Leader Ch. 1: Man

The rain poured down heavy and hard on top of us as I snarled at the deadly alligator teeth that flashed at me while I leapt into the air. The enormous gator’s teeth just missed my legs by an inch as lightning flashed wildly above us. I raced over to my Guardian, standing beside him firmly as our hair bristled straight up aggressively while our exposed fangs did the talking. The alligator raised its powerful head and took another sharp snap at us in a snake motion, moving its head followed by the slide of its stomach.

I jumped into the air once more, but instead of grabbing my leg, the alligator’s large jaws clamped down hard on Guardian’s hind ankle, sinking its teeth right to the bone. An alarming lightning bolt slammed the air as Guardian let out a yelp of anger and turned him to bite the alligator’s nose, twisting and squirming in it the jaw’s tight grasp. I ran up to him from behind snarling savagely and sunk my fangs into the scales of the large green swampy gator, but my fangs just wouldn’t penetrate deep enough to reach the skin hidden beneath.

When the earthquake in the sky rumbled loudly, Guardian let out a bellowing snarl at the gator which echoed through the trees surrounding us which made his name, Quake, stand out strong for him as his head held high amongst the giant brute. He bit at the alligator’s nose, trying to grasp anything that he could in order to break free when he squirmed once more to bite the reptile’s red eye until the reptile let out a deafening roar as its eye gushed closed with thick blood, shimmering in the light of another sharp thunder bolt. It thrashed itself around like a stallion, immediately kicking me away from it and began to throw Quake around as if he were nothing but a leaf in a sharp gust of wind.

After landing hard on my side in the deep mud, I raised my head for another attack when my front leg slipped from under me, right into the mud again. For a fleeting moment, the alligator let go of Quake’s hind leg and completely chomped down onto his entire back leg, almost devouring him whole. Quake lifted his head as his hair bristled aggressively and a loud strong cry of pain sprang from his throat. Never in my days of light and darkness had I heard such a frightening sound come from Quake such as this one.

Lightning flashed in the sky again while the wind picked up as if it were trying to blow right at us to knock us over. The strong winds however brought something to my attention, an animal in the brush. The wind blew hard enough it lifted the muddy leaves away from it’s peculiarly colored skin.

Dead I thought to myself as I stared at its motionless body. I stepped towards it cautiously, stretched my neck out farther and sniffed at its carcass rather curiously, not recognizing its smell to which this creature put forth. Was this what Quake is fighting over with the alligator?

I stepped slightly closer slowly with nimble footing, almost able to count the beats of my rushing heart as I absent-mindedly forgot about Quake and the alligator fight proceeding further on behind me. I nudged back some of the thick brush of dead grass and leaves with my narrow muzzle and gazed at the bundle of leaves covering a whimpering animal. My curiosity once again snagged and tore at my attention as I stepped forward lightly to take another strong whiff of its scent when my mind jolted. I backed away instantly in a quick leap, completely startled by the familiarity now formed within my mind.

I was now able to identify it, even though I had only seen and smelled one other creature like it once before. It was man, human. The creature had no thunder stick within his scrawny grasp, none of which that I could see or smell anyways, and his stench had a heavy odor smell of mud and trees.

Quake snarled at the alligator fiercely loud, shoving my attention out of my curiosity of the man creature and back to my job and place, beside Quake. I looked back at the aggressive teeth between the beast and Quake and began to run back over towards them in order to help Quake when he turned his head sharply to snarl right at me.

‘Den! Take him to the den!’ Quake snapped fiercely out at me as the sky quake rang out loudly again. ‘Retreat and wait for the light, return only when the time is right!’ I looked briskly at his bloodshot eyes bewildered when I was thrown back by the enormous alligator’s tail that swished back and forth ruefully. ‘GO NOW!’
Hitting my head on the mushy mud below my pads helped me realize that he meant to guide the human back to the safety of the den. He had somehow seen me take notice to the man creature. I huffed ignorantly at the alligator and Quake, but collected the human’s hairless paw in my jaw and tried to drag it through the mud, however it would not budge. I turned it around and grabbed it by the ruff of its loose over-coated fur which shown with yellow flowers and black night skies when a new smell came to my senses causing me to drop the hand.

Another beast is near… The swamp was crawling with the monstrous reptiles, so much that you could step on one or two with each step that hid in the dark murky waters of the swamp if you weren’t careful to stick to land.

I dragged the human as far as I could through the grimy mud until out of the corner of my eye a she-alligator’s scales flashed in the light of the revealing lightning as is swiftly changed its position. The alligator’s eyes gleamed devilishly in the light, red and keen, startling me to where I had dropped the little man pup into the murky mud underneath me again, when the she-alligator burst out of the brush with powerful jaws open, charging towards us like a bull.

I stepped in front of the defenseless human, baring my fangs angrily as the alligator stopped slowly to close its mouth as we stared into one another’s eyes as if we were connecting as one. She slunk backwards slowly, opening its mouth slowly to show that it was ready to attack, just like a deadly snake warning its prey to stay back away from its meal until it was too late.

I kept my ground unafraid, baring my sharp fangs as my hair bristled on my back. I was only ready for the clash of the teeth, I had learned from my years of training that fear controlled you and if tempted could harness your control to create you into something no longer belonging to the wild, no longer what you are or were… that was not what I wanted. Behind me, I could hear the slight whimpers of the human echoing in the shattering pit pat of the falling rain and backed up a bit to stand with the human beneath me, in between my muddy, shaking legs. The alligator advanced towards me roughly, it was then that I knew that I there would be no retreat from my opponent.

The alligator snarled at me and again as it drew closer towards me picking up speed to increase its powerful impact from its jaws when it lunged for the human's plastic mud covered foot below me. I snarled angrily as she approached me, my fangs dug into the rough scales of the alligator's snout, digging down to sting the skin. It shook me around wildly while it took several steps back, trying to get to me, only succeeding in tiring itself out.

I clenched onto its snout roughly, holding on best I could while I slashed at its eyes with my sharp claws, digging them into the skin around the eyes until I penetrated deep within the surface merely causing blood to trickle out when eventually my claws dug deep down straight into the eyeball of the wild alligator. The she-gator that let out a loud gurgle of agonizing pain as her eye began to boil in blood flooding from the open socket before she backed up away even farther as I released my teeth. She crept away from the man-pup and I, showing defeat. I replaced the scales of the defeated alligator with the man-pup's loose fur once more, dragging it roughly back through the mud as fast and carefully as I could stumbling only through the slickest of the mud until I reached the cave in the ground.

The brush on the outside snagged at the fur of the human as I tried to budge it into the hole when the rain poured down harder on top of us, I did the only thing I knew to do, remove the problem. I yanked at the loose soft skin, easily pulling it off of the human’s stubby front arms then threw it to the side, shocked at the sight of pale white skin beneath its cover. I squeezed back into the cave in order to pull on the human’s plastic feet right into the shelter of the damp cave.

He'd be safe here... I knew this... I wanted so bad to return to Quake and help him fend off the alligators, but I had made a promise to protect this strange creature and that's what I was going to do. I nudged the human into the corner of the cave where it was warmest and huddled against it gently, listening to it's much slower breathing patterns and unusual heart beat technique. It breathed through its mouth instead of its nose. I stared at the hairless face of the lightly colored man-pup in curious wonder and confusion.

I had never seen man before like this one, it was slightly smaller, not as covered in fur on its face and legs as the one I had last seen had. I had only heard of their thunder sticks that caused so much raucous amongst the forest animals as well, never had I come this close to one. Close enough, to feel and hear its unusually slow heartbeat.

A connection sparked within me, I looked at this human as if he was one of our own, one of the pack. My ear twitched at the different thought as I looked at its five toed short front arms that rested on its chest.

I jumped when I heard a groan come forth from the human’s chest. I backed up a bit and sniffed at it's face, smelling different odors of other man creatures, of other woods and even a soft whiff of some other animal which I had never smelled of before. The human groaned once again but went silent and continued to sleep soundlessly as the rain continued to fall.

I let out a slightly relieved sigh and laid my head on his slow breathing chest, feeling the same connection rise within me once more as I slowly my eyes closed and I relived my puppy hood in the daze of my mind, romping around with my pack until one day the thunder stick had come and destroyed them. It tore them apart and I was left alone in the woods with man chasing after me like a bobcat until Quake appeared and rescued me.

After that, he had taken me in as one of his own pups and shown me the trade marks, fighting styles and hunting techniques of the wolf pack and even told me of the different jobs of each animal in the forest. He led me from puppy hood to becoming a full fledged wolf of the mountain when we split from a different pack from the highlands. Every day following the departure consisted of constant hunger, danger and learning.

My eyes opened to the sound of a high pitched wail of what sounded like a deceased mockingbird, causing my insides to growl but when I looked up at the human, it was yelling at me and it backed away from me shaking like a wet pup shaking from the cold. I scooted back slightly, afraid of what was going on but sniffed the air around him then laid on my belly once more, flattening my ears against my head and whined up at him curiously, showing that I meant no harm. This human... he was interesting, he was like no other animal I had ever seen before, and something about his eyes seemed rather familiar.

I looked outside and when I saw the light shining outside into the dark cave, my tail rose instinctively and I darted out of the cave. As far as I was concerned, Quake had not told me of what to do with the human after the light had been shone and I used it for my advantage. I ran through the mud as fast as I could, almost dragging my feet out of the mud, trying my hardest to beat the rain, mud and hard wind that tried to push me back. I couldn’t stop; my heart was thumping as loudly as the wind whistled past my ears where I could just make out the sound of the growling ahead of me.

~*~

I raced back to the fighting scene where the mud was still wet and soggy. The jagged prints of the harsh struggle were still imprinted into the soft ground and with each and every turn of the claws, my fears of finding him hurt raised higher and higher until I saw what might have been Quake, had it been attached to him. I looked around and whimpered frightened in search of him when I heard another whimper call out to me. I raced around, sniffing and searching for the familiar scent until I came to a rocky ditch of rocks and dirt.

There lying at the bottom of the deep trench, laid Quake, torn and ripped just about everywhere. His ear was slashed open, as was his side and half of his face. His appearance almost scared me enough to keep me from jumping down there with him, but I slowly edged my way down and stood beside him whining gently for him to get up and join me. He whined and looked up at me sadly. ‘The human... take him to the mountain... Eagle Mountain... there you will find... the fountain... when the fourth season arrives his pack will come to claim him... help him... guide him... teach him what you have learned...’

‘But I know nothing of this human! He has no fur to keep him warm! The fur he has does not stay on his white skin! I do not understand his language of communication! Quake you mustn’t give up!’ I whined and tried to help him up but he sharply bit me away from him.

‘No...’ he said gruffly. ‘My sun has set... my days of roaming are over, now… it is your turn Kyros...’

‘I can't! I cannot act as the Guardian of the Mountains and Forests! I don't know how…’ I complained frightened when I heard another deep warning growl. A bobcat, it had come in search of a meal and smelled the spilled blood of the wolf and alligators. I began to tremble and shake nervously but stayed beside my torn up friend. ‘I have no other kind like myself if you leave me...’

‘This is the time… for you to forget the pup Kyros… my apprentice… it is your time to take the stand as Guardian…’ his breath stuttered ‘When the sun sets on us, there is no argument that you can give to the spirits... take him to Eagle Mountain... there to the fountain-‘ his breath sharply stuttered for a few seconds before he was able to go on ‘-he will learn our tongue... teach him our ways... teach of nature’s laws... he'll pass it on to his pack and save the forest one day... teach him…’ Quake breathed softly as he closed his eyes with ease. His chest stiffened and his spirit left his defeated body.

‘But wait! How will I get him to follow me!? How do I even get him to trust me!? I barely know the way to the mountain myself! You've only told me of the fountain, I've never seen it nor have I ever visited it! Oh you can't leave me with these questions! Please!’ I whined sadly but there was no answer, just slicing silence. ‘Quake? Guardian? Please awake; I cannot fish very well, not well enough to feed two. I have not even mastered hunting big game yet! I still have much to learn! You cannot leave me if my training is not yet over, please!’

The bobcat's growling and hissing grew louder as it approached me closer and closer. I looked into the darkness with frustration but looked up and darted up the steep muddy hill. When I had reached the top, I gazed over the edge to see the bobcat circle Quake but I turned away so I would be blinded by the sight of the movements of what my ears caught. I looked back at the muddy road. ‘It's... my turn...’ The wind whistled and howled in the breeze of the trees, giving me restored hope and perseverance, as I slowly walked back to the den with my head held high, my ears flat against my head and my tail slightly tucked between my legs.