Dream Wolves (working Title)

Chapter One: The Cabin



My name is Ayla Lily Fang, I moved to Newgrove, Oakland from Cliffpoint, Gray Bluff. I had bought a nice cabin and the surrounding 1200 acres of land; the locals call it Black Pine. When I bought the property, I was warned by the real estate agent that the place was cursed. There where even legends told about the property, seams that anyone who lives on the land will disappear a few weeks after moving into the cabin. The last person to own the property was around thirty years ago, a man named Steven Lock, he owned the property in 1985. He went missing in 1986 after having lived in the house for a year. That is the longest someone has lived at the cabin before something had caused them to disappear or sometimes die. I refused to believe the superstition surrounding the property. But my family was worried that something was going to happen to me. So, they without my knowledge arranged for a priest to bless the house and sounding land. They also had a psychic walk through the cabin and drive the land. The psychic told my family that she was not getting a reading on anything in the surroundings or the cabin. I was surprised when I was told about the psychic my parents had hired to take a reading of my new place.

         I moved into the cabin in the fall of 2005. I had inherited a large sum of money from my grandfather, so I decided to do what I loved. Which was hunting, skinning, tanning, fishing, wood carving, writing, drawing and painting.  So as soon as I knew how much I could afford to spend on property and still have enough to last me years to come, I started my search. The Black Pine property was the cheapest piece of property that had what I was looking for. Most of the other ones were way too much. I loved the layout of the cabin, it is two stories, there were six rooms and a basement to it. At first, I didn't know about the basement, to me it was a happy accident that I found the hatch down to it. After I clean it up, I can use it to store all my canned goods and some of my homemade jerky. I also plan on keeping emergency supplies down there in case I'm unable to make it to town. I'm about a three-hour drive from the main part of town. The cabin is placed about ten acres in from the road. My closest neighbor is about 350 to 395 acres away.

         I have been living in the cabin for about two months. I had just finished unpacking the last box and put everything where I wanted it now. I decided that since the sun was going to be out for a while that I would go for a walk and find a clearing to sit and draw in. So, I got together my drawing belt and my satchel to hold my drawing pads and some food. I made both the satchel and the belt, the belt had six pouches attached to it. In each one I had different mediums to draw with, pencils, pens, colored pencils, charcoal, a small pen knife to sharpen the pencils, oil pastels, inks of different colors and a quill. I knew that there was a nice clearing about a 3-mile hike from my cabin and that there should be a stream that runs through it. It took me about two hours to find the clearing I had been looking for.

          I've been sitting on a tree stump for about an hour drawing the area around me and enjoying the slight breeze that came through. When I heard some noise, I slowly turned towards where the sound had originated at to see the largest gray wolf I had ever seen. From the distance, I could only guess about how big the wolf was, it looked as though if it was to stand next to me its shoulder would be a little above my waist height and I'm 5'7”. I froze hoping that if I didn't startle it the wolf would stay still long enough for me to draw it. Slowly I flipped to a clean page. I started to sketch a rough outline of the wolf when it snapped its head my way. Again, I froze, I made sure that I didn't make eye contact as I had read somewhere that they see it as a challenge. I slowly placed my drawing pad and pencil on my satchel next to me. And moved slowly to the other side and made myself as small as I could. I could hear Rick yelling at me for forgetting to bring my gun or knife with me.

         I stayed like that for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes. I heard more rustling only this time from behind me. I turned my head to see what it was and saw a black wolf that was larger than the gray wolf about five feet behind me. I had to stifle a scream of terror, it was close enough that I could see that it was a male. I knew I was in trouble as I knew that if I started to run now both wolves would chase me seeing me as prey. While I was trying to think of a way to get out of the situation, I found myself in, I felt a cold nose on the back of my neck. I stopped breathing for a few seconds in surprise. I slowly started to turn so that my belly and neck were exposed to the wolf behind me. I tilted my head back hoping that he would accept my submission. Cause if he doesn’t, I'm most likely dead. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see it coming if he didn't except. I felt it when he set his teeth into my left shoulder. I could feel the blood flowing down my shoulder towards the ground under my shirt. Due to the pain and sheer terror I was feeling, I lost consciousness.          

          When I came to, I was not in the clearing in the woods. I was in a cavern of some sort. As I could not directly see what was illuminating the space. I slowly sat up, as I felt a draft blow across my body, I realized that I had been stripped down to my breast wrap and some lace up shorts. I noticed the bandages that someone had put on the wolf bite. I also felt sore like I had done a hard workout and not done a proper cool down I have no clue about how long I was out for. I wrapped one of the furs that I had been lying on around me to hide my body and to get warm. I gingerly got to my feet. As I did, I noticed a shackle around my right ankle, there was a chain connected to it. I inspected the shackle to see if there was a way that I could remove it, there wasn't one that I could see or feel. I could not tell how long the chain was or what it connected to... I looked around trying to find my clothes or any of my things. I noticed that the only light source was coming from a fire pit about fifteen feet from the fur pile. I also saw a table about seven feet from the pile of furs. As I crept towards the table, I noticed that the chain went towards what looked like the center of the large cavern I found myself inside. I also noticed what looked like a natural hot spring opposite of the pile of fur. I looked at the table to see not only some food but my drawing pad and some of my charcoal. I sat in one of the four chairs that were around the table. I looked closer at the food that was on the plate. It looked like the jerky and a piece of fruit I had put in my satchel. I slowly started to eat the fruit, savoring the taste of the juice. I didn't want to eat the jerky without knowing that I had some water I could drink, so I left that on the plate.





Chapter Two: The Cavern



I wandered around the cavern testing out the length of chain I had. To my sorrow, it was just a too short to reach the grouping of hot springs. I made note of a grouping of stalagmites with just enough space between them for me to squeezes between them. There was some room inside the circle to hide in. I grabbed enough of the furs so that I could not feel the ground, I laid them down in the center. The chain was long enough that I could wrap it around the largest stalagmite twice and still have some play in the chain while inside the group. I was starting to feel tired so I went back to the pile to grab a few more furs to take to the circle. I laid down so I could conserve what little energy I had left. I didn't want to fall asleep as I didn't know who found me after the wolf bit me. But do to the fact that I was still recovering from the bite and little food intake for the past few days. I didn't have much of an appetite while I was finishing up the unpacking at my cabin. As I started to drift to sleep I heard what sounded like nails on the cavern floor. I was asleep before I could identify what it was from.          

         When I awoke, next I could sense that someone or something was in to cavern with me. I shivered, the furs I had used to cover myself with had come off while I was asleep. I slowly sat up to see if I could locate where they went. When I looked to my left I nearly screamed, the gray wolf from earlier was not far from me outside the stalagmites. He looked to be asleep, I didn't want to risk waking the wolf so I slowly moved one of the furs that I was laying on out from under me to cover myself. I was thankful that I had gone to sleep in the grouping of stalagmites. I slowly wrapped the chain around the front two stalagmites so that the opening was blocked. I saw the wolf start to move so I moved back as far from the gap in the front of my hideaway as I didn't want to have any part of myself in biting range of any of the wolves. I curled up into a ball, I was fighting with myself not to cry. I had never been in a situation like this. I didn't know what to do or expect. I'm just hoping that someone notices that I didn't make my weekly trip to town.

         Its then that I remember that I told the sheriff that I would meet him on my next trip to town so that he could show me around some of the local food places. I pray that he doesn’t think that I forgot. I heard an irritated huff come from the gap. I kept my back to it. I didn't want to see what the consequence for what I did was going to be. Last time I wasn't really paying attention to how far the stalagmites where from the fire pit. I was starting to shiver, the few furs that I had to wrap around myself was not enough to keep me warm. I didn’t want to take any more of the ones I had placed on the floor of the cavern as I was only able to grab enough that I was just barely able to feel the ground. I tried to curl into a smaller ball to have as much of myself under the furs as possible. I tried not to think about what would happen if I couldn't get food or water or even just warm. While I was laying there, I realized that I was at the mercy of wolves or who ever found me. I didn't know any way to remove the shackle that didn't involve me trying to maim myself for life. I'm still trying to figure out why I was taken as well as how I got moved to the cavern. I didn't advertise that I came into a lot of money nor am I famous, so the only thing that I can think of for why I was taken must do with my body. With that last horrifying thought in my head I fell into a fitful sleep.

         The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was warm, I remember falling asleep cold. I opened my eyes to see that someone had draped several more furs over me. I shifted farther back. I couldn't figure out how the extra furs got placed over me when the only other creature I had seen was a wolf. The gap is too small for any of the wolves that I had seen to fit through, I barely fit through the gap turned sideways. I also noticed that there was a fire closer to the grouping as well as a plate of food just outside of my hideaway. There was more fruit and jerky and what looked like my canteen of water.

My stomach grumbled letting me know it had been a while since I had eaten. I looked around what of the cavern I could see through the gap to see if I could see any of the wolves or a person. I couldn't so I slowly crept towards the food and hopefully water. I grabbed it all and scrambled back as fast as I could. As soon as I was back where I woke up I inspected what was on the plate. There was an apple, a banana, an orange and several pieces of jerky. I opened my canteen and found plain water much to my relief. I slowly ate most of the food and drank a third of the water. I placed the plate back where I found it but kept my canteen with me. Not too long after I got back under the furs I started to feel sleepy. As I start to fall asleep I could only hope it’s from having a full stomach and being warm. 

         When I woke up I noticed that someone had redressed the bite and had rebound my breasts. I also felt a collar around my neck. I slowly brought one of my hands up to inspect the collar. The first thing I noticed was that I could only get three fingers under the collar before it got too tight. As I ran my hand around the collar I felt four equally spaced rings. I could not find a hinge in the collar nor a keyhole. I really didn't want to know what the rings were for. I was still in my hideaway, which was a little bit of a relief. I saw another plate of food in the opening to my hideaway. I am leery of eating anything because of last time. I was praying that it wasn't the water. I know that I can go about two weeks without food but only two or three days without water. So, I gently pushed the plate away from the entrance. As I took a sip of my water I noted it had an off taste, last time I drank I was gulping it down so I didn't really notice. As I was starting to get sleepy, I could have cried. Now I must try to find some way of getting water. As I started to drift off I thought I heard footsteps headed towards my hideaway. 

         When I woke up I looked outside of my hideaway to see if anyone was around. Not seeing anyone I slowly exited my area again ignoring another plate of food. As soon as I thought I got far enough away from my space that the water wouldn't flow back in I dumped out my canteen. Again, I tried to get to the hot springs, but the chain was still too short. It was my one shot at having water. As I headed back to my hideaway I grabbed a few more furs. A few days of someone putting food and water in front of my area and me not touching it. I found on my next try to get to the hot springs for some water that the chain was now at least long enough for me to dip my canteen into the coolest spring. As soon as I got back to my area I drank deep from the canteen, not long after I was trying not to fall asleep. It was then that I realized that it was something that naturally occurred in the water and not something that whoever had me had done.