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I

I

TO ELYSIE, THE forest seemed unusually quiet for the break of dawn. The sky had lit up with the pastel orange shades that normally appeared in the morning but the shrill calls of the birds and the ear-splitting chirps of the crickets didn't accompany them.

A small twig snapped in the distance and Elysie's head slowly moved up in that direction. The light was streaming in between the tree branches in front of her and some small movement distracted her from the sun rising. A small smile formed on her face when she saw a larger than average rabbit spring out from the underbrush, its white coat coated in a thick layer of mud.

Elysie took a step towards the animal, the leafy twigs underneath the heavy soles of her boots crunching noisily. "Hey there," she said softly.

The rabbit looked up at her. Its eyes were beady and black, so dark that they greatly stood out against the light green, earthly background.

A sudden sharp crack echoed through the trees and Elysie's heart started pounding melodramatically in her chest. Her eyes darted through the scenery around her, desperately searching for the cause of the noise so she could put her heavily beating heart at ease.

When she spotted a large reddish shape hiding in the bushes, she took another step toward the noise. The rabbit next to her retreated quickly into the bushes, which Elysie would have noticed if the forest hadn't been so quiet.

The large red shape from the bushes leaped out suddenly, its large body launching into the air after the rabbit. Elysie didn't move a muscle, the wolf's presence sending her body into shock. The wolf's teeth sank into the rabbit's small neck, immediately tearing through the skin. She backed away nervously, trying to make as little noise as possible as the wolf continued to feed off of the innocent creature.

A few feet away from the clearing where she would have to pass to retreat to her house, the wolf finally finished eating and turned its attention on the girl. Elysie took off in a sprint, her heavy boots weighing her down as she ran. She slipped them off as she went, her feet squishing in the morning dew deposited on the little blades of grass.

The light footsteps of the wolf would not have been heard if it wasn't for the twigs snapping under the large weight. Elysie knew the wolf was gaining on her, she wasn't stupid enough to think she could outrun such a blistering animal. Knowing it was her only chance, she ventured off to the right where the forest grew dense and the trees covered her tracks.

The first tall tree she saw, Elysie tried not to slow her pace as she launched herself up, wrapping her small hands around a branch slightly above her head and pulling her weight up. She swung her feet over and balanced on the branch, reaching up so that she could acquire as much space between her and the ground.

As she climbed, she realized this was the first time she ever heard of a wolf that large in the forest. Wolves usually tended to go North towards the border of the village, let alone wolves the size of the one Elysie was running from. She was curious. Gently, she reached down to make sure her bag was still slung over her shoulder, and despite the fact that tonight might be her last, she was excited to sketch such a scarce beast.

Once she was fifty feet or so off the ground, a panting Elysie stopped climbing, resting her back against the hard bark and gripping her jacket tighter around her shoulders. It was deep into Winter and she knew she wouldn't survive the day in the cold, especially not with any shoes or proper clothing.

The wolf howled from below her, a harsh call as it's paws scraped against the bark in an attempt for Elysie to come down. She knew it would kill her in seconds if she descended.

She reached into her leather bag blindly, the memory in her fingertips guiding her as she pulled out her leather bound journal. She opened it gingerly, picking out her pencil and starting to sketch the animal below her. The repeated strokes of her pencil calmed Elysie's hammering heart enough to pass as normal, and her fear started to dissipate.

Elysie knew her mother would be worried, even though it was a common occurrence for her to wake up to find Elysie's bed neatly made and the dark haired girl no where in sight.

Her hand jerked and the pencil tip broke as something passed through the trees below her, a sight so fast Elysie couldn't tell what it was. A large animal followed the shape; a white coat shining on its back as its paws barely touched the floor. She sat up in the tree, leaning forward to make sure she wasn't just seeing things, and her weight fell forward as Elysie slipped.

She didn't scream as she fell, just desperately attempted to grab a branch on the way down, to no avail. The wolf below her yipped loudly as Elysie fell, hitting the ground with a loud thump. Elysie stared up into the sky to see her journal falling as well, the pencil a ways behind it.

Black dots danced across Elysie's vision as she attempted to crawl away and reach her journal, her heart barely pounding anymore. She wondered why the wolf didn't dig into her there and then, she had seen what it did to the rabbit.

She wasn't scared anymore, the wolf finally stepping towards her with a hungry expression. Elysie held a hand up toward the beast, her palm facing it as she said, "Stop."

The wolf continued to advance and suddenly, like a light being turned on, Elysie felt the adrenaline coursing through her veins, the sheer power. "I said, stop!" she repeated, raising her voice a little as she yelled. The wolf obeyed, cocking its head to the side in confusion, and stepped a foot out to try and advance again, but couldn't. Elysie saw its hesitation, and with a whimper, the wolf sprinted off into the woods, leaving an injured Elysie on the ground.