No Better Than The Beasts

Chapter 2- Deadly Accusations

         Three empty graves. Three families crying in a somberly snowy blur. Murder. Loss. Hate.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, just outside of the kingdom's borders, lay a secret funeral of an untold loss. Three people sent to the grave for the hunters' benefit and the kingdom's prosper.

                "I can't take this anymore,"  mumbled a voice through the sobs. The owner of the voice, Jake Pierce, walked sullenly into the cave where he lived. Yes, he lived in a cave, but he had no other choice. After a while, it seemed more like a home, but it would never be the same as a real one.

 Jake didn't mind, for he was one to accept things. He never had a sad frown and made sure no one else did either. He was obnoxious and cracked jokes and laughed and did everything it took to make people do the same things. In his conditions, that was a very hard thing to do. Especially in times like these.

He knew better then to joke at a funeral. He knew better to keep quiet and somber. He knew better because he has accompanied many funerals, as awful as it is. Yes, Jake was loving and did not hate most things, but one thing he despised in this world was the people who murdered Jake's kind. The hunters.

Jake wanted it to stop, but the people of the kingdom blame them for all of their deaths, and no one was going to change their minds. However, Jake still wanted to try.

                "Son? Why are you not mourning with the people?" he heard his father asked hoarsely. His shadow danced along the rough walls of the cave, made by the light reflecting off the blinding snow.

Jake turned to face his father regrettably. He has wanted to go out into the Banished Lands since young, and that yearn has never stopped. Every year, he asks again and again until he is given permission to do so. And every year, the permission to do so is denied.

                "I can't take this anymore," Jake repeated, "Dad, we can't be living like this!"

                "Living like what exactly? What else do you expect us to do?" his father argued. They both had tempers not to be messed with.

                "I don't know! Not hide, fight maybe? No one can take this freezing snow anymore! No one wants to starve to death for fear of being killed! No one wants to attend funerals once or twice a month because of stupid murderous men who want to eat us and sell our skin for money!" Jake argued back, "No one wants to be killed for being accused of something we didn't do! Dad, they think we are 'just animals'. Can we not show our true selves, and, I don't know, tell them to lay off the killing sprees?"

                "Jake, it is not that simple and you know it," his father scolded.

                "Then let me go out there! Let me go inside the borders as a scout. I will go as a human and pretend to be one of them-"

                "Son-"

                "And! And I could maybe convince them to appreciate wolves. Maybe, just maybe, they could have some sympathy-"

                "Jake-"

                "Maybe they won't, but I can still try! I could even take a team out there, if it's really that dangerous! Dad, I want to go to the Banished Lands. I want to try for peace and-"

                "Jake Robert Pierce!" his father boomed, " Many times I have said no to this, and many times I will say it again! We can not have anyone risking their lives for peace! No one in that kingdom will have sympathy for the beasts they claim us to be! No one will trust-"