I

“Hey, That's mine.”

“Yeah, right, I claimed it.”

“Bullshit. If you claimed it, then why was it in my hand?”

“Because you stole it, you fucking thief!” The two proceed to get into a
wrestling match-slash-fistfight over the little trinket.

A third voice breaks into the conversation: “Knock it off, you're
acting like a pair of cubs,” the third voice says with an air of
authority. The other two shut up and stop fighting. immediately.
Cerrin has that effect on the other wolves in my pack. The other two,
Mellak and Jarron, look down at the ground, seeming embarrassed to
have been called out.

“If we're going to keep this pack together and keep with the raids, I
can't have my own men fighting amongst selves. Mellak! Jarron! You
two know the rules. If there's a dispute, you come to me for
arbitration, you do not try to handle it between yourselves. Both of
you are on double watch tonight.” Cerrin stares at the two
offenders with a penetrating glare that seems to see right into their
minds. They keep staring at the ground, and Mellak, the taller, drops
the pendant that he was holding.

“This is what you were fighting over?” Cerrin asks them.

“I took it from one of the girls,” Mellak replies.

“Well, it's going to Mellak then. I don't want to hear another argument from the two of you again, or you'll be on watch all night together.”

Fights are a common thing around camp. After a raid, the others split up the valuables and food and throw everything else away. I say 'the others'
because I'm usually not included in the dividing. Whatever they don't
want or can't carry, I go through and see if there's anything that
may be of use. So far I've acquired a katana and a dirk from the
discards, as well as a carved fox pendant. The katana and dirk are my
only two corporeal weapons. That's all I need. I'm skilled with dual
weapons, and I also have my abilities. Throughout the realms, there
are some who are able to manipulate energies. I'm one of them. I'm
able to create energy fields that I can either throw to stun or use
to create a barrier for protection. Different people are able to use
the energy in different ways. My mom taught me how to use mine.

I'm also the only one in this pack who has any knowledge of any kind of
healing or medical things. Before I was old enough to help, if
someone got hurt and couldn't keep up, they were left for dead. Now
it's up to me to keep our men up to fighting health. They rarely get
injured, since most of our raids are on small farm towns with with
unskilled fighters, but when someone does get a pitchfork in their
side, that's my domain.

My other job is...less pleasant. The pack is all males, so there's
nowhere for them to get off. Most rogue packs take a few women from
the towns they raid. The job also falls to me to make sure they don't
have any kind of disease that'll get to our wolves. I don't usually
take part in the activity, but once in a while I get someone who
wasn't as good as expected. For the most part, the girls either
aren't canids or aren't in season, so no pups. Once in a while,
though, someone gets a girl in heat. That's how I came about. My mom
was a fox from a small merchant town. The only reason they kept her
around was because she was skilled in using the energy. She taught me
how to form the barriers, and I taught myself how to form the orbs.
She also taught me about different herbs and how to deal with combat
injuries. She died two years ago during a raid. She was stuck with a
poisoned dagger, and we didn't have anything to counter the toxin.

“Ari! Are you listening to me?” Cerrin yells, breaking my reverie. “Are
those three clean?” he asks, referring to the trio of rabbit girls
tied to a tree, whom we took after last night's raid.

“They're safe,” I respond.

“Good. Go untie one of them.”

“Yes sir.” I head over and wake the tallest, a pretty white rabbit with
black eartips. She has a silvery ring in her right ear, which I'm
surprised hasn't been taken. She looks young, about my age. I feel
sorry for her, having to go through this, especially with a pack of
wolves. The other two look older, probably twenties, and aren't
nearly as pretty.

“What, can't you even let me sleep?” she snaps when I wake her up.

“The chief wants you, and I wouldn't take that tone with him,” I say,
keeping a level tone. I don't know how she feels, but I have a
feeling that if she got ahold of my dirk, I'd be dead. “He doesn't
like people who talk back to him.”

“Well, tell him that he can burn in hell for all I care. He's not getting
his way with me. I know what you were doing this morning when you
were 'checking me for injuries.'” This girl's got a fiery temper.
That's not going to get her any favors with Cerrin.

“Stop your talking and come on. I don't like this either.” I grab the
rope still attached to her wrists and lead her over to Cerrin's tent.
At the door, I stop and announce my presence. It's not a good idea to
just walk into his tent; he sleeps with a dagger in his hand that he
can throw extremely accurately, even half asleep.

“Enter,” the older wolf says. I push the rabbit girl in first and follow,
keeping a hold on her rope. Cerrin comes up and takes a good look at
her. She fixes him with a death glare that could freeze blood in half
a second. I feel a chill running down my spine, and she's not even
looking at me. Cerrin, however, returns the glare full force right
back at her. “She's a fiery one, isn't she, Ari?”

“You see that glare? Don't let her get a knife or you'll be dead.”

“I think I can handle a bunny girl.”

At this, the rabbit says something: “You think you can handle me? I'll
show you what I can do.”

“You're right, Ari. She is a fiery one,” Cerrin says with an air of humor.
“Well, missy, why don't you show me what you can do.” There's no
question, it's an order.

“Ari, untie her, but make sure she doesn't try anything.”

I go up behind the girl and loosen the knots holding her wrists
together, being careful that she can't grab my neck in the process.
When I'm done, she brings her hands around and massages her wrists,
still glaring at Cerrin. He motions to the bedroll, leading her over.
She stays put.

“Ari, give her a push,” Cerrin says.

“Get moving,” I growl at her, and push her toward the roll. She stumbles
forward and Cerrin grabs her, pulling her down. He takes off his
sword belt and throws it to the other side of the tent. He pushes her
down to the mat and than looks back at me. He motions at me and then
at the door, holding his paw pad-down, a signal to me to leave but
stand by.

I feel sorry for the rabbit girl. She knows what's coming her way, and
I don't think she'll take it without a fight. From what I've heard,
Cerrin is by no means gentle. I usually have to stand guard when one
of the girls has the potential to be dangerous. So far, none of them
have succeeded in laying a knife on Cerrin, but this one seems like
she may be able to. He'd better be careful not to let any kind of
weapon near her paws, or he may get hurt.

Like I said, I usually don't take part in this. Sometimes, if one of the
girls doesn't turn out as expected, I have a try with her just to get
off. Most of the time, I try to be as gentle as I can. Unlike the
others, who are all about a good lay and getting off, I actually
care. Sometimes, if I can tell that the girl is really shaken or just
confused, we talk. I'm a very good listener, and most of the time the
girl talks to me. The only problem is that that's the only time
they're ever going to see me. Once the guys are through with them,
the girls are dumped off to fend for themselves. We give them a day's
worth of food and they're on their own.

Again, I'm broken out of my reverie by Cerrin, but this time, rather than
yelling at me, he seems to be in pain. I look over and see the rabbit
girl, still nude, running out of his tent with a knife in her hand. I
stand up and look after her. I close my eyes and concentrate on using
my energy. A slivery-blue orb starts to form in my paw, and when I
open my eyes, I see the rabbit girl outlined in the same color. I
position my paw with the pad and orb towards her and think “release.”
The orb flies off of my paw towards her. It hits her square in the
back and the field surrounds her, stunning her and causing her to
fall to the ground, Cerrin's dagger still in her paw. The next thing
I do is raise an alarm.

“Aiyah! Aiyah! Aiyah!” I yell, the distress signal for the camp. In about
five seconds, Lancer, Mellak and Jarron are at the tent, weapons
drawn. The rule of camp is that in the event of a distress situation,
the person who signaled is the person in charge. I look at the three,
now under my command. “Over there is one of the rabbit girls,
stunned. Go get her and tie her up tight. I'm going to check on
Cerrin. GO!”

“Yes, sir!” the three fighters reply, and run off to get the girl. I run
into Cerrin's tent and see him up on his knees tying a shirt around
his middle.

“Damn bunny got ahold of the knife under my bedroll. Just got me in the
stomach and ran off.”

“Well, she's not running any more. She's probably still unconscious with
Lancer right now. More importantly, are you alright, sir?”

“I'm fine,” he growls. “Tramp just got me in the stomach. I don't
think she was trying to kill, just get me off of her.”

“Will you take off the shirt so that I can see it, please?”

Cerrin grimaces as he unties the shirt, which is starting to show blood. Thewound doesn't look too bad. I reach into my shoulder bag and pull out a wad of leaves, which I crush and place in a fresh cloth strip. The
leaves have a coagulating effect which should stop the blood flow. I
place the poultice over the wound and then re-tie the shirt around
his middle. The gruff older wolf just sits there. I finish tying the
shirt and then go over and grab his pants, which he had neglected to
put back on after he was stabbed. He still hasn't moved when I get
back over to him.

“Sir, is something wrong?” I venture to ask.

“Other than being stabbed? I'm not sure how it happened. I must have left my dagger under my bedroll and forgotten about it. She must have felt it
and decided to use it. Fucking tramp, I should have killed her during
the raid when she tried to fight back,” Cerrin growls back. “Would
have saved this trouble.”

“Well, we knew she was going to be feisty. Lancer has her now. She should be awake; my energy bolts don't last that long. You can go deal with her now.”

“Lead the way.”

Cerrin follows me to where Lancer and Mellak have the rabbit prisoner tied up. She's tied to a different tree, this time with both her ankles
and wrists bound, and a cord around her neck. She sees me and Cerrin
and sneers at us.

“So, I see you survived. Lucky your little fox buddy here managed to catch me, or I'd be home free by now,” the girl snarls.

"I'm not a fox, I'm a folf," I say. "There's a difference."

“You wouldn't have lasted a day, snot. We're nowhere near civilization, and you'd die in the wilds. Plus, my men are excellent trackers. If you didn't die first, they would have brought you back here anyways.”

“Well, it was worth a try. You're not so great in bed; I would have died in
there of boredom.”

“She's still fiery. Lancer, take care of her,” Cerrin chuckles.

“Yes, sir,” Lancer replies, grabbing onto the cord around the rabbit's
neck. The cord is knotted so that when the tail end is pulled on, the
loop gets tighter, like a noose. The difference is that this cord is
thin enough to cut. It's kind of a gruesome way to execute, but it
works. Lancer yanks the cord and the rabbit girl screams. Her neck
starts to bleed, but she's not to danger yet. I actually turn away
for this. Lancer is the executioner because he revels in pain. The
more pain he can cause, the better for him. This execution will
probably take ten to twenty minutes. If only I could use the energy
that I used to stun her to create a hearing shield. Lancer yanks on
the cord again, and she screams. He laughs and keeps slowly adding
tension to the cord, causing her to scream louder. When he hits her
wind pipe, he releases the tension again, leaving her gasping for
breath and bleeding severely. If she doesn't bleed out before he's
done, she's in for a whole lot of hell. Lancer gives the cord another
jerk, and her scream is cut off halfway through. He must have finally
decided to end it. I turn back around and see the rabbit lying on the
ground, her neck destroyed. Mellak and Jarron, the two who were
fighting earlier, take hold of her and drag her body out of camp. The
blood will stay there; nobody ever bothers to try to wash it away.

The other two girls are still tied to their tree; nobody else wanted a
try I guess. They just had to watch the entire ordeal. Hopefully,
neither of them will try anything, so that we don't have to go
through it again. Cerrin, apparently, hasn't had enough. He motions
to me and then to the girls, signaling me to grab one. These two seem
older, and probably less headstrong. Less likely to try anything
dumb. I untie the shorter, brown one and lead her back to Cerrin's
tent. This time, I check under his bedroll before I let her near it.
He's already undressed, with the shirt still tied around his middle.
Hopefully, the sex won't disturb the wound too much. Same as last
time, I stand by outside in case there's another incident.
Thankfully, they manage to get through it without me having to
intervene again.

The next morning, after everybody's had a try with the two bunnies,
Cerrin decides to let them go. He probably doesn't want any chance of
anything else happening. They're given their allotment of food and
sent on their way. Hopefully, we'll never see them again. If we do,
there'll be no special treatment, and they'll probably be killed.

There probably won't be another raid for a couple days, until Cerrin's
injury is fully healed. Knowing him, he won't be pleasant about it.
Whenever he's not fighting or breaking up fights, he gets pissy. This
time isn't any different. Before the end of the day, he's complaining
about everything and anything and dishing out jobs to everyone but
himself. Not a good idea to get on his bad side when he's injured.

II

On the third day after the stabbing incident, Cerrin's wound is healed
to the point that he feels it's safe to go on another raid. The
target this time is a small farm and merchant town with a mainly
feline population. The plan is always the same. Send in scouts,
usually Jarron, Renn and myself, to find the best places for raiding.
After that, three vanguard go in, followed by the rest of the pack.
The reason I go in with the scouts is because I don't fit in with the
vanguard or the main group. Being half-fox, I can slip virtually
unnoticed through most areas, and I notice just about everything.
Plus, I can stun anybody who tries to sound an alarm. Not saying I
like my position in the pack. When on a raid, I'm a valuable asset,
but at camp, I'm usually the omega.

Cerrin signals for the scouts to head in, and I take center while Jarron and Renn split off to either side. I take the middle because I'm the most
inconspicuous of the scout crew and that's where most of the people
are. Again, being half-fox is an advantage sometimes. Jarron and Renn
have a tendency of being noticed, even though they carry fewer
weapons than the vanguard or the main force. A rogue pack is not
usually high on brains or stealth, but is loaded on brawn. After the
allotted time for scouting, We turn around and report back to Cerrin
and the pack. When we get back, Cerrin signals for the vanguard crew
to go in. Their job is to essentially cause all hell to break loose,
clearing the way for us.

Renn is the first to report: “Not much to report my way. Two, maybe
three semi-wealthy families, but not sure how much they've actually
got.

Jarron goes next: “About the same with mine. Couple pretty kitties,
though. Heh.”

“Main strip had a standard market strip. Several out-of-town merchants,
none of them carrying anything overly valuable as far as I could
tell. One was definitely a weapons guy. Mainly small wooden arms
designed for close-quarters combat. Nice for us, though. Easy to
carry and very light,” I report.

“Why does he always get the sweet spots?” Renn whines. “Even Jarron
got better than I did.”

Cerrin cuffs the scout around the ears. “He gets the middle areas because the two of you are about as stealthy as a pair of lumbering bears,” Cerrin growls. “Now come on, the vanguard should be in by now. You know the drill, split into three, one take each section. GO!” The
pack splits off into three relatively equal groups and follows the
trail that Renn, Jarron and I used before. The scouts are supposed to
be leading their respective groups, mine pays absolutely no
attention.

The job of the vanguard is to raise hell, which they usually do with
fire. So, when the center group reaches the market strip, it's
noticeable that one of the smaller stalls has been torched. So, while
the villagers are focused on that stall, the raid pack moves in and
hits the stalls that are unoccupied. Of course, someone has to turn
around and see us, and then all hell really breaks loose. Some run to
the weapons stall and grab wooden cudgels and something that
resembles a bracer with ridges over the knuckles and come at us.
Their weapons are simple, but as one of my companions find out, they
are tough. One of the merchants knocked him in the head with one of
the knuckle ridge-bracer things. The wolf drops to the ground and the
bobcat moves on to hit another. I focus on him and close my eyes, the
silvery-blue orb forming in my hand. As with the rabbit, when I open
my eyes, the bobcat is limned in the same silvery-blue glow. I fire
the orb and stun him before he hits another pack member.

“ARI!” someone yells. I spin and see Renn waving from the edge of the strip. I go over to him and he dashes off in the direction of his section of
the town. I see what he's yelling about as soon as I round a the
corner. Hovering about twenty feet above the ground is a cougar. As
soon as I see her, I see why. Showing behind her are two wings.
They're the color of a sunset, with a pinkish-orange tint. They're
beautiful. Then I remember why Renn called me over; very few of the
pack carry ranged weapons, and the few who do usually go to the
middle, where there's more people. He wants me to take her down. The
silvery-blue orb forms and flies at the girl, hitting her in the
chest. Her wings dissipate and she falls to the ground, unconscious.
Renn nods to me in thanks and runs off to keep up his raid. I, on the
other hand, kneel down beside the girl with the sunset wings. I check
her for injuries, and, surprisingly, she seems alright. Cerrin will
want to hear about the wings. That's why my mom was kept with the
pack; she could use the energy. It appears that this girl can, too.
While the wings is something that I can't do, they sure looked
ethereal. They were gorgeous. Sunsets are something that I rarely see
in the forests, but the few times I have, I was captivated. Her wings
reminded me of that. Now, looking at the cougar, I see that she is as
beautiful as her wings. She's about my age, slim, tall, and has a
pretty face. Her muzzle is short with black streaks, and her ears
have black tips. I can't see her eyes, but if she's able to
manipulate the energy, they're probably the same color as her wings
were. Mine are, and my mother's were as well.

“Ari!” someone yells again. It seems like I'm getting yelled at a lot today. I get up and get back to my job; keep an eye out and cover the others' backs. But at the same time, I keep an eye on the unconscious cougar. I can't use my energy fields too much or I'll be exhausted, so I draw my katana and dirk instead. I hope that I don't have to kill anyone. If someone attacks, I try to aim for a strike that won't do lasting damage, just incapacitate them. Of course, the first person to challenge me is a cougar; probably the girl's father. He's got anger in his eyes, and he looks like he wants to kill me. He probably thinks his daughter is dead. I raise my sword to parry his swing and he comes back around from the other side, forcing my dirk into a parry. I hate parrying with my short blade
because it's a whole lot more of a gamble to make sure that I
actually get the parry. A second katana or a scimitar would be
useful. The stocky cougar throws a second strike, a thrust this time,
and I take a chance. I dip the point of my sword and catch it under
his, and then flip it up and circle around, forcing the blade out of
his hands. He drops the sword and tries to get his footpaw in my
stomach. I slash across with the dirk and score a cut on his shin,
which I follow up with the hilt of my katana to his head, knocking
him out as well. His head is bleeding where I hit him, but there
shouldn't be any lasting damage. Except for the fact that he may
never see his daughter again. Speaking of whom, she seems to be
stirring. Her trim form moves, and she rolls over, opening her eyes.
Nobody else has tried to challenge me after seeing her father taken
down, so I go over to her. Checking to make sure that nobody's behind
me, and kneel down.

“Don't move,” I whisper to her. “If you pretend to still be unconscious,
they'll ignore you. You may survive. Listen to me. Don't move.”

She stays put, closing her eyes again. I was right; they were the same
beautiful pink-orange as the wings. She's an energy user. Cerrin will
definitely want to see her. I get back up and look around for him. I
don't see him in this section, so I signal to one of the other
wolves.

“Watch her; I need to find Cerrin,” I tell him.

“Who made you king, foxy?” Again with the fox.

“Nobody, but Cerrin needs to see her. She's still stunned by my energy field. Trust me, he needs to see her.”

He eyes me suspiciously, but I run off to find Cerrin. He probably went
to the east with Jarron's group, looking for the “pretty kitties”
that he mentioned. Most of the stalls in the strip have been
overturned or destroyed, and anything that the pack thinks may be of
value has been taken. I go to one of the disheveled weapons stalls
and grab a short, carved wooden piece that looks like a dagger hilt
before moving on. When I get to the eastern section, I immediately
pick out Cerrin. Jarron's side also had most of the fighters, as
Cerrin is currently being double-teamed by a leopard and a bulky
tiger. Well, shit. Looks like I may have to use another energy field.
Last time I exhausted myself was when I was fifteen, during a small
farm raid. That time, it was three orbs and I was out. Hopefully,
I've progressed to the point where I can do better than that. I throw
a third orb at the bigger of the two, the tiger, and he collapses,
leaving Cerrin facing his partner. The partner isn't as bright as I
gave him credit for. He looks at me, and then at his fallen partner,
giving Cerrin time to catch him with a backhand strike using the flat
of the blade. The sting from the strike leaves the leopard recoiling
and tensing to strike again. Cerrin's blade darts in to the left,
which turns out to be a feint, pulling out and landing a strike on
the cat's right flank. He goes down to join his partner. The lead
wolf turns to me and nods, the closest he ever gets to saying “thank
you.” I tap my muzzle and point at him, and then signal to follow.
He grimaces, but comes along, grudgingly. He hates being told what to
do by anyone.

When we get back to the western side of the village, the cougar girl is
still lying there, and the wolf that I told to watch her is keeping
an eye on her, even though he's doing something else.

“What is it?” Cerrin snaps.

“Her,” I say, pointing at the cougar girl still lying on the ground.
“She's...like me.”

“Define 'like you.'”

“She can use the energy. Not in the same way that I can, but she still has
the talent.” I kneel down by her ear and whisper “You can get up
now.” She opens her beautiful eyes again and looks at me, then
notices the large, grisly wolf behind me and starts. “It's alright,
he won't hurt you,” I say quietly to her. She relaxes, but still
seems tense. I wonder if she's going to try to fly off again. She
seems relatively inexperienced with her energy, so she probably tires
faster than I do. Plus, even if she tried, I would just have to bring
her down again and risk hurting her.

“You're going to come with us. Quietly, so that people don't freak out,”
Cerrin tells her. “If you struggle, we'll knock you out, and it'll
be more painful than Ari's energy field.” The wolf looks at me.
“Ari, bind her hands,” he says, and then runs off.

I pull a piece of rope out of my belt, kept specifically for this
purpose. The cougar gets up and puts her hands behind her. “You can
keep them in front. I trust you not to try anything.”

“Why are you tying me, then?” she asks.

“Because if I don't, I get in trouble. If I didn't have to, I wouldn't. Cerrin
doesn't let outsiders in camp unless they're bound.”

“Wait, what? You said he wanted to see me, not that he was taking me back to your camp. What's going on here?” the girl asks, narrowing her
eyes.

“You can use the energy. Cerrin is going to keep you alive, but you're
going to have to come with us. I'm the only one we have with that
power.”

“Not going to happen,” the cougar says. “Why in hell would I work with
you? You nearly killed me, my father is lying on the ground over
there, likely dead, you raided my town, and you expect me to come
with you? Have you gone completely mad?” By the end of the
question, she's yelling.

“If you don't, you will be killed, and your family will too. If I didn't
have to do this, I wouldn't. But the only reason that they keep me
alive is because I can do this. If I couldn't, I would be dead. It's
not a great life, but it's better than being dead. Trust me, if you
don't come, it'll be worse.”

“What would be worse?! I leave my home, my family, my kit brother, and I'm forced to join a rogue pack that's not even my species, but a
bunch of wolves! I'm a feline! And plus, the pack is all male!
I'm female! And you say this is lucky?” she screams. “I'd say I'd
rather be dead!”

“Listen to me. Calm down, and listen. It's a simple choice: either you come
with us, or Cerrin and the rest of the pack kill your family, and you
still come with us. That's what happened to my mother. I'm telling
you, it's better if you just come willingly. Cerrin doesn't care
about morals or anything like that. He's completely wild. If I didn't
have this ability, he'd have killed me. He will kill everyone you
hold dear without a second thought. Now come on, the pack is pulling
out.”

She slowly gets up, tears forming in her eyes. I can't know what it feels
like to leave this. I've never had a true family. The rope I tied
around her wrists is loose enough that she could get loose if she
really wanted to, but she doesn't try. I see her eyes close, and then
she looks back at her father, still lying on the ground where I hit
him. I pick up the cord again and lead her towards the wood where we
originally started.

III

The rest of the pack is already there when we get out, and Cerrin looks
impatient. “What took you so long?” he growls when I get to him.

“Sorry, she was being uncooperative. Had to fight out.” I glance over at
her to make sure she's going with it, and the angry glare on her face
shows that she caught on.

“Another fiery one, eh?” Cerrin chuckles. “Good. If she's like you, then
she'll be a valuable asset. She's your charge from now on.”

Shit. Bad enough that I had to force her to come along, now I'm in charge
of her. If she doesn't already hate me, then she likely will now.
“When do we make camp?” I ask Cerrin.

“As soon as we're outside their retaliation range. They had some good
fighters, from what I saw. They'll likely send out parties to track
us down. Make sure to cover your trails so trackers won't be able to
find us. The last thing we need is to be ambushed at night. Spread
out and meet at the far edge by nightfall. Hopefully we can confuse
them.”

“Yes, sir!” the rest of the pack replies, and they all move off in
different directions.

I'm heading off to the eastern side of this wood, with the cougar girl,
still bound, in tow. As soon as we're out of sight of the rest of the
pack, I turn to her and undo her bonds. She looks surprised.

“I thought you were supposed to keep me tied. What if one of the others
sees us?” she asks.

“They won't. This pack is low on the stealth aspect. If they're coming,
we'll hear them and find cover,” I reply. “Did you notice Renn
when he was scouting?”

“I saw a wolf, but I just thought he was an out-of-town merchant. So
that's why he looked more skittish than the rest. Damn it! I
should've known!” she yells .

“Shhh, keep it down. I don't want them to hear us.”

“Sorry,” she whispers. “I forgot that we're on the run, and that I'm your
captive.”

“I'd rather you not think of it that way. Truly, I'd rather we met under
different circumstances.”

“Oh, so you do have a heart,” she chuckles sarcastically. “And why is
that?”

Damn. Way to go. Best to be honest. Worst she can do is still hate me. “So
that I may have an actual friend, as well as someone else who can do
what I can. This pack keeps me alive, but they're not friends. Since
my mother died, I've had no one.”

She stops, stunned. I guess she wasn't expecting that gush of emotion
from a rogue. “You really do have a heart,” she says.

“Yeah. I don't like the way the pack operates. Just three days ago, a
rabbit got a knife on Cerrin. She was killed, and it was horrible to
watch,” I say, remembering the fiery rabbit girl that did what no
one else had. “This pack is completely wild. I'm the only one who
actually cares. There were probably three other girls taken from your
town. They'll be raped, then let go nowhere near here to die in the
wild. It's horrible. You'll be kept with the pack, but you'll be
taken advantage of as well. I'm not telling you this to scare you.
I'm telling you so that you can prepare for it.”

She just looks at me with those sunset eyes. I can't tell what she's
thinking. Then she speaks: “If you hate it so much, why don't you
leave?”

“I can't. If I left, Cerrin would send out trackers to find me. I'd be
brought back. They won't kill me because of my abilities, but they
would make my life absolute hell. Worse than it is now. Please. Don't
try anything. I know you don't know me or have any reason to trust
me, but please...please just don't do anything. It's not worth it.”

“I just met you, and you're trying to protect me. You act like I'm the
one thing you care about, and you don't even know my name.”

“At the moment, you are,” I reply. “You and my life. I couldn't give
two shits what happens to the rest of the pack, but I'm not going to
do anything to get myself killed. And I'd advise you to do the same.”

“I'll try. I'm just not sure I can do that.”

“Well, I can try to help. Maybe sometime, we can get the hell out of here,
but that's not likely.”

“Thank you. My name is Jaya.”

“Ari.”

IV

I wake up to the sound of Jaya's soft, even breathing. The cougar is
still asleep on the mat next to mine. It's been a week since we took
her, and she's adapting to the rogue life well. The pack took her on
her first raid yesterday, after being yelled at by Cerrin for half an
hour on what she was supposed to do, which boiled down to “stick by
Ari and protect the rest of the pack.” For never having fought
before, she did well. She actually saved my ass, whipping the dirk I
gave her into a ferret who was behind me. She didn't kill him, just
dropped him.

I stick my head out of the small canvas tent to check the time. The sun
is still below the horizon. I pull back in and lie down, trying to
get back to sleep. Since Jaya's showed up, I've been waking up in the
middle of the night almost every day. Something keeps nagging at the
back of my mind, and I can't get rid of it. I've only known the
cougar for a week, but there's already a bond between us that I've
never felt with the rest of the pack, who I've known for almost
eighteen years. I feel like she actually cares whether I live of die,
not for my abilities, but for me. I'm not sure if she's forgiven me
for knocking her out during the raid, but she's not brought it up
since. The fact that she saved my ass makes me think that she may
have. Honestly, I haven't even forgiven myself yet. I didn't want to.
If I could have had my way, I would have let her leave. I roll back
over and try to fall back to sleep. It doesn't work.

By the time morning finally rolls around, I've not managed to fall back
asleep. Jaya wakes up and yawns, stretching her arms over her head.
She's nude, but any awkwardness between the two of us has gone. She
reaches over to the corner of the tent and grabs a long tunic,
slipping it over her head. I've been feigning sleep since she got up,
so now I roll and stretch. My clothes are in the same place as hers,
and seeing me get up, she tosses me a pair of loose pants. I slip the
trousers on and tie the drawstring, then grab my dirk, slipping it on
a cord belt and tying it around my waist. She does the same with the
dirk that I scavenged for her. After she gets a pair of pants on, we
head out into the camp. The sun has just broken over the eastern
horizon, casting an orange glow through the trees. The other tents
are stirring, and the sentries are coming back in from their posts.
Cerrin's not up yet, but he should be shortly. He probably had a nice
night with one of the otter girls we took yesterday. I feel Jaya's
hand on my shoulder, and look over at her.

“You didn't sleep again, did you?” she asks softly. “I can see it in
your eyes.”

I sigh and answer her. “No, I didn't. I haven't been sleeping well
all week. My mind keeps running crazy. I'm not sure what I'm
thinking, just that I can't stop it.”

“I'll be honest with you. I haven't been sleeping well either. Same
problem. Mind keeps going crazy. But I do know my problem; it's you.
I'm confused about you. I like you but I hate you. I want to protect
you, but I want to hurt you. I'm not sure what to do about you. You
drag me into this, but you act like it's not that big of a deal. I—”

“Jaya, stop. Spilling feelings is my job. But to be honest, I do have
feelings for you. I wish that you never tried to fly away from that
raid. I wish that you weren't my charge. I wish that you didn't have
to go through any of this, and I know it's my fault. I could have let
you leave rather than taking you down. I could have let you go in the
forest, but I didn't.

“No, you couldn't have. You said yourself what would happen. Yes, I don't
have to be here, but I am now, and I'm determined to make it out.
And I think you are, too. Now come on, they're waking up. Let's get
some kind of food. I think I saw some berries over to the south.”

I follow her off into the wood, and sure enough, there's a bush of
bright red berries growing about a hundred yards off.

“Well, you were right, there are berries. But you don't want to eat these.
They'll give you a stomach ache for the next three days. Best to find
something else.”

“Uggh. Good to know, I almost ate them. Are there any others around that we can eat?” she asks

“I didn't see any, but there may be some mushrooms over there near those
trees. They don't taste great, but they're edible.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“My mother taught me. She knew all sorts of edible plants and stuff. She
also knew some medical stuff that she taught me. Which is another
reason they keep me around. If they let me, I'd have been gone a long
time ago. Come on, let's find something to eat.”

The cougar follows me off toward a clump of maple trees, with one rotten one on the ground in the middle. Sprouting off of it are several flat fungi that resemble a grouse tail. I pull out my knife start cutting
at the base of one, separating it from the tree. Jaya draws hers and
does the same, slashing at the fungi and pulling them off. After
she's gathered a few, she moves over towards me.

“Act natural. We're being watched,” she whispers to me. “They're
behind you.” She moves off to another trunk, but her dirk doesn't
work on the mushrooms. I move over nearer to her and whisper back:

“On three, spin and dash towards them, dirks ready to throw. One, two,
three.”

We simultaneously turn and run towards a patch of bushes. Right before
we get there, a cougar and a bobcat jump out and sideways, getting
out of the way of out thrown dirks. I spin towards the bobcat and
launch an energy field at him, stunning him where he lay. Jaya
recovers our dirks and faces the cougar, armed with both of them
ready to throw. The male cougar looks up at her for a second, and
then drops his weapons. Jaya, seeing just who she was facing, does
the same, dropping both of our dirks onto the forest floor.

V

“Jaya,” the older male says, looking up at his daughter, who not three
seconds ago was about to kill him. “Oh my god, you're alive.”

“Father?” she asks, looking down into his face. “What are you doing out
here?”

“What do you think? Looking for you and the others. I know that three
others were taken, plus yourself. Do you know where they are?”

“We left them three days ago,” I tell him.. “They're probably dead by
now.”

“Where did you leave them? We've been over every part of the wood between here and our town,” the male cougar snaps at me. Then he starts, as if noticing me for the first time. “You!” he screams, jumping to
his feet and grabbing his sword from the ground. I step into a
defensive stance and get ready to move fast. My dirk is still lying
on the ground by Jaya. The male runs at me and I sidestep him,
causing him to miss me entirely. He spins around, and I form another
energy field, ready to let it fly. He comes again, and I roll out of
the way, launching the orb at the same time. It flies just past him
and hits a tree.

“Stop!” Jaya yells. “Knock it off!”

I stop in a crouch and look up at her. Her pink-orange eyes look
confused. Her father stops as well, although he keeps his blade out
and ready to strike. She leans down and picks up my dirk, handing it
over to me. Her father still looks like he wants to kill me, but he's
holding it back for his daughter's sake. I guess she must not want me
dead too bad.

“Jaya, this fox tried to kill you,” her father says icily.

“No, he's the reason I'm still alive,” she responds.

“He stole you from us! He almost killed you when they raided the town! He tried to kill me!”

“Yes, he took me, but that was for his own good. Since then he's kept me
safe and not laid a paw on me. He even managed to keep the rest of
the pack from taking advantage of me. Ari is not what he seems on the
outside. If you try to touch him again, I will stand between you.”
At this, she picks up her dirk and moves to my side, slightly in
front of me. “And I don't think that he was trying to kill you.”

Her father thinks for a second and then sheaths his blade. His eyes are
still icy, and his stare shows that he still wants to kill me. I
slowly lower my dirk to the sheath on my belt, hoping he won't run at
me. Even without a sword, the cougar is still bigger than me,
probably stronger too. In a hand-to-hand fight, he'd win hands-down.
My only option would be to hit him with an energy field, but I don't
think Jaya would like that very much. The young cougar girl is still
looking back and forth between us, as if trying to make a choice.

“I can tell you where we left the other three girls.” I look over at
the source of the words. Jaya has started speaking again. “About a
day after we left the wood, we left them. It was on the outer edge of
another. If you haven't found them, they're probably dead. I'm sorry,
there was nothing I could do.”

Her father's eyes lose some of the ice. “Could you lead me us there?
Kali was one of the three taken. She knows how to survive on her own.
If there's a chance that they're alive, I'll take it.”

“I can't—”

“Go. I can cover for you,” I say. “If Cerrin asks where you went, I'll
cover. Just go.”

“Why would you do that?” Jaya asks me. “If he finds out that you're
lying, you know what'll happen. He'll kill you.”

“Then I'll say we were jumped. Just go. I can cover for you. Go! Now! If
we're gone too long, someone'll be coming for us.”

Jaya comes up to me and kisses me on the cheek. “Thank you. I won't
forget this.”

“Good. Now go!”

Jaya tosses me my dagger, then her and her father run off to the west to
find Kali and the other two. I take a look at the bobcat who attacked
us, and then turn back to the camp with the mushrooms.

VI

Cerrin, of course, is pissed as hell when I get back without the cougar. He cuffs me hard across the muzzle, almost drawing blood.

“How the hell did she get away?” he growls, glaring hard at me. “I
thought one girl would be easy enough for you to handle. I guess I
was wrong.” He cuffs me again, harder this time, then turns and
storms away. The other wolves in the pack are snickering at me, some
of them making rude comments about not being able to handle a girl.
I just turn away and ignore them, thinking that they have no idea.

Even though Jaya was only with us for a week, the tent feels empty without her. Her soft, even breathing is notably absent as I'm lying there
trying to fall asleep. The warmth of her body, comfortable in the
small space, is gone, leaving me exposed to the cold. Even though we
never actually did anything, most of the nights were spent curled up
together, sharing each other's heat. I pull the light sleeping wrap
tighter around me and try to clear my mind of the cougar, with little
success. Her eyes, full of the sadness of one forced to leave her
home, keep showing in my head. Forget about her, I tell
myself, she's gone. You should never have fallen for her in the
first place. Now it's coming back to bite me in the ass. I don't
even know exactly what it is about her that caught my mind. Maybe the
fact that she was able to forgive me for kidnapping her. Or just the
way she adapted to this life so quickly, falling into the pattern in
a matter of days. Whatever it was, her sunset eyes are the only
things on my mind as I finally manage to drift off into a
not-very-restful sleep.

Again, I wake in the middle of the night, poking my head out and immediately withdrawing from the cold. “Damn it,” I mutter, curling back into a ball and trying to fall back asleep.

Morning comes far too fast. Almost as soon as I manage to relax again, I hear Cerrin yelling outside of my tent. I'm tempted to tell him to go die
in a hole, but after yesterday, that'll just piss him off even more.
Reluctantly, I push the wrap off and put my dirk around my waist,
pushing through the tent flap and squinting against the sun.

“'Bout time you woke up,” Cerrin growls. He seems to be doing more of that lately, since the rabbit got him. “You're on cleaning. Can you
handle that, or will I have to have someone watch you?”

“I'll manage.” I walk over to the fire and look at what I'm supposed to
be “cleaning.” Remains of last night's dinner are scattered
around the ring, along with bags that once contained meat or
vegetables. The bags will be reused as clothing, as most of the pack
only ever wear a loincloth and their weapons. I'm one of the few who
actually wear a tunic; I'm the only one who can actually sew
anything. The leftover food will be left for the carrion eaters.

About midday is when things begin to get interesting. One of the wolves,
Razor, walks into camp dragging the bobcat who attacked Jaya and I
the day before. The cat is unconscious, blood evident from a wound on
his head. Cerrin walks over and sniffs at the feline, walking around
and sizing him up.

“What's this?”

Razor drops the bobcat and looks up at the grizzled wolf. “I found him
snooping around outside camp. Around where the runt went yesterday.
I'm not sure what he was doing. I hit him with my sword and knocked
him out, figured you'd want to talk to him.”

Cerrin nods at Razor and the turns to me. “You seen this cat before?” he
asks.

“He was one of the ones that attacked me yesterday. I stunned him; the
other took the girl and ran.” There was a lot more that happened,
but he doesn't need to know about the whole mushy, emotional good-bye scene.

“Razor, watch him. Don't let the kid get anywhere near him, you got that?”
Cerrin clearly doesn't trust me. I begin to wonder if he suspects my
involvement in Jaya's escape. At least now he knows that we actually
were followed. “The rest of you, go look around. If there are any
more of them around, bring them to me,” he says. “You!” he
barks at me. “Come with me.” He grabs the collar of my tunic and
drags me to his tent.

“You had better have a good explanation for this. First the girl escapes,
then this cat shows up here. Seems a bit convenient to me.” While
his voice is steady, his eyes are boring holes into my soul. For a
minute, I almost think that he knows that I was involved with her
escape. If he does, I'm screwed. If he suspects, I'm probably screwed
as well. Which is not a good thing. For now, my best bet would be to
play innocent.

“What is going on?” he asks. “Are we being followed?”

“I don't know. My guess is that after they knocked me out they left with
the girl. I don't think that they wanted anything with me or the rest
of us.” I keep up the facade of innocence as best I can, trying to
get the tone of my voice to show some of the fear I should be
feeling. “I don't know.”

“If we are being followed, and I find out that you knew, I will
personally rip your balls off and shove them down your throat.” I
have no doubt that he will make good on his threat.

“I swear. I have no idea. Send a couple others with me and I can take
you to the spot where I was ambushed. I can make sure that nobody is
following us.”

“Go. Make sure. If we are being followed...”

I leave the tent and move over to mine. I grab the katana on the floor
and tie it around my waist. When I come out, two wolves are waiting
for me. One sets a paw on my shoulder and leads me to the edge of
camp, where we turn towards the grove where Jaya's father found us.

At the grove, the tracks from our little scuffle are still there. The
others bend down over them and sniff, trying to identify any scent
that may have been left. The marks match my story enough that they
won't question it. Even if things didn't add up, they're too stupid
to figure it out.

“You're sure it was only the two of them?” the first one asks, looking
around.

“If there were more, you were probably followed.”

“There were only the two and the girl. And anyways, if they wanted to find us, the girl knows where we're camped. She could lead them right to
us.” Sometimes their stupidity is almost funny.

The second wolf, called Tarka, leaned over and talked to the first in
what he must have thought was a quiet whisper, but I could hear him
ten feet away. “He's got a point. We should move on. That cat could
come back with more.”

The first (Whose name I don't remember, nor do I care to.) seems to
consider this, his eyes first going wide and then narrowing. Maybe he
has more brain than I give him credit for. “Maybe we should, but
they've been able to track us this far. How do you think? The girl
was probably leaving trailmarkers.”

“You honestly think that the girl was leaving markers? I was with her all
day, every day. She was never out of my sight. If she was trying
something, I would have known about it.” That's not a complete lie.
There were times when Jaya was elsewhere, but for the most part we
were together. Honestly, I don't know if she was leaving a trail or
not, but if she was, I can't blame her. Actually, good on her for
coming up with it and actually getting it to work.

“How do I know you're not lying?” number one asks.

“Um, because Cerrin already wants to kick my ass, and I'm not stupid
enough to piss him off even more.” Honestly, the two are as dumb as
a pair of bricks. Why Cerrin would assign the two to watch me is a
mystery. He knows I'm clever enough to deal with them. He's smart,
but my mother was a fox. I definitely take after her more that
Father. If I wanted to get away from these two, I could, but that
could be exactly what Cerrin wants. Sometimes I wonder if he may not
have some fox in him, the way he schemes. Nevertheless, if I wanted
to, I could probably get away from him as well. My energy fields
could take him out, and I can cover my tracks much better than most
of the pack.

Tarka and his companion turn back to me after having a whispered discussion which pretty much amounted to “Let's go back and see what Cerrin says about all this. We're too dumb to do it ourselves.” Which they
are; leave it to them and we'd get lost on the way back to camp. Like
I said, high on brawn, low on brains.

When we do get back to camp, Cerrin's mood has not improved much. He's still fuming, looking daggers at me when I walk past the sentries.

“Well, what did you find?” he asks the other two.

“Nothing. It looks like he may be true.”

“How hard did you two look?”

“We did what we could. There wasn't a lot to find,” Tarka replies.
“She's gone, and the other one with her.”

Cerrin waves the wolf off and then lunges at me, grabbing my tunic and
pulling me close. “What happened? I know you're hiding something.”

“If I could...breathe...I may...speak,” I stutter as he twists my
collar and I start to have trouble breathing. When he releases it, I
answer him. “Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to try that? I
stunned the one, and the other knocked me out. When I came to, they
were gone.”

He shoves me away, still looking like he's about to murder me. “You!”
he barks at one of the others. “You, keep him under watch. Don't
let him try anything.”

VII

After two days, I decide that the ball and chain that Cerrin has trailing after me is about as dumb as he can get. If I didn't think that it was exactly what he expected, I'd stun the guy and get the hell out. The others in this pack may be complete blockheads, but Cerrin's got some brain. If I tried to run, he'd find me, and then I'd be a whole lot worse off than just having a shadow. At least the shadow doesn't try to sleep in the same tent. He stays outside at night and makes sure that I don't leave. 

Another night goes by without much sleep. Part of my mind is trying to figure out what I'll do if Cerrin decides that I had something to do with
Jaya's getaway, while the other half is trying to convince myself
that he won't, that I covered it up well enough. The first side is
winning, though. The problem with Cerrin is that we think alike, just
in different ways. I try to think through ways to avoid conflict; he
tries to think through what might prevent it in order to create it.
Whatever I could think up to get out of this situation, he'd think of
something to bring it back around.

The morning, again, comes too fast. I end up crawling out of the tent and almost falling over trying to stand up. I almost fall asleep twice during
the day, and both times Cerrin barks at me to wake up and make myself
useful. I don't even have a dirk on me, I was too tired to even
bother with it when I got up.

Just after dusk is when things begin to get interesting again. One of the
sentries comes in and reports that he saw something moving just
outside the camp. But when the scouts go to check it out, there's
nothing there. Another team is sent out to scour the surrounding
areas, but they don't find anything either. They eventually give up,
chiding the sentry for being too jumpy.

I head to bed early, hoping to actually get some sleep, even though I
know I probably won't. The shadow takes up his spot outside, and
after a short while I hear him start to snore. So much for making
sure I don't go anywhere. I lie down and curl up as tight as I can
under the wrap, trying to sleep even a little. Twice I almost get to
sleep and something outside snaps me back. The third time, I grab my
knife and look out to see what the commotion is. Of course it's
nothing. Just the fire popping and throwing sparks. When I pull back
in, I'm even more tired than I was. Maybe this time I won't be woken
up.

I'm not sure exactly how long I was asleep, but it can't have been very
long. I wake up again, but this time, it's not the fire or my head.
This time, it's a young cougar girl shaking my shoulder. My immediate
instinct is to reach for my knife, but she grabs my hand and pins it.

That's when I notice her eyes.

Sunset pink-orange.

Jaya.

She smiles down at me, looking as beautiful as the first time I saw her,
hovering above the fighting.

“How did you get in here?” I ask her.

She sniffs around, making sure there's nobody else within hearing
distance. “Your sentries are pretty bad at their job. One was
asleep, the other almost there. It was easy enough to slip past
them.”

"Figures. Now another question. Why are you here?”

“Why do you think? To get you out of here! Now come on, before someone wakes up.”

My mind takes a moment to digest this. She came back to get me out? No
time to think about it now, just get the hell out while she's here! I
reach over and grab my clothing and weapons, tying them on as I
follow her out the front of the tent. My shadow is still asleep,
doing a very good job of what he's supposed to be doing. Jaya steps
over him and I follow, finishing up tying on my knife as we're
walking towards the edge of camp.

Before we get out, one of the sentries turns around and sees us. Just as he looks like he's about to yell, I throw an energy field at him,
dropping him to the ground unconscious.

“Come on,” I whisper to Jaya. “Before someone else sees us.” I'm
hoping that the unconscious sentry will just think he was
hallucinating when he wakes up. If not, then we could have a problem.

Jaya slips silently out of the camp area while I take a quick glance
behind to make sure no one's following us out. Satisfied that we're
free and clear, I turn and follow her, breaking out into a jog as we
leave the immediate area.

Following her through the woodlands, it finally hits me. I'm getting out of
there. Jaya, the very cougar who I forced to come with me against her
will, came back to get me out of there. After the hell I put her
through, she came back, and not only that, is helping me escape. I
look at her running slightly ahead of me and think what she is
risking by coming back here. Why, though? Why would she risk all that
just to get me out of here?

“Jaya,” I call out. “Why did you come back?”

She turns, stops, and cocks her head sideways at me. “Why? I came back
to get you the hell out of there. They treated you like shit, and I
knew the real you. You acted like one of them, but deep down, you're
not. You've never been. I saw that the first night.”

I'm stunned. I didn't think she felt that way about me. I know that I
felt sorry for her, I didn't want her to be here because I thought
she was too sweet for what this life would do to her. But I never
suspected that she felt the same for me. I just stare at her for a
few seconds. Before I realize what she's doing, she strides over and
kisses me.

My mind goes completely blank. All I can do is stand there, dumbstruck,
as the cougar with the beautiful eyes steps back, smiling.

“There's also the fact that I've grown to like you. You don't deserve that
life. So I'm getting you out of here. You're going to come with me
and get away from that.”

She turns and continues at a light jog, and I shake my head and follow.

We run for a while, eventually stopping to camp at a small clearing.
Jaya moves over to a tree and moves aside a pile of leaves and moss,
removing a small canvas roll. She spreads it in a crook in the root
of a tree, and we curl up together for the first time in days. It
feels right. Better than lying alone in a tent. Out here, in the
middle of nowhere, curled up with the one person who understands me
feels like a dream. For the first time since meeting the cougar, I
fall asleep quickly and don't wake up until she shakes my shoulder
the next morning.

VIII
(Epilogue)

It's been a month since Jaya came back to get me out of that awful pack.We're back at her village, living in a boarding house owned by a friend of her family. Her dad didn't react too well to me showing up, but I think he's gotten over it. He hasn't tried to kill me again, at least.

The first week was extremely different that what I'd been used to. Going
from being on the move all the time to staying in one place for more
than a couple of days was an adjustment that I was happy to make. The
room we've been staying in is on the top floor, but we eat in the
main room with the landlady and the other boarders. Most of them took
a while to get used to me as well, and now all but one of them has
pretty much learned to either tolerate or ignore me. The other, an
uppity ocelot, seems to inherently dislike canids anyways, so I try
not to take it too personally. I'm not used to having to care about
what others think, so it's odd to notice people staring when I walk
down the street. I guess my being half fox isn't as useful when
people know I'm around. It just seems to attract more attention. I'm
still adapting, though. It'll just take some getting used to. For
now, though, I'm just relaxing for the first time in seventeen years,
with a cougar who went through hell to get me here.