Collide

Collide is my true muse. When their music does not form stories in my head, it takes me away to places I've never been and will never be able to visit otherwise

 

“Tempted” from the CD, “Some Kind of Strange”

 

            Cassie watched as William shifted from human to wolf. They were planning on taking a hiking/hunting trip up into the mountains that day and William insisted on going as a wolf. When he was finished, Cassie grabbed her bow and quiver and slung them over her shoulder. “Come on, White Fang; let us go catch a rabbit or squirrel. Nothing bigger than that. Last time, I didn’t have enough arrows.”

            William gave a muffled woof and took off running into the forest behind the house he and Cassie lived in. Cassie took some time checking her bow and counted her arrows one last time before following him. The woods that surrounded their home were at the base of the mountains of Virginia and so magnificent to look at, even for Cassie who had grown up staring at them.

            As she entered the forest, Cassie looked around for William. He was no where in sight, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there; he liked playing hide and tag with her. Just as Cassie finished looking around, he came from behind a tree and bumped his nose against her knee and took off running. She felt a smile creep up her mouth and took off after him.

            “Ha, got you!” Cassie saw William had stopped and was looking at the sky. At her words, he turned around and growled at her. He glanced back up and hunkered down close to the ground. Cassie instantly dropped to the ground and moved into a position where she could look up and still keep William in her sights. She watched William as he stared at the sky, then, she heard it; a loud crack.

            William crept over to her side and nodded in a direction that led deeper into the forest. He started to slink towards the way he had pointed and Cassie followed him, trying to keep as silent as her bow and quiver would allow.

            They came to a clearing; one that should not have existed. William looked around and Cassie slowly stood up to stand behind a tree. Cassie counted four men in the clearing, all that were in positions that she could easily get to with her arrows. She looked over at William and held up four fingers. William shook his head and nodded upwards. Cassie looked up and saw that she had missed the eight men in the trees. The four on the ground she could kill easily, but the eight would be difficult.

            William shifted back to his human shape and came over the Cassie. “If you think you could get the ones in the trees, I could get the ones on the ground just as easily.”

            “I counted eight in the trees, did I miss any?”

            “No, but don’t worry. If you miss one, it’ll be a hell of a tale for him to tell the people who sent him here.”

            Cassie stifled a giggle, “So true, but I don’t think the Council would like having yet another report come in about a gray wolf attacking humans.”

            William’s mouth twitched, “Alright… we’ll leave them, continue our expedition, then tell the Council when we get home.” Before Cassie could say anything, he shifted back to wolf form and bounded away soundlessly from the illegal logging operation. Cassie took one look at the loggers, sighed, and reached back into her quiver to pull out one of her arrows. William looked back at her and paused while she fitted the arrow to her bow. She pointed upwards into the trees and aimed for a thick trunk. Before the arrow hit its mark, Cassie was walking away, with William looking up at her.

            “Those are custom made arrows; I had one of the technical pack members fit tracking devices into them, just in case wounded prey bounds away with a perfectly good arrow stuck in its butt.”

            William gave a wolf equivalent of laughter and fell in behind Cassie. She hefted the quiver over her shoulder and looked up. A red tail hawk was sitting in a tree above their heads. She could hear a stream flowing beyond her view. Everything would be alright.