The Deep Pit of the Shadows...
This is where I will post, possibly weekly, my own works of Poems, Short Stories, and... possibly, even a novel story that I've been working on, if... I ever get off my lazy butt to continue writing it.
Oh, well, here it goes. [Be warned, this post will be long. Double spaced, it was 17 pages.]
Experiment
Run. Run. Run! That’s what my survival instincts tell me. I want to run so badly. To get out of here. However, one thing stops me from doing what my instincts are telling me to. My emotions. My emotions are keeping me from using my instincts.
My family is in danger. That worries me. That specific emotion. That stupid emotion keeps me here. As much as I’d like not to. I stay, to make sure that my family stays safe. That is my reasoning for going against my instincts.
I can tell they feel the same thing. Why do they stay? Is it for the same stupid reason I am? No. They know as well as I do that we’d be chased through the forest. That realization holds us here as well. There is no escape for us. We know this. Might as well stand our ground. Our last stand.
Where are they, Yumi? I ask, the waiting is killing me. Why can’t they just attack us and get it over with?
Too far away to be of any danger. At least for now. She replied. Damn. Would we have to wait another day? There were five of us. Only five. How many did they have? Well, it doesn’t truly matter, but I’m guessing it would easily be three to one on each of us. Not exactly great odds.
“Shadow.”
I turn to see one of my sisters.
“Yes, Miko?” I reply.
“Don’t be so nervous. We do have Ronie.” She smiled at me.
Ronie is my mate. Miko, the only one of us that isn’t a wolf, is a healer. She is amazing to. Best one to come out of the cheetah clan for my first and only sixteen years of life.
Ronie, as I said, is my mate. It might be because of her that they weren’t attacking us. She looked human right now, sitting in a tree. This form of hers is tall, six foot four, with red hair. Her real form is that of a gigantic gray wolf. Don’t ask why I accepted to be her mate. Sometimes, I wonder that myself. Other times, by which I mean most of the time, I’m very glad of it.
Suddenly, I heard the tree behind me make some noise. A sharp crack that made it sound like the tree was breaking in half. It was something that told me that a certain tree suddenly had too much weight to support. To top it all off, I heard a boom as something large and heavy hit the ground.
I turned once again to grin at Ronie. Her now massive size had a part of the tree she had been in on top of her. I could see the almost uprooted stump right next to her.
She looked at me with an embarrassed expression before she shrugged off the tree and took two steps toward me. It was all she needed to be right in front of me. I watched one large paw rise into the air, and suddenly I had been pushed forward.
I could only assume she wanted me to move in the direction she pushed me in so we could talk in private. As I walked, I noticed a questioning look from another of my sisters, Navi, who had probably just gotten back from her hunt.
Navi is a gray colored wolf, and is what most humans would call a tomboy. As I passed her, I gave her a look that told her that I would tell her later. She nodded, and went off to join Miko. Navi and I can have an entire conversation through expressions alone. Just don’t ask how we know what the other is trying to say. We just know.
As Ronie and I walked into a large clearing, she laid down along the edge of it. I followed her lead, and laid down right beside her.
“Something’s bothering you.” She told me.
“Why wouldn’t something be bothering me? Look at the situation we’re in.” I replied.
“We’ll be fine.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“We’ve been through worse then this haven’t we?”
“I wish…”
Ronie stared at me. Clearly wondering what made this so much worse.
“We’ll be outnumbered Ronie.”
“You have me. I could probably take care of them all myself.”
“What if that’s not their whole force?”
“They don’t seem smart enough.”
They didn’t seem smart enough. That was it.
“Ronie, you’re a genius.” I said, smiling at my discovery.
“I am?” She asked, obviously confused.
I nodded, licked her paw, and ran as quickly as my four legs would carry me. I knew Ronie would follow me, a slow walking pace would be all she needed to keep up with me. I didn’t even notice that I had reached where Miko and Navi were in my excitement, and I had nearly ran into Navi. She had gotten out of the way just in time.
I skidded to a halt and turned around to see Navi with a playful look. I shook my head.
“What’s up?” She asked, realizing that I hadn’t tried to tackle her.
“I just realized something.”
All three of them looked at me. I could tell that Yumi was even paying attention, even though she had already heard my thoughts.
“This is not just some random coincidence,” I told them, “these creatures are not smart enough to be able to track us more then a few feet, and yet they have found us time and time again. Obviously, someone is helping them. Leading them.”
I could tell each of them was thinking about what I had said, but was this the truth? Probably. At the moment it didn’t matter who it was. Who did we know that hated us this much and could do something like this?
Shadow. They’re moving. Yumi’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Oh. No.” I said out loud.
“What?” Ronie, Miko, and Navi asked at the same time.
“They’re moving. Navi, could you check to see if they’re close by at all?”
“Of course.” She replied and her form changed to human. She wore blue jeans, a blue tank top, had blue hair, and green eyes. She walked to one of the trees nearby and put a hand on it, her eyes closed soon after.
Right now, I hate waiting. I don’t know when they will attack. If the odds looked better, I’d decide to have us attack right now. I wish that was the case.
Navi turned around, opening her eyes and taking her hand off the trunk of the tree.
“I can’t see them, but I’ll keep looking.” She said. She climbed into the tree where leaves hid where she was. She’d give a signal when she saw something, I knew that.
They still moving? I ask Yumi.
Yes. They don’t know where you are, but they’re determined.
I wonder why they’re so determined. It’s not like we’re easy prey.
Your guess is as good as mine.
It is rare for Yumi to be serious. She usually sounded innocent, and she’s never anything more then happy-go-lucky. I guess it’s the nature of the situation. We’re confident that we’ll win, mostly because of Ronie. Still, I am worried that someone might get hurt, or worse.
It was then that I saw the tree Navi was in shake. Something was coming.
We’re not close enough. Yumi told me before I could ask, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
Maybe you’re not, I responded, But what if that’s not the only group?
I quickly hid behind a tree, shifting to human form. Ronie and Miko did like wise and the clearing looked empty. The only problem now would be the scents we left. We were not far away, so there was a chance they’d sniff us out. Hopefully they don’t so we can keep the element of surprise.
The first one entered the clearing. This one had hooves for feet, tiger clawed hands, alligator eyes and muzzle, human face, wolf fur with alligator scales in some spots and was missing fur and scales in others. The tail looked like an enlarged beaver’s.
These creatures were seven feet tall, odd crosses of too many animals to count. There was tiger, wolf, alligator, human, horse, and many others. It gave it one of the strangest looks of anything ever imagined. No two of these things were alike either.
Another one entered, and a third, a fourth, and then a fifth. They continued to enter, finishing off with fifteen in number.
Three to one. Odds made better thanks to Ronie. Quickly, I summoned my black aura around my hand, and fired a shot to get their minds off our scents. It worked for a moment, but by then Ronie had entered their group and started fighting. I jumped in soon after, using my aura like a whip so I could allow myself more room to move as I fought.
Miko wasn’t in the battle. Not directly at least. She couldn’t handle this type of confrontation. She did, however, use her own black aura to continue doing damage as she hid in the trees.
Navi, at this point, was also hidden in the trees. I noticed tree branches swinging at our enemies, and hitting them. I turned to see Ronie knock out her first and instantly head for the next one. Soon, she was fighting three at once. Others had noticed Navi in the trees, the ones that had tried to climb were instantly knocked back down.
It wasn’t hard to stay away from both of the creatures I was up against, and to harm them at the same time. Dodge left, dodge right, swing aura, hit. This pattern repeated itself over and over again. These things just never learned.
I jumped into the air and with as much force as I could, used both feet to knock the first one, a rabbit eared one, into its friend, an odd squirrel/lion combination.
I saved myself from a rough collision with the ground by using my aura, and as I stood up again, I noticed that I had knocked both of them out. Thank goodness. Twelve more to go. Wait, scratch that. Nine. Two more had been taken out by Ronie, and one by Navi when a tree made a sharp blow to the head. Despite the relative ease of the battle, it was still far too tiring. If we had to fight an even larger group afterwards, we’d be done for.
I ran and attacked one of the creatures going after Navi. The quick distraction allowed an opening for a tree to smash in its head. Eight. Two to one now.
I looked up at Navi with a grin. Green eyes grinned back, and soon were gone.
I didn’t have much time to be distracted. Another one of them came toward me and I was almost hit by a large, heavy, scaly tail. Ronie went by me and managed to jump up and kick him. Once he was down, I hit him hard with a large lump of my aura.
When only four remained, they fled. I couldn’t explain it, but it looked like it was with reluctance. It was like they were given a silent, indefiable order. One that they didn’t want to obey.
We can’t handle another one of these fights Yumi. They may be stupid, but they don’t fall easily.
You know we have the biggest advantage in the forest. Yet, we need to leave to survive. If I wasn’t worried we’d be found, I’d agree to run. They’ve had unusual luck in finding us though. We can’t lose our advantage. I could hear the fear in her voice. She wanted to be around one of us.
Yumi and I share the same body, and I could tell she didn’t want to be separated anymore. Yumi and I can separate our spirits, and form a temporary body around whoever is giving up the real one. It was a shame that we needed Yumi’s shapeshifting ability to keep an eye on the odd creatures.
How many do they have? I asked.
At least fifty. She told me, her fear rising.
Damn. That group didn’t have that much when we were first chased. It was growing. Growing way too quickly. How many could they possibly have?
“The groups getting larger,” I told my family, “They’re up to fifty.”
I looked at the expression of each member of my family. The three of them looked troubled.
“We need to find a new spot to hide out while we rest, otherwise the four that left might tell them where we are.”
No one answered, but I knew what we needed to do when Ronie shifted to her enormous form. I noticed Navi climbing up a tree, Miko following.
I didn’t join them. I didn’t need to. I shifted to my own version of Ronie’s form. Instead of one large wolf in that clearing, there were two. Plus, it was rather cramped here now.
I muttered the only spell I knew under my breath to increase my sense of hearing and sight so I could both hear and see my now smaller family members. It also made it so my voice wouldn’t be as loud to others (smaller then Ronie and me).
“How long do you plan on staying that way?”
I turned to Ronie’s back to look at Miko.
“Until the next fight.” I answered.
“Why not during?”
“I’m not going to take the risk of stepping on one of you.”
“Then why are you…” She started, but then stopped herself. She knew shy. When I shifted back down to my normal forms, I would have an increase in strength. It would last for about as long as I stayed in this form.
I grinned at her and then looked away. I allowed Ronie to take the lead. I would follow. The forest paths weren’t large, so not only did we have trouble going through them, we even knocked over a few trees over as we passed. I wish a storm would come, it would make those less suspicious.
Then we found another clearing, a very large clearing. Too large, a good chunk of their force would be able to move in, even if Ronie stayed in her normal form.
What are they at now? I asked Yumi.
They… they’ve re-reached one-one hundred. She told me, fear very clear in her voice now. How are they increasing their numbers so quickly? It’s like they're giving birth every few seconds to full grown… things.
Where are they?
They-they’re at the oth-other clearing. They’re con-confused as to ho-how you left so qu-quickly. However, you-you’ve left a clear s-s-scent.
It sounded like she was cold, but she was just shaking in fear.
Return here. I don’t want you scaring yourself to death. I felt her gratitude and then suddenly, a small fairy had appeared on Navi’s head. It clenched onto her hair with fear. The fairy is Yumi’s favorite form, and Navi is her favorite person. In her fairy form, she has a blue dress on, waist length blue hair, and blue eyes. Her human form is basically a female version of mine, except shorter. Black Hair, Blue eyes, a black sleeveless shirt and black jeans. I generally wear a black jacket with a white undershirt and blue jeans.
I smiled as I watched Navi’s hand rise up to her head and surround the small fairy on it. Her thumb started gently stroking her head. If anyone could calm her down, it would be Navi.
Navi has a multitude of sides. Serious, playful or childish, and motherly are the most common. Sometimes, I wonder how my family gets along so well. We’re all fairly different from one another, with a few things we agree on or a few ways we’re similar. In short though, we’re far more different then similar.
I looked back where we came from. Worried that those things would find us and charge in at any moment. Now that we were here, there really was nowhere to go.
Still, my instincts yell at me. They still want me to run. I can feel my legs trying to force me to stand and leave. I can’t do that anymore, though. Even if I didn’t have family that I wanted to protect. There were far too many out there to worry about. If I went out alone, there would be a chance, a fair one, of them surrounding me.
One hundred of them, possibly more, would be a problem. They were tougher then normal, and they wouldn’t need to be clever to do a lot of damage. No easy way to kill them, either. We’ll have tons of problems. Why is this happening to us? We need to get out of this situation, and soon. Preferably alive.
A scent reached my nose, but it wasn’t close enough for me to tell who’s it was. However, it didn’t smell anything like those damn multi-cross breeds. This smelled more human. Why would a human be this deep in the forest? I knew he or she wouldn’t know about what’s going on, but it still didn’t make any sense. Then, it vanished.
Then I smelled it again by one of my feet. The scent was extremely recognizable now. It was a human by the name of Torn.
I looked down and grinned at him. He is a fifty year old, mysterious man with graying blonde hair. He has on a gray t-shirt and faded blue pants.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
“Figured you needed some help.” He answered. I looked at him, surprised. I am not surprised that he had understood my wolfish barking. What I am surprised about was the fact that he had known what our situation is.
“How do you know this?”
“I’ve been watching.”
“And you didn’t help us during the first battle because…?”
“I didn’t think you needed it.”
What I’m wondering now is how I didn’t catch his scent in the first clearing. Best not to think about it too much, I’ll never figure it out.
“Well… thanks for being here now. We need all the help we can get.”
“Then let me get April.”
“No!”
“You said-“
“I don’t want to see her hurt.” I interrupted. April was my first love. However, I had thought she was dead for a period of time, I moved on before I found out the truth.
“Okay then.” Torn said, letting it drop.
“Stupid old man…” I muttered. Okay, so he isn’t THAT old, but that’s what I called him in the past. Obviously, I still do.
I heard him chuckle, but he gave no reply.
I once again looked at the clear opening. Still so very worried that they would storm in the second I took my eyes off it.
Okay. I think I’m okay now. Yumi told me.
Good. I replied.
I looked at the fairy again and noticed now that she was calmly chewing on Navi’s hair.
“Thanks Navi.” I said.
“No problem.” She replied. She gave me a grin that translated for me as It’s what I do. I nodded, and looked at the clearing again.
Instantly I jumped up and growled. I saw one of those horrible cross-breeds. They had found us. As soon as I noticed him, he ran off.
“Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn!” I growled. It was time. Our true last stand. The others new what was going on. They knew that it was time. Each of them got ready, Ronie went to my side. I was prepared to shift back to human or normal wolf once the full force came charging through. It couldn’t take long from now. I noticed Miko hide off into the trees. I watched as Navi took out her fans. Torn didn’t have any weapons, but he had tricks of his own. Most of which I didn’t even know of.
After several agonizing minutes had gone by, they started charging through. My form shifted back down, Ronie did not follow me. We’d have better chances if she stayed in her giant wolf form.
Ronie was the first one to charge in, swatting at them, knocking them into each other, and basically doing whatever possible to mess with them, and distract them. It was working. Just about their whole force, even the ones getting back up, had their focus on her. They’d crowd around her. I didn’t want it to happen, but I knew it would be necessary for survival.
It was then that I joined the fray. I punched, kicked, and used my aura to smother them if I had to. I was going all out, using the extra strength, my aura, and natural abilities to do whatever damage I could to them. Miko started firing off her own aura from the trees, and Navi started throwing her fans into the mix, with their sharp edges, and nearly invisible threads, she’d be able to direct them, bring them back, and do damage from where she was at. Torn, was playing a distraction role. Somehow, he appeared, attacked the back of one them. Vanished, and only reappeared in a different location doing the same thing. How the hell does he do that?
I had no time to focus on that. Ten were ganging up on me. I hit each of them with my aura. Climbed onto my mate’s leg and jumped off, kicking two of them sharply in the head, and hitting the rest with a strong blast of my aura. It was just then that I noticed Yumi join the fighting. I was amazed she’d chosen her emerald green dragon form. She burned them as she went by, but their skin almost seemed resistant to the flames, but they did get harmed by the initial blast.
I trusted Yumi not to burn any of us to a crisp. I trusted Ronie not to step on one of us on accident. I trusted each one of my family members to do their job without harming another one of us. I trusted Torn on the same thing. I trusted myself to do the best job possible. We needed to get this done. Our survival instincts were on, we were going all out now. We no longer wanted to run, we now wanted to fight.
These things were whole lot easier now. Ronie’s feet were stepping on them. Although they could endure her stepping on them, a few more stomps would break bones and crush organs. I had enough strength to bash their skull in if I hit the same spot a few times, and Navi was able to slice them making sure they eventually died from blood loss, and Yumi burned any of the ones that survived to a crisp. Miko didn’t have a major role in this. She was there mostly to heal us when it was all over.
Eventually, we brought them down to half of their original number. At that point though, they were starting to back up. Not because they wanted to, but because they had received a silent order. I could tell by their expressions. I saw smoke, and something plopped down in front of us. Before I knew it, everyone was falling left and right. I was the last to go down, Ronie almost having squashed me when the gas had affected her.
I fought to stay awake. I could see someone entering through the large crowd of cross-breeds. Human. Looked female through the smoke. I recognized her though. From where? My vision started clouding. I was going to pass out soon. I knew it.
“I’m impressed. You put up quite a fight.” I heard the girl say. “But it’s over now. Sleep.”
I obeyed. My eyes closed, blackness covered my vision. Sleep had taken me.
* * * * * * * * * *
I was far too relaxed when I finally regained consciousness. It took me a moment to realize why this could be a bad thing. When I finally did, my eyes snapped open and I sat up in the same instant. I looked around the room I now found myself in. It was rather plain, just a bed with white sheets and blankets, white pillow, white painted walls and ceiling, and a black dresser that easily stood out in the all white room.
I got up to find myself still fully dressed. I looked out the nearby window to see Ronie, still her usual giant self, in a large courtyard. She looked to be asleep. I sighed with relief. I had worried that something had happened to her. Now I had to worry about the others. Yumi was safe with me, so that wasn’t a problem. It was hard to tell with Navi, but I had the feeling that Miko was also asleep. She always did sleep like a rock.
I left the room and went down five flights of stairs to the foyer on the ground floor. I left immediately to get to the courtyard. Unfortunately, I had to catch the scent of a human. It wasn’t Torn; I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had left already. It was that of one even more confusing then Torn ever had been.
Chris Kortor. A confusing human that through it’s own stupidity ended up experimenting on itself to the point where it changes between male and female on a day- to-day basis. Today, it was a male scent.
“What do you want, Kortor?” I growled. He didn’t only do experiments on himself. While my family and I were here last time, not one of us was excluded from his experiments. With the connection I had with Yumi, she had been given the same infliction from the experiment as I had. My bitter feelings about it keep me from thinking about exactly what those experiments were.
“Is that any way to say thanks when I saved your life?” He replied, a smile on his face. I had the feeling that he was the cause of all of our suffering with those crossbreeds.
“Did you create those creatures?” I asked, getting straight to the point.
He frowned, but answered truthfully. “Yes.”
I growled, “Then it’s all your fault we were attacked.”
“I didn’t mean to, not at first.” He gave me a nervous look.
“What do you mean, ‘not at first?’”
“Well, I got carried away. At first, they just broke out of their cells… then, I thought I’d test their abilities…”
“An experiment, using us. Again.” I gritted my teeth. “I thought you done using us as test subjects.”
He didn’t answer.
“We’re leaving. Immediately. If I ever find out that you’re using us for another experiment…” I couldn’t finish the thought. To be honest, I didn’t know what I would do. However, I got my point across with the tone of my voice. He didn’t need me to finish the sentence, for that I was grateful.
I continued to walk, every once in awhile calling for Miko in a calm voice. She wouldn’t hear it directly. She could tell when someone was calling for her, or talking about her even when miles away from the conversation. Although she knows of the conversation, she won’t know what it’s about until she gets there. I’m still unsure how it works. I’ve never felt the need to ask.
I pushed the large gate open so I could get into the courtyard, shifting into a giant wolf as I did. I quickly shook Ronie awake, told her we were leaving, and without shifting back down to a normal size, I walked out of the courtyard, my mate following behind me.
I stared at the mansion in front of me for a moment, at my current size my head leveled with the roof. There was too much white on the walls. Why did he have such a fixation with white?
I was distracted by some movement on the ground by the mansion’s exit. I noticed Miko, just having woken up by the looks of it, with Navi following close behind.
“What’s up?” Miko called, yawning slightly.
“We’re leaving. Now.” I replied, and felt a bit guilty when I saw them cover their ears. I had forgotten to relate the spell.
“How come?” Navi asked, although she seemed like she knew the answer already.
“I’m not giving him a chance to do any more experiments on us.”
She nodded. That’s what she had expected.
Without looking back, I ran as quickly as I could into the nearby forest. I was glad to be away from this place. Hopefully, it would be for the last time.
...Has no escape.
