In the Dirt

Chapter 1

The last day of autumn rolled over them both. Like a wave dawn crashed against the mountains slicing the night sky into streaks of red and golden light. As the star's faded into blue the seafoam like clouds became illuminated by the sun. The heavy snow they poured on the peaks far off reflected that light. This tranquil scene started the day no different than any other, but the rising sun, raised with it a feeling of uncertainty. That feeling came on as quickly as night had into dawn, it lingered in and left behind the slightest bit of longing, taking root on that same, yet different morning.

The train pulled into the station; and with a puff of air, and a small whine, it came to a stop. Kyle had rested his head against the window as he had done every time he'd ridden this train before, and like every time before, the sudden stop woke him up when his face bounced against the glass.

Once jolted he would, as he did, be leaning back in his seat, watching the clouds roll calmly beyond the mountains, as the other passengers disembarked. The last stop on the route of the Skelta Train rested in the mountain side far north of the southern cities where it originated, the rail itself cut across the cliff. The only thing keeping them from the canyon below, a plunge into the river where many things were tossed over the edge by passing children, was the thin and rusted fence that bordered the drop. When the crowd had thinned, he retrieved his own luggage and headed out into the cold afternoon.

Despite the overcast that covered the sky along his ride, as the sun finally revealed itself above, it offered little warmth, a cold place for one so close to the coast. He concluded it was best to grow used to this quickly. Soon the sun would be nothing more than a white orb hung in the sky, simply a decorative ornament glowing behind a vast blanket of gray. Snow would fall, and the moon would peak over the horizon as the year reached its death.

Far beyond Kyle, beneath the clouds ready to break and the trees with frost starting to creep over them. A wolf rushed through the forest, like white steam from a warm breath drifting inbetween the timber towers that blocked out the sky.

X

The Great Forest was vast, in its full beauty the life in bloom could be mesmerizing, but the seasons changed this forest in vivid was, and now the trees were bare, their bark a pale brown graying all in preparation for the freeze. The rhythmic sound of movement broke the still silence of the wood.

The fall leaves broke beneath her pads as the wolf hurried through the eerie and sacred place. When the green had been washed away in even the weather marks on the boulders that cut out along the mountain side formed eyes, every etch in the bark of a tree, the cracks between dirt and grass, all eyes. The wolf hurried with the feeling the eyes of the forest were staring down and set on her. She wished to escape their sight, worried these great creatures might glimpse into her, judge her, and cause her to become lost within their maze.

When Marie had first entered this territory, the wolf inside warned her-

This place watches all. And always.

Considering the great pressure she felt beneath the weight of the forest's power, she wondered how far south she should go, comparing it to how far she could go. The farther she had traveled, the stranger, and more enchanted the forest had become. But, if she continued, eventually she would arrive at the southernmost territory; the point where no magic would dare to exist. Nice as seemed to her now, it would be too far south.

The place where the forest that grew for thousands of miles abruptly ended, was far more dangerous. For this seemingly unstoppable force of nature had slammed against an unmoving shield; the rabid wilderness, which had been stretching to grow out and cover the world was halted on a line marked by scorched earth and cleaved pines.

The closer she came to the border the more trouble she would face, for all the malice of magic in the forest waited in the south along that line. All to keep locked in those that kept it out.

One day she believed it would succeed in claiming all the land, and she wished to live to see it.

On that day, she would go as far as she liked. That would be a distant day Marie was looking forward to if she could outrun death in the meantime.

Along with the crisp air came the scent of many things. Lifting her snout to the wind a growl swelled within the wolf as her stomach ached. For all the time her elder brother spent talking about his life in the wild, it was not as simple as he'd put it. Marie now regretted only having his lacks advice to guide her. When hunger hits the cold air no longer brings the refreshing chill it once did. Now the coming winter brought grim reminders, and at times it could feel like the world was closing in around her.

"Eat and keep moving." He had once said nodding with such certainty. That had sounded easy enough then, when they were children, but as she grew she now knew that small lesson was a far more complex task.

The wolf stopped, snapping its head as it caught the scent beyond her sight. Instinct carried her through the frail underbrush. Above her, standing on guard, the branches were reaching toward a dim sky heavy with its winter burden. Snow would fall soon, this fact she could not outrun. Marie herself was heavy with thoughts of an inevitable death beneath its blanket if she were caught in the storm that planned to bury this valley.

The wolf began its hunt, cool wind cutting against its fur. While the wolf thought of only food, and the excitement in that moment. Marie thought of the future, of quickly finding any kind of shelter. She reasoned that was what Cato would have done.

The scent grew stronger as she made her way down a steep and mountainous embankment. Soon the deer came into view drinking from the lake and distracted from her presence. With a bowed head the wolf leveled herself pleased by this moment of luck that she had gone unnoticed despite being larger than any normal kind of animal.

In one strong surge she broke the tree line. Like a flash of like, her fur, such a blinding white she could only find it useful camouflage in a blizzard.

"This is our mark." Marie had sprung forward and the deer was beneath her.

The wolf was begging to feed, so the woman inside let it go and for all it would give her. She thanked this kill.

With one release, instinct did the rest. Her muscles burned, the wolf hurled their weight into the meal, ripping into the deer through deep growls. Closing her eyes as the wolf swallowed in a desperate hunger and finally she too gave into the animalistic desire to survive.

There was a second release, a sound of cracking bones. The wolf's eyes rolled back; her body went limp falling to the ground. One deep breath and the wolf was locked back beneath flesh. The great wolves mind sat back and was now only a rather short woman as Marie rose. Anyone who saw her now would think her mad, knees buried in the mud, hands covered in blood. Her wild hair, grown to the ground, unruly, having gone months without being brushed.

Most times she cursed this human shape. Imagining she looked like a matted mess, Marie cursed that it was no human form at all. She could never escape it as there was no hiding what was within. And this disheveled form with white hair and wide orange eyes, too large for her face, who was too animal to be human.

The thought of how anyone might see her was laughable. She shook her head at the thought, hoping to shake it forever. In ways she was human, in others she realized that could not be true. The wolf had always been inside her; it was her.

Still, she came into this world the same as anyone else. A warm, wailing, and fragile infant held in the arms of someone who loved her. That should have been enough to be called human, but that was just a dream.

Marie stared at her hands. The blood now rocked her with nausea and her simple facts were meaningless. To not be human by human standards was wrong, that fact was the only one to ever matter.

Over time she learned for herself, all the things she'd seen ensured it was no secret to her now. Even if she desired a normal life, she would not be allowed one. Good parents warn their kids about the danger of the hunters, those who fight back the forest and harm any creature of magic they come across, but children don't listen.

"Why would anyone hate us? What did we do wrong?" That's what the innocent mind thinks, all they'd wanted was to stay in that house together, and they were foolishly trying to understand the irrationality of a corrupted world. It might have been blamed on a genetic trait, something that made her family find running preferable, or it was the only option for their own in the end.

Having thought on it, she knew now how the most well-meaning gifts became curses. She turned to approach the lake the lake, then took a step in, slowly at first, the silt caught between her toes as she waded out. The water relaxed her system inch by inch, with frozen bones and a silenced wolf, Marie found it enjoyable.

When it reached her waist the chill caught her bones, she rinsed her hands as the blood rose to the surface dissolving into intricate spirals. Soon, she sunk her shoulders beneath the clear surface. One simple kick back allowing her feet to float up and she was drifting parallel with the earth and sky.

As she adjusted to the cold her thoughts returned. A daydream of warm brown curls, green eyes, and a familiar breeze that reached out to touch her face. The wolf howled in the front of her mind, as she remembered the all too normal faces smiling back. As if normality saved any of them.

The wind rocked the lake with waves and rocked her with sorrow.

Looking up at the vast wonder above, the clouds that reflected down upon the glass complexion of the icy water. Marie wished, if she could float up there, above the earth in a lake of clouds. She imagined, to float forever beneath the overcast sky, this could be her peace.

Nature was fair, within the life cycle all things had a place no matter how bizarre they appeared. Here no prejudice lived; here she was the true hunter. Not a monster, but instead a vital part of a bigger picture. The earth knew balance.

"I could stay here." She thought, if she could survive here, she could stay. Those were the only rules of the true earth.

Her mind tumbled over itself, over a father who found his own life running beyond his control. While Marie thought her own reasons seemed justifiable, so had her fathers at first.

Now he was dead, and where were the rest? All the same.

Her chest tightened thinking of a brother who had no problem turning from her, from those who needed him most while she stayed, and sacrificed. At least her mother left the world before everything fell apart; she didn't have to see what became of her disappointing children.

Marie wasn't running from responsibility, from her family, or the past. When she decided to run it was from a very real threat. A danger that terrified her, more than just memories that haunted her dreams, but those that hunted her when she woke. The world had all fallen to pieces years ago and left so many crushed in the rubble. There was no way to hide, or escape it, there was nothing to protect them. She and those her age had been born in that rubble, into a broken world. No matter where she ran to, eventually she'd be running again. It rang true, without fail. That truth became the grounds for a personal religion of hers.

The religion of not getting caught, of not getting killed, of running, and pushing away the thought of things you could not have, and the life you could not live.

"A day like this, it's the same as that day." The wolf bared its teeth, the change in weather brought out some beast within, something more than the wolf, a monster she had locked away in her youth. It was a memory, one brought on by the cold that ate away at her until she thought to let it burst out.

Today it could not.

Today, Marie could not let it rip her apart. She clasped the lid down and screwed it tight, but her thoughts drifted off in escape before she could bury them. If she thought on it, fell back into that place where dark thoughts resided, then she would not survive the cold ahead. And this all was the fault of the unbearable cold crushing down on her.

Marie kept moving, the echoing howl throbbed in her ears.

As Marie made her way back to the shore the cold reminded of another rule.

Shelter, they must find shelter. Otherwise, they could not stay, not in the forest nor the world of the living. The heat of her body caused steam to rise from the ice water it clashed with, but even her own heat would not keep her warm forever.

A rustling on the shoreline catching her attention. The wolf felt and Marie thought, one feeling hungry enough to eat again, the other cautious to attack. Instead they watched as the animal approached, but what came from the trees only froze her with fear. It was nothing edible that came from the forest, wearing a thick winter coat, his mouth buried in a scarf. No, not at all, it was a man.

The wolf had already tucked back in her gut, as she swam behind the rocks. The human, stepped out of the bushes oblivious at first.

In that moment she began to slowly slip out of the water keeping herself in between the boulders that came down the mountain and into the lake. She crept low around them as he walked toward the water's edge. He suddenly stopped and so did she as a panic rose in her, Marie paused as he came upon the deer. His eyes rose, searching; aware something lurked beyond his sight.

As he searched, she observed, a man, light brunette, eyes the same color as the underbrush in spring. He looked so normal, his skin and features in contrast like the cold winter snow meeting the warming soil of spring. Marie envied everything about him. Then she realized in her envious curiosity she was now watching him with her head sticking out from around the rocks.

The world slowed yet she had no time at all as he turned in her direction. Time seemed frozen same as their fixed gaze. Marie wondered what he saw, as both were left standing in a moment of shock with unreadable faces.

The wolf snarled to run from this moment, from eyes like a knife pinning her in place, twisting its way through her chest. Under two eyes that pierced like a thousand, she'd lost whatever words could calm the wolf.

He swung out an arm removing his jacket, and his warm colored skin tone did little to hide the flustered blush flashing across his face.

"Nice weather for a swim?" The man asked with a light breath, gesturing for her to take it, offering it.

Her face grew hot. She recoiled back though he was nowhere near her, skin shredding into fur, the wolf terrified, wailing to escape.

Marie did not fight it, and the wolf carried them, rushing away.

Running through the forest.

Always running.