Challenge Response: Oktoberfest
The Underground Passageway
She dove into the hollow of a large tree. The blood from her arm dripped, blending with the red, orange, and yellow of the leaves on the ground. She had felt the bullet pass through cleanly, missing bone. Her former employers were in pursuit.
She had been warned not to deal with humans. But with her people’s land shrinking, it grew harder and harder to live the traditional way. Working for humans seemed easy enough, guarding crops from warring neighbors; that is, until werewolf labor was no longer needed. Come autumn, with harvest over, abruptly werewolves were perceived as a threat to the community.
As the moon rose, her body’s hair grew longer and thicker; her teeth and nails larger and sharper. A surge of energy filled her as her lupine healing powers clotted her wound. Suddenly, she felt weight on her shoulder and a breath in her ear, “I’m a friend. Follow me.”
She growled, angry at herself for not smelling or hearing this stranger’s approach. The woman, without the usual human reluctance to touch, grabbed her clawed hand and pulled her towards a hole. “At the end of that tunnel, you’ll be out of the woods and on the other side of the border.”
She sniffed for the tell-tale sweat of a bad liar. “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”
“Would you rather wait for them to find you?”
Rumors abounded that there were humans sympathetic to the werewolves’ cause. She smelled no extra perspiration mixed in with the woman’s scent. Nearby leaves crunched. The pursuers were close. She took one last look into the woman’s eyes, perusing for pupil dilation, another sign of deceit. She didn’t have much time or choice. She got down on all fours and limped through the passageway.
She dove into the hollow of a large tree. The blood from her arm dripped, blending with the red, orange, and yellow of the leaves on the ground. She had felt the bullet pass through cleanly, missing bone. Her former employers were in pursuit.
She had been warned not to deal with humans. But with her people’s land shrinking, it grew harder and harder to live the traditional way. Working for humans seemed easy enough, guarding crops from warring neighbors; that is, until werewolf labor was no longer needed. Come autumn, with harvest over, abruptly werewolves were perceived as a threat to the community.
As the moon rose, her body’s hair grew longer and thicker; her teeth and nails larger and sharper. A surge of energy filled her as her lupine healing powers clotted her wound. Suddenly, she felt weight on her shoulder and a breath in her ear, “I’m a friend. Follow me.”
She growled, angry at herself for not smelling or hearing this stranger’s approach. The woman, without the usual human reluctance to touch, grabbed her clawed hand and pulled her towards a hole. “At the end of that tunnel, you’ll be out of the woods and on the other side of the border.”
She sniffed for the tell-tale sweat of a bad liar. “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”
“Would you rather wait for them to find you?”
Rumors abounded that there were humans sympathetic to the werewolves’ cause. She smelled no extra perspiration mixed in with the woman’s scent. Nearby leaves crunched. The pursuers were close. She took one last look into the woman’s eyes, perusing for pupil dilation, another sign of deceit. She didn’t have much time or choice. She got down on all fours and limped through the passageway.