A Wolf In Need - Pt. 1 (JP)

By the time Perrine had rode Luna out of the city limits, his face was wet with tears. He felt a flood of emotions.

He was sad for the loss of lives, that had been friendly acquaintances, to a vulgar and dishonorable tyranny. He knew not all Gifted, were innocent, but to use a man’s family against him, innocents, was deplorable. He felt a familiar grief resurface as his memory reminded him that this was not his first encounter with such cruelties.

He felt anger, primarily at EAST and the prejudice inhabitants of Story, but also at himself. The guilt and shame of not being able to do anything in the moment was awful. Dealing with the self accusation of cowardice for remaining silent and escaping, while prudent, didn’t make him feel any better about himself.

As Luna and Perrine finally hit the untamed wilderness he let his emotions boil over and a deep rumbling bear roar of woe split forth from his mouth. It grew in intensity as the spice of anger brought it to a piercing roar of rage. He screamed in such to a point he couldn’t keep riding, and had to get off Luna so he could smash the edge of his fists into the soft ground.

Luna gave him his space until Perrine had finished venting the worst of it. Then she came over and comforted him. Peekaboo did the same.

After recovering himself, they all traveled to the designated rendezvous tree. Sophia and Honey weren’t there. He looked up into the tree and saw Whisp sleeping; he wouldn’t be any help right now.

Perrine took a seat at the base of the tree and rested. His mind was racing with all the inventory, and transportation, they had permanently lost. It was going to make life harder for a time.

He considered going back to the ransacked Gifted community to scrounge things together; however; going there right this instance could be folly. He would have to stay off the radar for a bit. So for now, Perrine waited and waited and waited for Sophia to arrive.

After a long time of waiting, Honey would finally be seen limping her way toward the tree. Her back left leg was injured, damaged by the bullet that had struck her. The wolf wasn't sure what type of bullet it had been, but it hurt. Putting pressure or weight on the leg was very painful and she held it up for now, trying with all her might to endure.

The closer she got to Perrine, the more her distress would be known. The wolf was far less concerned with herself, though. She'd witnessed Sophia's lack of control, the start of that wind forming a twister, and then the poor woman had been knocked out. She understood her human companions need to help other Gifted and innocent people, but this had been foolish.

And now Sophia had been taken.

With a whine, Honey stopped near Perrine and panted in pain.

Luna was the first to catch wind of Honey, the potent smell of blood filling her nostrils well before Honey was even visible to Perrine. She forewarned him to take caution and they all hid as best they could further from the tree. Perrine waited to see who the potential threat might be.

To his disbelief, it was an injured Honey, sans Sophia, limping up the way. The trio came out of hiding and went back to the tree, arriving at basically the same time as Honey.

Perrine knelt down next to the wolf. He could tell she had been shot in the back left leg. He wasn’t quite sure what to do as he glanced over the wolf for any other signs of injury.

What happened? Where is Sophia? he quickly looked up to scan their surroundings. There was no one else.

Honey took this opportunity to lie down, putting her right hind leg beneath her so that Perrine could see the gunshot wound. Looking up at him, she whined softly. They took Sophia. She tried to help, but they took her. I got shot. She explained.

Resting her head on her front paws, she whined again and looked over at Luna, hoping the horse would understand the distress. How would she feel if this loss were Perrine?