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~Escape; the Moon's Calling, part One~

Lilliana ran faster then she ever had in her life. Howls pierced the evening sky, the crashing of trampled brush making her run faster in a panicking effort to get away. Her breathing came in high pitched, choked out gasps as her body went past its limit, her leg muscles beginning to grow weak and strained. Her long brown hair, long since coming unbound of its leather tie, was snagging in every branch and bramble she passed. She could now hear the pants of the Wargs behind her as they closed in, starting to circle to her right. The human woman had no choice but to turn left, knowing full well she was being herded like cattle but unable to do anything about it. Be directed on the hunt, or turn and face the beasts snapping jaws. As countless branches slapped, scratched and tore at her skin and clothes, Lilliana took a chance and looked behind her. The hungry eyes of a black Warg met her green eyed gaze, evoking a winded scream from her sore throat. She took a sharp turn, trying to round a tree, and to her horror her foot caught on a root, sending her soaring forward. She grunted as her body hit the slope that met her with a sickening crack, skidding and tumbling down the steep hill as everything from rocks and twigs stabbed at her sore body.

She could barely hear the rustling of leaves and shifting of soil as the Wargs slid down after her, but even so she cried out in panic. She finally came to a halt as the front of her body slammed into a tree at the base of the slope, knocking the wind out of her with a painful, choking gasp. She barely had time to think about the pain before her blurred sight rested on the massive wolves already half way down the slope. With a squeaked scream, she scrambled on all fours and surged to her feet, adrenaline making her body forget the pain and driving her down towards the sound of water. But darkness had descended on the forest, making it near impossible for her human eyes to see what was in front of her. Just as she reached the clearing, a snarling bark thundered through her bones and she was blasted to the ground by the full weight of a Warg. She let out a cry as they skidded to the edge of the river, struggling for air as her face was driven into the shallows, getting a mouthful of river sand and water in the process.

The beast snapped his teeth down, grabbing the tattered remains of her tunic and a mouthful of tangled brown hair, dragging her out of the water with a growl. Lilliana choked and sputtered, sending a spray of water and sand onto the leaves beneath her, letting out a cry of pain as her hair was pulled. The Warg set her down in the middle of the clearing, his massive form straddling over her as his bared teeth came inches from her cheek, growling in warning for her to remain still. The moonlight shone down on the surrounding area through the break in the trees, casting its luminance enough for her to see, if only faintly. The others padded in circles around the two, growls rumbling forth from their throats as their Alpha had her pinned to the ground with fear and fear alone. Her body trembled from both terror and fatigue, and in a last desperate attempt to calm the angry creature, she let out whimpering cries and raised her neck to him the best she could laying belly down. She could see his yellow eyes and ivory teeth hovering next to her face, studying her with an intelligence only a Warg could muster. The snap of his mighty jaws closed on air a mere fingers width from her neck. It evoked a high pitched whine from deep within her throat that matched that of a scolded pup, and at that, he pulled his maw away from her with a satisfied growl.

Lilliana trembled beneath his gaze, making no eye contact whatsoever, fearing for her life. Her mind raced, regrets of wandering so far into the forest plaguing her thoughts. She whimpered as the alpha's teeth closed on her the back of her tunic, dragging her towards the hill with waddled steps as he straddled her like a freshly made kill. She hung limp in his grasp, half carried, half dragged up the slope from which she fell, the dark moonlit forms of the others hardly seen from her position. Their excited, triumphant barks and yips boomed in her ears, intensified by the headache that threatened to split her skull. She felt like a kitten caught in its mother's hold -minus the comforting gentle grasp- unable to move, unable to utter a sound. Blinded by the pain and numbness that had set in on her body, Lilliana allowed her eyes to close, praying desperately to the gods they would grant her a swift death. Then, she succumbed to the dark hold of sleep.

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The dull pain of her head hitting the ground startled Lilliana from her sleep. She did not know how much time had passed, but it could not have been long judging by the position of the moon that hung in the sky. She groaned, the growl of a Warg reminding her of her place. Laying there on the cold ground, she let her eyes wander around, trying to discern her location. Not much could be told, -to her dismay- except that she was in a camp of some sort. The faint shapes of huts surrounded the clearing she and the pack were in, a small campfire cracking and snapping behind her. Footsteps, not beast but humanoid, approached their location, and the Wargs gave but a unified bark in greeting.

Booted feet stopped inches from her nose, and as the figure crouched she caught sight of a blade hilt sticking out of one boot. She made a mental note of this. A rough calloused hand was placed under her chin and forced her to look up, her eyes widening in both awe and fear. Cold, but terrifyingly beautiful, ice-blue eyes held her gaze, firelight casting eerie shadows over the man's stern face. She could not tell his age; there was a mystifying beauty and roughness about his appearance that made that impossible. His hair was shoulder length, shaggy and unkempt, adding to his wild appearance. Lilliana thought of the stories she had been told of a race that could turn from man to wolf. Looking at his stunning primal features made her wonder if he, was one of those men.

"You could have saved yourself from the grasp of my pack's teeth if you had just remained where you were..." he said in a gruff, almost growling voice. The man looked her over, and at that moment she felt almost naked under his prying gaze. "Though I must admit... this tattered, wild appearance suits you well..." the feral grin he flashed her sent chills up her spine that raised the hair on the back of her neck.

"What do you w-want with me?" she asked quietly, somehow feeling that raising her voice would send her to a very slow painful death.

The Warg that could only be the alpha, snarled angrily at her, taking one step towards her before cutting his growl short at the mans raised hand.

"No, she has the right to ask. Though," he began, turning his searching gaze back to her, "you are either very brave, or very foolish for speaking without being asked to girl." he paused, and again his icy eyes looked her over in a way that made her increasingly nervous. "You, were trespassing on our territory, a very unwise move on your part. There is no possible way that you could have missed the signs of warning, clear to even the dullest of creatures, which told of dangerous land... I am at least courteous enough to give a fair chance for outsiders to turn back...And yet, you were at the very heart of our territory." He brought his face closer to hers, enough for her to smell the breath of a carnivore on him. He whispered, his voice holding both malice and what she hoped was not blood lust. "Do you know...what usually happens to those that ignore our warnings?" the Wargs surrounding them began to whimper eagerly, their tongues licking over their sharp teeth.

Lilliana trembled like a frightened mouse. "Please!" she squeaked out hoarsely, "Don't hurt me! I didn't see the warnings! I was captured and brought here by a rider! The horse spooked and dragged the man off with it and I didn't know where I was or how to get home!" she rushed out, barely able to breath for the terror that shook her.

The man tilted his head back and howled out a laugh. "Ha! Dragged off by his horse without his prize! How unfortunate for him!" the Wargs let out huffing growls that seemed to indicate to her they were laughing with him. His eyes caught hers again as he lifted her face close to his with that calloused hand. "So, you have been dropped off in my territory unwillingly..." he growled quietly, letting his lips brush against hers as he let her head down, his tongue curling over his teeth, whose canines were too sharp to be human. "Well then, I need to decide what to do with you... you, are much too beautiful to kill," again his gaze made her shiver. "Nor would I wish to give you up..." the Wargs almost seemed disheartened by his words, and the alpha let out a huff of displeasure.

She knew that reaching for his blade now would only set her death in stone; there were too many Wargs behind her for that to be successful, and if she did, she'd only be taking a wager on their loyalties to him. "Please...just let me go home..." she pleaded, wincing at the throbbing pain in her head.

He shook his head. "Oh no, no I cannot do that my girl. If I did, I would certainly be setting a bad example for both my pack, and others. I cannot simply allow an intruder to go free, just because they were unwillingly dropped into my territory." a humored glint flashed in his eyes. "Now if you were to successfully escape, then that, would be a different story. But, well you saw how your first attempt ended." he grinned at her, deeply amused. "I suppose you will just have to remain here, with us. Perhaps one day you will actually grow to, -dare I say- like it here."

She hung her head in dismay, her tangled brown hair falling about her face. She was doomed. Lilliana almost wished she had drowned in the river instead of being held here against her will. I never should have left the village... she thought, knowing her eagerness to explore, had led to her capture, and, unfortunately, here in the heart of Warg territory.

He stood, beckoning to one of the huts openings. "Take her inside. We mustn't be impolite to our new guest now can we?"

She lifted her gaze slightly, peering in his indicated direction. The pack parted, letting another member as small as a normal wolf through. It padded past the others with tail between its legs, lower to the ground, almost slinking by the rest of the pack, which were two if not three times the size of this small one. It was clear to her that either this was a youngling, or the omega of the pack due to its small size. Lilliana's eyes grew wide when the wolf got to be a few feet away. Its form morphed and changed as it walked with a sickening crack of shifting bones that almost made her vomit. But it only took moments to see the result. She was now looking up at a stunning young woman. What she thought were skin tight, but revealing clothes turned out to be complicated, twisting tattoos covering the woman's body, creating an oddly elegant, exotic beauty. The woman could not have been little under five and a half feet tall, and not much older the Lilliana. Her tattoos continued on to her face and on her skull, which held no hair at all except a very warrior-like black ponytail that sat at the top of her head, held up by tight silver bands. She was absolutely the most beautiful woman Lilliana had ever seen.

The man standing in front of them gave the small woman an amused smile. "I do believe you have stunned our guest into speechlessness H'ria." He turned, motioned to the rest of the pack. "Come, I would send you on a hunt but I do believe you have run enough today." he said with a growling laugh, walking off into the shadows with Wargs in tow.

The woman called H'ria knelt before her and slipped an arm under the weak and battered human, lifting her to her feet with surprising strength. She spoke not one word, but at Lilliana's cry of pain at being brought to a stand, quickly placed her other arm under the girl's knees and lifted her, into a cradled position. She carried her all the way to the hut she had emerged from, silent, but looking her over with attentive curiosity. H'ria ducked under the fur flap that covered the hut, setting her on a thick bed of furs near the center. A lantern hung from the curved wooden poles that held up the hut, casting enough light to illuminate the entire area.

Lilliana looked up at the woman, who gazed back at her with dark green, almost brown eyes. "Thank you..." was all she could whisper out to the Skinwalker, whose stare was making her slightly uncomfortable.

H'ria nodded, going to the glowing coals of the fire pit in the center of the hut and quickly flipping a few hot stones into a tightly woven basket. The hiss of steam rose as the stones contacted water, and soon H'ria had poured the warm water into a small stone basin beside the fire. She dipped her hands in the water, removing and wringing out a clean wet rag and brought it over with her to Lilliana. She remained silent as she used the cloth to dab at the cuts and scrapes all along her arms and face. The tenderness in which she did this was not something Lilliana expected from a Were, especially one that lived among what seemed like savage beasts.

She bit back a hiss of discomfort as the woman's hand bumped over a deeper cut beneath her shirt. She hadn't even noticed it before now. It must have been from a broken branch on the tree she tumbled into when she fell down the hill in the woods.

H'ria paused, setting the cloth down before reaching to unlace the ties of the girl's tunic, giving her a chiding glance as she tried to pull away. She finished with the leather ties, pulling the flaps of her tunic aside and down her arms. Despite Lilliana's red, embarrassed face, H'ria looked her over as if seeing the young woman's bare torso didn't faze her. Her green-brown eyes found the cut, which wasn't even an inch long, at the top of her right breast. Regardless of its small size, the dark purple colors around its edges were what were causing her the most pain. H'ria got to her feet again with the cloth, going over to the basin of water. After adding another hot stone to it, she dipped the cloth back in, rinsing it thoroughly before returning to her guest. Her touch was gentle as she carefully cleaned the wound, and once in a while she'd lift her eyes to Lilliana's as if to judge her pain tolerance, applying different levels of pressure depending on the reaction she'd get.

She was in the middle of thinking about how to escape the mess she was in when the Skinwalker's arm brushed against her nipple. Not expecting it, she took a sharp intake of breath, chills skittering through her skin. She tried to hide her discomfort while H'ria abruptly let off the pressure on the wound, looking up and clearly looking like she was wondering if she had hurt the girl. "It's nothing..." she said hoarsely, averting her gaze.

The woman narrowed her eyes at her, searching for an answer to Lilliana's discomfort, smirking as she noticed Lilly's hardened nipples. That was the only glimpse the human woman got of the Skinwalker's feral nature; there was a glint in her eyes that she could not decipher, which either way, made her uncomfortable. But the woman paid no further mind to it. Instead she finished cleaning the wounds and took the cloth and Lilliana's now sorry excuse for a tunic, back to the fire pit. For a moment she thought the woman was going to burn her tunic, but she just set it down, instead picking up a thin, supple deer hide and walking back over to her.

H'ria reached around Lilli, draping the hide over her shoulders with amused eyes, rose to her feet and without so much as a word, left the hut, leaving the girl to her thoughts.