Forsaken

Episode 2

After a relatively slow day, Nylah closed up the shop and went home for the evening. She was supposed to throw out all the bread, cookies and cakes for the day, but she always brought them home with her instead. Having a low income and almost no savings, she got by mostly on the day-old bread she could bring from the store. It was a tedious meal, but a meal none the less.

Getting ‘home’ was not exactly the highlight of her day either. “Home” at the moment was an abandoned area of the woods near the small town she worked in. The trees were close and the brush dense, so no one really came by, other than the occasional rabbit or fox. She had collected some branches and stacked them around a couple of trees. To tie it together, she had found some wild ivy and planted it around to keep the “walls” in place. To provide a little more shelter from rain, she had purchased a rather large tarp that went over the top and down most of the sides. She had cut a few holes in it and added some strings to them, so she could tie them together. That way she had something to resemble a door of sorts. The forest floor was also covered in a smaller tarp, so it wouldn’t get muddy and wet inside. Unless it was raining heavily, then the place would be rather flooded. Everything she had was put into closed plastic bags that she could tie up around the bigger logs within her temporary improvised “home”. At least in that way, her clothes, sleeping bag and food wouldn’t get wet.

She opened up the strings attached to the tarp and carried her things from the day inside. She hurriedly found a water bottle, some berries she had collected, some firewood and a bucket to get her evening started. First, she went down to the little stream nearby to fill up the bucket, in order to be prepared if the fire suddenly caught on to something. After filling it, she went back and started up her little firepit located outside of her “home”. She sat there for a little while, watching the fire dance around the wood as it slowly caught on. While looking at the intensity of the flames, she cleared her mind and took a few sips from the water bottle and munched on the berries. Slowly, but surely, she warmed up well enough to put down her jacket and her big scarf from Jacky. It was the end of September and starting to get cold, but for a wolf with a sweater and a raging fire, it wasn’t too bad.

“You should probably heat up the stones”, her wolf, Acallia, muttered in her mind, and she looked up at the starry sky peeking through the tree tops. A clear night always meant a colder night.

“You’re probably right.” Nylah answered and went to her homemade tent to find the rocks she had in each corner. Carrying them two at a time, she put them all around the fire, and some of them she shoved directly into the fire. Having only the fire as a source of heat, and having it only outside of her little home, she had learned to heat up some stones that could be brought inside later and give off some heat to warm up the place for when she slept.

After she had brought the stones into the fire, she sat back down and unfolded a lump of bread and two muffins from the store. She ate the bread first and then went on to enjoy a chocolate muffin and a blueberry muffin. The remaining baking goods from the day had already been packed away in a food storage bag within her improvised tent.

“I think we should get to bed early today”, she told Acallia while enjoying her dinner.

“Yeah, we have to take the dogs to the park before noon.” Acallia answered her. Every Wednesday and Sunday she took a handful of the town people’s dogs to the park and then did a small hike along the river. It gave her some extra cash and she was paid up front every time. Maybe she could buy some meat then. Or else she would have to go out and hunt something.

“Maybe we should hunt for some meat, and buy a few greens and a better pot to cook it in? Making a nice stew for the next couple of days?” Nylah suggested, almost done with the last muffin. Acalia's ears perked up at the thought of having a tasty stew for dinner instead of constantly eating bread. She did enjoy the cakes, but it didn’t feel very nutritional.

“I think we should do that. And a cooler to store it better perhaps. But no more. Otherwise, we will never afford a deposit for an apartment, not to mention real furniture. Even though we can probably do without furniture for a while.” Nylah kept thinking.

“We should start looking”, Acallia said.

“Next month.” Came Nylah’s reply.

Before the fire died out entirely, she took the rocks back inside, wearing oven mittens. She placed one in each corner of the improvised tent. She had put some trivets around to put the stones on to avoid problems with burn marks on her tarp floor. Lastly, she put a few stones into a pillowcase and put the bundle at the end of her bed, which consisted of two thick blankets for a mattress and then a sleeping bag. She emptied the bucket of water over the remaining charcoal from the fire and closed off her home for the night, by tying the tarp door together. Then she turned on some battery-driven fairy lights, put on her warm forest green beanie and curled up on her bed with the stones warming up her feet at the end of it. Just a few months more, and she thought she might be able to afford to rent a small apartment somewhere in town.

“Then we also won’t have to shift every night to stay warm when winter comes”, Acallia added to the train of thoughts, and Nylah nodded slightly while allowing her eyes to droop.

The mist kept creeping from the forest floor while gaining density and height. Little Nylah was already well hidden in the brush, but the fog took away any possibility of spotting her even if someone got close. It had been quite for hours without a single sound, neither before nor now. Nylah started to wonder how long she would have to stay and play hide and seek until her mummy or daddy showed up. A thought suddenly struck her young mind as she started to sniffle. What if her mummy and daddy couldn't find her because of the mist? Should she find her way back, herself? Or would she get in trouble for doing that? Maybe they had just forgotten she was out in the woods and gone to bed?

Nylah kept wondering for a while until she decided to take matters into her own tiny hands. She was five now, not a little baby like her brother Jonah at almost two. With new determination, she found her way out of the bush that had been her secure hiding spot and began to find her way back to her pack. The first part was easy. She quickly located the tree trunk she had climbed on earlier, and felt by its shape which direction to go. The thicker the log became, the closer she got to home. By the end of the log, she knew she had found the direction she should follow, and she began walking. Her movements were slow paced and cautious, making the way home a lot longer than usual. The fog lifted a bit and the dawn was breaking through the trees, providing a bit of light through the darkness, making her surroundings appear clearer. Along with the rays of the first light, came also some frightening noises and smells. Nylah crouched down, making herself look even smaller while she sniffed the air and listened to the sounds that the wind carried in her direction. The smell was easy. It smelled like a big bonfire, and it got her a little excited, but also sad that the pack had a bonfire celebration without her. She was about to crawl a little closer, when she finally paid attention to the strange and unappealing noises. It sounded like distant screaming. But not the fun kind of screaming. Not the kind she usually did when her father tickled her without mercy if she was being stubborn about her bedtime. She frowned and listened further to the noises. There was definitely some yelling in there as well. She did NOT like yelling. Upon hearing that, Nylah crawled away from the forest path and back into the dense brush. If they were going to yell and scream, she wouldn't come back home!

After hiding in the new spot for some hours while the noises slowly died down, she heard paws coming her way. Finally, this was done, she could be found and get home.

But she had no such luck, because the wolves coming in her direction didn't smell like her pack usually did. And when they were close enough, she also couldn't recognize any single one of them.

"Stranger danger!" she thought with her eyes wide open. Instantly she lay down in the dirt, trying to cover herself in it. Being invisible for sure would have come in handy now, and she inwardly said a bad swear word for not being able to do just that.

One of the wolves shifted back to his human form and held up a hand to make the others stop. He stuck his nose into the air and quickly sniffed it. Then he looked around at his comrades, to whom more had now also shifted.

"Someone is hiding here!" The foreign man's voice sounded.

Mortified, Nylah held her breath while the men started to look around with smirks on their faces. Some of them were getting closer, and she knew, just like they did, that they had found her.

Nylah woke up almost bathing in her own sweat. So memories were turning into nightmares now, she thought, and closed her mouth into a thin line.

“Stupid memories, stupid past and stupid WHY DON’T I JUST HAVE A FREAKING SHOWER IN MY HOME???"