I start screaming. “Why would you do this to me?”
Father pulls his hand away from me with shock written across his features.“What do you mean, Attina?”
“I belong nowhere, I can’t show my true self to humans or Fae. Why would you and Mother create such a freak?” I shout and stand up before running to my tent. When I get inside, I flip onto my sleeping bag and let the tears flow freely.
I hear Father walk up outside my tent.
He clears his throat and quietly says “Pumpkin, we both love you for you. You are perfect exactly the way you are. As far as your mother and I are concerned, you’re the best of both worlds. Others will see it too.”
I stay quiet. I can’t face him right now with my emotions running wild inside me. I hear him blow out a breath and walk away to silently crawl into his tent. I cry my heart out, falling asleep while my tears dry on my cheeks.
12
Attina
I wake up the next morning with the rising sun and head off to chop wood for the day. While I’m splitting wood, Father walks up to me. I’m about to apologize for my behavior last night when he interrupts me.
“We’re running out of meat, I need you to go on a hunt for us.”
“Okay!” I say enthusiastically. I can use the break from training to do something I’m good at. Hunting is something I know how to do and am comfortable doing. With a jump in my step, I walk over to Oak and lead him back to where our packs and saddles are.
“You ready for another hunting trip bud?” I say as I pet his soft velvety muzzle.
“Forever, my lady,” Oak says, bowing his head. I throw my saddle up on his back and I’m starting to cinch him up when I hear my Father behind me.
“No, pumpkin. Today I want you to use Raven.” He smiles sweetly.
My father knows Raven and I don’t get along and he’s asking this? Is this punishment for last night?
“Ugh, Father, I will hunt better with Oak. We’ve been hunting off and on together for years, we know how to work together,” I plead.
“I know, but I want you and Raven to bond ,which will only happen if you two are forced to be together alone. You both need to learn to rely on each other.”
I roll my eyes making sure Father sees my annoyance.
“Fine,” I say with too much force and attitude in my voice. Then I call out to my arch-enemy, who is off on the other side of camp eating.
“Raven, get over here, we’re going hunting.” Raven does not even lift her head to acknowledge me so I call again. “Come on Raven, we need to get going”. Again there is no hint of acknowledgement I exist or said anything.
I turn to Father, frustrated he is putting me through this. He knows she doesn’t like me, and I sure don’t have any love for her, and yet he is still putting us through this.
By this time, Father is sitting by the low fire sipping his morning coffee slowly. He barely moves his head and sends out a loud whistle. Before I know it, Raven has trotted over to Father’s side with a triumphant shit-eating grin plastered across her muzzle. Father gives her a pet on the shoulder and I walk over to them with a halter and grab her from him. For all the nonsense she started, I tie her up to a tree while I saddle her to ensure no more funny business.
After I finish saddling, I pull her away from the tree and put my leg up into the stirrup. As I swing my other leg over Raven’s back she spins underneath me. I almost soar off the backend of her, but at the last moment I am able to hook my foot around the back of the saddle and pull myself back up on top of her.
“Knock it off, Raven!” I admonish. From behind us, I hear my Father chuckling under his breath.
I yell out, “Yeah, thank you so much for all the help over there, Mister Chuckles,” as I throw a seething glance over my shoulder. I take a glimpse behind me to see Oak standing next to Father. Oak's eyes are wide and his mouth hangs wide open, he's obviously shocked at what just happened.
Raven and I walk through the forest for a few hours before I search for a perfect spot to stop and lay in wait for our prey. I want to get far away from the scent of camp, and with my years of hunting experience I know a prey animal will stay far away from the smells and noises coming from camp.
We walk parallel to the creek until it opens up to another pasture. There are trails to and from the creek leading back to a mass of trees. It’s a spot where the water slows enough it becomes a perfect spot for animals to drink. I climb down off Raven and walk to her face.
“I need you to hide out of sight, you might spook the prey. Keep within earshot though, in case I need you.” I put my hands on either side of her baby doll head, making sure she’s staring directly into my eyes “Please, please, please don’t leave me, and please listen for me. I know there is no love lost between us, but Father is counting on us to get this food.” I can hear the pleading in my voice and it’s so embarrassing.
Raven’s eyes flick away and then look me directly in the eye again. “You think I don’t know that? I wish he would have let you take Oak, but I will do my duty and take care of you until we get this food back to him”. Then she snorts and turns around trotting off. Over her shoulder she shouts, “Don’t screw this up kid!”
I think this is the first time she’s called me something other than a failure. Maybe I’m growing on her? Who knows, miracles do happen.
I watch her walk away and my attention is grabbed by a glimpse of something on the ridge she’s walking towards. Is that a person up there? It’s only a shadow though, like air is flowing through the form. I rub my eyes thinking that maybe I’m seeing things, and when I glance back nothing is there. My mind must be playing tricks on me.
I climb up a huge pine tree that is situated between the creek and the tree line. It’s obvious animals travel closely to this tree often by the way the grass is pushed down around it. I climb into the tree and onto a thick branch to wait with my new bow, an ordinary arrow pulled out at the ready, caressing the pictures my parents carved into it all those years ago. I have my eyes peeled on the tree line the rest of the day, but nothing appears.
Then, right as the sun starts to set I see it. A young lone deer creeps out of the tree line far to the left of where I’m sitting, too far out for me to get a clear shot with my bow. Part of being a good hunter is to know your limitations. Such a shot would be too far for me to kill the deer cleanly. So, I wait.
I wait for the deer to get a few hundred yards closer. He’s awfully slow and cautious so I can’t make any noise at all or I’m sure to spook him away. I slowly pull back the string of my bow and stay in that position, following his movement.
Then I hear a howl— a howl so loud and deep it shakes the ground. There’s no way that’s only one wolf, it’s too loud, but it doesn’t sound like multiple wolves either, just one voice, one deep deafening roar.
The deer stops its movement completely frozen in time. A few seconds later another howl is let out again, but this time much closer. The deer seems suspended in time but then it takes off like a shot, in a race for its life and is lost across the creek and through the woods on the other side. I’m so shocked from the deafening howl I don’t even lose an arrow as the deer races past me.
No reason for me to stay here any longer, especially with a wolf in the area spooking off all the game animals.
I whistle for Raven and strap the bow and arrow back on my back. I seriously hope she didn’t ditch me. With how our relationship has been over the years, it wouldn’t surprise me if she left me here to prove again that I’m nothing like my mother. I don’t hear Raven coming and I spin to focus back on the tree line where the howl came from and the tree line is moving, almost swaying. I whistle again, this time it’s a more high-pitched, urgent whistle.
That’s when I hear a whinny and see Raven running as fast as her legs will take her to the tree I’m crouching in. She runs to the base of the tree and right as she gets there the ground shakes with another deep menacing howl.
The ground shakes so violently I h
ave to hold onto the trunk of the tree to keep from falling out. I can hear the trees strain and crack, then the trees to the right of us bend and break open to make room for a huge wolf. It looks like a whole pack of wolves smashed into one creature.
The wolf’s fur is almost as shocking as its size. The fur isn’t any one particular color but seems to pulsate from brown to gray to black, like it’s fur is constantly changing with the foliage around it. The wolf is snarling and drooling while it scans the landscape. Its searching eyes focus on me and I see its mouth move into almost a smile, which is impossible, wolves don’t smile.
I feel immobilized by fear. I grab on to the tree trunk hard, the wolf must be ten feet tall and from here, all I can focus on are its massive teeth poking out of its mouth. Then from below Raven’s shout pulls me out of my shock. “Hey kid, snap out of it and jump down!” I don’t even ask before I jump out of the tree and land on Raven’s back with a thump.
She doesn’t wait for me to recover from the fall before she takes off. I grab onto the saddle hard with my arms and legs, doing everything I can to stay astride her even grabbing hard onto her mane to keep me upright. It takes me a second but I gain my balance back. The wolf bays and begins its chase after us. Raven is running as fast as she can back towards camp. Back to Oak, back to my father.
“Raven, no!”
“What are you talking about? We need to get back to Oak and Silas or whatever that wolf thing is will kill us. We can’t handle this on our own.”
“We’re going to have to fend for ourselves, Raven. We can’t lead him straight to Father and Oak. They won’t be ready for us and they’ll be sitting ducks. Besides, we probably won’t be able to outrun him all the way back to camp. Raven turns her head around to peek around at me mid-stride.
When she turns her head back she yells behind her, “Okay, kid, hang on.”
Then before I know it we’re diving left towards the creek. By the time we make the turn we’re so far up the creek that in front of us it's wide and pelted with rocks and rapids.
I lean down on Raven’s neck and yell over the wind ripping past us “Um, what are you doing, Raven?”
She yells back, “Just trust me.”
I haven’t ever trusted this horse in my life, but at this point, with a huge monster wolf chasing us down, I have no choice but to trust her. I grab on tighter with both my hands and legs twisting my hands through her thick mane.
As soon as Raven feels me bare down she picks up speed. I always knew Raven was faster than Oak, but I hadn’t known how much faster. She’s like a cheetah. It must be part of her being a Fae horse. No normal horse is this fast. The wind is whipping by me so fast it sends my hair flying and it’s taking all my might to keep my eyes open, tears streaking down my face. Before I know what’s happening, we’re flying through the air.
She’s trying to jump the creek? There’s no way we’re going to make it! But as fast as the thought enters my head it leaves because I peer towards the ground and realize we’re already halfway across the creek. I don’t know how she’s doing this, but I thank the Gods she is. Raven lands on the opposite bank of the creek with plenty of room to spare.
When she lands, her momentum spins us around and we slide to a stop facing the creek, and the wolf’s massive color fluid body is facing us, snarling. From here I can see the drool dripping off of his massive canines. His lips are pulled back in a menacing snarl so big I can see all of his teeth even up to his gums. He lets out a low huff and turns around walking back towards the forest he came out of. Then Raven spins away from the creek and takes off into the forest at top speed.
“What are you doing? He took off, he can’t get over the river.”
“Kid, did you see how big that thing is? I’m not taking any chances.”
It takes about thirty seconds but then I hear it, a visceral howl and the ground trembles again.
“Um Raven?”
It sounds like the forest being ripped out by its roots. “Raven, run!” I screech. We’re running full out, but behind us it already sounds like the wolf is quickly catching up.
“We have to find somewhere to hide, there’s no way we’re going to outrun him.”
“And what happens when we stop and he can smell us kid?”
“Crap.”
I know I only have a few seconds before he catches us to figure out something to cover our scents so I lift my head and start searching around trying to find something, anything to help us. I search and search to no avail.
Then, as I’m deciding on a plan B, I spot a cave up ahead. It’s far to our left and carved out of the side of a small hill. If I can slow down the wolf, we might have a chance of losing him and hiding in the back of it.
“Raven, I need to wound him so we can lose him, even just for a second, so I need you to slow down a bit and run as smoothly as you can.”
“No way! Are you crazy? He’ll catch us and eat us! I don’t know about you, but I for one don’t want to be wolf chow.”
I pat the side of her neck, running my hand through her mane.
“Trust me,” I say in my most reassuringly stern voice I can summon in the moment. “You asked me to trust you earlier, and I did. Now it’s time for you to trust me.”
I’m not sure how she does it without falling but she turns her head mid-stride again and looks me in the eye, probably weighing her options. I know she hasn't ever liked me so I know how hard it is for her to say the words that leave her mouth next.
“Just don’t get us killed. Got that?”
“Got it! Okay the plan is I’ll spin around on your back so I can shoot a few arrows into him and then, see that cave over there?” I say into her ear pointing towards the cave I spotted. “When I yell I want you to book it there as fast as you can. Now I’ll be riding you off kilter still but don’t worry about me, just get us there as fast as you can. Got it?”
“Got it,” she says, sounding determined.
Raven slows her stride and her longer, slightly slower stride is so smooth I’m able to throw my left leg over the front of the saddle to the same side as my right. I try to pull out my bow but it’s too awkward with the way I’m sitting, my quiver keeps bouncing on her shoulder and getting in the way of my bow. So I flip my right leg over her back so I’m sitting astride her facing backwards. From this angle all of the bouncing from my quiver stops and I can pull my bow from my back easily. I knock an arrow then refocus my vision to behold the huge, ungodly monster chasing us.
By now he’s a lot closer than I thought he possibly could be. His claws scrape the ground leaving big divots in their wake, spraying dirt on all the trees behind him. I can even hear the dirt clods smacking destructively against the tree trunks behind him.
Our eyes meet and he lets out a grating howl, doubling his effort to get to us. It only takes a few strides before his gaping maw is a foot away from Raven’s hind end. From here I can smell his foul, rotting, garbage smelling breath. I pull the string back on my bow until it goes taught between my fingers.
I aim and shoot.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I shoot three arrows consecutively as fast as my arm will move, that warm sensation spreading back through my arms. I shoot two normal arrows and one of my mother’s Fae hawk feathered arrows in rapid succession. One arrow goes through the side of the wolf’s neck, the next goes through his shoulder, and the Fae arrow buries itself deeply in the beast’s chest deeper than a normal arrow would have been capable of doing.
As soon as the last arrow lands I yell out “Go!”
We’re lucky Raven is so quick reacting to my voice because as soon as she dives left the wolf rolls past where we were standing only seconds ago. After the arrows sink into his flesh, he takes a misstep and rolls head over tail, smashing trees as he goes.
Raven’s speed puts some distance between wolf and us. I can hear the trees crashing behind Raven as the wolf rolls into them. I can’t get my balance back while straddling Raven backwards so I lie down on her
back and wrap my arms around her haunches. I hold on for dear life waiting for us to make it to the cave. She starts to slow and I roll off of her, landing in mud, square on my side. Landing so hard knocks the wind out of me but as soon as I can get air back into my lungs I push through the side pain and scramble to my feet.
When I stand back up, I see the cave. It’s just a dark hole in the hillside. I was hoping it would be a big, deep hole where we could walk into and hide in the dark, but now, up close I can see the opening is so short I will have to bend to get in and the hole only goes back maybe twelve feet.
This is not good.
One person could hide in this cave but me and Raven? I'm not so sure.
I glance over to Raven. “You have to get in first. I’ll try to help push you from behind, hurry”.
“No, kid I can’t fit, you need to get in. I can run and keep that beast away from you.”
“No! That’s a suicide mission. I will not hide without you and that’s it. Either you get in there or we leave together and that’s final. Now hurry up!”
Raven shoots me a withering glare, but starts to crawl in. The mud around the cave entrance makes her slip and slide. The entrance is so short she has to crawl sideways and wiggle forward. I push her hind end, trying with all my might to help her get into the cave but she’s too heavy; we’re moving too slow. Mud starts coating both of us as we struggle.
Behind us I can hear the wolf whining and thrashing. I smile inside for a second knowing my arrows hit true and it hurt. I continue to push on Raven. My feet were sliding. This mud is making it impossible for me to get any traction. She’s almost all the way in the cave when the whining and thrashing stop and an eerie quiet fills the air.
She Awakens Page 10