a witch's tale

Three - Anders

A young boy mimicked a howl and ran through some grassy plains "I'm gonna get you Wandy" he said laughing and chasing a boy slightly older than him. Randy was the king's son, and Anders was the son of one of the maids at the castle. They were born with not much difference in years, and they grew up together. Randy turned around and stuck his tongue out, and ran faster towards the castle. Anders picked up speed, each wolf had their strength, Anders was agile and fast, Randys was big and strong. Randy entered the castle and bumped into his stepmother "Randy, don't run in the house, and you better now be playing with that.... mutt" she scolded him, Randy stopped right in his tracks, Anders came in running behind him and crashed into him falling on the ground. He rubbed his head, sometimes Randy could be like a boulder. "You aren't my mother, and you don't get to call my friend that. You're a mutt" he roared, the whole room went silent "Son, that's not the way to talk to your new mother" the king said aggravated, why couldn't Anna just let Randy play with Anders, he was just a boy... They were both just boys "And that's not the way to talk to my friend, I wish he was family, not Anna" Randy stormed out of the room. Anders followed close by in the background they heard Anna call for his mother, and yell at her. Soon they found out she was fired. They had to move from the castle grounds to the far side of the city. The area where they weren't allowed to go along because it was dangerous, and little kids couldn't go there. Both kids wondered how Anders was going to live there if he was a boy, they promised to keep in touch and play at recess together. They kept their promise as long as they could, and when it was time to get the adult tattoos they got matching ones, to show they were from the same pack. two black lines that connect into a full circle in their bicep, and a gold line in the middle, that symbolizes royalty, because after all, they were brothers at heart.

In the middle of all their time at school, to master their wolf's powers and learn to control the beast within, Hollis showed up. One rainy afternoon, Anders and his mother, Erika, were walking when they heard a soft cry, they looked at a box and a small baby girl was there. They reported it to the city council, and asked for adoption, after a few weeks, Anders had a little sister, who he swore to protect. Not long after they moved to the city. That takes us to now...

Hollis, now 9 nines old, held tightly to Anders'  hand. "I'm scared, I want mommy" she whined softly "I know, Holly, I know. We're almost there, I need you to enter quickly and then I'm going to go, okay?" Anders picked her up and ran the last few blocks. He unlocked the door "Hollis, listen to me, you have to hide. You run, and move the floor under the bed as I told you. You tell mom that I say that you both have to hide, and don't come out whatever you hear, okay baby?" "Anders, be back, me and mommy don't like when you do that" "Hollis, I can't stop now. We're close to being able to leave okay? And the first thing I'm doing is putting you and mom in that train" Before his sister could say another word he closed to door on her face and locked it, he made sure to see from the window she did as she was told. His mother looked back and did a small wave, he waved back and turned into a wolf. He turned into himself, and he ran to the underground meeting. He was the alpha of a small group of other wolves that were trying to escape, or help families escape the tyranny that Augustus was putting them through.

Anders reached his destination and he shifted back to human, he did the secret knock and entered. Inside he was greeted with other wolves and some elves that lived in the city. He scanned the room and sighed with relief when he saw her, Delilah, As if they were truly connected, she turned around and smiled, from ear to ear, and ran to him. "Baby, you're safe" she yelled. They held each other tight, and after a moment they let go of each other. "Boss, the vampire started with the west wing, the one closest to the witches' forest. They just fly around the east and south wing every 45 minutes. They're going up north every 15 minutes, which is closest to the Capitol they took. They took over the station, so we can't just get on a train there, some tinkers can build some type of train small but maybe we can take out 10 people at the time" the Beta explained with some maps on the table "but if we use the tracks then the 'pires might see us" another wolf chipped in" one elf stood next to the table "we could use plants to help us dig an underground tunnel, that would take maybe 3-4 days." Anders looked deep in thought "perfect, get the underground going, and the train. We need a small group of people who will be willing to distract the vampires, I want to save Randy and his dad" Delilah looked pissed "why do you want to save the king and son after the way they treated us, they never cared for how we were, they didn't care for the people going hungry" she roared "Randy saved me by letting me be part of his pack, and I'm going to do the same. I am alpha to you, but he's my heart bother. I will save him. You have until tomorrow to choose in what group you all help. We need tinkers, for the trains; Diggers, for the tunnels; Guides, to help get kids and woman first in those trains, sick people too" Anders started to give a speech, and when he spoke the whole room paid attention "And lastly, we need warriors. Warriors because this is not just to save Randy, We are wolves, and wolves don't run and hide. We show our teeth, and we fight." He looked around the room to all the people inspired "Are we going to kneel to these vampires? Are we going to let them continue hurting our own? We belong to our packs, and there are packs getting killed. Above all, we belong to wolves, and the wolves stand together. SO WHERE ARE MY WARRIORS?" Everybody cheered on, they cheered with happiness from the hope they were given, they cheered from fighting back.