Kylie’s sensitive wolf ears detected the low growling as it approached. She swished her tail to the side and scooted along her tree branch, nestling herself closer to the trunk. She hoped that her hiding place among the treetops would buy a couple more seconds before the inevitability of her discovery. With one hand, she pulled a small knife from where it was held against her leg by her bootstraps. The other hand clutched her prize, a small green apple.

The growling grew louder, and louder, moving closer to her with each step of the great beast. Within moments, it was positioned right underneath her. Kylie sighed.

“Asalya, do you always have to bother me while I eat?” Kylie looked down from her perch. 

It had been nearly a year since Kylie became a wolf girl, the first anniversary of which would be her seventeenth birthday. In that time, Asalya had grown massive. The grey and white wolf with icy blue eyes now dwarfed Kylie in size. She’d begun to wonder if she was ever going to stop growing.

The wolf looked up to the wolf girl with pleading eyes and a soft growl - a poor imitation of anger that didn’t fool Kylie in the slightest.

“Nope. This is my food. And you can’t climb trees, so I get to eat it.” Kylie started peeling away the apple’s skin with her knife, letting the pieces drift to the ground below her, the apple’s green standing out sharply from the brown, orange, and red of the fallen leaves that now covered the forest floor.

Asalya slammed her massive paws into the tree trunk, sending more leaves floating to the ground. The force would have sent Kylie tumbling had she not gripped tightly to the tree branch with her legs.

“Hey. Not nice.” Kylie waved the fruit in her hands. “It’s an apple anyway. It’s not meat, you’re not going to eat it. You just want it because I have it.”

Asalya kicked the tree again. Kylie rolled her eyes and delicately cut the apple in half, tossing one half down to the greedy wolf below. Sure enough, Asalya sniffed at where the apple chunk had landed on the ground, then curled up beside the tree without touching it.

Kylie threw up her hands, her anger as feigned as Asalya’s had been. She took a bite of what remained of her apple; she hadn’t really expected to eat the whole thing anyway. Asalya was always going to follow her into the woods. Asalya still followed her everywhere, except for inside her home. If Kylie actually wanted to be alone, she’d have gone there.

Instead they went to the forest, a spot a few miles away from Kylie’s hometown of Rodehills. Kylie swished her bushy wolf’s tail. By only a few feet, she was further away from Nighthills. There wasn’t much point hanging out there at the moment; Madeline and most of the wolves would be asleep. And the forest was very soothing, at least when a giant wolf wasn’t begging her for table scraps.

From this place in the trees, Kylie could see the dirt road that connected her and Asalya’s twin villages to the outside world. Lawrence, a local shepherd, was leading his sheep from the river and back into town. Wolves danced in and out of the forest behind the flock, corralling them. Lawrence didn’t even turn his head to check on his sheep, knowing they’d be safe. Though they looked to be hunting, the wolves would never strike. They’d learned that greater rewards came from waiting. This was Madeline’s work, and Kylie’s by extension. It had taken some effort, but in time the towns had become the twin villages of the Shepherd-Wolves, though few outside of Rodehills and Nighthills acknowledged the townhood of the wolf village.

Kylie’s fangs tore easily through another bite of the apple. Her other hand idly scratched flakes of bark off the tree with her sharp claws. She couldn’t have been more happy with them. Like her teacher, Kylie’s ears and tail were grey, but unlike Madeline the hair on her head remained its natural curly red. Her eyes were a soft grey, not Madeline’s bright blue. Her teacher never appreciated dresses with floral patterns the way Kylie did - something the young girl only felt really comfortable relishing in for the last few years. Kylie kept her hair short as well - whenever she’d tried to have it long, it constantly got in the way of everything she wanted to do outside. Her dad had been insistent that she didn’t need to be a wolf to take care of them, that she didn’t need to look like Madeline to be a good caretaker. But Kylie didn’t look like Madeline, she looked like herself. No matter what he said, or didn’t say but said with looks and pauses and moments of hesitation, she wasn’t trying to be her teacher. And if she had been, what was really wrong with that?

Kylie finished the apple, dropping the remaining fragment of the core next to the wasted other half. She was glad to have found this spot in the forest, where the warm colors of the falling leaves matched the warm colors of the sky as the sun set behind the mountains, both juxtaposed by the building chill of the night air. It wouldn’t be long until winter came to the twin villages. When it did, it might become too cold for her and Asalya out here. But for now, they enjoyed having this moment to rest and watch the leaves drift down. Between Kylie helping her dad with household chores, and staying up late to take care of the wolves, she needed it.

And then came the sound of running, of many leaves being rapidly crushed under a single person’s feet. That sound grew closer.

Kylie and Asalya’s ears perked up in unison. Kylie, from her higher vantage, saw them first. They looked young, and their hair was dark, with dozens of long, thin braids that swayed in the wind as they ran. Their ankle-length, formerly white, gown had darkened first to tan then to browned with mud, which was still caked on around the hem. They looked forwards and backwards rapidly. Kylie didn’t need to see their eyes to know they were afraid.

In a single motion, Kylie leapt from the tree to sprint toward this person. Before Kylie even landed, Asalya got up to run beside her. In a matter of only a few seconds, they arrived at the road, yards ahead of the frightened person. 

“Hey!” Kylie shouted down the road. “What’s going on? Do you need help?”

The person changed direction slightly, making sure to run to Kylie. They looked to be about her age. Kylie thought they would stop to talk to her, but they slowled their pace only to grab tight to Kylie’s wrist and pull her behind them. Kylie ran to keep up with them.

“Can’t,” they gasped. Their breath was loud, heavy, and pained. Kylie could only guess how long they’d been running. “Beast. Monster.”

In that moment, whatever burst that had carried the stranger this far vanished. Like a fire, they’d burned until there was no more fuel, and their energy was gone in an instant. Kylie clenched onto their arm, struggling to make their inevitable fall to the dirt as gentle as possible. Asalya, quick to notice, ran underneath the stranger. Kylie let them gently fall across Asalya’s back.

Kylie turned to find their pursuer, but saw nothing. What beasts other than the wolves roamed these forests? Maybe the occasional bear, but none around here were nearly aggressive enough to chase someone down the middle of the road, certainly not for as long as this person had run. It must have been a monster, then. They had to hurry.

They turned the person’s body so that they laid stomach-down on Asalya, with their arms draped around the wolf’s neck. Kylie cut at her own dress with her knife, tearing off a chunk of fabric. She tied the stranger’s arms together, hopefully securing them tight enough that Asalya wouldn’t have to worry about the stranger falling off of her, even if Asalya needed to sprint. 

“Asalya, let’s carry them to Madeline. As quickly as we can.” By the time she and Asalya met the stranger, it had been late into sunset. Now it was night. They needed to get home soon.

As her body turned to face the towns, her ears twitched. It sounded like a tree was falling. Like several trees falling. Cracking, splintering, and slamming into the earth. One after the other. The sound got louder. The trees fell faster. Her hair stood on end and a chill crept up her spine.

Asalya took off towards Nighthills. Kylie did the same. Whatever was behind her was fast, powerful, and terrifying. Turning around to look for it would only waste time. She needed to move now, she needed to move fast, as fast as her legs would carry her down the road and up the hill back home.

Her legs vaulted her up the road, kicking up small clouds of dirt and leaves. Her heart beat so fast she could feel it in her throat. The question of how long the stranger had run entered her mind and instantly exited. A few miles was nothing for Kylie to walk, or to run. Yet it was agonizingly long in a dead panicked sprint. Asalya didn’t seem to struggle at all. The wolf stayed ahead of Kylie even with the added weight on her back. She was very glad for that. A moment later, Kylie could no longer hear the trees tearing apart behind her, but that brought her no comfort. Within seconds she heard the steps of whatever thing was behind her, approaching with the speed of a galloping horse but none of the grace. It was arrhythmic and destructive. She wanted to see it. But she wouldn’t have time. With every step, it gained on her.

For a moment she considered changing direction. If the trees couldn’t stop it, maybe they could slow it. But reaching the towns was the only way to get help. She peered down the road, and could see the wooden arch and single, suspended lantern that marked the entrance to Rodehills. Asalya was going to make it. She hedged her bets that she would, too. 

A few more steps and agonizing breaths and she could see people in the village walking to the entrance, peering towards her in fear and to the thing behind her in horror. There was shouting; she was running. Asalya made it past the arch right as Kylie could feel the steps of the thing behind her shake the earth underneath her. She didn’t lose her footing. She couldn’t. She was only a few feet away.

Kylie stepped through the arch. The beast took another step too. The weight and force of it sent Kylie tumbling to the ground. As she fell, she twisted to land on her back and clutched at her boot. She pulled her knife and threw it upwards and behind her. It hit its mark.

Her eye traced the path of her knife. It severed the rope holding the lantern under the arch. She then watched the lantern as it fell and cracked across the head of the enormous black beast. Kylie had only a second to process what she saw. The mass of dripping shadow, the dark teeth that stretched far too wide and far too deep, the arms ending in a mass of claws. The glowing red eyes. The instant that nightmare appeared before her was the instant it erupted into flames. Kylie’s arms shielded her face from the monster and the heat.

It didn’t scream. It should have. From the gap between her arms, she saw it flail and bat at the fire with its arms as it turned and ran back into the forest.

Kylie watched it go. At some point, Asalya walked up beside her, the stranger still draped on her back, still unconscious. The monster and the fire disappeared into the forest some ways down the road.

More light and noise gathered behind her as villagers came from their homes to see what had happened. More running, and a pair of burly arms picked her up off the ground as they wrapped around her shoulders. Kylie’s awareness rushed back to her all at once.

“Hey Dad.”

James held his daughter tight. He was a large man, though not a tall one, wide in fat and muscle in equal measure. The father and daughter shared few features except the same red hair. He wanted to keep her in his hug. She didn’t want to stay.

As quickly as she could, Kylie squirmed out of his grasp. She was still on a mission; she needed to get the stranger to Madeline. She’d know what to do. But James grabbed her arm. “Are you alright? What was that thing? It didn’t hurt you, did it?”

“I’m fine, I don’t know what it is but it didn’t touch me. I think it was after that person Asalya’s carrying.” Kylie resisted the urge to yank her arm out of her father’s hand.

James let go of Kylie, only to grab the stranger off Asalya. “Come on, we’re going back home. We’ll take care of them and let everyone else sort out what happens next. You need rest.”

The look in James’ eyes told Kylie that there was no arguing with him on this. He was worried about her, and so he was in full protective dad mode. She needed to let him have this. Kylie looked at the stranger again. At the other end of the ever-widening crowd, she could see Madeline’s grey ears sticking up and over everybody. Madeline had made friends with mages and monsters. Of everyone in the villages, she was the most equipped to handle a situation like this. But Kylie couldn’t ask her to help take care of this stranger. Not yet. It’d break her dad’s heart.

“Yeah.” She sighed. She felt her ears start to droop, but refused to let them. “Let’s go.”
“Say goodnight to Asalya,” he said, starting to walk towards home.

She shot him a furious glance, but quickly let it subside. “Even tonight?”

“Yes, even tonight.” He looked at Kylie and down at Asalya. “It’s already been chaotic, and I don’t think making an exception and letting her in is going to help that.”

“But-”

“Nuh-uh. Still my house, still my rules.” He shook his head like he always did when a conversation wasn’t going to happen.

Behind her blank expression, Kylie gritted her teeth. But she stopped, took a breath, and let herself relax. He was worried. Anger wasn’t fair to him. She got down on her knees and gave Asalya a hug. “You did amazing, girl. I gotta go tonight; you go meet up with Madeline and your mom. I’ll give you lots of treats when I see you tomorrow.”

Asalya rested her head on Kylie’s shoulder. The two held the hug for a while, then stood up and parted ways.

Kylie waved goodnight to her wolf friend as Asalya began walking towards the grey wolf ears in the crowd. Kylie started towards home, thinking about how she couldn’t wait to give Asalya another hug.