Chase

Her hair lies on the muddy ground, soaked and somber. Blood crawling towards the water, blending with it. I scanned the faces of the fallen fighters but my eyes landed on the unfamiliar wolf. His neck was slashed open and his leg was pulled off of his body. I walked closer to it and saw how black their eyes are even when they are dead. I assume that even in their dreams and in the afterlife, these feral wolves are still savages.“We should get going, Runt.”I was surprised as I didn’t sense the man who called me. I quickly stood and stepped away from the dead feral wolf.“Don’t call her that.”I lifted my eyes but my head is still lowered and humbled. I gazed upon the two men bickering until the one who called me ‘Runt’ threw his hands and walked away. But he left me a glance. A glance that says how much he dislikes my presence. Although this group of wolves, group of rogues to be exact, isn’t a pack.

A morning of picking up whatever edible and valuable I could find didn’t exhaust me and my basket was already full of mushrooms. I headed east, keeping an eye out for more mushrooms to pick up throughout my journey. Rogues and packs occasionally traded along pack borders to keep the territory safe but, because I was a runt, this pack allowed me to cross their border if only I am heading to their market and leaving as soon as possible. Runts were rarely thought to be dangerous. It worked out in my favor in some ways. In other, unfavorable ways, runts were regarded as a burden and annoyance, which caused me nothing but trouble and discrimination.I walked slowly through the market. When I had to enter a pack's territory, my heart always pounds and my nerves are tensed. If someone decided to attack me as a rogue, I had no protection from the guards or fighters. The members of the pack mostly ignored me, as if I were a clump of dirt rolling past them. I'd been living near t

As the birds began to sing in the new day, I awoke. It sounded like a lovely and nice way to wake up in novels and fairytale books, but birds start singing at an alarmingly early hour, snapping me awake in exasperation. The sun had not yet risen. This was one of the reasons I preferred the rabbit burrow; I could sleep until daybreak if I wanted to – no bird sound to wake me up. I shook my head and yawned. I scratched my ear before jumping down and moving in a stealthy manner towards the smoker. Before I could nibble daintily on a piece of smoked mutton, I smelled the surroundings for any traces of the feral wolves. After finishing the cooked mutton, I returned to the tree, followed the forest highway through the branches, and waited for the sun to fully rise.Hours later, I didn't see any movement at this time of day, but I couldn't trust scents this high in the trees because the light breeze was whisking away the smells of anything below. I shifted to my human form and

The three men took a little step back and averted their gazes from me. Except for the one guy who pinned me to his chest. He was gaping at me, clearly surprised. "You're… You’re a girl!”The guy beside him coughed while I blinked slowly at his sudden realization. They probably assumed that I was a male like most rogues in no man’s land. He looked away in embarrassment when he realized that his surprised expression was too obvious and his statement sounded a lot more frantic than shocked. He looked to be in his early twenties and was a bit slimmer than the other three guys.He rubbed the back of his hair as he mumbled, "Uh, sorry about that... Didn’t know you are a girl."I nodded slowly in acceptance of his apology; my senses told me that it had been sincere – my Omega senses are still open, just in case they are planning something dubious. The fourth guy stepped forward, and I shifted my weight uneasily to turn and face him.

We crossed the street and began walking up the main walkway to the pack house's entrance. Although I was nervous about meeting the Luna, the large double doors ahead, draped with vines and flowers, looked truly inviting and kind in my eyes.Sighs, I was a rogue, as well as a runt. Those two words kept bothering me and trampling my confidence.  I was afraid of being turned away again once she sees me up close. And if the Luna rejects me, I would be in unfamiliar territory with no real resources or supplies that I had accumulated at my previous location.The gentle breeze carried the scents of lilacs and jasmine to my nose, but with an odd undertone. I took a deeper breath; I'd never smelled anything like this scent before. I was curious as to what kind of tree or plant it was. On cool nights, it reminded me of the rich smell of the deepest parts of the forest. The scent practically demanded that I pay attention to it.I was a runt, but not a slow thinker. Sc