Prowl

Someone had been interested in her. Demi knew this, and her heart thudded, walking to a slope that elevated a rough tree, large and old. Demi pressed her back on it’s grating bark. She didn’t turn to look at his post. She would think about the intruder first. How had they snuck in her room? Demi felt, as she instinctively shook her head. The thought, animating her into fear. Into a gloomy confusion.
She pulled her hands a tight ball. Biting her lip, pensively as it played in her head. Had she been imaginng things? She tought, if only I could go back in time, and confirm what I saw. The gentle wind nudged her cheek, and Demi peerd at his post. Demi looked under the armpit of the swaying door. Seeing him slumped in his chair, neglected a cup of cold coffee on a small desk.
Demi saw him scrunch up. She liked that. He was going on his patrol. Spanning out his arms, fingers knotting in a tired yawn. He yanked up his belt, and uunfurled to the sunlight that baked his red face. He looked up at it with squinting eyes. You beat me Demi had imagined him saying. Yet another battle loss for him, from the scorching winter sun.
Demi was careful not to crunch the rocks, and stones grained into the sand. She stepped slyly. Loped swiftly. Snuck with agility through the leeway between the gate and it’s wooden counterpart. Once again she had done it. She had escaped to solace. Escaped to freedom.
The air was fresh, when it splashed her on her face. Demi reveled in the greenness of her glade. Skipped to her rock, jarring out of the ground, an unusual gray, merging into the green of the stream of sunlight. The willows whispered, soft songs of friendship and compassion. Demi couldn’t help it, but stretch out a warm smile. But then she remembered.
The last time she had been hearm hear ears had exploded into heat. She had seen a shadow, jumping among the trees. Demi hugged her waist, and suddenly her rock had grown uncomftorble. Pressing her butt with it’s sharp edges. And Demi, see that the whisperes of the willows plummeted into chanting. Maddening, and eerie chanting. Her glade had been snatched from her. It had been possessed. Her consolidation had kept her safe from the possession of Uncle Stephen’s legend. But it had shattered now. The shadow she had seen. Her hurting ears. It was a dangerous sphere, intensified by the sound Demi heard now.
Demi wrenched up from her rock. Swerved back, and saw it. A wolf, glaring at her with beady eyes. Brown coat of fur, rippling under the shadow of the depressed willows. Demi saw as it prowled closer. Beady eyes. Bristling fur, smoothly sliding over it’s nimble bones. The wolf prowled closer, and now a green light settled on it’s wet nose.
The pangs of fear pinched Demi. Pangs. Jabbing. Demi clutched her panging heart. She would cry. Would die right here and right now! Demi’s mouth gaped, and her own head was a bewilderment. Demi would cry, but from the corner of her lashes caught a glimpse. Another one! Peering through the moist foliage on her right. It emerged from the green, and Demi saw with horror as it prowled from the bushes to her. She realized with a defeating thriller that one stood in front of her, and one at her side. She would have thought of death, if only she hadn’t heard a low growl behind her.
Death was inevitable. Demi remembered. Her mother. Her father. Friends. Uncle. Faro. Sam. Her mistakes. Sins. Deeds. It was too early for it to end now. So Demi would fight. She would fight for life. Fight for her family. A mindless creature couldn’t kill her. She wouldn’t allow it. Demi opened her mouth, and forced out a hoarse cry. Hearing it echo between the mountains of the Wolf Basin. TO BE CONTINUED...