The Hunters Mate

Chapter 1

Wind ripped through the tree I was in and I wrapped my arm around its sturdy trunk, gripping the bark with my bare hand. My hair blew in my face harshly causing me to turn my head, so that my face was protected. I felt pine needles scrape and scratch at my skin and a few spiky pine cones hit my back. Even throughout the assault of pine cones and needles, I still kept a firm grip on the tree, not needing to fall off. I shivered at the freezing temperatures of early winter. The wind slowed and I turned back to the battlefield seeing many dead bodies and a fewer amount of wolves fighting.This was a slaughtering!  It appeared to me that one side was winning, by the way their forces kept appearing next to the enemies dwindling count. I carefully eyed the girl on the ground before I put my game face back on and drew another arrow. I hissed quietly as I lightly touched the silvery tip. It burned my skin as if I had touched a pot of boiling grease. I shook my hand out, hoping the burn would heal quickly and tried to focus again. I aimed the arrow towards one of two wolves that were fighting against an injured black wolf half their size. The black wolf was shaking, many cuts and bite wounds all over its body-- making it weaker and not as perceptive.

            Drawing my arm back I released the string to my bow as the whistling sound of the arrow cutting through air rung in my ears. Such musical tones. "Target reached" I whispered, a puff of air blowing blissfully away in the wind. It pierced the gray wolf that had lunged mid-air in the neck causing it to fall to the ground bleeding heavily. Its body twitched and it howled in agony. Both the wolves looked up at the tree I was in. The uninjured wolf howled in pain, eyes scorching me with their fiery rage. It growled and started running in my direction. Just as I was about to shoot it with an arrow already locked and loaded, a terrified scream filled the air. I looked down just in time to see a wolf charging at the little girl with its teeth bared and claws ready to slice. She would be shredded, bitten apart limb from limb. My eyes darted between the girl and the other wolf coming at me quickly. I only had time to make a split second decision whether to let the girl die and climb up the tree quickly before the wolf jumped at me or kill the wolf charging at the girl and most likely get hurt. Instinct took over and I aimed my arrow down at the wolf in front of the girl and shot it. The arrow went through its neck and the wolf fell to the ground just before the girl.

            I turned my head back to the wolf targeting me as it jumped high and hacked its claws into the tree trunk just a few branches below me. The tree shook violently and the bark under my boots shifted causing me to lose balance and drop my bow. The wolf was steadily climbing up the tree at an alarming rate. I could see in its hate in its eyes it was so close. The branch I was on cracked as I jumped off it catching a branch above me. The wolf snapped its teeth menacingly at my feet as I pulled myself up with my arms. The wolf clawed at the branch I had just been on causing it to snap and fall to the forest floor barely missing the girl.

            A deep growl filled my ears and a the black wolf I had helped lunged high in the air and clawed the brown wolfs back, causing the wolfs hold on the tree to weaken. I took this as an advantage and pulled out an arrow. Gripping it firmly I dropped from the branch and slammed the arrow down into the wolfs head. I just barely grasped a lower branch before I fell all the way to the floor. The wolf dropped from the tree and collapsed on the forest floor, dead. The black wolf looked up at me then looked down to the girl when she whimpered. I drew another arrow scared it would kill her, but stopped when she whispered its name.

            The wolf shifted back into a male and ran towards the girl. He checked her leg and picked her up, holding her tight in his arms. The girl held onto him as if her life depended on it. The boy started to run back to the now silent battlefield, but stopped and turned around to look up at me. "Don't move" he said and ran off with the girl. I watched as he yelled for someone and another person ran over to him, taking the girl from him. I started to climb down the tree, there is no way I'm staying. I could get killed for trespassing into werewolf territory. I'm known as a rogue right now, and I don't think they will spare me just for my act of kindness.

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