Shaiden's Story :: Chapter One - Lightning
This is my first story on SoFurry. It is the first chapter of my Fursona's tale. Comments are always welcomed.
Lightning tore the sky into pieces. Though it coursed violently through the heavens with malefic intent, no rain would fall this night. For this was a night foretold in the long whispered tales of the ancients. A story that, while it once had the shape of fact, had been corroded by time and the lash of many a tongue until it could barely be called a myth. Even now, it dare not be spoken too loud for fear it may crumble and be lost to the wind and lightning. The passing on of the legend of Saien Dul'Tara will have to await it's time. This night, all eyes around, above, and below are fixed upon the unfortunate pair scrabbling up the windswept face of Ancientus...
Black pines bowed in unison to the fury of the wind and the chorus of lightning framed them in stark relief for only scant moments before the night pressed in again. Shiera clutched her young son tightly to her side with one paw as the two stumbled along the narrow path of the mountain. She could feel the boy's white claws digging into her where he held on, but she knew he was likely less afraid than she. Shaiden had always been a brave young cub. But even his indomitable bravery could not save them from what was soon to come. That was why she had to press on.
The unusual storm showed no sign of calming as the path wend its way through the trees in serpentine fashion. It was almost fitting, Shiera mused silently as she stumbled a few more steps, that such a path lead to their destination. None but she had journeyed to see the Ageless One in nearly a lifetime, and her visit had been before her son was birthed. The journey was treacherous then and it had been made in clear light of day, a rare thing on Ancientus. Her mind screamed at her that they would never make it while in the night's claws and her enflamed muscles begged her to turn back downhill, but the she wolf ignored them with admirable discipline. The wind had risen both in pitch and fury and tossed her feathery brown mane of fur wildly about her fiery muzzle. The howling of the wind had begun to sound like the howling of a great wolfpack and its gale held no less fury. Shaiden's eyes flashed green through the hellish night.
A sudden detachment of shadows to their left caught Shaiden's eye. His white maw peeled back in a vicious snarl and his penetrating green eyes glowed fiercely amidst his midnight face fur. Shiera caught on to her son's sudden flare of anger and her brown white ears folded back just as they were attacked by detached pieces of the night.
Shadow and claw flashed without warning. A pack of nearly feral black wolves descended on mother and son with an ululating howl akin to the wind. Shaiden flew from his mother's side with white claws extended from his blue tipped paws. The nearest of the rogue wolves was met by a flurry of claws and fangs. The young wolf's efforts were valiant, but they served only to knock his opponent to the ground before the moment of shock had passed. The shadow wolf wrestled with Shaiden, whose claws and fangs opened a few gashes across his muzzle, but failed to penetrate the scraps of black leather that served to armor his dark adversary. A moment later he was thrown roughly into the waiting grasp of another wolf and he found a crude knife at his throat.
Shiera watched helplessly as her son launched himself into the pack of wolves. Immediately she struck a wide stance, low to the ground and her cloak was flung back. Two daggers flashed into her paws, gleaming with reflected lightning. Moving with the wind, she delivered a kick to the chest of one wolf and spun on another unleashing a spray of blood from his throat. Shaiden, now captive and being forced roughly to his knees by the fur on his head, let out a rebellious growl as he beheld his mother slay the enemy wolf. He received a sharp blow to the ribs in answer.
As soon as Shiera's victory had begun, it was over. A sharp blow was delivered to the base of her skull and the daggers fell uselessly from her paws and she sank senselessly to her knees. Shaiden cried out piteously in unison with a ferocious clap of thunder. Before she had a chance to recover her wits, three of the shadow wolves were on her. Two of them held each of her arms. The third had the air of a leader about him. It was not a dignified sort of appearance; rather it was more manifested in the way the others of the small pack seemed eager to please him.
Shaiden railed against his captors for all he was worth, but he was still very young and lacked the needed strength. The supposed leader bent to pick up one of his mother's daggers from the dirt. His fanged grin gleamed in a flash from the cursed heavens as he held the blade up to gaze at it. He winked at Shaiden and turned to slash open the front of Shiera's tunic. He groped her lewdly and she snapped viciously at him. The lead wolf backhanded her with a crack that was not drowned out by the howling wind. Bits of blood and saliva flew from her maw.
"Bah, this bitch ain't worth the trouble anyways!" he howled to his pack. Each one of them was grinning stupidly. The leader grabbed Shaiden's mother by the hair and placed her knife against her throat.
"Mother!!" Shaiden cried out into the night. He struggled with renewed vigor against his captors, but still to no avail. His hind claws dug angry furrows into the ground and the malevolent storm raged on all around him. His mother's voice suddenly rang out to him.
"Shaiden...Shaiden, you must continue on." Shaiden ceased his struggle and his luminescent green eyes found the sky blue of his mother's. Tears had welled up in Shiera's eyes and were now spilling out onto her fur. She yanked a single arm free and reached out to her son with all her strength.
"I love..."
Her knife ran its course across her throat. His mother's last words were cut off abruptly as angry crimson began to soak the white fur of her chest. Shaiden's eyes opened impossibly wide in disbelief and horror.
"No!" Shaiden howled in anguish and rage. He fought for all he was worth and managed to yank one arm free. He immediately used it to rend open the inside of one shadow wolf's thigh. Shaiden's snarl flashed with ferocity to rival the lightning above.
A sudden blow came to his right temple and stars exploded behind the young wolf's eyes. He found himself face to face with the ground, not quite sure how he had gotten there. Darkness and numbing heat were rapidly encroaching upon the edges of his vision.
The last things Shaiden saw before the darkness took him were his mother laying dead on the ground, and the quicksilver flash of a blade swinging in his direction...