Bella
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Winterhawk99
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Bella

Post by Winterhawk99 »

Bella

The Dire Wolf watched the little girl playing from the underbrush surrounding the clearing. It sniffed the air and became confused. It was man flesh, soft and vulnerable...But there was something different about this one. Liria had tasted of man flesh before, and he'd liked what he tasted. But this small one didn't evoke the hunger he normally felt for it's kind. It wasn't a scent, nor was it threatening...But something told Liria that this one wasn't food. As he watched the small one, the wind changed and a scent caught his attention. He'd smelled this before, small greenish things that tasted of foulness. They were close too, not quite to the clearing yet, but close. Liria's ears pricked, faintly he could hear the creatures moving in their futile attempts at being stealthy. Liria's muzle pulled back to reveal his considerble fangs...Foul or no there was a deep seeded desire to protect the small thing playing in the clearing.
Bella sat in the middle of a clearing not too far from her home. Currently, she was twisting little sticks together. They vaguely looked like stick figures of people. An acorn served as the head, bound by thin tree bark to what could have been a very slim neck and chest of walnut wood. Gangly and impossibly long arms were similairly latched to the walnut wood with more supple tree bark, as were some rather shortish legs. Three finished "people" were beside her, as was the remains of several thin saplings that had their soft skin removed. Some of the strips of skin were laying next to her as she worked on a forth tree person. She just finished attaching it's head and was reaching for another strip to start on the arms when she heard a snap from the woods behind her.
"I'm not done yet Brenen! No peeking!" She said over her shoulder, thinking her brother had snuck up on her. She went back to work, until she heard another snap.
"I said, I'm not done! Go away!" She yelled, standing up and turning....And froze. Just at the edge of the clearing, half in and half out of the underbrush, was the biggest wolf she'd ever seen. It froze in place when she turned to it, nearly as tall as her brother Troy, it's fangs glistening in the light from saliva. Blackish brown course fur standing up along it's spine, it's huge brown eyes locked on hers. Bella didn't know what to do...She'd seen wolves before at a distance, but nothing ever this large. She knew she couldn't out-run it, and there were no tree's close enough to try and climb, not that she thought she could get up to a safe distance before it was on her anyways. She knew that sometimes bears would leave a person alone if they thought they were dead, but she didn't know if that worked with wolves too.
Bella was so pre-occupied with what to do that she never heard the sound of the emerging Goblins behind her. Liria, however, had no such distractions. As soon as the first of them ermeged from the brush he lowered down close to the ground like a hunting cat, and lunged forward, leaping the little girl. The first Goblin, thinking the little girl he'd spied would fetch a decent prize in the slave markets was so focused on what she was worth that he didn't even notice the dire wolf on the other side of her. He didn't even have time to yell out as the monstrous beast flew through the air at him...
Liria brought down the first Goblin with his body weight alone, a quick thrust of his head and a jerking bite brought it's life to an end with barely a sound. Behind it, a second and third Goblin, eye's widened in horror, screamed, turned, and ran. The closest of them only made it a few steps before Liria found his mark again, his powerful jaws closing down into the things shoulder. He clamped down and shook his head from side to side violently, tearing muscle, sinew, and bone alike with ease. Then, not bothering to see if it was dead yet, he tossed it to the side and chased the third and final Goblin down. Up until this point Liria had killed mostly for food, or self defence. But this creature had wanted to hurt the child...And a cold rage woke within the Dire Wolf. The last Goblin's life ended, but it was a slow affair.
Bella, as soon as the wolf jumped, fell down onto the ground, covering herself up with her arms as best she could, terrified...She stayed that way for a few seconds until she pulled together enough courage to look around. The wolf was gone, she could hear it tearing off through the trees. She could also hear high pitched screams of terror. Turning around and looking in the direction of the noise, she saw the body of the Goblin on the ground, still twitching and bleeding. She'd never seen one of these creatures before, but she'd heard enough stories from her mom to know what it was...Not knowing what else to do, she bolted for her house, running faster then she could ever remember running in her life.


Two weeks later, after Bella's mother would once again let her out of the house, Bella decided to return to the clearing in the morning. She planned to bring with her bread and cheese she'd barrowed from the pantry, just in case the wolf was still near. She'd had plenty of time to think about what had happened, and the more she thought about it the more it seemed like the wolf had protected her. Her brother Troy said she was crazy, that she just got lucky is all. But Bella felt differently, she owed it her life, and intended to repay the debt. And, like many 10 year olds in the world, nothing would steer her away from her new mission.
Liria, too, was entranced by the little girl. Instead of moving on to new hunting grounds, the dire wolf had taken to patrolling the

surrounding lands of the little girl's home. Though there were few real dangers to this area, Liria was compelled to make certain she was safe. The sense he felt for this protection was so strong that he never thought to question why, it became as much a part of his nature as hunting. Though he was wise enough to keep out of sight of the others. Their scent was close to that of the little girl's, they must be litter mates he reasoned. But they didn't have that sense about them, the sense he'd felt from the little girl. So by day he'd walk the lands around the modest house, and by night he'd watch the house itself wondering when the little girl would emerge again...
What Liria didn't know was that his were not the only set of eyes that watched. From a hallow place in a dead tree a small badger peeked out at the world. But in a very un-badgerlike manner he watched the Dire Wolf while it watched the house. This was one of several nights that Sabian Pathfinder had watched this creature. He'd heard from many of the animals in the area that a great wolf had taken up residence close to a small farm house. Fearing that the poeple there were in jeopardy he'd come as swiftly as he could. He'd arrived here the day after the incident in the clearing, and from what the excited animals here could tell him of what had happened he'd decided to wait and watch. At first he'd thought that the Dire Wolf had gone for the Goblins because they were more a threat to it then the little girl, but after a few days of carefull study he was more convinced that this creature was acting as a protector of this family. It was a puzzle for Sabian, Dire animals by their very nature were aggressive creatures. But this one seemed to be acting in contradiction to that nature, at east in regards to the humans in the house. sabian wondered what the wolf found so interesting here. He'd considered approaching the reature and asking. His training as a Druid allowed him to speak with animals of all sorts, even the dire animals. And, while this wolf was one of the larger he'd seen he was confident in his abilities that he could defend himself if the need arose. But if the encounter did turn violent, he'd never know what was so special about this place...So, as long as the wolf didn't threaten the people here he decided to wait, and watch.
After doing her chores the next morning Bella quietly snuck into the pantry and took some of the food she'd marked the night before and, waiting until no one was looking, snuck off into the woods. The clearing wasn't too far from the house, taking her an hour or so to reach. When she finally arrived it was mostly like before, except the Goblin body was gone. Her brothers Troy and Brenen had come out here and taken care of that the day of the attack. Her tree people were even still here, though they seemed less important to Bella now. She sat down in the center of the clearing, pulling out some of the bread and nibling on it, and pondered. Now that she was here, she didn't have a clue as to what to do next. So, not having a better plan, she tore off a piece of bread and threw it to the edge of the clearing...
Liria was patrolling as usual. He'd made a large circuit around the house today, finding nothing more threatening then deer and rabits. He considered laying down for a bit to bask in the sunlight when a now familiar scent caught his attention. Sniffing deeply, he was sure it was the little girl, and she was out of the house. He began trotting, following the scent back towards the clearing.
Back at the clearing, Bella had added soem chunks of cheese to the pile of food at the edge of the clearing. While waiting she hummed abscently, until she noticed a badger poke it's head out of the underbrush, sniffing at the food she'd thrown that way.
"That's not yours Mr Badger." She said with all the seriousness a 10 year old could muster. The badger for his part, looked up at the little girl, back to the food, then disappeared back into the underbrush. Smiling to herself, Bella went back to humming.
Liria didn't take long to follow the scent back to the clearing...And there she was again, very much like she was when he first saw her. He also smelled the food, and while he preferred fresh meat, like all wolves when necessary he'd scavange anything eatable. And in this area, the game was a little scarce for a wolf of his size. But first he quietly made a circuit around the clearing, he wasn't sure why but his instincts told him something was out of place. He couldn't find anything that seemed threatening though, so finally he stepped out
into the clearing, slowly and postured as non threatening as was possible for something as large as he was.
Sabian, comfortably sitting in a think tree branch partially overhanging the clearing, watched the scene unfold below. The Dire Wolf had made a circle around the clearing before stepping into sight of the little girl. Sabian had tensed when the animal had begun to circle, fearing that it might indeed attack. But a long standing study of animal behavior suggested to him that this wasn't an attack pattern. More likely the Dire Wolf's keen senses had picked up on him, or at least the notion that it was being observed. He watched, and a sense of what was happening began to develop. All Druids share a special and potent connection with nature, and many Druids often call upon the animals of the natural world for friendship. Though in most cases this requires a certain degree of training, of learning how to tell the moods of animals, and later to converse with them. Often a powerful bond emerges between a Druid and one of the creatures it regularly converses with, becoming loyal companions. But there were stories, stories of people who's innate affinity to nature could manifest without
training...Was it possible that this child was one of those rare few? It that was indeed the case then this child needed attention, and immediately. If she did possess this innate affinity, there were dangers involved. Druid's could call upon powerfull magics, drawn from nature itself, and if untrained these magics could manifest in disasterous ways.
Bella saw the Dire Wolf come into view, as if it were invisible before. She remembered vividly the first time she'd seen this creature, most notably it's gleaming teeth. For the first couple seconds she thought that maybe this wasn't such a good idea...But this time there were no teeth bared, no hackles raised. It stood, rather plainly, just looking at her. Slowly she tore off another bit of cheese and tossed it, carefully and slowly, in the direction of the wolf. Liria watched the small morsel fall to the ground just short of him. A quick sniff told him nothing else was nearby that might be a danger, so slowly he lowered his massive head and scooped up the cheese, swalling quickly. It wasn't as good as fresh meat, and it almost got stuck on the roof of his mouth before he swallowed, but it was good enough he thought. He looked back to Bella, and bobbed his head up and down, waiting for more. Bella, her worries about this creature quickly disappearing, took another piece of cheese and tossed it a bit more forcefully this time. Liria caught the cheese in mid air this time and chewed. He shook his head a bit as some of it did stick in his mouth this time, but finally got it down. Bella giggled, guessing at the what happened.
"You've got to chew more slowly silly!" She said happily. Sabian, up in the tree, watched the exchange for the next few hours. He was confident now, beyond any doubt, that the Dire Wolf was no threat to these people. But that still left the potential problem of what this girl could become. He would have to think on how to best approach the situation, but at least now he could feel secure in the knowledge that these people were safe...


Written by Katdoral
CTP team member
http://www.harvestmoonconsortium.com
Chief cook and bottle washer for Harvest Moon

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