me to forget about that stuff. That it was unimportant. I know he just wants to keep me safe. But I can't just let it go...

Sulking I laid back down and buried my face into my pillow. What am I going to do though? What should I do?

With a sigh I lifted my head. First off I need to go apologize to gramps, I shouldn't have snapped at him...

Pulling myself out of bed I went over to grab my bag as a shrill ringing started in my ears. What the hell? I covered my ears as the sound got louder, and my head started hurting. After a few seconds, it suddenly stopped. I hesitated before removing my hands from my ears.

"What was that?" I listened closely for it again but there was only silence. A chill ran down my spine as I stood there. Forgetting about the bag, I stepped towards the front door. Before I could even open it I could hear it the town's warning bells started ringing. My stomach sank at the sound, that bell was rarely ever rung, and that was only for emergencies or if there was an attack...

Swinging the door open I looked outside to see the sky was starting to turn dark as the sun-set on the horizon. But the sun wasn't the only blazing light...i could see buildings on fire...

Dread filled me as I looked down the road to see people running around both in fear and in an attempt to put the fires out. Turning the other way I started running towards gramps's house. As I turned the corner, a man ran into me, I fell back as he stumbled and continued to run and scream? I watched as he ran away as if afraid of something. Getting to my feet I froze as I heard it... The defining howl of a beast. A howl I've heard so many times before in my mind... In my memories...

I looked back in the direction the man had been running from. It was chaos in the town and people were still attempting to put out the fires, but just like me, some stood frozen, after hearing the howl. They were all looking towards the dark forests. It was nearly impossible to see anything, but as I looked more closely I could see movement in the treeline, and my eyes widened.

I watched in horror as wolves ran out of the treeline straight towards the village. Before people even had a chance to scream or start running, the wolves started tearing into people.

I snapped out of my shock as people started running past me, with the wolves hot on their trails, killing anyone in their path.

Running to the side I ran between the houses and through an alleyway. I heard a growl behind me and looked back to see one of the wolves standing at the other end of the ally, snarling at me as blood and saliva dripped from its mouth.

My eyes widened and I didn't hesitate before running as fast as I could to get away. The wolf snarled and gave chase as I ran for my life. Weaving through the town I did my best to avoid any other wolves and crowds of people.

The wolf chasing me barked before lunging at me. I screamed before dodging out of the way falling to the dirt, the wolf ran into a stall and barreled into the wooden boxes full of hunting supplies and more. I looked over my shoulder as The wolf stood up and shook its head before its eyes quickly locked back onto me and it snarled.

Despite the fact there were wooden shards embedded in the wolf's right leg it didn't even seem phased, the thing was completely enraged.

I fumbled before getting back on my feet to continue running, I had no idea where I was going with how much fire and smoke there was, but that didn't stop me, I just knew I had to get away from the wolf.

I could hear it snarl behind me as I ran. Glancing back I could see it was quickly catching up. Before it could grab me I made a sharp turn into a allyway between an old shop and a burning house.

My pursuer couldn't make the sharp turn and knocked into the wall before snarling at me. A cracking sound had me looking up and I dove out of the way as a burning log nearly crushed me. I covered my face and coughed as the heat of the fire and smoke licked at my skin.

I got to my feet and watched as the wolf paced, not willing to go near the fire to get after me. I'm sure it could jump over the beam if it wanted to but I wasn't going to stay and find out.

I ran out of the ally and put my hands on my knees coughing, as I tried to catch my breath, my relief was short-lived as a deep growl reached my ears.

My breath caught in my throat as I looked up to see glowing yellow eyes peering at me through the smoke. I stepped back as they got closer, and I could see the figure's outline.

My heart sank as I looked up... This was no wolf... This was a monster... The creature stepped closer and I took another step back. This seemed to upset it because its growling only grew louder. My heart was racing threatening to burst from my chest.

I noticed it had a hold of something and it dropped it as it stepped closer to me. Only then did I notice it was the body of a man. I gasped as it seemed to crouch down and come out of the smoke.

I could see the dark-colored fur that covered the entire creature's body, it had hands with blade-like claws and a face of a wolf, but it stood crouched over like a man. I was right...this was no wolf, this was The same creature that killed my father.

I could see a glint of metal around its neck, like some kind of collar, hanging from it was a red gen pendant. I watched frozen in horror as it slowly approached.

A sense of De Ja Vu ran through me as my memories ran through my head... Why...why was this happening...gramps said we were at peace with the beasts in the forests, was he wrong? We're they just waiting to attack? Or was it something else...

The creature was crouched looking at me closely, a mere few feet away, it could pounce on me in seconds and I wouldn't have any chance to escape...every fiber of my being was telling me to run...to get away from this monster, to scream and call for help, but I couldn't do anything.

It raised its head looking down at me and its growling seemed to stop. Another snarl grabbed our attention and before I knew it the wolf from before tackled me to the ground, I screamed as a burning hot pain ran through my body as its fangs were buried into my shoulder.

Barely registering what was happening around me. A monstrous snarl came from the beast, and suddenly the wolf was no longer atop of me. A crashing sound had me opening my eyes as I looked over to see the beast from before standing on its hind legs barring its fangs at the wolf that attacked me, as it laid in the debris of what was once an old shack house.

Cringing in pain I held back my cries and sat up, I needed to getaway. Getting onto my hands and knees I got ready to make a run for it. Another snarl and the rush of wind made me yelp as the monster jumped over me. Hovering over me with its arms on either side of my head and its maw, mere inches from my face. I squeezed my eyes shut and whimpered as it growled in my ear.

Laying under the beast I waited for the searing pain and tearing of flesh as it tore me apart, but nothing happend... The growling stopped and I could feel it's hot breath fanning across my face. Seconds later I felt a cold wet nose against the skin of my neck, near my torn up shoulder. Cracking my eyes open the monster wasn't attacking me...instead, it was nuzzling me?...

The familiar voice of my grandpa had me looking off to the side. And I could see him running towards me, holding an ax, as he called out my name.

The creature above me looked up at him and snarled. I could see its hair stick up as it crouched and got ready to lunge for gramps. "No!!" I screamed as memories of my father who had once saved me from the same beast flashed through my head.

I grabbed onto the monster's leg and it stopped, looking down at me. I couldn't lose the only family I had left. "Don't hurt him!" I cried helplessly as tears streamed down my face. The creature seemed to hesitate.

A high-pitched noise similar to the one before rang through the air, and the beast roared as it jumped to its feet and clawed at its ears shaking its head.

Gramps stopped for a moment watching the creature as it thrashed around.

I watched as well in surprise.

The ringing sound stopped as the creature stood there holding its head.

"Sera!" Looking back at gramps I sat up to go towards him.

Before I knew what happened I was swiped up off the ground With a shriek of surprise, before being held up against a warm furry body. I could hear gramps call out for me as the wind rushed past. Looking over the shoulder of the creature I watched as the town and grandpa were left behind.

My mind raced and my vision blurred as the rush of trees passed us by and it carried me deeper into the forest. The night was cold but warmth trickled down my arm.

The last thing I remember before the darkness took over, was the full moon high above the treeline.