A Rude Awakening

The wolf's eyes opened suddenly. Carefully it examined the dark room around it, hunting for the noise that had awoken it. From outside there was an almost silent footstep, so quiet that without its excellent hearing  the wolf would never have heard it. Much quieter than the owner of the footstep the wolf moved out of its curled up position and on to all fours, staying low in order to remain quiet and hide its presence from whoever was currently out side. Slowly the ghostly footsteps traced the exterior of the building, stopping and peering in every window it could, the shadow revealing the shape of a man, his head covered in some sort of hood. After completely circling the building the man arrived back at the front entrance, where he tried the door handle, gently and quietly as he could he turned the handle but it didn't budge. The wolf silently observed the shadow when it could see it, but otherwise followed the sound as the person once more began to search the exterior of the building. It stopped at every window again this time round, but instead of just peering in, the figured tried to open the window. 

On the last window the Wolf's luck ran out, the old weathered latch failed and allowed the mysterious figure an almost silent entrance point into the wolf's layer. Before he could climb through the wolf moved to the corner nearest the window and basked in the shadow, hiding it from sight. Carefully a man stepped through the window, his dark green travel cloak reflecting the little moon light that the open window let in. In his hand the man held a loaded and armed crossbow, raising it as he slowly began to examine the room that he had just entered. Using its superiour agility the wolf moved its way around behind the man as he walked further into the center of the room, both the wolf and him being careful to be as quiet as they could possible be.

Once directly behind the man the wolf rose onto its powerful hind legs and stood at its true height, completely blocking out the faint light that had been entering in through the window. The man turned his cold blue eyes meeting the pungent yellow of the wolf's, both stood in silence. Suddenly, no longer caring about the noise, the man raised his crossbow to fire at the wolf, but it was too late, the wolfs strong left claw collided with the crossbow snapping the bow and stock into two separate pieces. The Man jumped back and drew his sword and from underneath his Cloak he brought out another one of his crossbow bolts. The wolf howled, it had been years since it had felt like this. The man lunged at the wolf, aiming his sword directly for its heart, but the wolf easily dodged it striking back with another swipe of its over sized claws barley missing the mans throat. Despite the near miss the man seemed unfazed and attacked again. The two traded blows but neither was able to land a hit, until finally the man made a last ditch attempt and tried to drive is sword straight into the wolfs leg. The wolf easily dodge and went to strike his back, only to stop in mid strike and Howl out in agony.

Slowly the howling wolf looked down at it abdomen as the man once more backed away, his sword still raised and facing the wolf. Lodged in the abdomen of the wolf was the crossbow bolt that the man had been holding in his other hand. The wolf grabbed it and pulled, but the resulting pain in both its hand and abdomen was too great.

"Silly wolf, that is an Falsteel Bolt, poisons to your kind." The hunter snarled, his gleeful smile visible even in the dim light, "You can't touch it, never mind remove it. Just lie down and die like a good dog!"

The wolf snarled at the man once more, but did not try to remove the dart again. Slowly the man began to move towards it, believing that it had given up. However, as soon as he was within arms reach the wolf lashed out, its claws making contact, slicing deep into the mans chest ripping off his cloak and revealing his face at the same time. It was Krais, the hunter his Human had meet earlier. Krais reeled back from the deep wound, before falling over, he quickly turned his attention back to wolf, expecting it to finish the job, but it was no longer their. All that remained were slight droplets of blood on the windows edge reflecting in the moonlight.

*****

Desperately the wolf ran through the forest, away from the area it had called home for so long. The Falsteel bolt still lodged deep within its abdomen, causing it to stumble and trip leaving an easy to follow path. Not that Krais would be able to follow it anytime soon, that injury that it had given him was deep, but not fatal. There was no reason for it to kill Krais.

The wolf emerged from the trees to find itself at the edge of a small pond, the water sparkled and the area around it was completely still. Slowly the wolf, its ears still alert for danger, sank its mouth into the water and began to drink. The cool water revitalising it as slide down its throat. After a long and cooling drink the wolf looked around the edge of the pond, quickly finding a hollow tree root that it could rest in. As quickly and as quietly as it could it moved over and settled down, making sure not to drive the bolt any further into its abdomen. The human would have to remove it tomorrow when she woke. The wolf took once last look at the moon before resting its head and falling back into a dreamless sleep.