Cry for help
Luz forced her tired body to get up and followed Hunter , who was still limping, and seemed to be having trouble getting his bearings straight. But he sure made up for it by yelling at them all:
'Alright!' he called to them all. 'Get up! It's time we keep moving.'
'But Hunter !' little flapjack cried, shaking the extra water from his fur as Emira got on the other side of Ava and struggled to help her to her feet. 'Lilith’s not back yet!'
Luz felt as though someone had smacked her awake. She had completely forgotten about Lilith . Oh, god what was she supposed to say?
Hunter obviously had forgotten about it too because he flinched horribly and his tail suddenly became tense.
Flapjack didn't notice this as he was trying to catch a sardine-sized fish from the waters.
Edric noticed however as he looked at their pack friend and seemed to whine sadly. “Mother Lilith won't be coming with us will she?' he asked him as luz put her head down, not knowing if she could stand to watch this.
That got flapjack’s attention and he turned to look at them all like we were crazy, his fish now swimming away from him. 'What do you mean?' he demanded. 'Of course Lilith’s going to come with us! She knows those cliffs better than anyone! We can't leave her here alone!'
Hunter didn't look at him as he addressed edric , 'No, she's not and told me to get everyone else up to the cliff before the cold comes. We will have to worry what to do when…'
'Didn't you hear me?' Flapjack yelled as he bounded forward and got between them so that Flapjack couldn't look down without looking straight at him. 'We have to wait for her ! Or I can go and get her myself before we go and…!'
'You will do no such thing little one,' amity suddenly barked, understanding what was going on. 'You won't last five minutes on your own out there with this many hunters around! Besides…'
She looked at Hunter , who nodded his head once and she sighed, 'mother Lilith won't be able to come with us ever again.'
Emira gasped as Owen groaned and Ava whimpered. Flapjack or honey still didn't understand… or maybe tjey did but didn't want to admit what was true. 'I don't believe you…'
Hunter sighed, and looked away, unable to say anything. Knowing that she had to do it, luz came forward and said, ‘Lilith …flapjack I'm sorry but Lilith …' she gulped and shut her eyes as she said the final word, 'Dead.'
Just like that, the temperature of the forest dropped as if the dead of winter suddenly came and froze them all.Luz opened her eyes to see the broken and confused look on the pup's face. 'No,' he said as he backed away from her. 'No, I don't believe it.'
‘Flapjack ,' Hunter said sternly, 'We were both there. Me and Luz did what we could to save her , but she was shot and…'
'So were you!' Flapjack yelled as he began to toss his head violently around, as if he was trying to wake himself up from a nightmare. 'You were shot and you're fine!'
'That's different!' Hunter barked back. 'Lilith was a lot older than I am, and I'm only hurt in my side. It's nothing I can't recover from. But mother Lilith got shot in the chest so…'
Flapjack let out a howl of rage and denial as he turned and went running off. 'I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!' he howled back at them.
‘ Flapjack !'Luz screamed and went running after him. 'Kiddo, stop! It's not safe out there!'
And before anyone could stop her, she went running after the little wolf cub, who was now howling in pain, screaming for his adopted mother.
_________( you guys are awesome I’m going to keep going)
Luz hit the ground running as she tore after flapjack ; even though she already felt as if she had run enough for a lifetime. The pup's red fur zipping in and out of her sights as he dashed through the bare and grey trees—she hoped that she could catch him before the hunters did.
What a day… first she was turned into a wolf, chased out of the house by her own friends , ran enough for several marathons, met a wolf pack, watched her aunt die—she felt her heart ache at that reminder—and now she was chasing flapjack into certain danger. Really, was it really just this morning when she got out of bed and looked in her mirror to see that she was no longer human?
She shook her head, clearing her thoughts and bringing herself back to the matter at hand. She had to catch him fast before he ran into the hunters again. She could hear the poor cub howling in despair as he screamed out for his adopted mother and Luz felt the need to cry for him. But she also promised to help everyone.
It was the least she could do to make amends for what her kind had done to him and his family. But before she could do anything else, she heard something that caused her to stop breathing.
More gunfire and flapjack’s howl of pain.
_________________
Knowing that what she was doing was stupid and could get her killed, she ran faster than she ever done in her life and burst through a clearing to find flapjack cowering against a tree, his tail between his legs, with two hunters standing there, pointing their guns at him.
Not knowing where it came from, Luz reared back her head and began to give her ghostly howl which caused the hunters to drop their guns in fright and spun around to see her there. Growling protectively, Luz took a great jump and leapt down between them and flapjack.
With flapjack behind her, she bared her fangs at the two hunters… only to have her jaw drop open when she saw who it was.
Gus and his father.
Feeling as though someone was playing some cruel, sick joke, she shook her head and came out of her stunned shock and started growling again. But instead of in a threatening way, it was in a pleaded one… trying to tell them it was her… and to leave.
"It’s her dad!?" Gus asked his father as he quickly picked up the gun he dropped. "The new addition to their pack?"
"Must be," he replied steadily. "If I had to guess, she must've come from one of the other packs who live up on Demon's Ridge."
"Great," Gus groaned. "They're multiplying."
"She's a pretty one though," He said as he pointed his retrieved gun at her. "Looks like The golden guard might've finally found a girl for him. Just what we needed… more pups like him running around."
If Luz’s new face wasn't covered by hair, they would've seen her turn as red as a beet.
( umm no I’ve just met him and I’m not interested in a relationship)
But she pushed that to the side for now. She had more important things to deal with.
‘Flapjack ,' luz hissed to the pup behind her. 'Are you hurt? Did they shoot you?'
'N-no,' he croaked back as he stood behind her andl luz felt a sigh of relief leave her. 'They missed. They just scared me.'
Luz nodded as she kept her eyes on the hunters—not letting them out of her sight as they were getting their wits together. Luckily for her, the two of them had always been rather slow. 'Good. You had me worried sick ,kiddo . Listen, I'm really, really sorry about Lilith . But running off like that was stupid.'
'I know!' he barked back in misery. 'But I already lost mom and dad! I couldn't lose her too!'
'I'm sorry,' she said again. 'But how about we talk about this after we escape with our lives?' Her former friends now began to inch closer to them, ready to strike if they moved so much as an inch.
Luz briefly wondered why they didn't already shoot—that is until gus pulled out a round of new bullets and was quickly loading the guns. This was her only chance…
'Get lost assholes!' Luz howled at them and they actually stepped back at her howl as if they understood her. But she wished she didn't say anything because Gus gave a yell of shock and let out a shot of the newly-reloaded gun by accident.
_______
Luz used her new wolf grace to leap out of the way, but just barely. She could feel the bullet rush by her head—could almost feel it burn her as it went whizzing off in the distance behind her.
Suddenly knowing what to do, she spun around, grabbed flapjack by the scruff of his neck like a mother dog would do with her puppies and went running off before her former friends could start shooting again. She could hear the sounds of the guns being let off behind her, but she was already out of their sights by the time they realized what happened.
At that moment, she could see something gold running towards her. She stopped for a second to drop flapjack , who seemed to be crying, before she howled, 'Hunter!' Amity! Somebody!
'Luz !' he howled back as he came near her. ' flapjack! I heard…'
The sounds of shouting were coming from behind them and all three of them glanced around to look. They couldn't see anything but knew that the hunters were coming. This was what the humans wanted… to them this was just one big game of cat and mouse… a game that the whispering woods wolves had no chance at winning.
'This way!' Hunter yelled and the other two followed him as the sounds of multiple human voices ran out behind them.
Luz kept a close eye on flapjack the whole way as they ran; ready to grab him if he decided to run off once more. But he didn't seem to want to try that again as he ran so close to her that she could feel his side brushing against hers—wanting to stay near her…
'What about the others?' she called to their 'leader,' suddenly remembering the others.
'I told them to run as soon as you both took off,' he yelled back. 'They must be half-way to the cliffs by now.'
'And we'll be safe there right?' she asked as they leapt over a fallen tree and under some low-hanging branches.
'Humans can't get up there,' he howled in assurance. 'We've never seen a human there before. And we'll be more than safe from them until the cold is over.'
'I hope you're right!' she screamed as they reached the river and went running through it without another thought. She could still hear flapjack sniffling a little beside her, and wanted to say something to comfort him. But her adrenaline was pumping so hard and fast that she didn't think she could at that moment.
They kept going until they finally reached the foot of a steep rock-face. Without even pausing for breath, Hunter leapt up onto the first boulder with such a graceful arch, that it took Luz’s breath away. Though there wasn't any to spare anyway by the time they both finally reached the stone. Flapjack who was right behind him, had to scrap up the rock with his claws before he was able to pull himself up.
Luz on the other hand had stopped dead. It looked easy enough for them, but she was still having trouble telling her front legs from the back ones. She looked over her shoulder, knowing that she had nowhere else to go but up. So gritting her teeth together, she put her front paws up onto the rock and pulled herself up. It wasn't as easy as everyone made it look, that was for sure.
She had to struggle to get her back legs, which were already tired to the bone, to kick in the air until she was able to pull herself up. Gasping for breath, she stood on the boulder and looked up to see that Hunter was already far ahead of her, and flapjack was still struggling to get up some of the bigger rocks.
Still panting, she put her front paws up on the next rock and just continued up the same way. But she sure wasn't winning any world records for speed; feeling as if her nails were about to be ripped out of her paws, she used all her remaining strength to keep pulling her up and jumping over narrow gabs and ledges.
'You're slowing us down!' she heard hunter howl down at her after a few minutes. She looked up to see him so far above her, she could barely see him.
'I'm sorry!' she screamed up—trying to think up a good excuse. 'But I-I'm so tired! I've been running all day and I'm not used to climbing cliffs!'
With a disgruntled groan, Hunter took a great leap and jumped down, passed a panting flapjack , and down to just a few feet above her.
'How can you not know how to climb?' he asked her exasperated, as if he was speaking to someone dumb.
'I'm from a flatland,' Luz invented wildly. 'Aside from a few hills, it's all flat! I've never climbed rocks like this before.'
'Well, you sure won't be getting anywhere like that!' he snapped back in aggravation. He turned around and showed her. He took one step with his right front foot—pulling himself up, while at the same time using his back right foot to push—almost jump a few feet. Once he did that, his other two legs were there to dig their claws into the rock and keep him from sliding off. He repeated this until he reached stable ground and looked down at her. 'Now you try,' he commanded.
Nodding in an uncertain way, luz tried to do what hunter did. She moved the right side of her body in a sort of hop and was able to repeat it before she lost her footing. Yes, this was much easier…
In no time at all, she was making up for lost time and was now level with flapjack.
'Are you ok?' she asked him in concern.
He nodded gloomily and sniffled a little bit as if he had a bad cold. 'Y-yeah, I'm fine.' He stayed quiet for a few seconds until he finally said. 'T-thank y-you. You know… for coming after me like that.'
Luz looked at him sadly as she gave him a slight push in the back to help him climb over a particularly big rock.
'Don't mention it,' she said to him. 'And I understand why you did it. But you know that it was a stupid thing to do when you went running off like that?'
Luz was surprised to hear her talk like that—she sounded just like eda.
'I know, I know,' he gasped, and she could see that he was as tired as she was and seemed to be having trouble staying awake. 'I just…'
'It's ok,' luz assured him in a loving way. 'I know how it feels.' She thought back to her own family and understood flapjack’s urge to run. To escape reality… just to try and get out of her own head even for a moment. If she had known that this would happen, she would've told her family just how much she loved them…
Forcing back tears, she continued to try and comfort the whimpering pup. 'I miss my family… my pack too. I miss them so much that it's painful. But I also know that they still love me and would never want me to risk my life because I miss them.'
Especially, since they were the ones hunting her…
'But I promised to keep you and everyone safe,' she said softly as she rubbed her head against his in a consoling way and was surprised that he returned the motion. 'You have to be strong for your parents,' she went on. 'I'm sure that wherever they are now, they still love you and would want you to stay alive.'
Flapjack gazed at her with tear-filled eyes and nodded. 'I'm sorry. I just…'
'I know,'luz said softly as she gave him a gentle nudge. 'But we can talk about this later. Let's get up this mountain first, ok?'
He took several breaths and nodded as they continued on.
'Hey!' Hunter’s voice called suddenly, startling them both as they looked down to see that he was surveying the area, obviously looking for any signs of hunters before he looked up at them. 'You getting the hang of it?'
'Yeah!' Luz yelled back. 'I'm fine!'
'Good,' he answered as he climbed after them in a rush of fur and claws. 'If nothing else, you're a fast learner.'
Luz wasn't sure if she should take that as a compliment or an insult. So instead, she teasingly bit his tail once he got closer to them. He let out a yelp of pain as he turned to her with a low growl. 'What's the big idea?'
'What?' she asked innocently as flapjack started laughing, though it sounded a bit forced and high-pitched. 'I thought a big, tough guy like you could handle a little nip like that. I mean, if you can still get up to run after getting shot in the chest…?'
He gave her a bark of annoyance before he turned and leapt up the peak with the other two close behind him. After about 15 more minutes, they were finally at the top of the rock face—only then did luz actually take a look around her at her new… home?
________________
Luz looked around her. Standing on top of the cliff, overlooking the dark trees of the whispering woods, was the top of Skull cliff. The first thing she saw was wispy, and dead-looking grasses growing in the cracks and even a few yellowish vines clinging desperately on either side of her.
The tall walls, ledges, hangings, and formations made everything look like a giant maze that criss-crossed each other. She looked above her to see the forms of hawks soaring overhead, and the stone that seemed to stretch for miles in all directions. Also above her on tall ledges, were caves in the mountain… perfect for dens she guessed.
It was windy… and a strange, salty taste was in the air. She slanted her eyes in defense of her sight, tasting the sea upon her tongue. A smile spread out about her face, making the corners of her mouth tug upwards.
The wind whipped around her, and she enjoyed the moment, feeling free with the air around her, almost making her weightless. The wind caught on her brown fur, feeling as if it wanted to lift her up.
She turned behind her to get a better look at the forest… a forest so big that she couldn't see any signs human civilization… except for… Luz jumped back in fright.
Right below them, at the base of the cliff, there was a large group of human men down there, carrying guns, nets, and other assorted weapons and were looking around. Luz’s eyes travelled across them all—though it was hard to tell—she didn't see any signs of Willow , gus , or his dad with them—which brought some comfort to her.
'Get back,' Hunter said and she yelped in pain when he grabbed her by the tail and pulled her backwards, away from the edge. 'There's always a chance they could fire up at us.'
'Sorry,' she muttered, but still peeved about him tugging her tail, as she turned back to him and flapjack . 'What a day. I guess it's too much to hope that it's all just a dream?' it was her last chance…
'I wish,' he answered gloomily with one last disgusted look at the edge of the cliff. 'Come on. It's always best if we move away from here. There are a few dens there that should hold us until the humans go away.'
Though he hid it well, luz could hear the tone of anger in his voice. And it wasn't hard to tell that he was furious about being forced out of his home again by strangers. Not that she blamed him. If she was forced to run from her home every year because of a group of intruders were trying to kill her and her family, she would hate them to.
Suddenly remembering Flapjack, she turned to the little pup, who was lying down on his belly next to her with his tongue lolling out his mouth.
‘Flapjack?' she asked softly.
He didn't seem to be in the mood to talk however. He was looking so depressed that it just broke her heart.
'Get up!' Hunter snapped at him. 'We have to keep going. We don't want to meet anyone else here.'
The pup didn't even give him a second glance, he seemed close to falling asleep. All that running couldn't have been easy on the little guy. 'Hey, pup,' Hunter barked, stepping on his tail. That got a response. Flapjack let out a howl of pain and leapt back up.
'HEY!' he yelled at hunter —who tried to bite him with his large jaws in retaliation.
Flapjack looked up and started to whimper.
'Don't yell at him! He's just a pup!' Luz yelled at him, standing between them, confronted the other wolf snarling.
'A pup!' Hunter snapped at her. 'He almost got you both killed back there! What were you thinking running off like that?'
'I-I w-w-was ju-just trying t-to find ma mama Lilith!' Flapjack whimpered.
'Oh, did you?' Hunter asked sharply. 'I already told you what happened to her didn't I?'
'Knock it off!' Luz yelled at him, barring her sharp fangs. 'What happened, happened alright? Just leave him alone! He's been through enough without you shouting at him.'
He glared at her for a moment, before deciding that it wasn't worth the effort anymore.
'Hey, where do you think you're go…?' but before luz could finish her question, he already took off.
Flapjack grunted as he tried to get back onto his feet, on the verge of crying, but seemed so tired that he seemed unsteady on his feet. Luz looked from the pup and hunter’s departing back and knew what to do. She bent down, hoping that she wouldn't hurt him,
Luz picked up the pup by the scruff of his neck for the second time.
He let out a small yap of surprise, but Luz used what was left of her strength to pick up the small cub.
'Can you still hear me?' she asked him as she began to follow Hunter , flapjack still in her jaws. 'I'm not hurting you am I?'
'No,' he answered, putting up his little paws and allowed luz to carry him without complaint. 'I'm too tired to walk anyway.'
'Well, we'll be able to nap soon,' she promised as she kept up with Hunter —thankfully he was just walking—not running. 'I'm sorry about that,' she told him.
'That Guy’s a real jerk,' flapjack grunted.
'He didn't mean it,' she answered. 'At least I hope not. He must've been really worried when we took off like that. Try not to think too much about it. Just give him some space until his hot head cools down.'
Luz looked back up at the towering boulders, the many twists and turns that they were taking between the maze-like passageways. 'So we should be safe here?' she asked him.
'From humans anyway,' flapjack whimpered. 'They never come here. But they're not the most dangerous things that live up here.'
At those words, luz almost dropped him as she stopped dead. 'What?' she repeated slightly panicky.
'There are two other wolf packs up here,' he answered with a sigh. 'That's why it's difficult to get food around here. With those other packs, you can imagine how tough it is to share.'
'I can imagine,' Luz said as they passed some strange shaped skull boulders, Hunter looking back at them irritated for taking so long. 'We can all talk later,' she told him as she glanced towards the low sun.
It'd be dark soon—more than anything, luz wanted to go to sleep and wake up in her bed at the cabin, safe in bed… but nooooooo… she was out in the middle of nowhere… with her own friends trying to kill her! Great day she was having!
She held back a sob as she treaded carefully on some lose ground, the rocks cutting into her already tender paws. This was definitely up there with one of the 10 worst days of her life.
It was about 10 minutes later, and with her feeling as though her jaw was going to fall out, they finally reached a particularly deep-looking cave.