Indeed, they had found the perfect opening to strike against Naevius. He did notice, but it was too late; they had already covered him up, and this time he had nowhere to run. His front, his back, left, and right; all of those directions had at least one wolf staring him down, starving for his flesh.
They all ran at the same time; the first to come up to him were the ones on his side. They would always attack by jumping, so if he waited, he could try to dodge and avoid their biting. He jumped to his front, in the direction of the one who wasn't close enough to attack yet. This direction was closed quickly by the wolf's speed.
He jumped straight in Naevius' front, this time he had dodged, but by just a fraction of a second. He smiled boldly at the wolf, but that smile didn't last for long. Something sharp was stuck on both of his shoulders; Naevius fell to his knees when the wolf that was stuck on his back used its strength to make him fall.
Then another jaw locked itself in his neck; the pain was unbearable, and the sharp teeth made breathing a nightmare. And it did not stop there; he felt another jaw biting his right arm, trying to pull it strongly enough to remove it from his body.
He had finally understood. The end had come.
If he hadn't been dumb enough to enter that damn forest alone
If his partner hadn't left him behind…
If….
He laughed, laughed while crying in pain. In the end, it was nobody else's fault but his damn on. He could only feel sorry for the next person who would see his body, this beautiful green grass splattered with his pathetic blood, or because the next person would also hear the sound of their own flesh being eaten when they were still alive.
Flashes of his life appeared right in front of him. How naive he was, how happy he felt when his mother gave him the miserable little piece of attention. When he saw his siblings training on the training grounds of his home, he questioned if one day he would be there too.
Silence. The memories stopped; he had finally thought about something, an idea.
His salvation.
The reason he was so shocked on the written test; the last question. A speculation of what the Soul looked like. A vision that the boy had since a child.
Why did he never notice it before? It was simple, his mother always said that all humans could see, and his siblings always agreed with her. He had never met another human outside his house. The puzzle pieces were finally getting together, and he understood why his mother never let him see his siblings training and why he would always watch hidden from her.
Of course, he didn't have a Divine Blessing, yet, could he not try to imitate what his sister always did to cure her body? He had spent so much time watching her use her powers, maybe, just maybe, he had a little bit of hope remaining.
Her healing abilities created new parts of her own body to replace the old ones; not only that, but that included foreign objects. Some jaws and claws inside his body were indeed foreign objects, so it should expel them.
As his plan started to work, he could feel the teeth being removed against the wolves' will. A slow and painful process, gritting his teeth, he grabbed the grass below him. Anything to make the pain a little more bearable. Yet his plan was working.
How? He didn't know. Maybe he was born with the same abilities as his little sister? No, if… no, that was not the time to think about it; he would do that after he left alive. The signal for him to finally do something was his blood spurring outside of his wounds.
The wolves were launched a little to their backs, giving a small but enough space to use his hands to propel himself to his front. He ran the fastest he could to the trees. Instead of going inside the forest, Naevius decided to get the sharpest branch he could find.
While running, he saw the perfect improvised 'weapon' and got her without stopping. He used his left foot as a way to stop his momentum. He knew an ideal opportunity could come at any given time, but it was faster than anticipated. A Wolf came running in his direction, jumping the same way they did before. But now he was prepared. As the wolf jumped in his direction, he raised the makeshift branch weapon.
Closing his eyes, Naevius just dared to open them if he was sure his plan worked. It was then he heard a howl, full of pain, agony. The branch in his hand broke, and something heavy came falling onto him, yet he was not attacked.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw the wolf writhing in pain right on him. He did feel bad about the little guy, but if he was going to survive, he couldn't feel this way, not now. Tossing the badly hurt wolf to the side, he looked to his side, looking for his pack.
"Where, where, where. Fuck…" His hands trembled, and his heart was racing. He had defeated one, but there was still more alive.
Suddenly, something made a sound in the bushes, the same way as before. He turned around and jumped the fastest he could to his side. As the wolf fell to the ground, Naevius could think of just one thing; his instincts kicked in, kicking him to his stomach, a weak kick, but enough to give an opening to run away.
Turning around to run, he was suddenly surprised by another wolf, this time, already jumping and clinging his claws deep onto Naevius's shoulders. As the pain struck the boy and forced him to fall on his knees, in the end, there was nothing he could do.
Even healing himself wasn't enough this time; his body barely could heal the last wounds, and this new one was even deeper than before, making sure he stayed at the wolves' mercy. He didn't accept his fate, but there was no strength left within his body to do something.
Crack. A sound of a neck breaking, but it wasn't him. In less than a second, something, someone jumped from the trees, latching onto the wolf's neck and biting it with enough force to break it.
As the wolf's grip finally released from his shoulders, Naevius could see his saviour. A girl with short, dark brown hair and eyes slightly lighter than her hair color. Even though she was smaller than Naevius, he could see how much stronger she was than he.
But in his opinion, her most distinct feature was a small fur right below her ears, a fur similar to the wolf she had just killed. Not only that, but the fur would increase the more she drank the wolf's blood.
"Sorry for the wait, lady in distress." She laughed at her own joke, as Naevius was still on his knees, slowly healing himself. He knew there were more, as he looked to the sides, any side, looking for his foes, but nothing. "Oh yeah, took care of the last ones."
His wounds closed just enough for him to get up, still open, though. He slowly got up.
"I-I would say you're my partner?"
"damn right!" She punched right on top of her heart, with pride in her actions. "You put up a good fight, huh? And a healer, that's useful!"
"Took you long enough…"
"You wouldn't be in that state if you hadn't run inside the for…"
"I ran inside the forest? I saw YOUR footprints, YOU ran first." Naevius' voice left his throat raspy, lower, and angrier than ever, maybe because he had almost died looking for her.
The girl looked down, then back at him again, her eyebrows frowning slightly. "There's no way those were mine. When I woke up, I saw them. After following it inside the forest, I heard your screams and fighting sounds."
The boy took a deep breath, calming himself more and more. He was still angry, but that emotion wouldn't do any good for either of them, so he shoved it aside, and as his wounds had finally healed, his and the girls' eyes met in a complicated stare.
"So… who is it they? If it isn't mine and neither yours…" Then a sudden sound made their entire body freeze; both of them — More Naevius than her — turned their heads in a swift motion, quickly looking at the sound's source.
Two beautiful purple eyes looked at them between the shadows of the forest, the sound of a dripping falling from somewhere, followed by a hungry belly, made them both turn paler than ever.