Ah, it turns out that the anecdote is true that humans are more terrible than demons. Humans in solitude, much scarier. And that's how he felt when, finally, after hours of being lost alone in this almost soundless forest.
If only the white fox wasn't acting strangely, then Luke wouldn't have realized that someone was standing behind him. The Gaelic Blevine was there with his signature grin. From the start, Luke had felt that something was wrong with this big dormitory caretaker. Luke had thought that he might have abused the children or might have taken their lives secretly. And now he is here. Close to Luke within eight feet. The tip of the tongue slightly protrudes and licks the surface of the lips. He seemed happy to see Luke and instantly his instincts signaled that there were many pairs of eyes looking at Luke. And that is right. All around us, Luke found something that wasn't there before. Namely dozens of pairs of shining eyes and looking at Luke with a sharp glare from behind the Maple trees.
Goosebumps immediately spread throughout the body to the top of the head when one of the owners of the pair of eyes began to appear. It's a wolf. A very large wolf that was about four feet tall, thick fur and moved easily at the slightest movement, a pair of sea blue sclerae in stark contrast to the soot black irises, also four sturdy legs that stepped one by one towards Luke. Luke didn't hear his voice, but Luke knew that the wolf was snorting slowly.
Then not just one, followed later by other wolves of the same size with various eye colors. Even so the highlight is similar. Sharp and piercing. On the other hand, the white fox also seemed to turn his head towards the wolf pack that was walking in slow motion mode. And before Luke becomes a wolf's meal or a Gaelic slaying victim, then with the power of the late afternoon sun that never sets, Luke musters up the courage to get up and run away.
Unfortunately, they are after him. From the right-left and back. The Gaelic and the wolves were after him and, really, it was nothing like in the movies he had seen. Where when the character runs to avoid danger, then something will not reach the character until he is saved. The truth is not that easy, pal. Luke had been running for so long earlier that his knees were shaking and now circumstances forced him to run again with the last remaining energy of mounting fear. And so, in just a few seconds of Luke running, Gaelic had already managed to grab his arm. Luke fell backwards and used the moment to crush his body. His grin didn't change at all. He confidently started slapping her hard, along with his mouth opening and closing as if he was screaming while cursing. The slap was so sore that Luke realized that it was no ordinary slap. Gaelic has nails which are more properly called claws.
Still in the same span of time, while Gaelic was engrossed in slapping Luke back and forth, the wolves had also arrived. Around us. It's the part that makes him think that maybe Luke will die; without being prevented by Gaelic, several wolves began to tug at his hands, feet and hair. Really! Do you know the feeling when those sharp teeth dig into the skin? It feels like you're praying for your life one last time. Incredible pain. Slowly, the wolf's teeth managed to tear the flesh and blood out. Gaelic himself, he was already out of Luke's body. Everything happened so fast. It was so fast that Luke was sure that this had only been going on for a few seconds.
Now Luke's body was shaking following the direction of the pull of these giant hungry wolves. They literally pulled it in any direction they wanted. Luke could even feel his bones hit by the teeth of one of the wolves or a large amount of his hair falling out. This is how it feels to be eaten by a wolf. Sick. Incredibly sick. Too frantic to save himself. Too scared to fight alone.
Even so, Luke still wants to live. That desire drove him to try to struggle and kick recklessly. Tried to get up but only managed to crawl with his stomach dragging. Luke had tried screaming for help, calling Valley's name, even screaming at the top of his lungs. But still, this Maple forest seemed to swallow up all the sound sources that existed… except for the fox's voice.
“Hang in there,” he said in a voice that sounded like a dozen small children mixed in with a grown woman's voice and felt like it was floating in midair.
A fishy smell overtook his nose as he saw wisps of cotton right above his eyes, along with the voice of the white fox that Luke heard. After that, Luke felt the bite on his body begin to loosen, replaced by a feeling of pain that extended in the legs and arms for a moment and immediately changed again to an uncomfortable feeling in the back as if Luke was being dragged away quickly. In addition, his neck also seemed to shrink and narrow as if it were being strangled.
However, the cotton cloud was still above his eyes until Luke finally realized that it was not a cotton cloud but the white fur of the fox.
“… hang on… hold on…”
The words he could not understand. Because, shocks and hot friction on the back makes his consciousness up and down. Then down there. Luke saw that the wolves were also still chasing. There are Gaelic too. He looks very angry. Their movements were like forwards and backwards, just like Luke's.
Ah… is Luke moving? But, how could Luke move if his legs were shaking and badly injured? Oh, that's right. This cloud of clouds which turns out to be the fox's fur is part of its belly. So, the suffocating feeling was real because the fox was dragging him away from the Gaelic and his pack of wolves by grabbing Luke by the collar.
Luke wanted to tell the fox that he wished he would stop running. Luke wanted to tell him but no sound could come out. Eating as hard as he could, Luke lifted his arm and patted the fox's belly lightly. Luckily the fox finally stopped and the stranglehold on his neck and the rubbing on his back stopped.
The fox moved sideways, getting away from him and, to be honest, Luke didn't expect that his small body could run at high speed while dragging him in a field like this. However, that was only the initial shock because in just two seconds, the fox was sliding down to its toes and before the wolves got any closer, this was the last thing it saw;
The fox made gusts of wind with its tails, then in an instant it was covered in a swirl of mist for two seconds and when the mist cleared, this white fox transformed into a girl with long black hair, in a knee-length white dress, shoes that fur up to its knees, and still, a waving tail.
Without so much as a word the fox girl stamped her foot and pushed her arms aside then Luke witnessed how the air dome surrounded us both and threw all the wolves and Gaelic into the air. Hit the Maple tree trunk, until it fled topsy-turvy.
So that was the last thing he saw; Fox girl and Maple forest.
***