Runaway

By Thomas L. Burns

Growing up, Matilda Furst knew she was different from the rest of her pack of werewolves: she disliked the idea of eating humans. After enduring repeated attempts to make her "be normal," Matilda took flight and found the world at large was vastly different than she expected. With a group of seasoned adventurers to help her, Matilda must keep secret the truth of her nature and find a way to keep the pack she's running from off her trail.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas L. Burns
• Release date: Dec 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310152993

Thomas L. Burns

Just a writer with too many ideas in his head, and not enough time without distractions to write them all down.

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Runaway

The Beast Within, Part 1

Thomas L. Burns

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Thomas L Burns

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover art by James Frantz III

For Kaylyn,

who put up with me through writing most of this.

Chapters

Prologue

1: The Cave

2: Out of the Wilds

3: Bad Ruckern

4: A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

5: Hunting the Hunters

6: The Morning After

7: The Road to Vertelle

Prologue

With the twin suns setting behind the Kraeger Mountains to the west, caves became visible from the fires inside, giving the illusion that the suns shined through the mountains themselves. If one were to consider the visual without the suns, the fires appeared to spill out from the mountains and down into the valley before them, forming a shining river of light. These fires were more evenly spaced than they appeared from the distance, each fire providing light and warmth to the groups of humanoids gathered around them. Many of the fires outside the caves were travelers who were unaware of the nature of their gracious hosts, but the rest of the fires on the outside, as well as all of the fires on the inside of the caves were surrounded by what the travelers would have called creatures of nightmare. They would not be far off, as the caves were home to a pack of werewolves.

Shadows stretched across the valley with the suns out of sight, leaving only the light from the fires to illuminate most of the valley, though the pale blue moon was full in the sky. Its red twin was still below the horizon and should be coming into view soon, but neither moon would give the travelers much light to see the surrounding area. At the entrance to one of the upper caves stood a group of four, one far taller than the rest, while the shortest two could only be children, though no features were obvious from the silhouettes against the light emanating from the cave behind them. One by one, the fires closest to the caves went out, spreading darkness across the valley until only the bonfires of the travelers blazed against the night. A few of the travelers looked around, becoming aware of the encroaching darkness. Others continued with the meals and quiet conversation, oblivious to the fact that their hosts had put out their own fires for the night.

The largest shadow appeared to lift its head skyward, and let out a fierce howl, as if calling out to others in the area. Soon, several more howls filled the night air, utterly shattering the peaceful silence. As the travelers looked around, they finally understood the change in their surroundings, and started slowly backing in on one another for protection, but grouping together would only make them easier targets. Stepping forward from the shadows, the werewolves had perfectly circled the travelers before anyone noticed their movements. There would be no escape, and likely no survivors. A moment of hesitation by the travelers prompted the werewolves to strike, a stampede of wolves and wolf-men into the frightened and defenseless humanoids who had unwittingly become tonight's prey.

Up at the cave entrance, well above the madness below, the large shadow turned to the others and simply said, Dinner is served.

Almost an hour later, the massacre below had finished. Most of the werewolves had taken travelers, some still living, back to their caves, their fates more than obvious given the events that just transpired. Back up in one of the higher caves, one werewolf was still dealing with a continued burden, and things were about to take a turn for the worse for her, or so she believed.

The giant form lumbered around the small fire in the cave, snarling and lashing out at the smaller inhabitants as if they were constantly in the way. On one side sat a trio of humanoids, two children and their mother. She was watching the agitated werewolf with idle curiosity, while the children displayed more caution and fear than much else. The son tried to keep his focus on something less threatening, while the daughter cringed with every loud noise and every time he got close. On the other side of the cave was another human, though this one sat bound and gagged, with his eyes wide in abject horror.

You will eat him, and you will like it! The hybrid's yell echoed in the cave, though it focused solely at Matilda. She continued to sit in defiant silence while her father lumbered around the fire. When she failed to respond or even acknowledge his statement, the werewolf strode over to a pile of discarded bones, remnants from a previous meal, not yet cleared from the cave, and selected a human femur from the top of the pile. He flayed off what meat remained with his claws before gripping the bone like a club, and then moved so he was standing before his daughter.

Look at me, he growled. Matilda did not move her body toward the sound of her father's voice.

"LOOK AT ME!" he yelled. The girl jumped a bit, but eventually turned her face upward toward the giant werewolf before her.

The moment Matilda's eyes locked with her father's, the hybrid slammed the femur into the side of her face with the full force of his frame. She toppled to floor of the cave, bracing herself on her hands and knees, her vision spinning from the force of the blow. Her entire head raged with pain, but she knew it would eventually go away; it always did in the past, so there should be no reason for it to stay now. As her head cleared, Matilda knew that this could not continue. Eventually he would stop using bones and start using claws, and claws would leave scars.

Get up. Her father's growl was close. Very close.

Matilda shuddered and reflexively grabbed a handful of the dirt from the cave floor. She did not want to stand, and did not want to face her father, but she also did not think she could run.

Before she could move her legs to stand, her father struck again. The sudden impact of the femur against the back of her head blurred her vision and drove her into the dirt again. Even though the bone club was not normally very effective in hurting her or any other member of her pack, Matilda's father could swing with enough force to make the impact painful, and she was certainly feeling the effects of it right now.

I said, 'get up.' Why don't you ever listen, girl?

Matilda blinked back tears of pain, trying to find some strength to fight back, and then she became aware of the dirt in her hand. Her father would rather see her starve if she did not start accepting the meals he so generously provided for her. It was not only her father that caused grief on the issue, as her mother had also talked about how she was denying her nature by not wanting to eat humans. With both of her parents unwilling to let her be herself, Matilda knew staying with the pack was going to be a dead end for her, as they believed like her parents did. She also was not sure if she could pass as being old enough to live on her own among humans, as she guessed that she could pass as a girl of fourteen summers, and she did not know how old one needed to be in human society to be an adult. At least she had a better chance among humans than she did staying with the pack.

Matilda pushed herself up off the ground, and then pulled one knee up under her body, using the change in position to force herself up off the ground and into a standing position. She kept both fists balled up as she stood, hoping to conceal the fact that she had some dirt in her hands, even though she still had no idea how or when to use it. Whatever she was going to do, however, Matilda knew that she had only one chance at it.

Georg Furst slowly paced around her, the femur still held firmly but low. Matilda waited to see if he would stop behind her or not, nervously quivering at the unknown of her father's next action. When he came back into view, she struggled to get her eyes to look up at him. Her cheek still burned from the first strike, and a tear rolling down the surface did not help with the pain, but her vision had finally cleared, allowing her to see him at his full intimidating size. Considering her escape options briefly, Matilda knew she would need to get a good head start on her father if she hoped to outrun him and the rest of the pack.

The terrified human on the other side of the fire had soiled himself again, the fresh odor drifting to her nose from the breeze coming from the entrance to the cave. She knew that the entrance was to her right, and with running being her only actual escape option, her challenge now was to find an opening to act. As she tried to focus on her father, Matilda realized that he was about to give her that very opening.

Look at me, he growled, much calmer than he had been speaking. His tone was still very authoritarian, and the more than two feet of height difference between this small girl and the giant hybrid form of her father forced Matilda to crane her neck upwards to look at his face. Changing would have made the difference in height slightly smaller, but Matilda knew that doing so would have been very disrespectful in her father's mind, and given his current mood, may very well be the last time she ever shifted in her life.

Wordlessly, her father sneered down at her, reveling in his size and power advantage. He drew back his arm to strike again, making his motion very deliberate as if trying to instill fear in his target. While she did feel some fear, Matilda also saw the chance she was looking for, and tossed the handful of dirt directly into her father's face. She did not wait to see how this affected him, as she turned and sprinted toward the entrance to their cave while she heard him stagger back and then scream, as he either stepped into or fell onto the fire. Not wanting to lose her chance to escape, Matilda dared not stop to see the result.

When she was a few strides short of the entrance, Matilda shifted her body, taking on the appearance of a wolf, with markings similar to the rest of her pack. An unintended side effect was the loss of what little scraps of clothing her father agreed to allow the family to wear while in human form, but those scraps would only serve to slow her down during her escape. Making full use of her now increased speed and agility, she leapt from the ledge toward the underbrush below. This was a faster descent to the valley below, compared to the safer but slower path down the mountain trails the pack has made over the years. The underbrush and trees would serve to make the run noisier, but she knew that few if any of them would try to follow her down this part of the mountain, and would rather take the paths instead.

Well aware that the pack can track by scent, and with the sudden sounds of the rest of the pack coming out of their caves to figure out what has happened, Matilda knew she needed to reach the water as soon as possible. The water would not be able to prevent them from tracking her once she reached land, but it would at least help slow them down. She hoped it would make tracking her harder when she got back out of the water upstream, assuming that she got there with enough of a head start up the river and not be seen or heard going that way. In the distance behind her, Matilda heard her father bellow out orders to chase her, making her head start that much more important.

As she broke through the end of the underbrush, the clear sky left the valley bathed in moonlight, as the faint blue moon Sharesh was full and unobstructed, and shining brightly in the night sky. Lawarna was also visible as a bright red crescent, but it was much lower in the sky and did not provide much illumination at this time of the month. In either case, she could see as if it were daylight, and therefore Matilda knew she had no cover of night to help her unless clouds rolled in. She glanced quickly over her shoulder to see some of the more reckless males had taken to the underbrush, but they were much larger than she was and were not making much headway due to their size. Most of the rest were using the slopes, and nearly all of them were in hybrid form, waiting to see how much of a head start she had on them. The knowledge that nearly the entire pack was going to be chasing her made Matilda dig in a bit more with her paws to try to gain more speed and chase her freedom.

She turned her focus to the river, as she would be a little safer there compared to being in the open as she was. Matilda loved swimming, and most her pack could do little more than slowly slosh around in the water in wolf form. Maybe she could even use it as a diversion, as she knew she would need all the assistance she could get while trying to escape. Gulping down more air as she ran, Matilda worked hard to keep ahead of her pursuers, but with each stride she made closer to freedom, the cacophony of the pack gradually grew louder as they narrowed the distance between them.

The sudden appearance of a caravan between her and the river caused Matilda to veer to the left and run along the river downstream instead of upstream as she intended. Heading for the waterfall changed her plans, but maybe she could make them believe she killed herself instead of just ran away; that may prove to be a better way to disappear from the pack. She glanced back to see as a large portion of the pack turned to go after the caravan, but the faster members were still chasing her. Matilda knew how much sway her father had within the pack, despite not being the alpha, and the fact that they continued to chase her was a sign of their devotion to him. Lowering her head, she refocused her effort and dug in more as she tried to outrun the wolves almost literally able to nip at her tail.

She was familiar with this part of the river, as she often ran down here to get away from her father from time to time. The waterfall ahead ended in an isolated pool that she would often spend time swimming in, as well as doing her own hunting when she was hungry. There was an old cave behind the waterfall, was difficult to find even when you knew where the entrance was, and it would serve as a good hiding place for a while. Matilda knew the rocks of the cliff were normally not difficult to climb down if one took their time, but she also knew that there was no time tonight, as stopping to climb would prove both time-consuming and potentially fatal.

With the rocks approaching quickly, Matilda could feel the wolves on her tail, trying to get a grip on it and pull