Leonx

Melissa!”

“Help us!”

“Wolf! It’s a wo-“

Melissa ran through the house, desperately trying to find her parents. She could feel it, the breath of it’s thick paws against the earth. Once again she cursed the house the lived in, greater in size than in love. She tore down doors, ripped counters, overturned tables with a strength she didn’t know she had. And then she finally found it, but far too late. Her parents were gone, that was for sure. But a wolf stood in the middle of the room, his bloody teeth bared. And then it turned and leaped towards her. For a minute he held her down, dark fur soaked with blood brushing against her skin. She nearly screamed, but she couldn’t, her throat filling with hate instead of terror. He could kill her now, his red teeth leaning towards her neck, but she would not go without a fight. She grabbed the nearest thing, a meat cleaver, and brought it high. The ear was cut almost in half, just a tiny sliver of skin keeping it on. More blood spilled onto her face.

Then the wolf leaped, over her, over the counter, out the window, out into the night.

Melissa knelt and tasted the ground. It tasted like mud and cinnamon and blood. His footprints always tasted like blood. She got up, unraveling the complex knot that held her crossbow in place. She placed her Suax knife back in its sheath, she wouldn’t need it now. The paw prints in the dirty ground were deep, deep enough even for a wolf the size of the one she was tracking. Eleven years and counting she had been hunting for that wolf. She had seen him now and then, on a good day. But she would kill him. Just like everything else he did. She just had to wait it out. She followed the prints to a tree. There they ended. But she wasn’t a hunter for nothing. She counted to eight, then scrambled up the tree. She cocked her crossbow in her mouth, trying not to grin. But when she reached the top, the tree was empty.

“Rah!!!” She dug her nails into the tree trunk, spitting blood and splinters from carrying her crossbow in her mouth. He should be here. How hard could it be to find a five foot tall wolf? So close. But she was an idiot to think that the great beast would, after all these years, get itself cornered in a tree. She tugged her bolt out of the wood, cursing. Splinters dug their way into her fingers, but she didn’t care. Eight minutes and thirty seconds later, the bolt’s tip snapped. Melissa roared again, her cry reverberating against the empty, staring forest. That was her last bolt, which meant she would have to quit early. And it also meant she wasn’t going to eat tonight, because she had planned on hunting for food after hunting her wolf. She alone knew how dangerous the wolf could be, it had killed her parents, almost killed her. She remembered that night clearly, she remembered his bloody teeth leaning towards her neck, the blood splashing her face after cutting his ear. She knew this wolf, the one who went by Leonex, like it was human. Ha, far from human this creature was, a Dangerous killer, an animal without a voice, an animal without remorse. But far was it from her to say it was without a consciousness, for it knew exactly what it was killing, and why. She remembered that night, it’s breath of hot grass, the whisper of death, his name on her ear, Leonex, Leonex, Leonex, Leonex.

And the afternoon before that had been a good one, as rare as that was. She remembered her mother’s bulk drafting against the bed where she lay. She remembered her mother’s weight pressing against her, Melissa’s eyes heavy with sleep. Then her mother began sing. It wasn’t a pretty song at all, cold and horrifying, paired with her mother’s smooth icy voice.

“Sleepy creepy, how deeply a death can you stand? Further, farther, into a distant land. How much more can you take it? How much longer will you fake it?

When you find your struggles useless when you wish to die.......

Sleepy, creepy, far from the bank you... lie.”

By this time, Melissa was sitting upright in bed, her eyes wide open. She wasn’t sleepy anymore. A sick feeling had settled in her stomach. She had heard something like that song before.

“Good night, Melissa.” Her mother stood and left the room, leaving Melissa alone. Suddenly the dark didn’t seem warm and comforting. She squeezed her eyes shut. She

had heard that song somewhere before.

Sleepy, creepy, every girl by nine, shall die by the paws of a great beast. Great beast, the wolf, Leonex, Leonex, Leonex. Shivering in their sleep, shivering in the deep....

So she had heard it before. Not the exact lyrics maybe, but all the same. She also remembered where she had heard it. The market place was full of many things, and not without its storytellers. She remembered one telling a story of an ancient prophecy that had caused a lot of problems because it had scared all the children for months. Every now and then, a child would whisper it to her little sister to scare them into obeying:

“You don’t want the Lutonirai prophecy to come true do you.” That was what they called it. And that night, every girl aged nine had been killed, everyone but her. Every girl was murdered by that wolf, every girl but her.

Melissa didn’t realize she had been breathing so hard. Her head hurt. She just remembered that night so clearly.....

But now wasn’t the time. It was getting dark, and Melissa knew better than anyone the forest was not a place you wanted to be after dark. She slipped down the tree, landing less gracefully than she had imagined. A squirrel raced above her head chittering angrily. She swung around, her now already cocked and in position. She fired at it, but only succeeded in removing it’s tail. It dropped to the ground in front of her, still bleeding and warm. She picked it up with two fingers and sighed. She would have dinner tonight after all.