Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Forever ❯ A Friend ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

In the northern village of Elzia the sun was only beginning to crest the horizon, sending warm golden light over the roof tops in the market. There, above the bakery, laid Neona. Though many years had passed since that rainy night in the forest.

Her long, knotted hair covered much of her smooth, though dirt smeared face. The silk that had once hung from her was faded and stitched together in places to fit her curved adult body. Her bare feet were filthy from walking the streets so long and her long brown, matted tail gently tapped the rooftop she had been sleeping on. She breathed in deeply to inhale the scent of the bakery’s kitchen and opened her violet eyes to look down into the ally below.

Neona yawned as she watched the baker throwing out hard bread from the day before and she stretched a little while, waiting for him to go back inside. Almost immediately birds landed around the trash cans and began pecking at the left overs. She rubbed the side of her face and sighed before hoisting herself over the edge of the roof and landing with a soft “umph” on the ground.

She waved a hand to shoo away the birds and picked through the hard loafs for her breakfast. She found one that was still soft, though had mold growing on one side, and tore the bread into two halves. She tossed the half with mold back into the garbage and took a small bite of the other, eyeing some of the other bread for later.

One of her ears twitched as she heard someone approaching and, clutching the bread in her hand, she ducked down behind the trash can. Neona cast a weary sideways glance to the high wooden fence at the opposite end of the ally and looked for a possible way to escape.

She tensed, her ears flattening against her head as her tail curled in close to her body, she tried to make herself smaller as she hid and listened intently as the stranger approached. The footsteps she heard were some times quick then slow as though the person was skipping into the ally. She could hear a girl’s bell-like voice singing a chorus of words over and over again:
“Milk and eggs, meat and cheese, some of those and some of these, get some bread, butter, and jam-”

Neona held her breath as the singing halted and the foot steps slowed to a stop. There was a soft sound of someone sniffing the air and she winced, trying not to move least she alert the girl to her presence.

“Is someone there?” asked the bell toned voice. “Hello?” The footsteps moved closer and suddenly, though she had thought the girl farther away, a pair of green/gold eyes peered around the trash can where she was hiding.

They stared at one another for a long moment before the girl inched her way around the can, holding a large wicker basket in her arms already full with groceries. Her face was framed by thick, black, chin length hair that fell into her wide, surprised eyes. Neona blinked as she saw their girl’s fuzzy, black bear ears and sniffed the air only to find a delicate, sweet scent. Lowering her eyes she took in the girl’s strange appearance.

She wore a loose black vest over a tight black haltered shirt with a golden design which ended above her midriff. She followed the girl’s pale skin until she came to the her tight fitting black pants, over which was a black belt with a golden fasten and a hanging pouch. She also wore black boots with gold fastens identical to her waist belt.

Her eyes raised once more to the girls face and saw that she had been examining her appearance as well. The girl seemed to hesitate before kneeling down to be level with her. She smiled softly and began to speak.

“You’re a wolf,” she said, giggling as though she were very pleased to have found her. But that did nothing to soothe Neona’s frightened nerves. There were still orders to kill wolves on sight, and that was why Neona had always taken such great care to hide in the shadows of the village.

“Please,” Neona whimpered. “I never caused any harm, I’ll leave the village, just please...” her eyes darted back and forth between the girl and the high wooden fence. If she had to she knew she could managed to get over it. The girl waved a hand rapidly and laughed.

“Don’t be frightened, I want to help. My name is Laila, I’m a servant in the vampire lord’s house and today when I went out for groceries my master told me to find an assistant. He said I could pick anyone that I wanted, even a human. So I’m sure that if I bring you back it will be alright. After all, my master is a collector or oddities; he’d love to have you,” she said, smiling so warmly that Neona felt herself begin to relax. The girl straitened up and shifted her basket in her hands so she could hold it with one, the other she extended for Neona to take.

Neona’s eyes narrowed, she would not be fooled so easily. The vampires were the ones who began the wolf hunt and slaughtered her family. They kept other half-breeds for servants in their house holds and sometimes as pets. She would not kneel before a vampire, and she would most certainly not seek help from one.

She shifted her weight and dropped the bread she had been clutching. Using her powerful legs she pushed off from the ground and sprinted towards the high wooden fence. Behind her, the girl called for her to stop, instead she leapt onto a garbage can with a tin lid next to the fence and then leapt once more to clear the fence.

She landed deftly, then continued to sprint onwards across the busy street. The humans saw only a blur as she ran past, ducking and dodging between them on the street until she came to a larger building with a ladder hanging down from the roof. She leapt onto it and began to climb, casting a single glance behind her to be sure that the girl had not followed. But she hadn’t and soon she was safe atop the high roof.

She stayed back from the edge of the roof, laying flat in the middle and panting heavily. The sprinting had been nothing to her, but the idea of having someone chase after her, though the girl hadn’t, sent her heart racing and made her breath hard to catch.

She closed her eyes against the golden sunlight and pictured the dark haired girl and her fluffy black ears. She knew better than to trust a vampire’s servant, yet... the sweet sounding voice held no ill intention, and she couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her and smiled.

Neona rolled over onto her side, putting her back to the morning sun and pushing the girl from her mind. She needed to think about where she would go, now that someone knew that she was in the village she would have to flee.

She frowned slightly at the thought of leaving. She had been in the village for nearly a month already and had so far come to like it there. Food was easy to come by, and the people were so busy with their lives that they didn’t notice her at all. If she hadn’t known that there were half-bloods and vampires nearby she might have considered staying there a while longer.

But it wasn’t safe. She sighed as she though to herself that almost nowhere was. And she never came across any other wolves in her travels, though she heard of captures in some villages. That had been quite some time ago.

What if the wolf clan was close to disappearing altogether? What if she was the last one already?

She shook her head, quickly tossing the thought aside, dismissing it as absurd. She knew she couldn’t be the last, there was still the chance that- she knew that Roshka was still out there. Probably looking for her still.

There was a noise behind her, a soft scuffle that she might have missed had she been deeper in her thoughts. She breathed slowly to relax her body, trying to keep her ears from turning towards the sound as she pretended not to hear it. They would only think that they had the advantage of a surprise attack.

She sniffed the air, finding two different scents, both musky, though one was stronger than the other, with a strange, almost spicy sent. She suspected both to be males, and one was attempting to circle around in front of her, perhaps as a distraction for the other.

Her eyes narrowed as the smell grew much stronger and she began to shift her position so that she could rise and move away from them both. She then saw one of them, a thin male slinking around her in plain sight. She ignored him, acknowledging him only long enough to see that he was a half-blood, part of the fox clan. She suspected the same of the other and let him come closer before pushing herself up on one arm and pulling her legs in close, until she was in a crouching position, braced and ready to move in any direction.
The one that had crept towards her from behind feigned an attack at her, testing the distance between them as the other half-blood tried to close the area between them, she turned towards him, using her legs to push herself forwards as she brought up a clawed hand to try and scratch him.

The fox backed off and she glanced towards the other. He was circling around her again. She snarled at him to show her canines, though knew that the foxes wouldn’t get close enough to her for her to bite them.

The fox clan had long ago been taken in by the vampires, serving them in many different ways, often as hunters for their masters. Neona tried her best to look around, keeping an eye on the two foxes as she searched for their master.

Then something happened that she didn’t expect. Both lunged at her at once, from opposite sides. She tried not to tense up, though knew she would only be able to block one of them. She focused on the one who had been closer to her, hoping to knock him back and then deal with the other before he could attack. She successfully managed to sweep her claws across the face of one fox, knocking him back, and turned to meet the other when she found herself faced with someone else.

Stunned, she was unable to move, staring in surprise at the new half-blood before her. He was larger than the foxes, taller and broad shouldered, with such a presence that she felt herself tremble before he even struck her.

His large hand hit her open palmed, slapping her across the side of her face and knocking her over. She froze up as she hit the ground, instinctively curling her tail towards her and drawing back her ears as she looked up at the half-blood.

She had never seen one like him, he was a lion, she could tell by his ears and tail, but his presence was such that she felt sure he had powerful demon blood in his veins.

“Stop there!” Cried a sweet voice that made Neona blink in surprise. Someone leapt over her, getting between her and the lion. It took a second for her to realize that it was Laila, but when she did she felt a strange sense of relief.

“Step aside, Laila,” said one fox, almost hissing at her.

“You know better than to come between our master and his prey,” said the other.

“Crevan, Tokala,” said the lion to the foxes. “Silence.”

“Luan, you will leave this girl.” Laila said, addressing the lion. She didn’t seem concerned with the two foxes, eyeing her as though they would like nothing better than to attack.

“I will do as I please.” Luan took a step forwards, Laila tensed and growled at him.

“You will leave her, or I will have Exhane and Heian at you,” she said darkly, her voice sounding more threatening than Neona would have thought it able to. Luan glared at her but stepped back and motioned for the foxes to follow after him as he left.

“Lord Keahi will hear of this,” Luan warned her.

“As will Lord Haimon,” Laila said promisingly. The lion leapt down from the rooftop, followed by the two foxes who gave Laila a pair of rather reproachful looks as they descended.

Once gone, Laila let out a heavy sigh and turned to Neona giving her a warm smile as though nothing had happened. Neona slowly raised, her body aching as she moved. That lion was truly powerful, so how had that bear been able to make him retreat so easily?

“So, I guess you owe me now, don’t you?” Laila asked with a small laugh. Neona’s eyes narrowed suspiciously but the girl didn’t seem to notice. “I guess you’ll just have to stick around me until you can repay me. But first,” she said, looking rather serious. “I’d like to know your name, wolf girl.”

She hesitated, not sure about this girl who had once offered her hand in assistance, and then saved her from what she was quite certain would have been death. But she saw no harm in at least telling Laila her name, as she did now owe the girl her life.

“I am Neona,” She said, watching the girl smile again and walk towards her. She tensed, but the girl moved around her and she saw that Laila’s basket was sitting near the edge of the roof.

“Alright, Neona. Let’s go home.”