Shadows of the Past

Six

I shot from my seat and ran through the dining room. My parents were already throwing themselves through the doors to the patio, and I followed right behind them.
All three of us stopped so abruptly, we stumbled into one another like dominos. I stepped to the left to see around Dad's body and almost wished I hadn't.

In front of us was the edge of a disaster. Most of the writhing fur-covered bodies were at the tree line, away from the yard. But parts of the newly sprouting hedge was crushed and flattened, and one of the beams holding the trellis up was splintered so the whole thing sagged on its weight.

I didn't understand who the other wolves were, or where they had come from. Was it rogues? That was the most likely explanation. But they looked just like our wolves, and in the mess it was so hard to differentiate.

Mom sucked in a breath, as if she suddenly remembered she had to breathe. "Kota, we have to stop this."

After only a moments more of hesitation, he shifted, leaving scraps of clothes behind him. His powerful hind legs stretched as he threw himself over the balcony in one bound, not missing a step when he landed on the concrete below us. He took off towards the woods, and soon his black pelt was engulfed by the other splotches of moving balls of fur.

Before I joined him, I glanced at my mom to make sure she was okay. She didn't take her eyes off the fight, just stood there with a hand wrapped around her waist and her elbow digging into her stomach. Her mouth was still covered by her palm.

"Mom." I knew she heard me, because she blinked and clenched a hand around her shirt. I sighed. She seemed to be lost in another world, and I didn't have time for her to explain what her deal was.

I shifted into my black and white wolf and took the same route as dad. I landed on the basement patio much harder than Dad did, and the impact sent a strange stinging sensation through my paws. Shaking it off, I ran into the fray, latching my teeth into the first wolf that passed, praying it was a foe.

The mottled tawny wolf rounded on me, swiping a paw that sent me sprawling across the dirt. My left shoulder stung, but I had to ignore it as I leaped back to my feet. I sprang at the wolf, bowling it over so I landed on top. I snapped at its face, my teeth grazing its whiskers. But its front legs held me too far away for me to reach its face. Its back paws pummeled at my underbelly until they finally broke skin and I was forced to retract my claws from its shoulders and be thrown off.

Landing squarely on my paws, I spun to go again, but it had disappeared. So, I sprang at the next wolf that looked like it needed something to do. This one was gray, it's pelt matted with dirt and burrs from rolling in the woods. It lifted its lips and growled. The growl turned into a snarl when it realized I was coming for it. The wolf reared to meet me with a blow of its own, and we clashed into a heap, snapping and pawing at anything we could even attempt to sink a tooth or claw into.

I had never met a rogue before. But comparing the two wolves I had fought today, I would say the one I was clawing it's side right now was what I pictured a rogue looking like. The grey pelt, hard eyes, snarling teeth. Almost rabid.

With a roar, it found a surge of energy and flung its shoulders forward off the ground, taking me by surprise. It managed to snag a tooth into my lip and when the wolf fell back down, it pulled a chunk of my flesh with it. I howled in pain, letting go of my opponent as if its fur had been set on fire. It spit out blood, and I saw the piece of my lip fall to the ground. I arched my back in a dry heave, wishing my wolf's stomach had anything it could throw up.

The opponent wolf licked its chops to rid of the blood while looking me in the eye and then spun on its paws and disappeared between two trees.

I licked my own chops, disgusted as my tongue fell into the notch my lip now sported. I spit out blood-filled saliva, but I knew a wound like that wouldn't stop bleeding so fast. I dry heaved again at the thought of what my lip looked like now. Hopefully my wolf healed it some before I had to shift back. I would probably have at least a puffy mouth all week.