Well Amelia was serious

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Nobody thought Amelia was serious when she said Ava and Kellen were going to throw them to the wolves. Boy were they wrong.

Tiah stood in the forest, Ava and Kellen had they were going to run 'on the go pickups' as they had declared it. So what did they do? Promptly hopped on Aron and Twilight and dropped Tiah in front of the mouth of a cave leaving with the instructions, 'Go in they don't bite, ask to go on a run and they will jump right up'. 

What on earth was that supposed to mean? Reluctantly Tiah did as she was told entering the large and very dim cave. 

Then her foot kicked something…. Soft?

Why was this thing soft? Weren't there supposed to be rocks in caves? What on earth had she kicked? 

Then she felt the large soft thing move against her foot and watched as the little light in front of her went black, a large poof of air brushed past her face. Oh gosh was this who Ava was referring to? What was this massive creature?

Her eyes were open wide in fear but still reluctantly she spoke.

"Wanna go on a run?"

There was a second of silence before a deafening high pitched yelp burst out of the large animal and a very large and very furry head was nudging Tiah out of the cave.

As the animal nudged Tiah out of the cave some more yelps, and yips were heard. Once out in the forest again Tiah's eyes landed on the beasts in front of her. 

There were five, two had pure white fur, two had mottled grey fur and the last had raven black fur. 

The one in front of her had white fur and was sitting back on his haunches long fluffy tail wrapped around its legs and eyes gleaming expectantly up at Tiah. The animal was large and though it was looking up at her the oversized animal was at neck height. 

Tiah blinked at the absurdity of the situation unsure of what to do. 

As an answer the animal in front of her bumped its large nose against her chest. Its eyes looking expectantly gleaming.

"You wanna run?"

At that the animal jumped up letting out a bark right in Tiah's face. Tongue coming out to lick at her chin. Its muzzle rubbing under Tiah's jaw, large triangle ears perked up blocking Tiah's view of the other animals. Wolfs; she decided though they were a bit different, their ears were bigger, tails much longer and more like a cats than a dogs, eyes slitted like cats, and big very very big.

But wolves were close enough to these. Tiah had only seen wolves in pictures, her earth history class briefly had a 'earth's fauna' unit where they learned about all the animals they would never see. 

Though the crater dwellers did occasionally talk about animals like rabbits and used expressions like 'throw you to the wolves' so maybe those animals did still roam; in fewer numbers. 

Tiah broke out of her thoughts as the wolf that had its muzzle under her chin nudged upward grabbing her attention. Its slitted pupils looking expectantly. Making up her mind, Tiah let out a sigh and looked at the wolf.

"Let's go"

The wolf jumped back with an excited yelp and nudged Tiah, another grey wolf jumping up and doing the same. So Tiah spun on her heels jogging forward, and the wolves promptly whizzed past her glancing back with their mouths hanging open sharp teeth on display. First the black one then the two white ones and a grey one. Just as she started to wonder about the last grey one she was promptly headbutted, a muzzle shoving between her shoulder blades and shoving her forward with a whine. 

"Okay okay I'll go faster."

There, Tiah was sprinting through the forest, a grey and white wolf flanking her as they followed the other three wolves through the forest. 

She mentally thanked Scott for all of the endurance training he forced the group to do since they were rescued. Normally just the jogging would tire her but between the training and the insane amount of adrenaline flying through her veins she was managing. 

Her legs were moving faster than they ever had but apparently she wasn't going fast enough because the black wolf dropped back to flank her, tailing the place of the white wolf as the white wolf replaced its spot. 

Tiah thought nothing of it and kept running, tripping on a root and managing to recover. But the wolves were apparently tired of waiting for her. That was made evident by the black wolf, suddenly shoving its large muzzle between her legs and tossing her up onto its back. 

Tiah landed on the animals back with a thud gripping the dark fur at the base of the animals neck as a reaction. Her legs moved to straddle the beast, unlike the nerix she kept her legs pressed into the animals side, she had to hold on with everything she had because unlike nerix riding; riding the wolf was like holding onto a fish as it desperately tried to get back in the water. The animal seemed to be extra wiggly with over excitement.

She was still getting her bearings as the beasts sped up, Tiah had never moved so fast in her life, looking around at the wolves she couldn't hold back the crazy grin that spread across her face.

The beasts ran through the forest claws crunching against the frosted ground Tiah just along for the ride hootin 'n hollerin the wolves yipping in joy along with her. 

"Get it girly, you look like you're having fun!"

Tiah looked to her left; Ava was on Twilight the taupe Nerix looking regal and elegant as its large legs took one stride for the wolf's two.

"This is amazing! I hope this is what you wanted!"

Ava laughed the sound bursting out like it was a caged beast.

"This is perfect now it's time for pickup training."

The nerix rider called, Tiah looked up confused as Ava and twilight flanked the black wolf.

"Hey Enki, you ready buddy?"

The black wolf under Tiah let out a happy yelp at Ava's words.

"Enki?"

Tiah questioned earning another yelp from the black beast under her.

"His name, I'll brief you on everyone else's names in a bit, stand up"

"You have to be kidding me. I'm gonna die"

"Have you died yet; no. Stand up you will be fine"

Staring into Ava's soul for a second, Tiah took a deep breath and sighed. She moved her arms further down the animals neck gripping the fur just above the wolves; no Enki's shoulder blades. 

Shuffling a bit to insure she had a good grip Tiah pulled her legs up until she was kneeling on the beast's back, her hands still laced through the animal's fur.

"Stand like this, you can balance better. And make sure you don't lock your knees, you will fall off."

Hearing a new voice behind her, Tiah glanced back. Kellen was behind her to the right standing on Aaron his legs spread one in front of the other, legs bent and arms out. She was just about to respond when she was jostled by the wolves jumping over a fallen log. Tiah watched in amazement as Aaron jumped Kellen bending his legs and crouching down into the nerix as it came up towards him. The two met in the middle at the peak of the jump before stretching back out to full height as the giant hooves came back in contact with the ground. Kellen seemed to not weigh anything to the nerix. 

"Okay you've got this"

Mumbling to herself Tiah pulled her fingers out of Enki's fur and settled them in front of her knees on his back. She then lifted her right foot and placed it out in front of her as she leaned up on the balls of her left foot.

"Perfect stand up from there"

Ava spoke from her left. Twilight was impossibly closer now; Tiah could reach out and touch her side if she wanted. She had an inkling that was exactly the intention. 

Very shaky Tiah stood. The wind whipped past her as she wobbled around on the beast's back. Enki was surprisingly stable as she stood on his back. Thankfully he had calmed from his overexcited wiggling and settled into calm but energetic strides.

"There you go girl now hop on up here"

Tiah met eyes with Ava as the girl grabbed her arm to stabilize her. The nerix back was higher than Enki's, in fact his back just barely made it to Twilight's stomach. It was awkward but Tiah managed the transfer Now straddling the Nerix she watched as Ava dismounted onto Enki and Kellen onto the white wolf which was in the lead.

˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳ 

The group continued running for a bit, practicing transferring from one beast to another. Eventually Ava had called out to the group in the language of the village and the whole pack turned and went back to the cave. 

Tiah jumped down from the mottled light grey beasts back, It shook out its fur and plopped down on its haunches huffing as it caught its breath. Tongue hanging out and teeth the size of your finger on full display.

Off in the distance you could hear Ava cooing at Enki, her hands cupped around the big face and ruffling around the ears and fur.

"You are such a good boy, i missed you guys"

Everyone was settled around the entrance of the cave now, it was sunset. Burnt orange searing through the leaves and down to the floor, it almost seemed like a warning. 

"We should get ready to go back, its night in a bit and were going to have to run at this rate"

Kellen said, mounting Aaron. The white wolf he was petting whined as he directed Aaron away. 

"Okay but one second i need to explain everyone's names"

Ava called jogging over to Tiah and wrapped an arm around her shoulders spinning her to see each wolf as she pointed at them.

"That white one is Irene and the other is Gale, you can tell who's who by eye color. Irene is blue and Gale is green. Black is Enki but you knew that. The blotchy mottled light gray one is Leochant and the darker grey is Lillian."

Tiah nodded in understanding, letting Ava drag her over to twilight.

"Wait so why are you guys friends with a wolf pack?"

Ava hoisted herself onto Twilight with a chuckle, she held an arm to Tiah who accepted and was hoisted onto the nerix behind ava.

"Not wolves"

Ava explained as Twilight and Aaron started back to the crater in a brisk trot. 

"Noroe"

Tiah made a face at the word

 "No- nor- How on earth do you say that"

"It's written with an R but it's more like a D and an R put together."

"I can't do that"

Ava and Kellen chuckled, the two had the same experience when they were first learning the language the village used after all. 

"You'll get used to it, we all did"

Kellen said from up ahead. 

The sun was getting dimmer, bleeding red through the trees. It would have been beautiful if the forest didn't wake too early.