She had cursed me. Of that I was certain. The moment I had felt that stirring of bravery in my chest, the moment I had let one of my paws step past that invisible border between captivity and freedom, I had fell into the trap that Seline had placed. It was not far fetched of me to believe she practiced witchcraft. She ate children for her pleasure - sacrificing others was not above her station in life. In that moment she had finally taken complete control of me, infiltrating my mind until she would begin to possess me. Piece by piece, a bit of my spirit was sucked into the maelstrom inside of me.

A sharp crack of thunder above startles me from my cover beneath an elm tree, cowering in the larger roots. Soon rain would fall and soon I would have to seek shelter of a different sort else be soaked in layers of unkempt fur. As of late the curse had been active, consuming my mind and creating a schizophrenic out of me. The air is harsh now as it whistles through the branches and the scrape of leaves is no longer comforting. I feel confined. I feel lost. I feel hunted. Nothing is worse than being the one hunted. Always in life I had been dealt and unfair hand and as much as I dreamed of fighting back that was imagination. A fictional dream for the comforts of night.

Sila! Sila! The voice catches my attention, my ears perking as I gaze off towards where I see a robust boy looking with certainty for someone. He does not remind me of the girl I took because I don't quite remember details. What had I done with her, with the others? It creates a deep-seated feeling of dread within me to know that I had done things that I couldn't be sure of. Did Seline.. make me kill them? No! I wouldn't have! I would have protected them, saved them, because I knew she hunted for new blood, hungered for it. My steel-gray eyes slip away from him to survey the world in nervous anticipation of the storm, freezing when I spy a figure in the distance. White. Such blinding white and that splash of rest. I gasp, standing like a rabbit. Is the wolf really there? Am I crazy?

What a meal he would make. She is in me once more, and I snap back to the boy. God, he was huge, how could I hope to outrun her? But I had to try. I trot towards him with a stricken expression on my face. He seems so precocious, that firm set to his lips and brows, but even he could not hope to be spared. Does he think that I bring news of this Sila? Seline has probably already eaten this girl. I feel bad for him but I would do what was necessary to save him even if he didn't know it. I was the unsung hero of the tale. When I stand right before him, our eyes meeting, I say in a dead-pan voice, "You are coming with me," and then I swoop forward and snatch him around the neck. If he struggles he will almost certainly cause himself more pain because my aim is not exact - he will be bruised from the force of my jaws and the way I carry him. If he scratches me so be it, I needed a reminder that if I didn't help he wouldn't be able to do this. He would be dead.

I race with his heavy figure swinging from my jaws, groaning into his fur at the pain he causes me. Mmmm. A spike of adrenaline rushes through me and I race onward as the first of the rain begins to fall in a torrent. I slip in the mud a few times, probably banging his hind end on the ground as I scramble to right myself, and I race towards a group of trees in the distance, rushing into them to get some relief from the rain and to find a wolf waiting inside.

(So if Kite wants to post Rhett's reaction and subsequent theft first then Dargon can post Taika and then Ever will give over Rhett and make her grand escape :P_