To Grandma's House

Powwow ~ Triggered*

Everything was going great that day until some young men got ahold of fireworks.  No one knew they had them.   Xael and the pups were with Grams and a few ladies at the fry bread area when the first round of firecrackers went off.

Xael suddenly crouched on the ground, her hands over her ears. The pups immediately sprang into action.   Moose was standing against her chest, her elbows resting on him as he supported her. Gunner was at her side. Her grams saw her but couldn't get close to her due to the pups. Another round went off, Xael screamed, drawing attention. She was shaking now as more fire crackers sounded along with more screaming.  Xael was having a panic attack but none of the ladies knew what was going on, not even her Grams.

Xael managed to link Gunner to find Deputy Shado. The pup stood at attention, scanning the area and picked up his scent. Off he went, running across the grounds towards him. People jumping out of his way. Shado was busy with some of the guys when the worse of the fireworks went off that he didn't hear Xael scream.

One of the young men set off a mortar and Xael lost it. She was screaming and this time everyone heard her. Shado was suddenly triggered and so were her pups. The surrounding scene was about to get even more chaotic. Moose and Gunner began howling.

By now Xael had latched onto Moose, her face buried in his fur. Shado was making his way towards Gunner when it happened.

Out of the treeline, 7 large wild wolves came tearing out of the woods and towards the pow wow. No one saw them yet.

Gunner ran towards Shado who realized he was trying to get his attention. The two ran towards the screaming, when more screaming started. People started running, the Sheriff ran towards the announcer booth and grabbed the mic telling everyone to stop running.

More fire crackers went off. Xael was now in a full PTSD attack. All she could do was scream, 'make it stop!'   And it did.  The wolves had reached the edge of the pow wow. Two went to where the fireworks were coming from, the rest towards the screaming woman.

People ran to get out of their way as they scooped up small children.   When the wolves made it to Xael, those that were trying to get to her backed off, the wolves formed a protective circle around her. The other two wolves went to the young men with the fireworks.

Sheriff finally put two and two together. He began yelling for them to stop with the fireworks. The young men saw the wolves and stopped, but started screaming for help. Others rushed to where they were, but we're stopped but the wolves.

Shado and Gunner made it to Xael, but Shado froze, seeing the wild wolves around her. Gunner joined the circle of wolves, Moose still had his mom latched onto him. Her grandmother and everyone else around her, stood there in shock.

Sheriff yelled for everyone to be quiet as the chaotic scene died down. Shado desperately needed to get to the woman wrapped around the large dog.  Xael was still shaking, struggling to breathe, ears ringing, blocking out all sound.

"Xael?" Her Grams tried to get her attention and move towards her but the wolves growled. Seeing that the men had moved away from the fireworks, the two wolves intimidating them, ran to join the others.

Now all attention was focused on the woman surrounded by wolves. The Sheriff finally made it over to her.

"My God..." He tried to approach but again the wolves all growled a warning at him to stay back. Xael was now sobbing and visibly shaking. Gunner broke from the circle and approached Deputy Shado.

The Deputy looked at Grams and the Sheriff.  Gunner grabbed his pants leg, careful not to get ahold of his flesh and started dragging him towards his momma. Gunner walked back to his mom, who was still shaking. She was whispering now, 'make it stop'; the wolves moved to the side to let him approach her. Once he knelt beside her, they ran off back into the forest. No one could believe what had just happened.