You flee on all fours, your digitigrade legs and extended arms covering ground far faster than any human could ever hope to match.
The cracked surface of The Q Bridge is worn and battle-scarred. During the years of the Purge when the werewolf packs of the northeast had dug in here in a defensive position, The Q was the site of several deadly battles as the human ground forces attempted to drive the wolves out from the city and into the sea. It was rumored that hundreds of werewolves had lost their lives defending this very span.
You're so wrapped up in your thoughts and the heady glee of freedom that you're shocked senseless when an explosion under your feet throws you and Tiva into the air.
Time slows to a crawl, and through a red haze of pain you wonder why Lapu and Dena are upside down. Your ears are ringing…everything smells like burnt hair.
The minefield! In your haste you'd forgotten about the minefield! You twist and turn, seemingly weightless, plunging down toward the water's dark surface below. Falling…falling for the second time in as many hours. Your mind, shocked by the sudden detonation and sharp descent, plays through recent events in slow motion, and you briefly wonder if it might be for the best if you disappear beneath the cold waves forever.
No, you decide moments before you hit the water. It doesn't end here at all. This is only the beginning….
Two Hours Ago
Chapter 1 Haven
"You pups would be wise to ascend to a peak of self-mastery before scampering toward uncharted territory." — Ahote, Haven packleader. Yesterday.
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The grit of a crumbling concrete foundation bites into the pads of your paws as you lope easily up the slope of a dilapidated wall, masonry chipping off twisted steel beams. You rise to a pinnacle of freedom, gazing down at the labyrinthine twists and turns of roads and alleyways that once played host to thousands of men and women going about their daily lives, blissfully unaware of the havoc that the Purge would one day reap.
You cast an idle glance to the west where you find the sun prepared to settle gently into a soft bed of cloud for the night. Good. There's still time, you think to yourself. You coil the muscles of your legs together tightly, springing with acrobatic grace to a higher platform, a leap that no human would have considered.
From here the ruins of the great city spread out below you in intricate detail, and you idly fancy yourself a giant, gazing over its dominion with a faint sense of pride and belonging. Lord of all you survey.
Haven. The refuge is all you've ever known, from your birth in the squalor of a small waterfront apartment to this very moment, perched atop the ruinous hulk of a long-abandoned office building.
Yours is the first generation of werewolves born and raised in captivity, a stark contrast to the green wilderness and freedom your elders speak of in the hush of the evening as they huddle in groups around the fires to keep warm. You've seen trees before, struggling for life between the cracks of empty patches of roadway. Scraggly bits of wood hardly worth the mention.
Let the elders lament the passing of their great wilderness. You're a new breed of lupine explorer, having traded in the forests for an urban jungle of steel and concrete.
Without warning, the floor beneath your paws crumbles, sending you tumbling into a free fall. It's quickly arrested by a bone-jarring crunch when you land on your back amid splinters of wood and stone. You manage to sound out a brief bark to alert your companions to your location before a cloud of blackness swallows up the sky and all becomes nothingness.
Claw Back the Darkness
Falling, falling…
Is this truly how things happened, or is your mind playing tricks on you, trying to make sense of its peril and projecting soft outlines of better times as you descend through the air in a helpless free fall? A recollection of a face looks at you through the blackness, concerned eyes blinking before vanishing on a gust of ethereal wind.
You remember your mother in the vague sense that all children orphaned at a young age do. The touch of a loving hand. A few notes from a song hummed to lull you to sleep. That indefinable sense of belonging that only a parent can offer their child. It was important to her that you grew up with a strong sense of self—you read as much in the letters she left you after her passing.
Your head is swimming. You've got to wake up, latch onto your core being, and climb it upward through the darkness.
You think you hear your mother calling to you. The Haven wolves use only first names, as the pack is considered to be one family despite differences of background. What name do you hear echoing through the void?
Yes, that's right. Edward diaz. How could you have forgotten? You can feel it now. Something close to pain, but pain means you're getting closer to the surface. It helps you remember that you're still alive.
Other things begin to come into focus as the black horizon turns to a milky gray. The more you collect your sense of self, the faster the surface of consciousness rushes up to greet you.
The elders claim that you were a difficult child, always focused on whatever suited you best at the time rather than the exacting standards werewolf society demands. In the long years following your birth, you came to define yourself on your own, but others have a tendency to require more impersonal definitions. How do your peers within the pack see you?
Male.
Female.
Nonbinary.
Next
You hadn't spent all that long cloistered with the other wolves of your gender. In the Haven pack, youths are mixed at an early age, leaving the pups to grow and learn as they see fit. Eventually you grew old enough to consider romantic interests.
I pursued a boy when I was younger, but like many youthful infatuations we eventually went back to being friends.
I was interested in a girl who lived down the street from me, but I never had the guts to tell her how I felt.
I've never had strong physical attractions to any of my packmates.
I was always confident in myself and never had trouble asking out girls, but I've been single for a while now.
Gender never mattered to me when it came to my attractions.
I had a crush on a boy a few years back, but I never acted on my feelings.
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