~Chapter 1~

A Chapter by Shela Lian

~Chapter 1~

    “Accent texts rarely have any real clues or answers regarding the true facts behind the century long battles between the two species. In fact, some accent historians are lead to believe that the true answers lay trapped in the depths of-”
    Casandra’s head snapped up when she heard a quiet swooshing of a small blade. In an instant she threw herself out of the chair and tossed the old book she had been reading across the room. Turning to the chair she had been sitting in she saw a small butterfly blade embedded into the back, where her heart would have been if she had moved a second later. Silently she scanned the empty room before letting out a low growl. “Charleen, show yourself.” she demanded.
    A low, musical laugh came in reply to the order and a near mirror image to the girl already standing in the room emerged from the shadows. She was about five foot four, had long, blondish red hair that fell to her mid back -when it wasn’t tied up in a pony tail like it was then- She was slim and had a composure that any model would die for. The only difference between this girl and Casandra was the hair. Where Charleen’s was blondish red, Casandra’s was a light brown. That and their eyes. Their eyes are what showed the true difference between them. Charleen had a light red glow in her eyes. Casandra on the other hand had was normally blue, but often held traces of gray or a soft golden yellow.
    “You called?” Charleen laughed.
    “No, you just wandered in here and tried to kill me again.” Casandra snarled.
    “Aww, you sound upset.” Charleen mocked in a tone commonly used when talking to a baby.
    “You keep trying to kill me!”
    “Just keeping you on your guard. With the lack of others of your kind, others of my house label you as an easy target.”
    In a flash Casandra was over next to the chair and yanked the knife out. In an equally fast movement she hurled the knife across the room where it embedded itself below Charleen’s collarbone. “I think I can take care of myself without running in a pack.” She said in a low, dangerous voice.
    Charleen hissed in pain. As she pulled the knife out she spoke with enough acid in her voice it could have burned the flesh off of any living being. “Damn you Casandra, damn you to hell. I refuse to protect you from the house any longer because of your foolishness! You sit there with your books trying to change the natural order of things, and you don’t even accept what you are. Give it up. Find yourself a lousy, sleazy pack. Your going to need it.”
    “Get out Charleen.” Casandra said, her voice hard and icy.
    Charleen smirked. “As you wish.” She said, once again speaking in her sing song voice.
    With that she turned around and left. Casandra sunk down into the now ruined chair and stared at the book on the floor. Maybe Charleen was right. Maybe she should stop trying to change the “natural order of things” and find a pack. Yet the fact that Charleen could be right only gave her a reason to fight harder.
    There was a time when Casandra would have listened to Charleen, and they could have compromised, but that had all changed two years before when they had both turned sixteen. That year had turned them into mortal enemies. Part of what Casandra was fighting for was to get the old Charleen back, the other was just to end all the fighting. She saw no reason to why the two species should be fighting anyways. More so when no one even remembered why.
    She sighed, got up and went over to the book on the floor. Picking it up gently she returned it to the bookshelf. There was no way she could concentrate on her reading now. What Casandra really needed was to run. Maybe to find a few others of her “kind” and question them. Not about joining their pack, but about what they knew, and if anyone of them really understood what the fighting was all about.
    Walking outside she wandered into the woods behind the apartment building. Looking around for any witnesses, and seeing none, she shifted into a form almost as natural to her now as the human one. Yet it was a form half of her hated more then anything else in the world.
    It was the form of a gray wolf. Not your stereotypical Hollywood werewolf that changes on the night of a full moon and goes around murdering innocent humans to settle the bloodlust. Just a normal looking gray wolf. The bloodlust was left for creatures like Charleen and members of her house and many others like them.
    Casandra flicked her ears around to take in the surrounding noises, just to be sure it was safe to set out. Once she was certain she set off on a steady run. After running for about forty, forty-five minutes she heard the distinct sound of wolves on a hunt. It wasn’t exactly that she was hearing them, it was not hearing them that gave them away more then anything else. An occasional sound of paws were all that gave them away. Casandra sniffed the air and it told her that there was a herd of deer nearby.
    She swiftly moved out into the clearing and without any real effort took down a young buck. Almost immediately a small pack of four came into the clearing, tails raised. In a series of growls and barks the leader spoke. “This was our hunt on our grounds, what right do you have here?”
    “This deer I fell was not for myself. Don’t fret, it is still yours. I just merely wish to talk as civil humans, not a pack of wild dogs.” Casandra replied shifting back into her human form.
    The pack looked at each other uncertainty until the male who spoke nodded. When they all turned into their human forms -two males and two females- the apparent leader spoke again. “How did you tell we were not just average wolves?”
    Casandra smirked slightly. “I do a lot of research. I’ve spent enough time around real wolves and studied them enough to know you hardly compare. Your strategy and skills are weak and lacking where normal wolves would have mastered them as pups.
    The male looked taken aback at this statement. “What do you mean by that?”
    Casandra sat on a mossy rock. “This is not the matter I came to discuss. First off I’d like to introduce myself. My name’s Casandra, age eighteen.” She held out her hand.
    “Greg, age twenty-nine.” He said taking her hand and shaking it. Turning he pointed to the other male. “This is Mark, age twenty,” he turned to the two females, obviously sisters, both with the same black hair as their wolf forms. “and this is Steph and Meg, ages nineteen and fifteen.” Greg turned back to Casandra. “May I make the assumption that you would like to join our pack?”
    “Nice to meet you all.” Casandra said to the others. Bringing her attention back to Greg she replied. “You can make that assumption if you would like, but my intentions aren’t to join this pack.”
    Greg looked at her clearly confused. “Do you already belong to a pack?”
    “No,” replied Casandra shaking her head. “I don’t, and I have no intentions to either.”
    “That’s dangerous. Those not in packs are normally attacked more then those of us in packs and-”
    “I’m well aware of that, I was attacked this morning. Like I said, that is not the reason I came looking for you. I research, and that’s is what I’m doing now. I would like to ask if any of you know why our two kinds try to kill each other, and what started the fighting?”
    The four of them looked at her shocked. Meg, the youngest spoke up first. “That’s just the natural order. It’s the way its always been.” She said softly.
    Casandra growled annoyed. “No. No I don’t believe that. This is not how it was supposed to be. It was not always like this. I’m sure…” She got off the rock and turned to leave. “Thank you anyways. Forgive me for my impatience.” she started to walk off when she felt a hand on her shoulder stop her.
    “Casandra, I’m sorry we couldn’t answer your question the way you wanted, but I really do wish you would consider joining the pack.” Greg’s voice came from behind her.
    Without looking back she brushed his hand off. “I appreciate the offer but I am far to stubborn and have to many of my own opinions to join a pack that doesn’t understand my intentions, and listen to their alpha.” She said. With that Casandra changed into her wolf form and left the clearing as swiftly as she had came.