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The Blood War

(A collaboration between President Loki and CL1)

Prologue

Two years ago…

Scavenger ducked beneath a trailing fern, giving a shake of her tail as it raked through her dust-brown pelt, parting the hairs and tickling her skin underneath. She could feel something odd in the air; something disturbed the forest around her, and she wanted to find out what.

The snap of a branch echoed through the surrounding trees and she froze, large ears rotating as she took in the sounds around her. Her sharp, dark eyes studied her surroundings, searching out what had broken the branch.

A chill entered the air, and she shivered, causing her shoulders to quake. Pivoting in a slow circle, she scanned the dark trees around her, praying all of this was in her head. Until she turned the last portion of her pivot and found herself staring into two eyes, hidden in the shadows.

Pale blue reflected her face, staring at the creature that watched her. As she stared, the thing stepped out; a wolf.

Her stomach twisted, first at the fact that a wolf was in her pack’s territory; they were hostile to coyotes, and everyone knew that. But the second twist came in pure fear, as she saw what this wolf looked like.

Dusky, gray-brown fur stretched over the front of his face, ending at his upper lip. Black pigment covered his nose, but his lower jaw was smooth and white; his skeleton somehow showing through. His ears, the tips tattered over time, angled backwards as he stared at her with menacing eyes. The backside of his neck was covered with fur and skin, whereas the front half was open to the air, curved white bone and vertebrae visible on the inside. His shoulders and chest were hidden by dark fur, extending down almost to his paws, where the skin faltered and gave way to washed-out bone. From what she could see, his tail and flanks were intact, while the rest of his hind legs were bone, except for his paws, and his stomach was open to the air in the same way of his throat.

A low, rasping rumble escaped his jaws, and they opened to reveal the inside was hollow, except for a tongue which was attached to nothing. Sharp teeth, curving partially outward and pointing towards her, lined his jaw.

Scavenger staggered backwards, heart pounding in her chest and rising into her throat. She wanted to scream for help, to howl for her pack-mates, but she couldn’t choke out a sound.

The skeleton-wolf advanced, jaws widening until she could see down into his open throat. He bore down on her, looming over her with jaws close to her face. And then his teeth closed around her and the world went dark.

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