BY
Every now and then one or two things happen: My writing intuition and creativity seeps through, or I just get bored and start writing stuff. This is a combination of both. I've had the idea in my head awhile, and I figured I might as well put it down on some paper. And well, this came out. Originally, I just wrote the dang thing, but some parts were utter crap so I had to go back and edit them. Hopefully, you guys will like my first contribution to the Wolfire community, and hopefully I'll continue it. Or, you guys can just shoot me down with a 12 gauge and drag my bloody body back to be beaten for posting this on the forum in the first place.
I wasn't sure to put it in the Lugaru forum or randomness, but hey, I figure randomness is the safe way to go.
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1.
Running. Isaac chanced a look over his shoulder. Wolves. Three. Four, maybe. He wasn’t sure, but they were catching up. His paws were already carrying him as fast as they could go. Darting, diving, dipping through the dense forest foliage. Isaac’s lungs burned. He glanced over his shoulder again. A wolf’s mouth was open wide, ready to devour his puny neck. Isaac burst forward. He was safe for now, but he was tiring. Isaac focused his vision forward again, but it was too late, the forest had opened up wide forming a deep ravine, and Isaac fell into the giant wolf mouth at the canyon floor. It ended.
Panting, Isaac bolted out of bed. His oak brown fur was covered in a cold sweat. Quickly, He checked to see if indeed he was all there. Legs, check. Arms, check. Ears, check. White bushy tail, check. Just to be sure, he looked in the mirror, seeing a scared brown-furred, brown-eyed rabbit gaze back at him.
“Only a dream” He shakily said to himself, as he had a million times before, “Only a dream.” Carefully, he stood up on two feet. Isaac was ready for the day.
Outside, Isaac immerged from his quarters with a loose pair jeans on. He didn’t mind living here, the dojo that is, just south from the snowy mountains. The weather stayed sunny most of the time. The great mountains kept the storms coming from the north, but fresh, clear air breathed a vitality into the small place. Isaac really didn’t know anyplace else, as long as he could remember he had been stuck here, without parents. It did no good to wonder. He was here, he had been here, and he had to earn his keep here. End of story.
Isaac’s usual morning schedule consisted of looking after the toddlers until the sky was fully blue, breakfast, then helping take inventory of the dojo’s cellars, and finally fetching water from a well in the foothills of the great mountains. These chores were not unusual of a rabbit Eighteen seasons old. Nineteen seasons was the usual age for a young rabbit to quit these chores and move on to more meaningful ones, as well as beginning more in-depth and advanced training. Nineteen seasons of age was also the age where a rabbit got to meet the dojo master for the first time, in person. Isaac couldn’t wait.
The youngsters had been no trouble at all. Isaac kept good natured and upbeat throughout that period, leading them on a great ‘sea’ expedition. Breakfast was uneventful. The cellars were boring, as usual. Next up was the well. With a small sigh Isaac slung a bucket over his shoulder, and set out for the well. The path had proven to be safe enough, but it wasn’t the path that worried him. It was his dream. His dream haunted him. Every night the same images flashed through his mind. The same terror raced through his body. The same shock jolted his heart every time he bolted out of bed in the morning. It was the wolves.
As he hiked up towards the well, Isaac couldn‘t help but shiver at the thought of wolves. He knew that the wolves had been driven from the island one hundred years ago by some Turner guy, but then why did he keep having that dream? The exact same dream? Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, a bush shifted.
“Now you’re just scaring yourself.” Isaac mumbled to calm himself down, “probably just the wind, anyway, there shouldn’t be any wolves out here I mean-”
The bush shifted again. Less noticeably, but nevertheless twitched. Isaac picked up the pace a little. He could hear careful footsteps behind him. Something was definitely there. Isaac broke out into a two legged sprint away from his assailant. He could hear whatever it was break free of the bush and dart after him. Now on four legs, Isaac poured on the speed, to no use. It was gaining. Isaac panicked, I won’t be able to run forever. It’ll catch up. It’ll be a wolf and I’ll die. I’ll die I’ll die I’ll die. Isaac felt something smash into him from behind. He the force rocketed him off balance. Whatever it was, it held on, and they crashed through the forest undergrowth. Isaac shut his eyes tight.
“Barely got ya that time.” A familiar voice remarked, “gee Isaac, you take off like a sparrow.” Isaac opened one eye, and stared blankly at his pursuer’s face, then exhaled the breath he’d unwarily been holding. It was Tribly, his brown strip of fur comically cutting his white-furred face and backside in half.
Isaac opened his other eye, “What are you doing here? You just passed you’re nineteenth season. You’re supposed to be in advanced training!”
“And miss all the fun here with you?” Tribly chuckled, “And you sure did take off like a sparrow.”
“Aw. Get off it!” Isaac playfully shoved his cheerful pursuer. Back on two feet, Isaac saw that they had indeed tumbled through the forest quite a distance. A clear path had been carved into the undergrowth. The bucket was lost. Isaac sighed, “We’d better find that bucket. Anyway, did you meet him?”
“Who?” Tribly asked, his ears twitching a little.
Isaac couldn’t believe it. It had all they’d been looking forward to since they came of eighteen seasons, “The dojo master. Who else?”
“Oh.” Tribly said, his eyes more somber, “Yeah. It’s not what you’d expect it to be.”
“How so?” Isaac asked, curious.
“Can’t tell you.” Tribly evaded, “ But I can tell you that if we find that bucket quick we might be able to spar a little before they expect us back.”
Disheartened, and after a few minuets of thorough sifting through the underbrush, Isaac nearly tripped over the bucket they had been looking for, “Found it.” He said plainly.
Tribly couldn‘t help it, “Looks like you don’t need me around to find a ways to hurt yourself.”
Isaac rolled his eyes, “Lets go.”
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