Chapter 9: Falling.

King Of The Forest

Chapter 9: Falling.

The wolf jerks but this time as if awakening it gets up unimaginably fast in a slight blur and stares at me with red pupiled eyes, growling. Scared and stunned, my focus on the magic is gone and the small heart protector and black haze disappear showing me, in full terror.

As if surprised, the wolf stops growling and gazes at me intelligently. Being stared at by a big silver wolf is definitely not enjoyable but instinct makes me stand still. A few moments of this staring contest and the wolf does one of the spookiest things I've ever seen. It speaks.

"Who are you, boy? What do you want?" A deep but gentle voice comes out of the wolf and my mind goes blank. The fear on my face is replaced by confusion and shock. 'Did the wolf just speak?'

While in my thoughts, the wolf's legs buckle and it almost falls. Looking at the drowsy wolf I spot the black bar on the snow next to it. 'Okay, I can grab the bar and use the mana I have left to make the dark haze and bolt. 1..2..thr..' Just as I'm about to finish my countdown to action, the wolf drops down.

Not expecting this to happen, I remain paralysed but this time in full confusion. 'What the fuck is going on?' Looking at the fallen wolf, I bend down slowly reaching for the bar.

Just as I grab It, the sound of what I can only imagine as bone crunching came from the wolf's body. As the sound continued, the body of the wolf started twitching. Parts of it started forcibly shrinking, legs disfiguring and bending like mould and the face contorting into a pain expression as the muzzle shortened.

'Fuck this.' I turn back and run leaving that monstrosity. 'What if it finishes whatever it's doing and comes and eats me. Shit.'

Running in the snow was no easy feat and even though the sun was out it was still quite cold so I was losing energy fast.

Feeling that I'm getting nowhere, I decide to climb a tree. While crawling up the tree 'The wolf was on a tree before it fell. It can climb.' I stop moving right there hugging the tree strongly with an arm but I fall into despair.

'I'm about to die for real. I should've stayed in the tree, minding my business.' I turn back to look at the place where I left the wolf and it's gone.

It's like a sharp needle is stabbed into my heart as my panic mode goes into high gear. 'Please no. God where is it?' I look around even up in the trees looking for the wolf but it's not there. The silence is loud and my heart is in my throat.

'Shit. Shit. Come on, where is it?' I look back at the spot where I left it but there's something different. I didn't notice it before because I panicked and looked elsewhere. I'm quite a distance away but my eye makes out a small object right where I saw the wolf.

'What is that? Did it leave something?' I think, hoping the wolf has left while still looking around in fear. 'First the dog and now the wolf. I'm not sure I can survive in this world. I can't believe I got reincarnated and I'm about to die. No I can't die, please.' My despair quickly turning into full on despondency, I fall to the ground from losing my grip while in my thoughts. This hopelessness weighs my body down, making me wait for the inevitable.

I shed tears in desperation. Moments pass and nothing happens.

A long while later feeling suspicious I sit up and look around. 'Is it gone?' Still weary, I slowly stand on my feet facing the tree. I clutch the bar in my hand real tight.

Curiosity and exhaustion from keeping my body tense prompt me to slowly turn 180 degrees to face where I had last seen the wolf. Still gone. I close my eye to calm down and try to listen for the wolf. 'I think I would hear the wolf in this silence. Even if it's a silent hunter it has to make a sound.' I look at the object placed where the wolf was and it's sunken a bit into the snow. 'I don't know what that is and I don't think the wolf left it by mistake. So nope. Not doing it.' With that in mind I start to circle clockwise around the thing, keeping the distance between us.

I reach the point where the thing left by the wolf is to my right. Missing an eye on that side means I lack peripheral vision. So I turn my head to look at it and from this angle I can make out some of its contours.

'It looks weird kinda. I might have to get closer but no. Who knows what it cou…' Abruptly, the scenes before I ran away come to mind. The sounds of bone crunching, the disfiguring body of the wolf and now the thing left in its place.

'It never left.' Staring intently at the thing, one plausible idea comes to mind. 'It's a werewolf.'

'Of course, it spoke but maybe wolves can speak here. Anyway, that could be its human body.' I stand in the snow, sunlight warming my left side, thoughts firing. 'Maybe it's harmless…no. Werewolves can be powerful in their human form. It seemed unreactive in its wolf form. Well slightly unreactive and now it's human form is just…sleeping. It must be injured but…' My thoughts swirl around my head assessing the level of danger because deep down buried under the fear, is curiosity.

Minutes go by in my head.

'Okay. There's a chance I won't die immediately if I go there and I think that's enough. God I hope I don't die.' Finally deciding to go to the possible werewolf I start walking towards it. A few steps in I stop thinking of something. Right there I push out the dark mana and make the same heart protector as last time.'Just in case.' I continue walking.

The distance closing between us, I can make out certain details. One of them was the body of the thing and it was human, affirming my thoughts of this being a werewolf. Covering the body is mostly red weird clothing. Coming closer I begin to see a curvaceous shape outline the clothes but with muscular definition in the tight areas. 'It's a woman. She looks kinda ripped. Is that some kind of hunting armour?' I make assumptions based on memories of novels and illustrations.

****

White-Silver hair. Thick long silver dreadlocks that reach her back, some over her face. Chocolate dark skin. Her face is young but mature and embellished with details you can't ignore. Most noticeable is the silvery contoured full eyebrows that tighten now and then as her face winces, velvety lashes on her closed eyelids, full dark pink lips that are slightly open as she breathes out of her mouth and all that emanates a very fantastical sleeping beauty vibe. She wears a long neck covered at the bottom by a red collar that has small black leafy vines as decorations joins the face to a firm but voluptuous body with a pro athlete build.

Her clothes, the hunting suit, is a combination of red and black. All black on her chest and torso that stops at the sides and goes to a red on her back. The sleeves and trousers are red with the same black pattern as the collar. The suit fits her tall hourglass body, a thin waist and wide gymnast hips on her long strong legs. Overall, she's hot and I know she's hot but… don't get the feeling of her being hot. The natural reaction to a hot female. It's weird.

'So a werewolf woman in the snowy woodland. I don't think she's dressed for the part here with the red suit. Then again she does turn into a silver white wolf so it doesn't matter. I don't think there's anything to hunt here though.' I try to figure out what the woman laying down could have been doing here and my stomach growls. 'Hmmm.'

Munching on a piece of bread, I'm still cautious and haven't touched the woman. I'm observing her and she seems to be in pain but I don't see any obvious wounds making me think it's something internal. 'I should wake her up. I don't know where we are and maybe she knows something about this place. Okay let's do this. I hope she doesn't kill me.' Calming myself down internally, I decide to wake her up.

Close to her now, I reach out to her shoulder to shake her awake but she stays in her sleeping state. From the heaving chest and the misty air that comes from her nose, I can tell she's still breathing. I check her pulse and it's still there. 'Is she unconscious?' Not knowing what else to do, I decide to wait for her to wake up on her own.

A few minutes of waiting next to her, I decide to move fearing that when she wakes up she might attack me. I go to the tree she fell from, which is around 30 metres away and plop down with my back against the stem.