Trials Under The Moon

The first thing that I remember is the screaming. Then, the heavy footsteps of warriors and the cries for mercy. Uncle Marcus bursts through the front door of the house and calls for his wife, "Lillian!" he yells. "Where are you? Where are the girls?!" Avery and I were tucked under the covers and blankets of our pillow fort in her bedroom. We stayed quiet, because we were suppose to be sleeping by now. It was about 11:30pm. "What's wrong Marcus?" Lillian asks, "What's going on?". They both run to Avery's room, and Marcus lets out a sigh of relief upon seeing the two of us unharmed. His relief quickly disappeared. "There's not much time," He tells us. "We have to get them to the basement, now!" Avery quickly grabs two pairs of shoes and then reaches for my hand. We look into each other's eyes and give each other a solid nod of the head. We're ready. The two of us spare no time before heading downstairs. Avery's parents will meet us there when they've completed their tasks. As we run through the house, the screaming and yelling outside gets worse. Now there are gunshots. Our pack is being attacked. But we keep running. Once we reach the basement door, Avery punches in the key code to let us in. We've done this drill dozens of times. This is the second drill I had to master before my parents would allow me to sleep over at Avery's house. The first drill routine was at the pack house. My house. My parents are Alpha Joseph and Luna Elain Gomez, of the Northside Pack. I pray to the moon goddess that they're okay. "Elliana!," Avery snaps me out of my thoughts ", we have to stay focused okay?" I nod my head yes, "I know, let's get started." On the wall in front of us is four hooks, each with a go-bag supplied for 1 weeks survival, for one person. To our left is an empty table with two chairs. We each grab a small backpack off the wall and loop our arms into the straps. The other two packs are for her parents. They are my goddess parents, and the Beta's of the pack. We look up at the door when we hear the code being beeped in, and tense up ready to put up a fight if we have to. The door swings open and an out of breath Lillian slides in before shutting the door. Avery and I stand down, and wait for her instructions. "Good job girls," she begins. "We have to be quick, this time it's not a drill." We knew that. But it didn't seem real until Aunt Lilly said it out loud to us. My eyes widen at the realization, my family. "My parents! My brother! We have to get to the pack house!" I scream. I run for the door but Lillian grabs my arm. "You know we can't do that!" She snaps. "Marcus has already headed to the pack house to aid your family, and now I have to get you two to safety. If they find you, they'll kill you Ellie!" I know She's right. We have to go. It's what I agreed to do. To run. Avery and I are too small to fight, and too young to shift. We've both only just turned 13. Three more years before we get our wolves. I have to run, because as a member of the Alpha's family I'd have to be killed in order for the new packs alpha to take over. It's a cruel and vicious new rule that invading packs abide by. Lillian grabs her go-bag and leads us to a trap door under the table. There's an underground escape with various tunnels. Like a maze, Many of the tunnels lead to dead ends, in case an enemy follows us. Only we know the right turns to take in order to exit at the forest. Lillian helps each of us down into the escape, when suddenly there's movement above us. Glass is breaking and furniture is being thrown around upstairs. "Quickly girls!" Lillian whisper yells. Avery and I start running while Lillian shuts and locks the door. At the first fork of 6 tunnels we immediately run into the 3rd. After that, it's 3 lefts and 4 rights before we reach the end. Lillian catches up with us at the exit. The plan is to sit here, quietly, and listen. We're safe as long as the tunnels aren't discovered. If we run out into the forest too soon, we risk being caught. Aunt Lilly sits us down and tells us to listen very carefully, "I love you both so much. And I am so proud of you, because you did everything you were suppose to do. It's not looking good outside, and I fear that we may lose this battle." My heart starts to beat faster, but I need to remain calm. Even though losing, means my family will most likely be executed. I hold my tears back and keep my ears open. She looks to me, "If anyone finds us, Ellie, you are my daughter now. You will not admit to having any alpha blood in you, do you understand?" "Yes ma'am." I say firmly. "Good," she continues, "Also, you girls have not gotten far in your training, but you are both extremely intelligent. Rely on your brains if your muscles should fail you. Stay together and stay quiet. If something happens to me, then you must protect each other. Promise me!" "We promise!" We say in unison. It stays quiet for only a few minutes until we hear voices. "Some of them may have gone down here!" A man shouts. They've found their way into the escape tunnels. The maze-like design will give us a decent head start. Aunt Lily opens the old wooden door that's built into the forest floor. Avery and I lift each other up and out trying to stay low. Aunt Lily climbs out as well, and seals the door closed. The three of us sprint off through the trees, keeping our heads down, away from the pack lands. During the drill practices, Avery and I were timed to see how fast we could run to the packs border. 12 minutes. Without stopping and without looking back. A drill however, is different than actually running for our lives. Because now there are enemies scattered throughout the woods looking for people like us. Strays that somehow managed to escape the attack. Sticks and leaves crunch under my feet, and the iron smell of blood floods my senses. The darkness of the night makes maneuvering obstacles a challenge. They chose this night well. There's no moon in the sky to light our paths tonight. Even with advanced eyesight, Avery and I have no wolves, so we are completely dependent upon aunt Lily to guide us. Aunt Lily sticks her arms out, hitting our chests to stop us from running. We do as she instructs by staying still and staying silent. When your enemies have the same advantages as you do, such as advanced hearing, communicating with each other could give your position away. My father made learning sign language mandatory for all adults and pups. Grabbing us by our shirts, aunt Lily pulls Avery and I behind a tree. I hear something, she signs to us. There's movement directly behind us. Stay low. Cover your scents, now. We nod our understanding. I turn around giving Avery access to my backpacks front pocket. She pulls out the lotion bottle which has been filled with a cream that will help to mask our scent. We softly cover our skin and make sure to spread some of the cream onto our clothing. My eyes shoot open wide as the smell hits my nose. A wolf. There's a wolf close by and I can tell that it's not one of our own. Avery hasn't noticed yet. But as I look into aunt Lily's eyes I can see the fear behind them. And the courage that she's trying to muster up. "Run" She mouths to me, and I do. I grab Avery by the wrist and pull her onto her feet. She tries to look back, but I yank on her arm, silently reminding her to stay looking ahead. As we run, we can hear the snapping of bones and the tearing of flesh as aunt Lily transforms into her wolf behind us. The two wolves begin to fight serving as our distraction. Without aunt Lily's eyes, we stumble and trip more than before. My eyes are better than Avery's so I'm running ahead of her trying my best to avoid fallen trees and piles of leaves. Anything that makes extra noise could be our death. In the background, the sounds of war echo into our ears. After a few minutes we reached the pack lands border, but that doesn't mean we are safe yet. We stop to catch our breath and check each other for injuries. "I've got two running pups right here!" A voice shouts. Shit. We shouldn't have stopped. We ditch the backpacks so they won't slow us down. Two men begin to chase us. When we start to run again there's a howl. A howl that's close behind us. A howl that a wolf makes to notify it's pack. Others will be heading our way soon. Think. Think. Think Ellie! With a firm grip on Avery's wrist, I dash around trees trying to escape the eyes of our pursuers. I'm running out of territory that I'm familiar with so I have to think fast. They'll catch up to us soon. We aren't fast enough to outrun adult wolves. But maybe we can climb... I come to a halt and sign to Avery, climb! Climb up! She nods and begins digging her fingers into he bark of a nearby tree. Once she's three feet up, I head to a tree close by, wrap my arms around the rough pine and hoist my body off the ground. Just as I reach the top, several figures run past us. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in. My eyes are straining to spot Avery, but I finally do. She's nestled between two branches with one hand covering her mouth. If she's crying, she better keep it quiet or we'll be found. We stay up in the trees for what seems like hours before heavy footsteps approach. Two large wolves stop and sniff the earth beneath us. I pray to the goddess that our scent has stayed covered. I pray that they don't look up. The sun is slowly rising, and if these wolves are still searching for stragglers, then I know for certain that our pack is gone. My family is gone. The fear that was once in my heart is replaced by anger and hate. My eyes squeeze shut and I clench my teeth, holding in a scream. - The wolves moved on hours ago. But Avery and I decided to stay put a little longer. When the sun has reached mid-sky we start to climb down. We run to each other and hug tightly. I look at her face and see that she hasn't allowed herself to cry yet. That's good. We can't appear weak. We can cry when we are safe. Now we must decide if we go back to the c*****e or continue on to find the next pack. "I know we shouldn't, but I want to go back." Avery admits, "what if there are survivors?" "And what if the attacking pack is one who does not leave survivors Avery?" I know that my words are sharp, and imply that both of our parents are dead, but it is a possibility. A strong possibility. As the alphas daughter, my father made me swear not risk my life to save his. However, Our decision making was cut short. I didn't smell him. I didn't hear him approach. And By the time I saw him, he had hit Avery over the head, knocking her unconscious. "NO! NO AVERY!!" I reached for her but another man pulled my arms behind my back, "What have we here?" He hissed in my ear. "Reckon these were the two runners we lost last night. Told you boys if we stuck around, they'd turn up!" Another one laughed out. I slammed my right foot into my captors shin as hard as I could. "Ahhh!!" He released one of my arms and I twisted my body away from his and forced my elbow into his throat. "You little bit-" he choked on that last word with his hand cupped around his neck. "We have ourselves a fighter boys." The tallest one said. He's rough looking with long black hair falling to his chin. There's three of them And one of me. "Who are you?" I demand. They continue to laugh at me. "Why, we're your new pack, pup. We took down your little Northside friends, which means you both belong to us now." "We belong to know one!" I spat at his face. I bend my knees and pull up my arms into a fighting stance. My form isn't the best, but I won't go down with out a fight. I have to protect Avery. I promised. The tall one snaps his fingers and the third man jumps me to the ground. My arms are thrashing and I kick my legs trying to get away. But he's too strong. My arms and legs are secured and the tall man kneels down to face me, "you'll learn your place soon enough pup." Something hits me on the head, hard and my vision goes black. [Author’s Note: Hello! Thank you so much for taking the time to give my story a chance! Please, I encourage you to comment your opinions and any feedbacks, guesses and suggestions. Any constructive criticism will help me throughout my writing journey! Thanks!]