'Why?'

'Why did I have to get lost...'

'Why didn't I just listen to Grandma Reah?'

'This place is so scary...'

Grrrr...

A loud growling sounded out as a pack of three lesser bark wolves circled around the area looking for their prey.

The largest of the three wolves with a scar stretching across its snout over its left eye lifted his nose slightly upwards trying to sniff out the small prey that had wandered into their territory.

A short distance away, a small child with midnight black hair and a pair of small ears was hiding in a small hiding space between the thick roots of a tree. Trying his best to keep himself from trembling and breathing too loudly.

Exhaustion and hunger wracked the child's body. When he had first started exploring a bit deeper into the forest, he had gotten lost and quickly found himself terrified when the lesser bark wolf growls had suddenly appeared. In his attempts to run away, he had scrapped his arms and legs across a few hard pieces of bark and rocks.

Ignoring the searing pain and dripping blood, the child ran with all his might but only could hear the growls and sounds of scraping claws getting closer and closer. He had only just found a tough patch of vines and earth with a small entrance. Fighting through the pain and staring vigilantly at his surroundings. He was able to see two wolves pathing around the area.

Out of the corner of his vision, the large wolf leader walked incredibly close to the tree roots and sniffed the air once more. The wolf paused and the corner of its mouth perked up slightly like a devilish smile.

Awooooo!

It had been toying with him. There was no chance that even a lesser savage beast would miss such an obvious scent of blood and drumming heartbeat. The bark wolves could have easily killed the child so much sooner, but the thrill of the chase was enjoyable to all of them.

Mechanically turning to see the pack leader staring straight at him, the child's heart shook in terror and he hurridly backed away as far as he could. Unable to look away from the wolves that now surrounded the tree, the boy's heart threatened to beat right out of his chest as the wolf leader ordered the others to tear at the thick branches.

Howling to the rest of the pack that was further away, the wolf leader waited patiently as the prey shivered in fear. Licking its fangs in excitement, it felt a primal joy at the fear it inflicted on its prey. Savoring the last moments of their lives and becoming nourishment for its pack...or in this case a light snack.

Each second that passed by and the branches got thinner and thinner, the child searched frantically for anything that would be able to protect himself. A shard of the tree fell next to the child and he picked it up and held it tightly in his grip behind his back.

A hole finally tore open in the tree, but it was too small for any of the wolves to crawl through. However, the hole allowed the other wolves to quickly tear apart more holes in the tree branches, and soon the child's protection would shatter.

Despite his death coming close, the child's trembling started to calm down till eventually, he gripped his only defensive tool and stared straight into the pack leader's eyes.

Almost as if feeling the challenging look in its prey, the pack leader's brows furrowed and the joy it previously felt at the terror before had slipped into a wave of anger at the pathetic prey trying to act defiantly in the face of sure death.

The tree quickly toppled over in the face of the combined efforts of the wolf pack which had grown to almost fifteen wolves at this point.

Growling to the eager pack, the leader kept the rest at bay as it would be the first to teach this whelp that IT was the ruler of this forest and would not face any that would challenge his rule.

Arrrooooo!!!

Howling loudly, the pack leader lunged at the child with its fangs bared.

Ducking quickly while holding firmly onto the shard of wood, the child felt a burning sensation on the top of his head as the wolf passed overhead. Ignoring the burning sensation that threatened to overwhelm his senses, the child thrust with all of his might and stabbed the belly of the wolf.

Shocked by the attack, the pack leader landed on its feet and looked at the wound the child had made. The shard of wood still stuck into its lower side and bled slightly.

Grrrrr...

Growling menacingly, the pack leader never expected its prey to actually manage to wound it.

Tearing the shard out of its side, the wound did little to debilitate the bark wolf as it decided to stop playing around with this pathetic prey and revealed its claws and fangs, and went for the kill immediately.

In the split second the large wolf was about to end his life, the child grabbed another sharp branch of wood that was close by and roared as he jumped towards the large wolf and stabbed forward with all of the strength left in his body.

Not at all expecting the child to still keep fighting, much less leap towards its doom, the wolf narrowed its eye and attacked with enough force to bite the child in half.

Shockingly, the child did manage to hit the wolf leader, right in the only good eye it had left as the wolf tried to chomp down.

Howling in fury, the wolf leader lept away from the child and swung its head to and fro trying to dislodge the shard of wood that had ruined its eye.

Despite the success that the child had at severely injuring the wolf leader, he lay on the forest floor as the other wolves began to surround the child and were about to enact their revenge for wounding their leader.

The burning sensation had now appeared over the child's chest and arm as the wolf leader's attack had crushed his arm and several ribs and tore a swath of skin off his body. Only avoiding instant death due to the eye wound, the child looked as blood poured from his body and the burning sensation quickly turned into a chill that gnawed at his entire being.

Almost succumbing to the sweet promise of sleep, the child smiled as he was able to at least fight off his attacker despite all the odds and wondered how things would have changed if he had never foolishly left the village this morning.

As the child began to feel his eyelids close against his will, a sound he had never heard before rang out, and almost as quickly as the sound had appeared did the world become silent once more.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A thin shadow flitted by through the dense forests. Several savage beasts that were roaming about turned their heads in curiosity only to see nothing of note and go back to whatever they were doing before.

Going through vast stretches of land in an instant, the thin shadow took the briefest of pauses to look behind itself and thankfully did not notice anything follow it.

It was at that moment that the shadow glanced at the pack of bark wolves surrounding a small quivering lump. About to ignore the scene entirely and get along on its way, the shadow felt a small force tug at its senses and looked with more detail. The shadow's brows tilted slightly as it noticed more details in an instant and pieced together what had occurred.

"What a tenacious fellow."

Debating what to do and if it should interfere at all, the light tugging at its senses made the shadow shrug as it pulled out a thin sword and appeared at a speed as if it had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.