Young Writers Society

I waved my pipe.

"It's a good thing I have this, then," I said. "I vote we knock it unconscious with a hard hit to the back of the head. That usually works well for me when I don't want someone to put up a fight."

Vankous

Vankous nodded to Susan as he finally made it all the way to the top of the stairs. This wolf was going to be a major inconvenience at this rate. He heard Skull mention something about a roof and turned to follow. Those were not usually the best places to fight large hungry and possibly mutated animals, but in this situation that seemed to have the best chance of being a decent sized open space.

With Susan bringing up the rear, the two of them made it up to the roof just as the other two also made it out onto the roof. Vankous immediately took stock of their surroundings, trying to feel for anything that could be of substance. From their current vantage point he could see a lot, maybe too much. It was a city that looked liked it had seen better days and even more concerning, it looked like a city that was closed off by something. Whatever the thing was, Vankous couldn't tell without touching it, but even from here he knew it was powerful and designed to keep things in, not stop things getting in. That was never a good sign especially when you happened to be on the inside.

Before he could voice that opinion, Skull was suggesting they know the beast out.

Susan

"That's not the worst idea, but I think pushing it off is the best idea," said Susan, chiming into the little conversation that was brewing up around them. "Because umm, well that hit to the head that it just received would knock out most things for a few hours. We could probably knock it out cold if we all tried but I highly doubt either of us has the strength to get it to stay knocked out for very long and we don't want that thing waking up. If we push it off the roof, I think we have a higher chance of stopping it for longer...either that or maybe we try to find a way off this roof. I could float...Vankous can fly a coupe of people out..maybe more?"

"I concur," said Vankous, sliding upto them after peering thoughtfully out into the distance somewhere and waving his hands a few times. "Whatever that thing is, I highly doubt its the only one and we need to look at exploring this place a little better. From what I can see...there's something around here designed to keep stuff in, which is a good way to know that this place is very, very bad for us."

"So we're fighting now?" asked Sophie in a panic, "But with what exactly? Do we have anything here to hit the wolf on the head? Or has someone hidden a gun or is a mage?"

Sophie thought the time was passing far too quickly. She could literally feel the beast getting closer with each new step, and with it, her end. And she still had so much to do.

"Does anyone have any more concrete ideas besides knocking the beast out?"

"Relax, Sophie," said Violet, giving the other girl an easy smile. She slung an arm around her shoulders and pumped her fist in the air. "Nobody's gonna die. Besides, I think Susan made some good points."

She stepped away and gestured at the wolf. "If we come up with a good plan, I think we can send it over the edge. The edge of the roof, that is." She laughed.

I waved my pipe again for emphasis. It seemed like it had mostly gone unnoticed, even though I had already tried drawing attention to it once.

"We can use this to knock it unconscious," I offered, "and then we could push it off the roof. If the hit to the head doesn't scramble its brains up, I'm sure getting turned into a pancake on the ground would."

"That already sounds like a plan, but for that, we have to let the monster up to us. And who says that the blow and the fall will knock it out?"

Sophie wasn't sure it would work, but at the same time, she had no better idea than blowing up the whole building. But she lacked the explosives for that.

"Alright, let's get ready for this 'plan'."

The wolf clawed its way up the stairs, leaving scuffs on the steps. Its entire body was heaving as it pushed itself through the narrow walls. Spittle flew from its muzzle onto its matted fur. Even in the darkness, they could all see stains on its teeth and gums. Any second now, the wolf will get on the roof.

"We have to try," said Violet. She took a deep breath and exhaled, gripping her knife tightly. "It's probably our only chance to live."

That was a more dramatic way of wording it than I would have, but I appreciated Violet's sentiment and how seriously she was treating this. I also could maybe see Sophie's concerns, but at this point I was just ready for a fight.

The wolf finally burst free from the staircase. It growled from its spot in front of the stairs, ready for a fight and a meal. It eyed the group of us like it was trying to decide which one of us would taste the best. I was mildly offended when it turned to Sophie instead of me.

Vankous

Vankous might not like half the people here all that much, but well over ten millennia of instinct is hard to shake off, especially when a voice that sounded disturbingly like Harry was quick to point out that he was probably one of the few people who'd been trained for these situations.

Dutifully, he proceeded to dive in front of the wolf and Sophie, casting a shield with a waved hand and a muttered word. In the rush of it, he didn't bother to use a word from a less powerful language, and as a result the incantation for shield seared into the air, the heat from it singing the wolf's face before a sheet of purple energy erupted once again. As the words faded, Vankous quickly dispelled it. Some forms of magic just weren't meant for certain world, not without scouting them out first. He flicked his wrist, checking to see if the backup weapon gauntlet that Jason always insisted they should carry was still on him. It was. He was going to have to figure out a way to not use it if possible or Jason would be insufferable.

Susan

Susan barely had a chance to blink before Vankous was fending the now attacking wolf off. She took a few tentative steps towards it.

"Don't take your eyes off of it at any time even if you're going backwards. Try not to go anywhere near a corner if you can help," she rattled off remembering the advice Jennifer had given her the first time she'd had to deal with something like this.

Susan was so not the person for offensive anything, but she had to help, so she jumped into the fray, hoping this wasn't going to go badly. She'd faced a kraken that spoke in haikus and come out physically and mentally intact. She could do this.

When the wolf had managed to get up the stairs and onto the roof, it was as if a loud bell had just rung inside Sophie. She was paralysed when the wolf cast its gaze on her and could do nothing more.

It all seemed like slow motion as the monster's eyes came to a stop and watched Sophie deep into her eyes. It was a moment where she didn't know what to do, and it seemed as if the others could do just as little when Vankous seemingly came between Sophie and the wolf and did something. Sophie was not sure exactly what to do when Susan was still talking.

"This tip is not really helpful! Can't we all jump on the monster and punch it somehow? Or use some magic?"

And already Sophie was back to hoping that it was a dream or a video game and everything would have a happy ending.

"Anybody willing to jump first?" she asked full of fear.

The wolf had been successfully—but temporarily—prevented from getting to Sophie, but Sophie had a point. Someone was going to have to attack it first.

I was also the one with the pipe right now, so I knew what I'd have to do.

I rushed forward, sidestepped the shield, and swung my pipe at the wolf's head with everything I could. It didn't instantly pass out, but it did stand there stunned.

Vankous

Vankous couldn't help but scoff at him for charging out of the shield like a grade A newcomer but he had to admire the bravery even if he stamped it down immediately. He leaped into action before Susan could do something stupid and punch the wolf to save the ...person.

Firing a spell that should have sent the wolf skidding backwards, he sent a wave of energy in a line towards the edge of the roof.

"I think its time to get off this roof...if you could all try and jump, I might be able to catch you," he said. He wasn't going to sugarcoat this, magic was hard to do in an unfamiliar environment, but they had to do something.

Susan

Susan conflicted between staying behind and leading the charge off the roof, dived in front of the shield herself. She was going to see that this wolf didn't try to bite anyone that actually was tangible.

Jump off of the...?

"I thought the plan was for the wolf to go off of the roof!" I protested, keeping my eyes on the wolf and my pipe raised. The temperature dropped a degree.

Sophie was still a little taken aback by Skull's brief attacks that she barely noticed Vankous saying they should jump down.

"Are you out of your mind?" Sophie shouted, trying to give voice to her anger and fear, "Then why did we even come up here? We have to get out of here but not like this!"

Sophie looked around, but it seemed as if hardly anyone noticed what she had said, especially with the wolf drawing all the attention to himself. The monster seemed to stretch as if preparing to attack and growled once briefly before roaring.

The echo could certainly be heard as far as the horizon and gave Sophie goosebumps that made even her head hair stand on end.

"Jumping doesn't seem so wrong," she muttered, wondering if a broken leg would be better than ending up in a wolf's stomach. Whereby it could then end up like Little Red Riding Hood...

"Do we jump?" asked Sophie to the crowd, not waiting for an answer, but continuing slowly to the edge of the roof.

"Let's jump!" she said loudly and jumped first, "Please catch me!"

"Looks like we don't have a choice anymore," said Violet when Sophie disappeared off the edge.

The wolf stumbled forward, snapping at Skull. Violet wracked her brain, and an idea came to mind. She threw her shoe. It hit the animal on the side of the head, and the wolf slowly turned its head toward her. It would have been comical if she didn't see a murderous glint in its eyes.

Then the wolf pounced forward, faster than she thought it would go. Violet somersaulted to the side, barely missing its razor-sharp claws. The wolf slammed into the wall heavily.

The building shook.

Violet stumbled to her feet and raced around the stunned animal, grabbing her shoe. The wolf was already starting to get up again, albeit slowly. There was no time to put on her shoe. Violet leaped onto the edge and jumped over.