As Eirika ran through the underbrush, she could hear the snarling and snapping jaws of her pursuers. Out of the corner of eyes, through the thick foliage, she once or twice caught flashes of white fangs and yellow eyes set against forms black as shadow.
Of wolf-shape they were, but meaner and fouler. Their bodies were lean, almost emaciated -- as though starved by some cruel master -- and their fur was mangy and coarse, but black as murk. Long legs carried them forth in great, loping strides, and powerful jaws snapped in the darkness as their fell voices filled the air with hellish shrieking and yowling, like the voices of the damned crying out in their eternal torment.
But it was their eyes that most haunted Eirika as she ran, gleaming out of the blackness like pale ghost lights. For they shone indeed with an inner light, a dread, cursed light which caused mortal hearts to quail in fear. They were like other-worldly flames, like will-o-the-wisps peering through the veil twixt life and death. And they were filled with a fey madness, a consuming hatred for all living things.
These things, these demon wolves, hunted Eirika, pursuing her relentlessly, tirelessly. For an eternity -- or so it felt -- they chased her, and she ran. They seemed to suffer no weariness, those terrible creatures, but the same could not be said of Eirika. She endured long, far beyond the limits of most, but all it took was a single misstep, a single knotted root catching her foot, to trip her up at last.
Panic overtook her when she fell, and desperately Eirika struggled to free herself and get back up, but the eyes swiftly surrounded her. She was trapped. She heard the howls coming from every direction, drawing all too near. She saw flashes of white fangs and red tongues from the encircling shadows, and eyes like ghostly lanterns glinted all around her.
Dread took her heart nearly then, but it was staved off at the last by a final desperate blaze of hope. Cornered and harried, looking Death in the eye, even the meekest of creatures could grow terrible and fierce, and soft-spoken though she was, Eirika yet had a bold heart in her breast, and hot blood in her veins.
Freeing her foot with a final yank, she sprang back to her feet with a terrible cry. Eyes flashing with the light of ancient queens, she...
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