"tough choice(woof!) ch 4" by Connie Jay Mentira

“How could you have done this to me!? Did you not think!? What was going through your head!?”

Anita covered her ears as her brother shouted and raved, scratching her bandages and twisting her fingers together, staring at the ground. Her brother grabbed her chin and jerked her face up, glaring and hissing through his teeth.

“Don’t be so shy” he growled sarcastically.

She winced.

“Why?” he asked desperately, gripping her shoulders tightly. She hung her head and shrugged her shoulders under his hands, her head shaking with denial. A sob broke from her throat, and her brother sat back, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. Damien patted his shoulder and hugged him.

Artemis pulled away, scanning his sister’s room, picking up the bloody knife and putting its tip against the ground. Damien nodded and kicked the side viciously, snapping it in two. He hopped back on one foot, and Artemis picked up the broken knife and tucked it away in his small pocket on his robe.

He scowled at his sister before leaving with another heavy, disappointed sigh.

Damien padded along beside him silently, tightening his hold on the blanket around his body, shaking. He jumped when Artemis turned suddenly and took him in his arms, hugging him fiercely.

“Thank you,” he whispered harshly, squeezing the breath out of Damien. “You saved my sister from her stupidity. Thank you…” He trailed off. He pulled away and stared into Damien’s red eyes, his own sky-blue eyes dark with worry and sadness.

"How could she have done this to me?" he whispered hoarsely, rivers of crystal flowing down his cheeks. He pressed his face into Damien"s shoulder, a groan and muffled sob breaking from his neck.

Damien hesitated before uncertainly raising his hands and hugging Artemis softly, murmuring into his curls. Lavender flowed into his nostrils.

His ears twitched and he looked up, a quiet snarl ripping through his teeth.

Dan Hollows stared at them out of flaring eyes.

~ ~ ~

She stood in the empty halls, her face solemn and her arms crossed as she stared out the windows at the spring rain, watching the small broken streams slither across the glass. She heard footsteps, but didn’t bother to turn.

A soft wave of a scent citrus gently fell on her nostrils, and her eyes widened and she looked up sharply. The one soldier who mattered more to her, aside from her brother, stood only a few away from her, his pale face sad and worried. He barely made any noise as he spoke.

“How are you feeling, Anita?”

She sighed and shook her head.

“In all honesty, I don’t really feel… anything…pleasant.”

Dan raised his eyes and took her bandaged wrist. He traced the cloth with a slender finger, and looked her in the eyes. She sighed breathily.

“I want to help. You’re too good a person worth losing.”

“But that’s just it! I don’t want to be a great soldier-“

He shook his head and shushed her.

“I said person, not soldier. You, not the fighter that resides in your body.”

He stared at her sadly, taking back the hand she had wrenched away in her agitation. He looked at her wrist before raising his face and eyes. She stared at him silently. His beautiful brown eyes were un-naturally dark with concern, and she un-certainly touched his cheek. He closed his eyes.

“You, this woman standing closer than I could bear, you are what matters, not your fighting abilities, or your agility or strength or any of that.”

He silenced. Anita stared at him in amazement, not quite believing what she had just heard. His breathing grew unsteady. He touched his forehead to hers, and she gasped lightly, barely breathing. He tipped his chin forward and gently caught her open lips in his own.

She stiffened, then jerked away, her face beet red.

“Go away,” she whispered, shaking violently.

“I don’t need any-more of this. You’ll just vanish when you’re sick of me, and you won’t even be able to imagine what that’ll do to me. I don’t want to do that to my brother again. I want to leave, just vanish, and hope that no-one will remember me. No-one would...except my brother.

"I don’t want to be here. All of this hate, this brutality, it’s just so awful, and I’m helping it along its path. I don’t want to…to be here anymore! It’s awful, it’s pointless! Why do we do it!? I hate it, I’m sick of it! It’s what made me slit my wrists in the first place!

"I’m un-happy, and I don’t need to be abandoned be you, the first love of my life. So, please, go away.”

She had shocked Dan, and he fumbled for words. She turned on her heel and stormed to her room, locking the doors and falling into her bed, a strangled sob breaking from her throat.

~ ~ ~

“Such a lovely garden, though…mine has a larger variety of plants.”

Damien looked around the garden with a smile, bending to gently sniff the roses, plucking one away from the bush and twirling it in his fingers. Its thorns pricked his skin, and he peeled them away from the skinny green stem. The gentle rain covered the silken petals with small drops of water.

He gently plucked a velvety red petal and flicked it at Artemis, who casually swatted it away and clasped his hands behind his back, his eyes roaming around the bushes and flowers that happily drank in the much needed rain.

He could see their branches slowly stretch toward the grey, ominous sky, the leaves broadening the catch the moisture. He made a small noise of awe.

Damien brushed the tip of his black leather boot across the leaf of a Zinnia, making the plant shake and shed its drops of water. The small pink flower twitched and a fat spider crawled out under a layer of petals and across the flattened stems of grass into another rain covered bush. Damien made a noise of squeamishness and wrinkled his nose at the fat arachnid, stepping away from its new bush.

Artemis smirked.

“Don’t like spiders?”

Damien shuddered.

“I hate spiders. They’re disgusting, with their hairy, spindly legs, and their eyes and fat, hairy bodies, ugh!”

He cringed and stuck out his tongue.

“Yuck!”

He jumped when Artemis turned and presented to him a spider that lay in the palm of his hand. He smacked his hand away with a grunt of disgust and childish fear, glaring at Artemis, who was howling with laughter. He growled.

“You are just the worst kind of person,” he snarled, crossing his arms and baring his teeth.

Artemis just smiled at the insult, flicking a lock of hair out of his sky blue eyes. Damien looked him over, surprise covering his face. He just realized that Artemis was, truly, beautiful.

His brown hair wasn’t brown, it was a red-ish hazel, and flowed down past his chin in small curls. His skin looked soft and had a creamy complexion, gentle rose covering his cheeks. His eyes were the lightest blue, and his nose was softly curved. His full lips looked a dark maroon against his face, and they were parted slightly with confusion. He had a black tattoo under his left eye, curving with the shape of his eye.

“What…? Do I have something on my face?”

Artemis raised a hand uncertainly to his cheek, rubbing the skin furiously with the back of his hand. Damien shook his head slowly and pulled his hand away, twining his fingers through Artemis’.

He tilted his head and frowned slightly.

“What-?”

Damien leaned forward and silenced him.

“I think,” he whispered he broke away. “That I actually do love you.”

He tucked the rose behind his stunned lover’s ear, smoothing back a silky curl. Artemis blinked, and then smiled.

“That’s nice.”

Damien smacked his arm, chuckling.

“You fool.”

~ ~ ~

The moon hovered in the endless indigo expanse of sky, shining down on the lonely building of stone that rested on the cliff, its towers stretching toward the gleaming white disc desperately, so close, yet so far.

Damien slept peacefully, the blankets piled under his head and his mouth wide open, a gentle snore issuing from his nose. He wasn’t aware that his lover roamed the forests, his paws pounding against the decayed leaves and twigs, his muzzle twitching and a heavy pant rumbling from his furry chest.

His bright yellow eyes were glazed with pain, and his jaws were clenched. He looked up the solemn castle, silhouetted against that wretched moon, and howled with desperation, his howl cracking with pain and sadness. His ears twitched when his call was returned, the next howl as solemn as his.

He whimpered and rubbed his face on his sharp dewclaws, shaking his shaggy head with anger. He laid his ears back and fell on his side, rubbing his body and face into the dirt and crunching leaves, growling with agitation. He lay there for a moment, staring at a pine tree’s base that was planted a few inches from his nose. His ears twitched, and he sat up with a growl.

Another stepped through the underbrush, his eyes blaring down on him and his muzzle twitching with a snarl.

He pushed himself up onto his feet slowly, his lithe muscles tensed.

‘ What are you doing here!? This is my territory! ’

The newcomer laid back his ears and peeled his muzzle back, a snarl breaking from his sharp canines, his tongue sliding out to make his teeth glisten.

‘ You?! A mere pup controlling this whole area?! Pah! ’

He lunged and smashed into Artemis, his teeth digging into his shoulder and his claws scraping his stomach. Artemis barked angrily and twisted his neck to burrow his teeth into the opposite throat, blood spurting through the thick mane of fur into his mouth. He shook his head viciously, rattling the other’s teeth and eyes inside his head. His enemy howled and turned, releasing his shoulder and snapping at his hind-leg, grazing the sensitive skin with his teeth. Artemis kicked his paw forward and connected with his nose, making him release the grip he had on his leg and stumble back, sneezing. Artemis snapped and bit into the male’s throat, flipping him onto his side. Iron flooded into his mouth and coated his tongue.

The male scrabbled at the ground and tried to regain his footing, snarling and growling and barking furiously. Artemis kept his hold, jerking with the male and snickering. It was a low raspy sound, breaking from his nose. The male thrashed even more fervently, kicking his hind-paws and digging his front paws into the dead leaves.

He huffed and fell limp, a small growl issuing from his bloody throat.

‘ Fine, pup,’ he growled. ‘ You can keep this land. ’

Artemis let him up, licking the roof of his mouth to clear away the taste of iron. The male twitched up his muzzle in what was clearly a sneer, and flicked his tail before trotting away. Artemis growled happily, baring his teeth in a smile, before snickering and limping away toward his home.

He walked deeper into the forest, his ears standing and alert for any sound, his nostrils flared for any scent.

He let out a quick and agrravated sigh when the other fell onto his back, snapping for his spine. He arched his back and flipped, squishing the male and driving the breath out of him. He wriggled a bit, before jumping back up, hind-paws smashing into his gut.

His yellow eyes spread wide when he crashed into a pine, twigs piercing his skin and burrowing deep into his flesh. The male slashed his claws across his face, and Artemis whimpered and barked, dodging another swipe and sliding across the ground under the male"s belly.

His jaws shot upward and latched into the soft meat, his head twisting to the side. The male hopped and spun, trying to dislodge Artemis. His life was flowing into Artemis" jaws, and he fell on top of his head,  ragged breaths breaking from his flank. Artemis wriggled out from underneath him, a long snarl bursting from his heaving chest.

" I didn"t want to do that, or have to do that."

He sighed again.

" But you brought this upon yourself. I"m...I"m sorry."

He padded away from the mutilated wolf, his tail dragging in the dirt.

~ ~ ~

It was morning. Soldiers went out to gather food and found the body of Andrew Collins, his inards spread and his face bearing a small smile.

~ ~ ~

“Bates! What on earth happened to you!?”

Walstrom let his hands fall limp at the site of a haggard Artemis stepping into the room, his face drawn and his foot held above the ground as he hobbled forward. He had a raw wound across his cheek and he had his left arm in a sling.

His prisoner looked horrified as he helped Artemis walk forward.

“Oh…nothing important,” he mumbled quietly, tucking his arm closer to his chest.

Walstrom glared at the prisoner, who held up his hands. Walstrom grunted and jerked his chin forward. Dan Hollows stepped up out of the shadows, his hand clenched around The Knife. Damien stiffened and slid back.

Dan handed the Knife to Walstrom and moved toward Artemis, taking his arm and pulling him back. He jerked away.

“What are you doing!?”

Dan took his arm again, this time rougher. He pulled back his other arm and held them behind his back. Artemis tried to pry his arms away, and his jaw fell open. Walstrom was shoving Damien down into a chair, the Knife held to his throat. His was shaking violently against the Knife’s tip.

Artemis shouted.

“What the hell are you doing!? He hates that thing ,you know that!”

Walstrom grinned evilly. Dan tightened his hold on Artemis’ wrists. Walstrom lowered his head to Damien’s level, speaking in a low voice.

“C’mon, kid, tell us. What’s your daddy plannin’, eh?”

“I-I t-told you! I don’t know any-t-thing!” he stammered, his fingers gripping the edge of the chair and the muscles in his neck tensed and bulging from his skin. His teeth were clenched and his nostrils were flared.

Walstrom hissed and fiercely grabbed his chin, pressing the edge of the Knife against his cheek.

He screamed.