• Ch. 1: Wounds

    Malia
    A scream emerged from the meadow, startling me awake. Who could be awake this early in the morning, let alone outside? I thought. Everyone knew the meadow was dangerous. Another came, pained and desperate. I came out of my room and looked through the crack in Inez’s door. She was still asleep, but as I was walking, the most blood-curdling scream came, followed by a howl. Lupine. I thought. I strode into her room, urgent now. She was still half asleep.
    “What was that?” she almost mumbled, stirring awake and rising on her bed.
    I shook my head. “Sounds like someone’s in trouble,” I said. “It doesn’t sound good. We should go.” Inez nodded, equipping her sword and yawning. I went back to my room and got my saber and staff, and we were off without Kira and Astrid, who were still asleep.
    When we came to the source of the scream, we came to a clearing where we saw a horrific creature. Its steely gaze locked on us immediately, but it soon resumed attacking its prey. But where was the scream coming from? We went farther, and found a fair-haired boy and a dark black and brown wolf, both badly wounded.
    “Well then. I suppose-“ I couldn’t finish my sentence, because just then, we were attacked by the horrifying monster. I immediately sprang into action, casting freeze spell after freeze spell. Inez then took over the fight, though, because I went off to help the boy and the wolf. They were both unconscious, and what I could see in the early twilight kind of broke my heart. I flew and carried them off to the house, first the wolf, because his injuries were much worse, and then the boy. I put them on our beds, making sure to add another sheet to catch the blood, and woke Astrid. I told her the story quickly, and she obliged to help them until we got back. When I returned to the clearing, I cast a spell to freeze the monster as Inez attacked it with her sword. It was soon dead, and we had the scars to show for it.
    Then we went back to the large shack again, immediately checking on Astrid, the boy, and the wolf. When we got there, Astrid was wrapping the wolf in a bandage on his front leg. It was still unconscious.
    “I feel so sorry for them,” Astrid whispered. We all nodded. Kira then walked into the room, examining the odd scene.
    “Who are these sad-sacks? Lemme guess. This one got run over by a car,” she said, pointing to the wolf. “And this one is just...” Her eyes hovered over to the blond boy, about her age. “Pitiful, pitiful.”
    “Don’t listen to her,” I whispered to them, though I knew they couldn’t hear me. They looked as if they were on the brink of death, especially the wolf, whose breathing was pained and shallow.
    I looked on as Astrid went on cleaning the wolf’s wounds, cautious and caring. She’d done this for me before, after many of our battles with the enemy. She was a Reinorin, a vampire witch, and her touch was cold but gentle. She tended to the black wolf as Inez dressed the boy’s wounds, trying not to wake him in the process. I’m a Corlupine, fairy-wolf, with black-brown hair and white fur. Kira is a demon of the highest order, the daughter of Satan, and that is no exaggeration; she’s working on being more tame, trying to feel like the rest of us. And Inez is an elf goddess, born of the Stone God Toryen and Athena. And we have been called to order by the Sacred Element Takni, one of the defining fundamental elements of the universe, the one that stands for wisdom, courage, and justice. We all have its sacred symbol on our skin. Though we are different, we are parts of the same collective soul.
    She stepped back, frightened, as the room shimmered and an indescribable light come off of the wolf. We looked on and were almost blinded as the wolf transformed into a boy, about our age, with jet-black hair and tan skin. He was shaking wildly and rapidly, and I couldn’t turn away. No one in the room could. Astrid put her hand on his shoulder, the only part of him that wasn’t scratched up or bandaged. He stopped, and she smiled.
    “You all should probably go. I can take care of him. Malia, Inez, you can fix yourselves up, correct? Just go on, Kira, get some breakfast.” But Kira wasn’t in the room. She was in Inez’s, staring at the other boy, who was tall and golden blonde. Astrid looked in, and Kira’s head snapped up as she turned away and walked out of the room, mumbling. Astrid sighed and tended to the blonde while Inez and I looked over the other boy. He was breathing more steadily now, and was obviously still in much pain even after the potions Astrid had administered. I was at a loss for words, and in my daze I forgot about the stinging pain in my arm. I twitched, trying to make sense of everything.
    “What do you want?” I snapped as Inez grabbed my wrist to pull me out of the daze.
    “God, I just wanted to ask you why you were staring at him! It’s not polite!” Elizabeth nearly yelled.
    “Well it’s also rude to-“ I was stopped in the midst of my tirade when Astrid came in, yelling “Will you two just SHUT UP?! You’re going to wake them up!” But the deed had already been done. The black-haired lupine was awake. I felt horrible for yelling at my best friend, and even worse for waking the boy. I noticed that he had one blue and one gold eye; they were similar to mine, which were green and dark blue. He groaned.
    “Ari- oh…God, where- Aw, hell. Ari… Where is he?” he said, meekly. I looked at Inez, forgetting my petty anger.
    “If you mean the other blonde one, he’s in the other room. He’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. It’s okay. Go back to sleep,” she said.