As the three wolves in front of me began to slowly inch their way closer, I was able to tell that they were a bit smaller than the first one which I had taken down.
As I took a stance in which I placed my right hand which held the sword behind me and my left hand in front of me, they continued to come closer to me constantly growling, then suddenly they stopped and one of them broke into a dash.
It then lunges at me attempting to grab my left hand in front of me, not realizing that I purposely left it exposed to lure out that attack. Reacting to this I twist my body to the left causing the wolf to only swipe at the air unable to reach my hand. Utilizing the momentum of this twisting my right arm swung across the ground in an arch moving up into the soft skin in between its body and one of its legs.
This contact between us happens almost in an instant but left me in a position where I am now facing the opposite direction having the first wolf which is now visibly injured laying on its side in front of me while the other two are behind me.
The other two wolves did not remain idle during this interaction and although I could not see them I was able to hear the sound of one of them coming extremely close behind me. Instead of returning to my stance and lifting up my head I decided to lower my head as quickly as possible predicting that one of them would attempt to bite the back of my neck. This prediction was correct and the wolf which had expected me to meet my neck as it lunged instead met the air and was only able to maintain its balance as it jumped over me by using my back as a stool.
At this point two of the wolves were now in front of me while one was behind me, but before I could regain a better understanding of their locations a sharp pain came from my left forearm. Looking down at the source I found that the third wolf had not lunged like the other two and instead bit down on the closest thing that it could, which in this case was my left arm.
Now that it had gotten a firm hold of my arm it began to drag itself lower to the ground which took me off of my balance and through my gritting teeth all I could say was “This is bad!”
At this point I knew the locations of all the three wolves with one firmly on my forearm and two laying down in front of me with one of them beginning to stand back up while the other remained limp. I also knew that once the second wolf got up and returned I would be in serious trouble.
Another issue that I was facing was that the combination of the pain coming from my arm, my body beginning to get tired, and my heart accelerating to the point that it felt as if it was coming out of my chest was making it hard for me to think clearly.
Not only was the beating of my heart increasing in speed but also getting louder, Ba-dum So overwhelmingly loud Ba-dum It was as if time began to slow down Ba-dum and all the noise from the world except for that one disappeared Ba-dum at this point the second wolf had regained it senses and was looking straight at me Ba-dum, but it didn't immediately charge at me it instead simply stared taunting me Ba-dum as if it knew that my death was only a few moment away Ba-dum and for those moments we simply stared at one another to the point where my eyes began to burn not wanting to miss a second Ba-dum Ba-dum Ba-dumBa-dum Ba-dum Ba-dum.
Then it broke into a dash, knowing that the only chance I had was to slash at it the moment it came into range all I could do was hold my blade up and wait.
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
Ba-dum
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“Now”
Once it was close enough and I began to bring down my blade in a desperate attempt but quickly realized my mistake. The wolf to my side tugged at me more aggressively than before which caused me to slow down for only a second. A second which I did not have. Realizing that the wolf would reach me and push me to the ground faster than my blade would reach it all I could do was put more force into my arm to speed up the blade.
It was at this moment that something unexpected happened.
The wolf suddenly stopped, but not willingly as it was thrown flat on its stomach with its limbs to the side as if a tremendous force was pushing down on it. Similarly the sword on my hand gained both a significant amount of weight and a force behind it that was pushing it to the ground causing its descent to almost triple in speed.
These things led to a sword which was going to barely miss its target to now not only hit it but have so much force behind it that it would slice its target clean in half and dig itself into the dirt under it.
Pulling the sword out of the ground it felt the same as it had before, but I knew that I still had something to do before figuring out what just happened.
The final wolf was still holding a tight grip to my left arm with no desire to let go anytime soon. Taking a moment to think of a solution I decided to lift it up walking up to a tree and pining it against it. Then I proceed to stick the blade horizontally in the space between its jaw and my left forearm. Once I pushed the blade forward from both the hilt with my right hand and the blade with my left forearm the blade began to slowly move and the wolf attempted to push me back with its legs but the blade's movement was constant. The blade dug into its cheek and eventually reached the muscles once the blade went past those the wolf's tight hold on my arm was released but I didn't stop and continued to apply force. It wasn't until the wolf went limp that I let go and as it fell to the ground its mouth remained open wider than should ever be possible.
Now that all three of the wolves were on the ground lifeless I looked at my left arm. There were two distinct wounds on it, one was from the teeth of the wolf while the other was a shallow cut caused by the pushing of the blade with both leading to a decent amount of bleeding. In order to slow down the bleeding I picked up a pile of dirt and began to rub it on the wounds, planning to clean it at a small river on the way back.
The way back was fairly uneventful changing my plan of taking an entire head I decided to instead bring the fangs of the wolves. After removing the teeth I made my way to the river that I had seen on my way here to clean myself and my wounds, tearing a piece of my clothes to wrap the wounds after I was finished.Once I felt that i was clean enough and the smell of blood was gone I was finally ready to make my way back and using the moon to lead myself outside of the forest.
As I returned the sun was starting to rise and a smell that caught my attention reached me. It was a distinct metallic smell.
“Is that iron?”
At first I thought it was the smell of some metal but then I realized that the source was something that I had grown very familiar with that night.
(It was the smell of blood)
“NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO”
I began to run toward him and as I did the smell became stronger until it was the only thing that I could smell.
At first I had thought that he was attacked by something but when I saw him sitting slumped I realized what had happened.
He was sitting in front of me slumped over but the source of the smell was clear. On his neck there was a large cut from which blood was seeping out creating a puddle of blood on the dirt but with some already dried especially the blood on his body it was clear that this injury was caused a long time ago.
The cause of this injury was also clearly found on his left hand. A simple blade with nothing that would make it stand out or attract people's attention aside from its newly added blood and smell.
Then I saw something else. It was an envelope, its white color a distinct contrast to the dirty and bloody body that one would be surprised it took so long to find. Its seal is a vibrant blue color creating a comforting feeling as if to invite me. As I begin to accept its invitation, lifting my hand to grab it, I realize that something is falling on it. It was tears and saw that while my mind had still not processed what was happening to my body it was clear.
As I picked up the envelope all I could say was “Why did you do this?”
My first thought was to open it and see what was inside to find out why he did this to find any sort of answer but as I held it in my hand I couldn't do anything except stare at it.
After staring at the envelope almost as if asking it to make the decision for me I whisper “I can’t.”
The reason why I couldn't get myself to open it despite having an incredibly strong desire to have even a small amount of information as to why this was happening was because I knew.I knew that the moment that I opened it and read the contents of the letter inside he would be gone.
As I stood there feeling a multitude of different emotions I came to the realization that today was going to be a day that would follow me the rest of my life. Not just because it was the first day that I took life, the first day that I was able to depend on myself, the day that I lost my father, but because today was the first day that I truly understood what it felt like to be alone.