Nightfall
Prologue
The indigo night sky shone with the pewter gleam of stars, sheltering the scene unfolding beneath it. Among the shadowy depths of the moonlit clearing of a forest, two massive shapes fought relentlessly, throwing themselves at each other. One tackled the other, and they both fell onto the soft grassy bed of the earth. The smaller of the two shapes untangled itself from the other’s long limbs, and jumped up and away, stepping into the pool of wispy moonlight that bathed the clearing like a spotlight. Tiny particles danced around her in the light as her silvery-blue flank rose and fell heavily. Her fur bristled as a low, guttural growl escaped her throat. She lowered herself and backed up, ready to spring.
The other, larger shape emerged from the circle of trees enclosing the clearing, his shoulders held high, clearly not intimidated or threatened by the smaller wolf like she was of him. His russet fur was mussed from battle, and twigs and leaves stuck out everywhere at odd angles. His intense, proud brown eyes were focused on her as he gazed at her with a challenging look in his eyes. Several seconds of dead silence passed as the two wolves continued to stare down each other, anxiously waiting for the other to make the first move.
The smaller wolf false-started towards the right, causing the russet wolf to react by rearing up on his hind legs and bringing two massive paws down on her flank, grazing the silvery-blue fur that covered her delicate skin with his stronger-than-iron claws. She whipped around snarling, her muzzle bunching up as her lips parted to reveal sharp white canines. She snapped her powerful jaws at him, charging at him. They collided and fell upon impact; rolling around on the ground as claws flew and teeth snapped.
The she-wolf managed to pin him down with great difficulty. He struggled violently, his paws churning wildly in the air. She fought back, narrowly avoiding a claw-cuff to the face. However, she failed to evade the hind leg that grazed down her belly with its jagged claws.
She yelped painfully, instinctively releasing him and crumpling to the ground. He flipped over, back on his paws. He shook his fur as she lay wounded on the forest floor, curled into a fetal position as she tried to protect her belly. The russet-colored wolf smugly padded over to the smaller wolf, looking down at her with an expression of authority.
“I’m not going to let you win,” The she-wolf promised in a weak voice as she communicated with the russet wolf telepathically. She tenderly rolled over onto her belly, wincing in pain when her open wound came in contact with the ground, sending a sharp, stinging sensation throughout her stomach.
"We’ll see about that, Kladi,” he replied with a victorious smirk. “By the way, your narrative of our training was very impressive. I especially liked the description of the forest. It was very well worded,” he praised.
My eyes narrowed and I flicked my tail impatiently. Yes; I was the silver wolf. I silently cursed myself for letting my mind wander while training. This wasn’t the first time that this had happened; I often let my creative mind take off while training with him.
Seconds later, his smirk vanished and his eyes softened as he nudged my injured belly with his reddish-brown snout, sniffing it. I flinched and shied away from him, a knee-jerk reaction.
“Are you okay?” Any complacency he had once shown disappeared from the sharp lines of his face, being completely replaced by serious concern.
“Yes; I’m fine; it’s already healing.” I motioned with my head towards the long gash down the delicate skin of my belly, where the wound had already begun to heal. It was progressively getting smaller and smaller, until the only reminder that there had been an injury at all was a faint, pinkish scar, barely visible under my thick, silver fur. It would disappear completely within an hour or so, leaving not even the faintest trace that there had been an injury at all. All that would be left was the scarlet blood that hardened into stiff clumps of fur.
I stood up, expecting to be greeted with a raw stabbing pain. However, the pain had vanished with the injury. I shook out my coat, the bits of forest debris raining around me as I did so. He sat down patiently with his bushy, russet-with-black-streaks tail curled around his paws. I stretched out my legs (much like a dog might) and then padded over to where he was sitting.
“You ready?” he asked, an edge of mock impatience in his voice.
“Yes, Aaron,” I replied sighing. A very wolfish grin spread across his face, revealing fatally sharp teeth that could easily tear through flesh.
“Alright then, time to head home.” He gracefully rose from his sitting position and headed off into the shelter of the trees. He appeared to glide over the soft, grassy terrain of the forest as his paws failed to make a sound as they came in contact with the ground.
