The Lone Wolf

~~FIFTEEN~~

Above is what Fleura's father Ian looks like, Hope you enjoy! 😊
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It's too much...like a dam has burst in my head that I didn't know existed.

Memories of Ian, raising me alongside a woman named Saraphina. It was obvious that they are my real parents, all those moments we spent coloring together, eating together, playing hide and seek with Dad and tending the garden with mom...Dad being the tickle monster as he chased me and Mama around the house, both of them cleaning me up when I scraped my knees...

It all feels so familiar...but at the same time like it happened to someone else...like it was someone else's life. For the longest time I considered the older woman named Maya my mother...but she never was...

But how...why did she raise me to my teenage years? The gap between my happy family and living with Maya is like a black hole...one I suddenly find myself being pulled into.

It was cold...snow covered the ground and swirled in the air, making our house look like one of Mama's snow globes. Daddy had left for the day, promising to be back to help me build a snowman like we did every time it snowed...

So me and Mama bundled up to make snow angels and have a snowball fight, taking breaks from the cold by going inside and drinking hot cocoa with cinnamon and giant marshmallows, not to mention using some of the snow to make snow cream.

We were having so much fun laughing and playing in the snow...that is, until we heard growling in the woods. At first I thought it was daddy...but Mama's scared face made it clear that it wasn't, especially when all those big, scary looking wolves started coming towards us.

"Run Skye...go to the house right now..." She told me in scared voice, and I hesitated as her hands began to glow.

"Run! Now!" She orders desperately, and I clutch Shelly to my chest as I make a mad dash to the backyard, going as fast as my little legs would take me.

The growls get louder as they mix with crashing noises and animal cries of pain, but just as I reach the backyard a pained scream fills the air...and I look back to see mama has disappeared inside the huddle of wolves, the air filled with nothing but silence.

"Mama?" I call to her weakly, my heart racing in my chest. I take a step forward only to freeze at the sound of a growl...much closer than the ones before. I slowly look up to see a large gray wolf staring down at me, baring his teeth with a growl, his muzzle painted red.

With wide eyes I realize he's standing between me and the house...my safe place is now out of reach. So I do the only thing I can think of:

Run.

I sprint towards the woods, darting side to side within seconds of the beast snapping at me. I weave my way through the trees to try and get away, at one point going through the narrow gap of two that the wolf temporarily gets stuck in.

Just as I look back to see how close he is, I trip over a large tree root and fall on my stomach. I get up as quickly as possible...only to come face to face with wolf again as I do, his large paw raking across my face before I can react.

It hurts...I cry out as I'm sent flying into the base of a tree, my turtle lost as I curl into a ball and cover my eyes...the pain making me whimper as both tears and another warm liquid runs down my face, blurring my vision as I tremble. I hear the heavy footsteps and growling of the beast...but I'm too scared to look up, I just cry and beg for daddy to help me...to protect me like he always does.