Finding herself

I woke up coughing I opened my eyes, but they started burning. There was smoke everywhere, I could hardly see. I jumped from my bed, finding the door by memory, opening it and all I saw in the hallway was more smoke and flames coming from the guest bedroom. I kept coughing and tried to find my parents' bedroom door. When I found it, I opened it and went to the bed. My mom was still sleeping, unaware of what was going on. "Mom! Mommy, wake up!" I screamed, waking my mom up, but dad wasn't there. Where could he be? "What's going on?" she asked, looking around the room. She started coughing too, looking around the bed. "Where's your dad?" she yelled while grabbing me by the arm, and lifting me in her arms. "I don't know, I came in here and he's not here. There is flames mommy." I cried while she started running outside. We stopped in front of the staircase for a second, only to see the flames, that had already reached my room. Walking as quickly as she could down the stairs, we passed all the family pictures that we were never going to see again. I was trying hard to look closely at all of them to remember every single one in detail. We reached the front door, there wasn't as much smoke here as upstairs, and it was a little bit easier to breathe here. Mom grabbed my jacket, forgetting her own, and opened the door. As soon as she did that, the clean air surrounded us and my lungs weren't burning as much anymore. Mom made her way down the five steps to the driveway and put me down. She started dressing me in my jacket, my feet were cold on the ground as I was barefoot. Looking at the house I saw the flames through the windows. More tears started flowing down my cheeks. All my toys are gone, all my dresses. I hope dad made it out of the house. I was about to ask mom where dad was and that's when we heard the growling and yelping. Mom quickly picked me up again and slowly peeked around the corner. The sight was brutal. I wanted to scream at what I saw, but mom put her finger to her mouth, telling me to be quiet. I saw my dad's wolf. I recognized him from all the times we played together, me riding on his back through the woods. He was in a fight with three ugly-looking ones. I didn't recognize them, they must be the rogues my mom told me about. My dad's wolf had a lot of red on him, probably from the blood. He could barely stand. The other ones kept biting on him and he fought back. His head spun back as if he heard us. He must have mind-linked mom something because he started fighting again and mom turned around and started running towards the woods, me still in her arms. I was scared of the woods at night, I always felt like I wasn't alone. There were these sounds of other animals and it creeped me out. As mom ran, we almost fell a couple of times, her tripping on branches on the ground, the bushes ripping out clothes and skin. I clung to her as hard as I could, but I started to lose my strength. That's when mom suddenly stopped. I turned in her arms, seeing three wolves ahead of us. She slowly put me down and dropped to her knees, whispering in my ear: "Run. Don't look back and don't stop." I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to leave her alone, but I knew that she will protect me from them. The cracking of bones was heard through the silence as her bones started to realign and fur grew from her skin. It took a couple of seconds and where my mom stood before, now stood a light brown wolf, revealing its teeth and licking them with its tongue in an angry manner. I wasn't afraid of it, because it was still my mom, just in wolf form. I took one last look at the wolf and started sprinting in the direction away from where we came. I ran as fast as my legs let me, looking back a couple of times until I couldn't see the wolves anymore. But I didn't stop. I couldn't disobey my mom. ------------- Tears ran down my face, my lungs were burning, and I was tired. It was very hot, it was the middle of summer, and the sun was directly above me. My feet were hurting a lot, cut from the branches on the ground, and probably bleeding as well. I was very thirsty, I had to stop and find something to drink. My legs didn't let me run anymore, my stomach was rumbling, I wish for some toast right now, it would be great. As if the Moon Goddess herself had heard me, there was a small stream of crystal clear water ahead of me. I ran to it with all I had, fell to my knees, and started to drink. The cool water felt so good against my tongue, which felt like sandpaper. I decided to rest a little bit so that I could find my way out of the forest. I found a huge tree trunk, gathered a bunch of leaves on a pile, and laid down. The leaves weren't as comfortable as my bed, but it was better than nothing. As soon as I lay down, my eyes started to close. I was exhausted. I fell asleep as soon as my eyelids closed. I didn't dream of anything, probably for the best, so that I didn't have to go through the nightmares of the smelly wolves. I woke up to the sound of leaves crunching. I didn't dare to open my eyes, afraid of what I would have seen. To my surprise, I was lifted in someone's arms and felt myself being carried, but fell back asleep soon after, the warmth of the person calming me down.