On another note, I am working on starting up another blog just for short or serial fiction that I write. Mainly anything from really short, one shot stories, to longer novellas that I will post as a serial, or poems. I might even have guest authors on sometimes. I just decided I wanted to have a specific place to put other stories that I'd like to share, and though I'll be posting them onto Wattpad as well, I wanted to have a blog specifically for the stories. That way I can post accompanying artwork and people can comment even without having a Wattpad account. Anyway, the reason I'm doing this now is because next month I really hope to start posting up an Arthurian retelling I've been working on, which you will hear more about later. But I'm planning on starting to post it online either the first or second week of December, so I'm kind of excited to start my first serial story.
But for now, on to the snippet! In this part, Alex goes hunting a wolf for his wolf skin cloak, but finds more than he bargained for. (Terrible synopsis, I know, sorry.)
Running after the wolf, I realized that we were heading back
out of the woods into the hills, and suddenly came out into the full light of
the moon and the wolf was a streak of silver among the bracken of the hills. He
ran up one, jumping from rock to rock and I followed, hardly feeling tired with
the chase at all. I nearly skidded to a halt as the wolf suddenly whirled
around to face me, crouching low and snarling deep in his throat. I raised the
spear, crouching myself and returning the growl. We eyed each other, watching
the other’s movements each waiting for the other to move first.
The wolf leapt.
I fell backwards in a sudden reaction to protect myself, the spear coming up
and striking it in the chest as he descended upon me. A yelp escaped his
throat, and I pulled myself to my knees, looking to the side where the wolf lay
with my spear through him, not yet dead. His yellow eyes met mine, and I
remembered Justinius’ words of advice. I pulled my knife out and placed one
hand on the wolf’s forehead.
“Be at
peace, brother,” I said and slit his throat, feeling a surprisingly painful
ache in my chest as I watched the life flow from the noble beast.
I sat back
on my heels, surprised as I put a hand to my face and found a tear streaking
down my cheek. I was shocked at the emotion I felt at killing this wolf. I had
never known they could be so human. Perhaps more so than the warriors who were
cursed to change into wolves from the story.
I stood,
planning on carrying the entire body back with me to skin at the fort, but as I
did so, a chilling sight caught my eye. Over the rise of the hill I could see
several more wolves coming toward me. I turned quickly and realized even more
were coming at me from behind. I frantically looked around and only saw more
and more wolves coming. I couldn’t believe my eyes, wondering for a moment if I
were hallucinating. Then a howl sounded out, and another followed closely
behind it, until all the wolves were sending up an eerie cry that echoed
strangely around the hills. I was hemmed in on all sides, and I realized with a
sudden fear coursing through my veins, that I had no way of getting out of
this. I was going to have to fight my way out, and even then, I didn’t think
the odds were very much in my favor.
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