“Don’t look back!” Evander shouted breathlessly.

Growls, barks, and heavy, bestial panting sounded behind Amara as she ran. By all the noise it was making, she could tell that the wolf was only five or six feet behind her, and that it wasn’t struggling to stay at that distance. It had been fast enough to catch up to them with relative ease, but so far it hadn’t actually attacked them. Instead it was following behind, stubbornly keeping pace as they tried their hardest to gain more distance on it.

Terror more than anything else propelled Amara forward through the grass. It gave her bare legs a plethora of small cuts and abrasions, but the pain was a tiny annoyance beneath the sheer effort it took to keep running.

She knew the ruck on her back was making her significantly slower than she might’ve been otherwise. But to drop it, she would have to slow down for a few seconds in order to free her arms from the straps, and doing so might compel the wolf to do more than just chase. It wasn’t clear if Evander was also being slowed by his own ruck, but he seemed to be thinking about hers, and he began to drift closer to her as they ran.

“Hurry!” he shouted, placing a hand on the bottom of her ruck.

She could feel him lifting it upwards, and did her best to hurriedly slip her arms out from beneath the ruck’s straps. Her ruck fell to the ground behind her with a loud, unceremonious thump, followed closely by the telltale noise of the wolf effortlessly leaping over it.

There was no time to consider the consequences of leaving everything she needed behind. With the ruck gone, she was now free to run as fast as she possibly could. A sense of relief washed over her as the wolf’s pursuit began to sound slightly more distant behind them, but the feeling didn’t last long.

A forest appeared in the distance before them off to the south, over and beyond the next rise. Evander wordlessly aligned himself towards it, giving Amara a good guess at his intentions.

Can we lose it in there?!

They entered the forest in the blink of an eye, weaving around and between densely packed trees while trying their best to stay together. Small shrubs and other random obstacles appeared in their way often, forcing them to either dodge to the side or leap over them. It slowed their progress, and the wolf closed the distance once more.

A life filled with manual labor had left Amara in decent physical shape, but nothing she’d ever done could have prepared her for such a lengthy breakneck footrace. Already she could feel exhaustion slowing her down despite her continued need for maximum effort. Beside her, Evander showed no visible signs of exhaustion, and a flash of frustration passed through her at the realization that she was likely to be the one to slow them down even more.

A new obstacle appeared ahead of her while she was distracted with this thought, a long dead fallen tree, and this time when she went to leap her foot failed to properly clear it. Her shoe caught on the log, and she fell instantly, colliding hard with the grassy earth beyond. Breath was forced out of her lungs even as the momentum of her fall sent her careening several feet across the grass.

She came to a stop within the shade of an ancient oak tree. Pain radiated from scrapes and bruises all across her body, and her knees in particular had been badly bloodied. Before she could lift herself to her feet or even catch her breath, the wolf was upon her.

It leapt over the same log she’d tripped on with perfect, graceful ease, and approached her slowly. Its lips curled back, and it began to growl, revealing long lines of razor sharp white teeth and black gums. Its head was the size of her entire torso.

Panic propelled Amara backwards on her hands, but she was soon halted by the trunk of the oak tree. The wolf was so terrifyingly big, and they both knew she was cornered. She looked around for something—anything—she could use to fend it off, but there was nothing beyond grass within reach. Foolishly, she’d left all the tools she could’ve possibly used to defend herself inside her ruck.

The buzzing in her brain she’d felt when she first laid eyes on the wolf was orders of magnitude stronger now, and increasing with each cautious step it took towards her. The feeling soon overwhelmed her senses, deafening her and draining the entire world of color. Before long only the vibrant yellow in the wolf’s eyes remained, two blazingly colorful crescents advancing against a backdrop of overwhelming gray.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The wolf was only a few paces away from her when something small and fast struck its eye at blinding speed. The wolf instantly recoiled, and a startled yelp escaped from it. The moment it turned its gaze away from Amara her normal senses came rushing back.

Another small object careened towards the wolf, this time colliding with its snout. She watched with shock as a gray-brown stone fell to the ground by the wolf’s paws.

Evan!

A third stone came careening from the forest, glancing off the wolf’s head just above its eye, and it finally seemed to have enough. The wolf turned away from both Amara and the hidden source of flying rocks, fleeing back over the log. She heard a few pained, pathetic whimpers escaping from it as it ran off, a very odd thing to hear from something that had just seemed so devastatingly threatening.

Relief crashed over Amara, and all the tension in her body went slack. She’d felt so sure that she was about to die. Evander soon appeared from the nearby trees, hurrying over to take a knee beside her.

“You alright?!”

“Y-yeah,” she stammered.

“Thank God!” he said, his gaze darting towards the trees where the wolf had disappeared.

Amara shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it, and forced herself back up to her feet.

“We have to make a fire!” she said forcefully.

“...You’re right. Running away any more is pointless—that thing was just toying with us. You find us some tinder, I’ll hurry and find us something proper for burning.”

He dropped his rucksack on the ground beside the oak and hustled off back towards the trees whence he came, casting an urgent gaze across the ground ahead of him. Amara looked about as well, checking the nearby foliage for anything dead and dried out enough they could use for building a fire. Everything had happened so fast that she hadn’t had a chance to take in her surroundings, but now she could plainly see that she’d somehow ended up tripping over the only thing large enough to trip over in a small, empty clearing. A lopsided ring of trees framed an area of green grass exposed to the cloudless blue sky, with the big oak she’d been cornered against acting almost like the ring’s gemstone.

Fortunately, tinder for a fire was practically everywhere. She quickly gathered up a handful of dead leaves and plucked some dried moss off the side of a nearby tree. Evander returned soon afterwards, carrying a bundle of red-black firewood in his arms.

“Under that oak should be good,” he said.

They hastily worked together to clear out a small fire pit beneath the bows of the oak tree. Once it was done, Evander set down some of the wood he’d gathered then placed some of Amara’s tinder atop it.

“That wasn’t a wolf,” she said, looking on as he began to strike his flint over the tinder.

“Huh?”

“I felt something overwhelming when it got close to me,” she continued. “The whole world began to melt away. It’s hard to explain.”

He looked at her with alarm. “If it’s not a wolf then what is it?”

“I have no idea.”

Sparks flew from his flint, and Amara could feel the moment of combustion once they met the tinder. She reached a hand out to it, willing the fire to expand. It responded instantly, exploding into a roaring flame within moments.

Evander stood up and took a few steps back as Amara willed the flames to leave the firepit. She guided them through the clearing towards the log, sending a thin wall of fire snaking through the grass. The smell of smoke was strong in the air as she willed the wall of fire to rise higher and higher, until the red and yellow flames obscured the trees beyond.

Satisfied with her display of power, she willed the flames to retreat back into the firepit, leaving behind wisps of smoke emanating from a long scorch mark in the grass.

“There’s only one thing it could be if it isn’t a wolf,” Evander said.

“What?”

“One person.”

Amara stared at him, initially unsure of what he meant, but the implication soon dawned on her.

“...You’re saying it's Shaitan?” she asked, aghast.

“Have you ever heard of anyone else who can change form?”

“Why would the Sullied One be chasing us around as a giant wolf?”

“I don’t know, Mara. But it would explain a few things.”

“The soldiers at Shiloh,” Amara said, realizing. “And the crops.”

“If anyone’s capable of that kind of stuff it would be him.”

“Well even if it is, what could we possibly do to someone like that?”

He shrugged, frowning. “Dunno. Nothing, maybe. But one thing’s for sure, running any more is pointless. This’s a good a place as any for a last stand.”

“Don’t say that. We’re going to make it.”

Evander visibly suppressed a worried frown before turning away.

“...I’ll go gather some more firewood. You should clean up your knees with some of my water. Last thing you need is an infection.”

He walked off, and Amara looked down at herself. Small rivulets of dried blood trailed down her shins from deep scratches on her knees, staining her socks and shoes red.