On The Edge Of The Cliff

A deep guttural growl reverberated the inside of her body. Patty's heart started beating loud and fast. She was frozen and terrified. It was dark, but when her eyes darted right, she could make out clearly those huge fangs barring for a show to everyone. Saliva was escaping the edges of the muzzle.

Only now she noticed how her whole body was shaking out of fright. She never felt this way with Zeeve, not even with Natalia. This was something utterly different, it was all wrong. She could sense all the hatred and evil coming out of it. The werewolf moved his nose to pick up the smell. With wide eyes, she moved her lips without making a sound to say "Help me".

One of the hunters pushed the trigger and a shot came out. The bullet got stuck in the tree next to the monster of a werewolf. Patty threw herself to the side as the werewolf snapped at her. Both hunters started shooting at it and made it mad. It lunged forward into the trajectory of the bullets. Few did strike him. He roared out of pain. The hunters disappeared.

Patty stunned out of fear was lying on the forest floor. They left her alone, she could still see them and their lights running down the road far away from them. That huge beast turned towards her still growling. She scrambled to the side and she lost her balance.

In the dark, she didn't realize she was on the edge of a cliff over the river. She began to fall and in a split second saw it speeding toward her. A huge splash followed hers. It jumped into the water after her. But at last, she lost her consciousness.

She woke up on the stony shore of the river. Moon was illuminating the whole area. Laying on her belly with a man's arm over her back. She turned her head to him. Even in his human form, he was a huge fella. Patty crawled from under his arm. His face was turned away from her so she went around to see him a little better.

He looked like he was in immense pain. She pushed against his side and turned him on his back. All those silver bullets were stuck on the surface of his body steaming. She gently touched one of them. It was hot, like boiling level of hot. She noticed how they were melting the flesh around them and slowly starting to descend down. When he was laying on his stomach the gravitation didn't allow them to move that way.

She needed to do something quickly. She looked around for anything, what could help her to take them out. She found some glass shards and used them to pick them out of his body. Five bullets were now cooling down next to the werewolf man. She cleaned the wounds with water from the river. His breathing calmed down.

Patty was thinking about what to do next. She barely knew how far the river took them. If she were alone, she would go find her way back to civilization, but with him... She decided to make some fire, drag him over to it, and wait till he regained consciousness. In her head, she was thankful for her father taking her every weekend to the mountains and showing her tricks, how to survive in the wild.

The werewolf man woke up in his human form next to a fire. He was lying under a pile of leaves. It was years, since he felt the cold on his bare skin. For sure the man already missed his thick fur. He was confused, felt still some pain, and looked down on his wounds. They were already taken care of, with some herbal mix spread over them. He noticed the girl after whom he jumped into the river. He tensed up, but was utterly confused why a human would help him.

The sun was slowly appearing over the horizon. Patty opened her eyes and flinched. Deep red eyes were staring daggers into her. He stretched his arm to reach her. In a second she jumped up and back to keep the distance between them. He didn't have the power to move much so he gave up and turned his back towards her. Patty calmed down and sat in front of the fire.

"Hey, are you awake?" Silence. "So you know, I don't mean harm, so please be neutral towards me. When the sun will be up, I will be on my way, OK? Don't worry I will keep it a secret... about your existence. You know, you are not the first werewolf..." he cut her off. "I know, I can smell them on you. That is the only reason, why you are still alive." That was an unpleasant answer for Patty.

She rather kept quiet and didn't push his buttons any further. Patty had her eyes fixated on the crackling fire. Suddenly she heard his breath deepening and his body started to twitch a little. He fell asleep. It was still early in the morning, so she decided to snooze a little too.