Weston lead Sarah by the hand as they snuck away from the very real wolf- his sister had been right and now they were in mortal danger and he felt like it was all his fault. His heart was racing so hard that he feared the wolf would hear it and sink its teeth into his flesh at any moment and some instinct deep inside, urged him to start running and never look back.

But Weston steeled himself and easily fought back his body’s reaction. He wouldn’t let fear take control of him. He knew he couldn’t outrun a wolf and his sister wasn’t as fast as he was. He would stay by her side even if demons sprung from the shadows and dragged him into the fiery pits of despair.

They weren’t that far from the village now and the path home was clear in front of them. In a silent prayer, he made an oath to the sun that whatever horrors may crawl out of the darkness, Sarah was going to make it home tonight.

He tried to remember what his father had said about wolfs. His senses were heightened to the point that he felt like he could have heard a moth fly overhead and he could see more details in the darkness than usual, but he was having trouble thinking in straight lines.

“There is strength in the pack but it’s high ground they lack.” He heard Sarah whisper.

That was it!

“Sarah you're a genius! We’re going to make it, we just need to climb a tree before more show up”

It would be a cold and uncomfortable night, but they could wait this out. And surely father and a are search party from the village would come looking for them.

They continued to quietly place one foot in front of the other as they carefully put distance between themselves and the wolf, ears peeled for sounds of danger.

None of the trees nearby would work. They were either too small or didn’t have limbs low enough. Then Weston spotted the right one ahead, maybe 20 feet away.

“Just a little further” he whispered.

A snapping twig followed by the sound of predators crashing through the underbrush nearby called him to action. He abandoned caution and pulled his sister along shouting for her to climb the tree.

When they were an arms length away from safety, a pair of silver glowing eyes attached to a snarling wolf appeared to their side, as it confidently approached them. Weston made to retreat but another wolf blocked the path in the direction they had come from. The children could hear more of the beasts crashing through the undergrowth as they encircled them seeming to tie a noose tightly around their necks.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

They were surrounded. Weston yelled and gestured at the wolf in front of him but it didn’t budge.

'Of course they found us,' Weston thought, 'the blood from my fall must have led them straight to us.'

“Sarah I love you, and I’m sorry I didn’t listen” Weston said, “stay back to back just like we’re playing adventurers, ok.” He pretended like everything was going to be all right, even though he knew nothing could be farther from the truth.

Standing braced against each other in a desperate last stand, Weston yelled and threateningly slashed his hunting knife in the space in front of him while Sarah pointed the makeshift spear in her trembling hands towards the wolf directly in front of her, while she crouched low bracing the other end against the ground.

A huge wolf broke away from the rest and slowly strutted towards Weston. All of the wolves were big, but this one stood as tall as the boy in front of it and seemed bulkier than the rest. The beast exposed its fangs in something that almost resembled a toothy smile, drool dripping from it’s mouth as it savored the juicy snack it had tracked down.

Weston stared death in the eye as he locked eyes with the approaching beast. Getting his sister into the tree and possible safety was his only hope, and at that moment he didn’t care what would happen to him afterwards.

The children slowly inched together towards the tree when suddenly the wolf facing Sarah lunged forward. The blood in Weston’s veins caught fire as he heard the snarl and felt the impact as his screaming sister was thrown into his back as the wolf hit them. He stumbled forward and then spun around to protect her, exposing his back to the alpha in front of him, only to find the attacking wolf twitching on the ground with Sarah’s now broken spear gored through its neck. His sister wasn’t hurt and was moving towards the tree. There was still hope.

Just as he registered this he was knocked to the ground from behind by the wolf he had been facing which had lunged forward after he broke eye contact. The beast bowled him over while locking its fangs around his calf.

“Sarah!” Weston screamed as he felt himself being dragged by his leg away from his sister and into the underbrush. His clothes caught on fallen branches and he lost his bow and knife as the stench of wet fur and rancid meat stuck between the wolfs teeth filled his nostrils. The snarling beast tore a path into the darkness, dragging Weston along while he tried helplessly to cling to anything that he could.

Suddenly, like a hero from a story, his father was there.

He tackled the massive wolf from the side and man and beast rolled together into a death match. With a burst of strength his father pushed the twisting and snapping wolf just far enough away so that within the split second it took for the wolf to recover and lunge for his throat it was met with a hatchet to the face. The wolf yelped and moved to strike again and was met with another blow from the weapon that left it dazed. After a third and final strike the wolf stopped attacking and lay twitching on its side.

When his father pushed himself onto his feet, his clothes torn and his body bleeding, from out of the darkness he was set upon by a second wolf. Its hurtling momentum knocked the breath from his lungs and the hatchet out of his hand. Then a third wolf joined.

“Father, no!” Weston called out.

He couldn’t just watch his father die, and although he had little weight to add to this fight and moving his mangled leg made him want to pass out, he crawled towards the hatchet that had fallen nearby. He tightly gripped the blood slicked weapon as he made to stand up, before collapsing again from the screaming pain in his leg.

But as Weston looked up from where he had fallen he saw his father rise from the tangle of fur and teeth like a mountain floating in a sea of clouds. He had a snapping wolf in his arms that he hurled against a nearby tree trunk, where it connected with a back breaking crack.

The third wolf turned tail and fled into the forest yipping and followed by other survivors from its pack.

A long moment passed where Weston fought to stay consciousness while listening to the retreating wolves, and his approaching fathers heavily breathing.

His father rushed to his side examining his wounds before yelling “Where’s Sarah!”

The little blood that remained in Weston’s face seemed to drain away as worry for his sister constricted around him. He weakly pointed back in the direction the wolf had dragged him and then for the second time that day his vision swam as his mind became a dull tunnel of darkness as the blood loss took its toll and he lost consciousness.