Beneath the harsh northern night's veil, a large taiga forest stretched out into the distance, covering the frozen ground with a sea of green as it bore witness to the sight of a massive humanoid wolf crashing through the sparse undergrowth.
The creature burst forth with powerful strength as each of its thunderous steps clawed into the frozen earth while its sleek silver-grey fur blended seamlessly with the snowy background colours.
When the full moon's light hit the creature in its face, you could clearly see its fierce, animalistic, amber-coloured eyes as they burned with a combination of despair, confusion, and fury.
Behind it were the hurried noises of his pursuers as the usually serene taiga now echoed with the sounds of this harrowing chase.
Erik was unsure how long he had been running but knew it must have been hours. He didn't know exactly where he was going or how close his pursuers were, but he knew they were there. If the sounds didn't give it away, the smells did.
His muscles burnt from the continued running, and his mind grew tired from the constant strain. He had to remind himself that he couldn't let them catch him, for that would surely be his end, and he couldn't let it end like this.
He couldn't let the last surviving member of his community die like that.
Not before taking revenge.
As Erik raced through the forest, his mind involuntarily drifted back to the events that led to this moment. The peaceful days in Frostvik seemed like a distant dream now, shattered by the harsh reality of betrayal...
From the outside, there seemed to be nothing wrong with this village, but anyone who actually lived there would soon realize that there was nothing normal going on here, for nearly all of its inhabitants were shapeshifters.
Erik himself, despite being the son of the community's leader and having inherited his parent's strength, was a relatively timid person who preferred to avoid confrontation and train or read on his own rather than fight and play with the other kids.
This caused him to be somewhat isolated, as the only person of his own age that he interacted with was a girl named Edda, one of the few human inhabitants of Frostvik, whom he loved greatly and who loved him equally in return.
Or so he thought.
Erik and Edda had been close from birth as Edda was adopted by his Aunt and Uncle after they found her as a baby out in the woods. Assuming she had been abandoned by her parents, they took her in despite the fact she was a human.
Regardless of his isolation and timidity, however, he wasn't bullied or mistreated. Partly because his parents loved him and acted as village leaders and partly because Erik could easily beat up other kids his age, even if he didn't like to.
Besides, the community as a whole was very tightly knit. They had to be. After all, this world was not friendly to them.
Earth's supernatural world was divided into three factions: the shapeshifters, the vampires, and the hunters. The hunters were essentially humans, but they had their own way to rise above the weakness of their fellows.
Even though the shapeshifters and vampires were generally united against the hunters who wanted to exterminate them both, that didn't mean they didn't also have plenty of grudges between themselves and were slow to trust each other in any situation.
The only thing they all agreed on was to keep their existence a secret, although they all had their own reasons for doing so.
That said, Frostvik had always been far enough out of the way that both vampires and hunters generally left them alone.
There were a few other communities for shapeshifters, vampires or even humans in the area. Still, everyone usually tended to keep to themselves.
Most human communities weren't even aware of the supernatural creatures living right next door.
Unfortunately, the never-ending conflict between factions had finally found its way to Frostvik as Edda, who had been taken in as one of their own, betrayed the community. In the mid of night, she poisoned the town's water with wolfsbane which, while not deadly, still weakened shapeshifters severely.
So, when the hunters attacked the following day, Frostvik's shapeshifters were in no shape to put up a fight as the hunters started slaughtering them one by one, Edda among them, her lips curled up in a cruel grin.
Meanwhile, Erik watched it all from a nearby ridge as every family member and community member he saw fall was another dagger in his heart.
His mother, Runa, was still putting up a valiant fight, tearing apart hunters in her werewolf form. But when he saw his father, Leifur, he witnessed a hunter corner him as wound upon wound opened on his body.
"No, no, no! Dad!" He yelled into the uncaring night, stretching his hand towards the fighting, almost stepping forward and falling off the ridge.
Still having trouble accepting this was happening, he suddenly noticed Edda, causing his mind to reel. "I- Is that Edda?! Why is she doing this?!"
Tears streamed from his eyes while despair, confusion, and fury filled his heart as he couldn't understand why Edda would do this… or why she would save him.
The reason he was on this ridge was because Edda had invited him to watch the stars with her, something he had readily accepted, hoping he would be able to move their relationship forward.
After all, they had been dancing around their mutual feelings for each other for the last year or so.
But when he got there and hugged Edda, he felt a needle prick his neck as everything went dark, while the last thing he saw was Edda's face wearing a strange expression that he couldn't quite place the meaning of.
Pulled back to reality, he kept watching the scene, frozen by the sheer amount of emotion roiling through his body. Eventually, he couldn't help but let it out anymore as the night sky witnessed a transformation that defied an average human's understanding.
It all began with contorting limbs and shifting bones, accompanied by the unsettling sound of creaks and cracks.
Erik's figure wavered as his spine elongated, arched, and reshaped itself. At the same time, muscles rippled beneath the skin, expanding and contracting in a way that should not be possible, and yet, was something they had done many times before.
On his face, a snout extended as teeth lengthened into formidable fangs. His hands stretched and fingers elongated as claws replaced nails.
It took mere seconds for Erik's human visage to dissolve and give way to a silver-grey-furred humanoid wolf standing on its hind legs, ripping apart his clothes in the process.
After the transformation, his body ached as much as his mind. At the same time, Erik watched with frustration and helplessness, knowing he could not change anything, even if he charged into the fray.
For a moment, he wanted to do so anyway, but he closed his eyes and discarded the thought. If he died, too, there would be no one left to bring revenge to the hunters. And, especially, to Edda.
The woman he thought loved him had now taken everything but his life from him.
Yet, despite his intelligence and reason, he was helpless to resist his instincts when they commanded him to give voice to his emotions. To let his people know that at least one of them had survived the slaughter and would one day come back for revenge.
Perhaps he also didn't try to resist very hard, as he wanted to do this and realised that, no matter what Edda had planned by leaving him out here, she already knew where he was anyway.
And so, he howled into the air.
A mighty howl of despair, loneliness and a promise for revenge echoed across these frozen lands as Erik infused it with everything he currently felt.
The remaining members of his community perked up their ears and seemed to gain a burst of strength as smiles filled their faces during the last moments of their struggle.
Wildly, Runa cried tears of happiness at her boy's survival. But cursed him inwardly for alerting the hunters to his location.
After letting out his feelings, Erik immediately dropped to all four limbs. He took off in a direction he knew would only lead to more wilderness and forests, as the trees would prevent the hunters from using motorised vehicles to catch up to him.
But of course, the hunters had heard his howl, and several of them immediately started their pursuit. If they were surprised that they missed one, meaning Edda had not mentioned it to them, they didn't show it.
Now, a few hours later, as the pursuit continued, Erik didn't understand how these humans were still following him.
He had expected to leave them in the dust long ago by virtue of his superior speed and stamina, but the reality proved different.
His parents had always warned him that humans had their ways of making their bodies catch up with the generally superior bodies of supernatural creatures, but only now did he truly understand what they meant.
Still, he felt like he was slowly gaining ground, as it seemed there was a reason humans still relied heavily on technology to combat the supernatural.
But it didn't last long, as he suddenly heard a loud bang and a searing pain entered his right shoulder, immediately followed by a feeling akin to flames flowing through his veins, which he immediately recognised as wolfsbane.
He howled, stumbled and slowed down as he looked in the direction of the bullet and saw a smirking Edda wielding a large handgun, who had somehow caught up to him.
Erik almost stumbled again at the sight of this as he felt his heart break once more as he whispered in a growling, hurt tone, "Edda…" but then he steeled himself, ignored the burning pain and used every last bit of energy he could find to jump into a sprint.