The Lightning Within Me

Never before did I believe such pain could have existed

Even now I wish my agony could be ended

But they sit there

Watching…

Pointing…

Even laughing as they watch me and my kin suffer…

For many nights, my pack had gone without food

Being winter, the snow made up for water

However just water could not suffice

On some of us, our ribs could be seen

Many were weak and the deaths had been rapid

Beginning with the youngest pup, the elder, then the warriors

Floiria, an omega was one of the first to fall

Weak from hunger she fell whining in the snow

She never got up again for the pack was just as hungry as she was

Though the blood of our own kin were upon our teeth

We knew that it was the oldest laws of nature that drove us to do what we did

However the meat and bones of our fallen kin couldn’t satisfy the pack

For Floiria, in her last days, was like us, walking skeletons waiting for the next wolf to fall…

Two days passed and we had to do with plants, berries, vermin, even bits of our own flesh…

No deer or any of our normal prey could be seen…nothing

It wasn’t long when Verdian, the pack’s storyteller and elder, fell

He too wasn’t spared

Desperate we were

And filled with hatred and anger for ourselves for what we had done

However, for me, my anger would become a wild fire for my own pack for what they would do when another of the pack fell

When the day came I wished I never saw the scene

My own mate, burdened by suckling pups, fell from exhaustion

At once my brothers and sisters leapt upon her

I would have done the same if she had not been my mate

I defended her with all my skill

Inflicting gashes and scratches

But in the end, I was pushed away from her, along with my now motherless daughter

And forced to watch as my mate was…

My hatred for my own pack should’ve caused me to break away from the pack

However my loyalties kept me at bay

With great care, I made sure my young beautiful daughter stayed on her feet

Not even pups, though my people are well known for their care for their children, were safe when a staving pack was about

Soon five others fell; one was a pregnant mother,

Rolian, Condfier, Sunflower, Bluehaze, and Zahiera

All were the elite of the pack’s warriors

Now they were…

It wasn’t long before we came upon deer carcasses

Bucks and hinds alike

Just lying in the sun

But their eyes were open and their stomachs cut open

Their internals melting the snow in which they lay

Clearly, they have been killed only recently

By Man

Seeing the wet internals was a sight that could trick the mightiest of predators

However knowing that Man may be involved held us from running forward

But it was our lust for meat that made us run forward and tear at the venison

Before I joined my pack, I told my daughter to wait for me by the forest’s edge

Until I returned for meat for her

When feasting, my people can become vicious

It might’ve been her who called my name as I fed

But I paid no heed

I tore at the flesh and soon I felt content

Then I felt a contracting in my throat

Then in my stomach then my internals

My lungs suddenly contracted

I fell to the ground as I tried to gasp for breath

All around me my people were snarling and rolling on the ground in aguish

Lightning seemed to strike my body

I heard my daughter cry my name

I called back to her

But my voice was filled with blood and pain that it didn’t seem my own

She cried out again

All I understood was “Man!”

Two metal things came near us filled with Man

Though my pain and contractions I could see they were laughing and jeering

My alpha, who was lying near me, leaped to his feet, despite the pain he was feeling

He made to run towards his mortal enemy

Thunder clashed

Blood flew

My alpha was…

Man…

Man did this all along

They had poisoned the deer flesh and waited for us to appear

There they would laugh and joke as we lay dying before them

Man…

Man!

They must be mad!

They poisoned the deer!

Meat!

And left it out in the open to rot!

They left it to get us in the open!

They left it…to watch us die…

To watch us die in anguish…

Distinctively, I hear my daughter…

What is her name? What washer name?

The poison had not reach my brain but it soon will

Blue wind…

Blue wind…that was her name…her full name…

My beautiful Wind…

Now you’ll no longer have a father…

I’m sorry…

Run, little one, go where no hunter or mad Man can find you

Remember what I once was…

Look upon the world with the eyes of the just and the free

My daughter, you were as beautiful as your mother

Run and be free…live a full live…have pups and be happy

I’ll be with your mother soon…