The Rise of the Alpha

13

~a short while later~

Through the steady rain and darkness of the dense forest, the hooded figure walked and recounted, walked and recounted until it had reached its hiding place amongst the trees; it was so consumed by thought that it nearly missed the rustling coming from somewhere behind it. Unconcerned, it turned slowly about and scanned the area, but the sudden sound of even louder rustling had it huffing out an annoyed-sounding sigh as it confronted its company.

"You know you're not much different than I am, right?" asked the figure, smirking as its partner came slowly forth from behind a tree. "I can hear and especially smell you. You reek, my friend … but not solely of the woods."

The sneaky being produced a lighthearted laugh. "Funny ... because here I was thinking it was you who smelled funny," he joked in return, pairing it with a smirk.

Cheesing and shaking its head, the hooded figure chucked its company on the shoulder. "You filthy f.ucker, you. I was only messing with you anyway," it chided with flippant intent.

"Same here," replied the being. "You're, by far, the rawest, earthiest-smelling normie I've ever encountered."

"Thank you, thank you," laughed the figure in return, pairing it with a proper bow as if it had just wrapped up a stage performance. Recomposing, it then added, "Alright ... it's time to get down to business."

"Proceed...," replied the being with a single nod, his interest piqued and his attention dead-set.

"You handled business like you said you would, so now ... per our previous discussion ... your payment has been delivered."

"Excellent!" praised the rogue with glee. "I'll just grab one of my guys, and we'll go scoop it up and-"

"Now, about the one that managed to get away...," the figure interrupted, not even caring that it had cut its company's statement short.

"Yeah? What of her?" inquired the curious scoundrel.

On that note, the figure's lips twisted slowly upward into a menacing smile of wicked proportions. "Find her. K.ill her. Prove it to me. Then, you will be met with another reward – a much larger one, at that. Remember the things which we have discussed. Take all the time you need to chew it over."

The rogue considered the proposition, and as he nodded in agreement with it all, a sinister look painted its way onto his face. "But, what direction did she head?" he asked.

"Well ... from here, south eventually leads back to her pack, and west and east, both, go past other ones," the figure mapped out. "The only possible way she should go unnoticed by them is north."

The rogue pondered mere moments longer then swiped at the raindrops hitting his face and said, "Consider it done," and without another word, the two beings parted ways to tend to their separate business. Acting on good faith in the hooded figure's words, the rogue let loose a howl then took off to his encampment, where he relayed to the others the details of what had just occurred. With each of them on board, they departed with haste from their claimed chunk of land – a few to go collect their reward and return to camp with it, and the others to track down their fleeing target. Meanwhile, the figure went about its night, its mind consumed with thoughts of the future all the while.

*****

(Leila's POV)

I was drenched and tired of running! I'd covered a handful of miles but had yet to stop, even though I wasn't entirely sure where I would be ending up. All I knew was I would be good to go as long as I could make it out of the Badlands. Hopefully, I'd be able to pitch a shelter somewhere for the night and maybe be left the hell alone for a while! I'd love nothing more than to properly grieve my losses and try to plan further ahead, but right now, I must keep running.

***

The woods appeared to stretch endlessly, but each mile covered was another mile successfully put between myself and my major mess up. Surprisingly, keeping my mental block in place seemed almost second nature by now; it was way easier to maintain than I'd imagined it would've been! To be fair, though, when your mind is already at max occupancy, it kind of can't hold any more of anything…right?

Thunder rolled and lightning c.racked in the distance as mile after mile breezed right along with me, carrying me hassle-free through the rain and the Badlands until I neared the outskirts and my sniffer suddenly caught the strong, rancid scent of a rogue in the air. Skidding to a stop, I dropped my bag and scanned my surroundings for any sign of danger, my wildly-racing heart beating even faster when that chilling whiff of putrid odor invaded my nostrils again. Soon, an abnormally-loud c.rack of lightning across the sky revealed a couple of shapes amongst the trees, effectively sending my whole self and Chloe, too, into a panic. Crap! I shrieked internally, then I quickly secured my bag between my teeth and took off again.

Twigs snapping and leaves crunching beneath multiple sets of paws made it crystal clear that not only was I not alone, I was unfortunately outnumbered, which in turn had me silently praying to the Moon Goddess for her divine intervention on my behalf. I was pushing myself harder than I'd ever pushed before, running over such a lengthy stretch of land with practically no breaks and a grand total of zero drops of water to drink. I had no other choice to make! It was either suck it up and press forward with every ounce of expendable energy I had left within me or fall victim to a group of mangy mongrels. Obviously, I chose the former, dodging branches and hopping logs whilst simultaneously thanking the heavens for the moon-lightened break I could see in the trees ahead as I fled.

On a twinge of hope of potential escape, I charged forward with my absolute all and broke through the trees at last, screeching to a halt just in time to save myself from going overboard (yes…feet-first overboard), for I c.ompletely had not realized I'd ran myself right onto the edge of a f.ucking cliff! Collecting my rapidly-fleeting courage, I braved a peek over the edge in attempt to see just how high up I was, and a cold shudder ran down my spine as I looked downward at the choppy, almost black water below. I was scared silly of not only falling, but also to potentially falling to my d.eath!

Vicious snarling from my general vicinity snapped me out of my imagined nightmare and back into my living one. What in the world was I to do? I couldn't flee! There was simply nowhere for me to go other than into the water! I could fight my pursuers, sure, but I'd probably lose my life in the process. Neither fight nor flight in this moment would do me a scrap of good, and my rapidly-sinking heart knew that all too well. As I stood on that cliff beneath that rainy, summer sky, I loosened my grip on my bag until it fell fully from my teeth, and when rogue after rogue began to reveal themselves in the treeline, I froze. I'd never frozen like that before...but, to be fair, I had never been pursued by group of outcasts before, either!

The next thing that happened went horribly, horribly wrong, for I instinctively backed away from the emerging rogues, I was oblivious to just how dangerously closer I was getting to the edge of the cliff with each step I took.

This is bad! This is REALLY bad! Our goose is well beyond cooked at this point, my mind shouted, and when those stinkin' rogues charged forth, I did it – I took a single, faulty, measly little step…and that was all it took to make me slip and lose my footing altogether. The end result of that was...well...I went over the f.ucking edge of the cliff, shifting back into my human self and s.creaming and in genuine fear for my mortal life all the way down. My only hope – no…my only prayer at that point was that I would somehow, someway, by some form of intervention live to see another day.