Forsaken

Episode 4

“DADDYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!” She yelled and tried to wriggle her way out of the stranger’s grab. Unfortunately, it only made the lot laugh more, until the one holding her had had enough of it.

“Enough!” He yelled right into her tear-stricken face and she instantly stilled.

“Anyone who hasn’t had enough of killing?” He asked his companions while side-eyeing them. The crowd, however, grew silent. They had already settled their bloodlust and killing yet another pup just didn’t feel good at this point.

The man sighed and looked down before addressing the little girl in his arms.

“Your family is gone. Everyone has left you. There is nothing left for you here. They burned the houses before going. Nod if you understand.” He said firmly, looking into her little icy blue eyes. The girl just nodded.

“We are just travelers passing through. We wanted to seek shelter here, but found everything abandoned and burned to the ground. We have to move on to find another place to live. Understand?” He continued. The girl nodded her head again.

“You cannot come with us. You are not our responsibility and we want nothing to do with this. Got it? He narrowed his eyes in a bit of a threatening manner while he thoroughly examined her facial expressions. Again, she just nodded and looked down at the ground.

“Are you sure she will not tell anyone about this?” Another man asked the first one.

“She probably won’t remember much anyway. And she doesn’t know who we are, just that we came by here by coincidence.” The first man answered, emphasizing the word coincidence.

“Go be on your own little girl.” He said while finally letting her down to the ground. He then turned from her and addressed his people and they all shifted and ran from her.

Nylah sat down right where she was left and just stared at the ground. Her head was hurting, she was tired, hungry and confused. Why had they left her? Did they not love her anymore?

“Mummy.. Daddy..” She mumbled and started to sob.

After a little while of sobbing on the forest floor, she pulled herself up again and started to stumble down the path to her home. She had to see for herself.

When she broke out of the woods she was instantly enveloped in heavy smoke. She coughed and covered her airways with her arm, breathing into her sleeve. The sight in front of her was horrific. The pack house, that used to be her home, was nothing but a burned ruin. Nothing looked the same. The entire building had collapsed and been torn to pieces and burned to ashes. There was not a single trace of her old home left. And no one was there. They had indeed forsaken her.

She sunk to her knees beside some bricks that had once carried the entryway and curled up in a ball beside them, allowing her little body to shake from the new wave of tears. She cried until sleep and exhaustion made her lose consciousness.

It was in this position she was later found by a neighboring pack who was worried about not being able to contact anyone. They were alarmed by the heavy smoke that had clouded the horizon, and wanted to know what it was about. They had not prepared themselves, however, on the sight they were met with at their neighbor’s former packhouse.

No one told Nylah anything. They scooped up the pup and decided it would be for the best to never mention to anyone what had occurred there.

Nylah woke up in the custody of more foreign people, who told her everything would be all right and that she was going to live in a place with many other kids. She could play all day long and have tons of food.

It sounded better than it was though, and she always felt like something or someone was missing.

The older Nylah woke up with a heavy headache and a smokey scent had covered her. She jumped up, ready to run from the fire, but it was only her little campfire and her stew that was burning.

"S**t!" She burst out and hurried to remove the casserole from the fire and pour some water into it. Luckily it hadn’t burnt too badly and it was savable.

The rest of the evening went by quickly and she managed to cook a fairly delicious stew without tasting any burned pieces. She put out the fire and saved the remainder of the stew in a Styrofoam box she had dug into the ground. Then she was off to bed.

The following day came too fast and she still felt tired after a long night of stirring and only half-sleeping. She stayed as long as possible in her sleeping bag, until she had to get up and hurry out in order to be at the bakery store on time. Her wolf wanted to get out and stretch her paws, but there was simply no time for it. Acallia huffed in her mind and turned her back at her, to ensure that Nylah knew she wasn’t pleased with it.

When she arrived at the store, Harper was already baking away inside, probably inventing something new. Strict routines and continuation just weren’t really Harper’s thing. Nylah quickly hung her hoodie in the back and tied an apron around her torso in order to help Harper with the baking, since they wouldn’t open for another half hour.

"What are we making?" Nylah asked as she was washing her hands in the sink.

"The breakfast sliders from yesterday, baguettes, foccachia, croissants, scones, muffins, cinnamon buns, boules with and without olives and chiabatta." Harper answered, with her eyes firmly kept on the dough between her hands.

"No muesli buns today?" Nylah continued.

"Maybe next time, I wanted to focus on the breakfast sliders. They were quite a hit yesterday. Did you like the muesli ones?"

"They were fine, but I loved the sliders more, " Nylah shrugged.

"I am making two versions today. I decided to make some with mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. A vegetarian one. No vegan version yet though."

"Sounds delicious!" Nylah said and started to roll out the dough for the baguettes.

"When you are done with those, can you get the scones and croissants from the oven? They need to get out in the store right away." Harper asked.

"Sure", came the answer.

"I have an idea", Harper resumed.

"Let's go out tonight. I'll cook dinner at my place and we'll go from there! I can close up the shop for tomorrow so we can sleep in."

Nylah thought for a bit, then decided a free meal was always a good idea.

"Okay, I'm in!" She concluded.

"Great! Free meal won you over?" Harper smirked.

"You know me", Nylah chuckled.

"But I have to go for a run first, Acallia feels neglected."

"Dogs yesterday made her jealous?" The witch asked, half as a joke and half out of actual curiosity.

"Well maybe", Nylah said amusedly.

"Am not!" came the reply in her head, causing her to laugh out loud.

Harper did most of the baking throughout the morning while Nylah attended to the customers. The breakfast sliders were flying out the store, constantly increasing in popularity. Around noon, most were sold out and the customer flow started to decrease.

The last customer in the store left, just as a group of boys came in and Nylah stilled for a moment.

"It is you!" One of them said.

"It is me?" Nylah asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah, you're the one with all the dogs! The dog-girl! We saw you by the lake yesterday."

"Oh", was all that came out, until she felt Acallia suddenly rise to the surface.

"Wolf!" She burst out with a growl on its way. Nylah managed to take back control and suppressed the growl by swallowing.

"Uh I mean.." She stammered, but the boys just started laughing.

"I guess you are rather small, but I wouldn't refer to those fur balls as wolves even though they probably look bigger to you." The first one said, making the group laugh even harder. Nylah's cheeks and ears started to redden.

"Hey Matt! When you are done flirting, can you start ordering? You owe us from yesterday!" One of the boys interrupted, much to Nylah's relief. Matt just smirked at his friends and then he winked at Nylah, whos' blushing instantly went up a notch.

"What are you boys up to now? Disturbing my assistant?" Harper asked, coming out from the back with some pizza rolls.

"Miss Harper, those smell amazing!" The second boy exclaimed and took over from the one they called Matt.

"I know Fred, that's why I made them."

"Then we would like to buy a bunch of them!" Fred said, pushing Matt in the direction of the cash register.

"You've got it", Harper answered with a crooked smile and started to pack up the bunch.

When the group left the store, Harper gave Nylah a little notch in the back.

"Miss popular", She said, winking excessively.

"They just want attention and I happened to be here", Nylah said dismissively.

"Sure, sure", Harper grinned.

"But hey, what was up with the "WOLF!" part?"

Nylah hung her head.

"Acallia decided to join the conversation.."

"I'm no lap dog! We are a she-wolf, not a dog-girl!" Acallia hissed in her mind.

"They are humans!" Nylah snapped back.

"Still.." Acallia retorted.

"Acallia was insulted because they called us a dog-girl." Nylah explained with a shrug.

"HA! Well, I guess that is insulting", Harper laughed.

"Remind me to properly meet your wolf someday."

"Remind me to show me your magic someday", Nylah shot back.

"Tough bargain! But fair deal I suppose", Harper amusedly answered and added:

"Let's get back to work and close up a little early. We already had a great sale today."

The next couple of hours quickly came and went, and the pair closed up the store together.

"I’ll go shopping real quick and then start cooking. I’ll see you around six – six thirty?" Harper asked as she turned the key and locked the door to the store.

"Sounds perfect", Nylah answered.

"Remember to bring some party clothes, then we can get ready together after dinner." Harper shouted at Nylah, who had already turned and started to leave.

"Party clothes?" Weren’t we just going to have dinner?”

"I thought we could go and meet up with some friends after. Come on Nylah, it will be good for you to mingle a little.

"Uhm, I will see what I can find." Nylah agreed, and cursed inwardly.

"We so do not own anything for parties!" Acallia stated.

"No s**t, sherlock!"

"Not my fault!" Acallia huffed.

"We don’t have money to buy party clothes. We just have to get creative. But let’s focus on our run first."

"I’m all for running! Strip human!"

Nylah looked around before replying.

"Let me get to the tree line first, to make sure no one sees us."

Nylah jogged to the trees and made sure no one was around before she hurriedly jumped out of her jeans and pulled the hoodie and t-shirt over her head. She folded everything and put it neatly in her backpack, and in just a few seconds she had shifted. She was quite the sight as a wolf. Most of her body was covered in white and silver colored fur, but her head and mane had some red-brown streaks and the tip of her ears even had a little black on them. The red-brown streaks merged into the white and grey and almost disappeared, except for a few lines across her back. It went all the way down to her tail before the red-brown color got thicker. It was the same with the top of her legs, all white and silver, then red-brown streaks at the bottom and even a little bit of black on her paws. She loved her different coat, it made her feel special, which was a feeling she rarely had.

She stretched her legs, grabbed her bag in her mouth and with a flick of her tail she jump-started and went straight into the woods.

"Free at last!" Acallia chirped.

"You sound like I keep you a prisoner." Nylah muttered.

"Sometimes you do. Not giving me permission to growl at annoying people. tsk."

"It's for your own good."

"So you say.."

"Oh look, a squirrel! Let's hunt!"

Nylah smiled to herself, and settled on enjoying the ride, allowing her wolf to run freely chasing squirrels and jumping in cold lakes. It did feel good to feel the ground beneath her paws again.