Chapter 5 - Decisions

Chapter 5 - Decisions

And then there was a tiny thump. And then a few seconds later....a second thump. A weak heartbeat.

Releasing a breath, Ezekiel pulled back. The cold dread ripping deep into his soul dissipated.

He's alive...just barely...but seriously what do I do with him, now?

Coming to a decision that the mortal wasn't capable of moving, much less attacking in his current sorry state Ezekiel decided to move off a ways and inspect the wounds that he had sustained earlier.And to think.

With a painful hiss Ezekiel lowered himself into the pine needles beside the mortal and inspected his shoulder.

Ezekiel quickly lifted up his shirt, biting back another painful hiss as he watched the blood flowing down his right peck from a giant, bloody gash two spaces to the left of his heart. The wound in his shoulder was clean and at least a few inches deep.

As Ezekiel inspected it with his slit eyes in the darkness a small chill raced down his spine as he realized something.

Just a few more centimeters to the right....and with a little bit more strength....he would have killed me.

Ezekiel told himself.

As a Shifter....Ezekiel and anyone like him benefited from the power of the beast within. It was very hard to kill one of his people or imprison them. Most cuts would heal over a long period of time...and silver was actually the only metal that weakened a Shifters strength enough to hold them.

Even as Ezekiel watched the blood, he began to see signs of his body working to heal.

A soft trickle of warm energy was seeping into the area. The beast inside lending him its energy, speeding up the process. All Shifters healed in this way and Ezekiel was assured as he watched the knife wound knitting up; that the pain would soon be gone.

Slowly dropping his shirt back down Ezekiel climbed to his feet and began to pace beside the stranger.

Ezekiel tried to keep his wits about him in the next few second but he was so terribly out of his depth. And he knew it. The stranger was dying. Every second that passed, every thought that passed his mind, was another waste......or was it a blessing?

Did this strange smelling, green eyed, violent stranger deserve to just slip away into the darkness? He could be a murder, or a thief for all Ezekiel knew. He was obviously dangerous and quite possibly insane.

Or was he just an unfortunate stranger who could die if Ezekiel didn't make up his mind?

Ezekiel knew what he needed to do to save the stranger.....but was it the right thing to do?

He knew he could take the stranger to the healer in his village, but by doing that Ezekiel would be sticking his neck out....and for what?

Ezekiel didn't have to help the stranger. He could choose to walk away right now and save himself a headache..... Or he could also chose to save a life.

The answer seemed so simple to him....but he hesitated.

For a very long time Ezekiel had been taught not to hate mortals and outsiders, but to distrust them fiercely. To be weary of them if one of them ever came into their Lands. And he had been taught that the Clan Lands were a Statuary. A place for his kind, where Mortals choose seldom to venture and Shifters seldom offered them an invitation.

It wasn't a hatred for outsiders that Ezekiel knew. And it was also not a deep rooted dislike.

It seemed to be a tradition of separation, that for all Ezekiel could see was amicable for both races. And Ezekiel believed that all of the other Seven Shifter Clans operated under this same tradition of separation from each other and from Mortals as well.

Who was Ezekiel to break this unspoken rule?

Then again.....Ezekiel was hardly know for his traditional.....or normal behavior as it applied to Shifters.

He was often the one to do what was in his mind and heart to do. No matter how risky, or dangerous....or embarrassing. IT wasn't a conscious choice on his part either. He just did as he willed himself to do. Not as a tradition dictated.

He liked going down the rocky, dangerous paths Life was for the living after all. But the path that he was on now....the choice that he needed to make, wouldn't just affect him.

Suddenly a beastly song broke the silence of the night. A three part chorus of Cat like snarls, and one forlorn howl beckoned to him. Instantly Ezekiel recognized that chorus and somewhere deep inside his gut cramped.

"Dammit.....I missed the check point!"

Ezekiel groaned to himself as he realized that his brothers would now be searching for him.

And from the sound of it....they had already been looking for him and were extremely anxious to find him.

Great!

Ezekiel hissed in expiration as he walked over to the mortal and went to pick him up, then he stopped and steeped back again. Impatient with himself he put a hand in his hair and bit the inside of his cheek.

This path.....was possibly going to end in disaster. He knew that.

But really did he have a choice now?

He was the one who had went to investigate the noises. He was the one who had found the stranger. He was the one who had talked to him. He was the one who had wanted to help......he was the one who had just gotten kissed.

A three part chorus of Cat like snarls, and a forlorn howl of a wolf beckoned to him once more. Searching for him, demanding his response and promising retribution to anyone that was not supposed to be there.

With a groan Ezekiel slapped his head down into his hands. Then giving up on fighting the inevitable, he raised his head, and let out a harsh roar. The air vibrated with his voice alerting his siblings to his exact whereabouts.

Silence came after his call and then one solitary howl danced on the wind, and Ezekiel knew that they were coming his way.

Decision made.

Ezekiel went to the mortal, bent down and scooped him up from the ground. The mortal was even lighter then he thought, causing Ezekiel a moment of shock as he settled the stranger in front of him. Ezekiel tried to ignore the sharp tang of his blood as the mortal's wet clothing squished between them.

A bloody bag of bones.....you won't last the night if I don't do something huh?

Ezekiel said to himself.

"Did you have to wander into this forest and kiss me?"

Ezekiel asked the stranger who of course didn't respond.

Honestly Ezekiel knew it had very little to do with the kiss at all. His desire to intervene on this strangers behalf had more to do with his own thoughts then the mans actions. His own isolation...

Realizing that he was stalling, Ezekiel, pulled the mortal tighter to his chest and started walking towards the village. And towards his brothers.