Seeing how smart you sometimes fancy yourself to be, these are some pretty stupid decisions you are making Klara dearest.
I had no idea why the, always humbling, voice in my head suddenly turned British, but I knew it was right. The stupidest and probably the worst part of it all? I had no idea where the path I was running was taking me.
I just knew I needed to keep on moving and outrun them while keeping my eyes open to any possible turns in between the dense trees. Although in this part of the forest, its mostly untouched center, it was always difficult to spot things that were out of order and could take you closer to civilization.
I was becoming tired but I was still able to hear their barks and paws thumping behind me as I tried to speed and use up any leftover strength I had. My wolf was tired, however, in situations such as this one I knew that I can count on her to give it all. At that moment, I just hoped we would have enough to get to somewhere, anywhere.
For some reason, I thought that going out on a midnight walk in the territory I barely knew was a good idea. Back at home, I knew all the tracks, trails and rivers, every tree and rock, and I could go wherever at any time of the day, knowing how highly protected we were. However, coming into a new and completely unknown territory of a different pack and not being there for a single full night, and then deciding a run was the way to go. Yay!
So incredibly smart and well thought out on my end.
Come on Klara, come on!
While trying to skip over some fallen branches in between two trees and trying not to trip and fall during my landing, I caught a trace of a smell that didn't quite fit in with the empty woods we were running through. It was at least a couple more kilometres to the east. From what I was able to figure out at that moment, the road would've taken me through some really dense woods and there was a possibility that the scents do not belong to friendly werewolves but I guessed that the night wasn't about smart decisions.
The smell did not have the sharp acidic stench the rouges did, and that was the only good thing I could find in the entire situation.
I ran straight for two kilometres more and then made a sharp turn to my right. That made three rouges that were following me decide to disperse, and two of them were now running to my right while I wasn't able to turn and check on the one behind me as that could've potentially been the death of me.
One of the two on my right was not as fast as the others and while it did give me a bit of an advantage, I still didn't even dare entertain the thought of facing them and trying to fight them.
Come on legs, come the fuck on!
I sent a quick prayer to the Goddess, I willed my wolf forward and pushed her to her limits before the scent finally started getting stronger as the woods became only slightly thinner.
Five wolves. Some in human form. That meant only one thing - border patrol.
Did I run as far as to reach another territory?
I tried to focus less on my brain and gave everything I had to my wolf as we tried to speed up and surpass the two wolves that were getting dangerously close to me. I started releasing something that resembled a howl, albeit a really breathless one as the woods suddenly stopped and I came onto the clearing. I ran towards the board patrol, hoping they won't pounce on me or shoot me before I came close enough.
With less than 500 meters of clear space, I knew I had to think fast before the guns that the three males in human form were holding went off. I slowed down, allowing them to smell me properly and hopefully discern my smell from one of the three rogues.
One of the wolves from the pack howled and came to stand to my right while the other guard in wolf form stood to my left. They were sniffing me and circling me while the rouges were closing in on us. It felt as if they weren't worried about them, simply making sure I wasn't one of them. And when the shots were fired only seconds later, a few times, and all three of the wolves I was running from fell down I realized why. They didn't use sleeping darts. Those were bullets dipped in wolfsbane. Something that would've killed me on the spot had I been less lucky.
I dropped to my hind paws and dropped my head down, noticing how my legs and paws were completely covered in mud and pine needles. I almost grunted out loud, hating when that happened.
Deciding that the best course of action would be to show them that I am not a threat and to surrender, I started shifting back into my human form. It took me a couple of seconds and when I came back to my own body, all of the exhaustion and fear came over me and I simply collapsed to the ground.
My face met the soft grass with a thud and I tried to keep my eyes open while I murmured my pack name and my own with it. A wolf with dark brown, almost black, fur came up to me and I noted the silkiness of her fur while she sniffed me out. Her deep brown eyes looked into mine for a couple of seconds before she turned around and walked to the others, just leaving me to lie there.
My brain was catching up with my body causing me to slip down, down, down.
We're safe. I said to my wolf soothingly. I know we are.