The air smelled sweet with the scent of spring; finally the harsh winter had finally ended. The young wolfess crawled out of her den and stood stretching her arms. The morning light shone off her white fur. “Finally no more ice” she said to herself. An older looking grey male crept behind her, and then poked her sides. “Well, if it isn’t little Miss Runaway. You know if it wasn’t for me your mother would know about the little excursion you had last night and you wouldn’t see the light of day till next winter,” He said laughing as she jumped. “It’s not like I got hurt or anything, I just needed to see the city, Kenta,” She said defensively. “Chealsea, you know as well as I do you aren’t old enough to leave the reservation; maybe in a month or two.” Chealsea whines, “But you tell the best stories of the outside, of giants of all species and miniatures, you make it all sound so lively.” Kenta shakes his head, “it’s just that mindset that will get you into trouble. Some pimp or snatcher will spot your pretty white fur, and lure you in with a new opportunity or with a gold encrusted blade of grass, then what will you do? Say goodbye to the pack and your mother that’s what.” Chealsea whines again, her tail and ears drooping, but doesn’t argue. “Glad to see you understand, pup.” The rest of the pack starts to wake as the morning patrol comes back from their rounds, and Chealsea overhears a couple sentinels talking. “The whole north quadrant stinks of humans, none of the scents were fresh but there was definitely someone there” The other one responds, “If they’re stale then there’s no point of reporting it, all it would cause is Shelia’s new batch of pups to start off pack life scared out of their wits”. I think I know what I’m doing today, Chealsea thinks to herself.
The rest of the day Chealsea kept her nose clean, she even looked after Shelia’s pup’s as their mother stole away to collect her wits. Twilight soon fell and Chealsea squeezed herself through a hole she had dug in the den wall, “Ok, north quadrant”, she said, her eyes shining with excitement. She crept deeper in to the woods staying low in the high grass. “Ok, found the scent, but this smells fresh, not stale, that old furball must be moss infested” she giggled to herself quietly. The young wolfess continued forward slowly; an odd feeling of tiredness swept over her quickly. Should have taken a nap before I came here, guess a quick snooze won’t hurt, just a couple minutes is all I need, She thought as she walked over to a tree and laid down curling up.
Chealsea woke up in a flash of crude iridescent light, she could hear a voice as if it were being heard from an old speaker, “Subject W.012: Tar, waking from cryo-sleep”. Chealsea reach up to shield her still closed eyes from the light, but hit a solid smooth wall. It seemed to encase her completely. “Damn it’s cold, wait where I am?” She said as she felt around the capsule blindly; her eyes felt as if they had never opened before. The voice sounded out again, “Reaction expected, subject seems hostile.” Chealsea opened her eyes sorely and let them adjust; she was in a silvery room with a glass tube keeping her separate from the outside, a human in a suit was holding up a mirror. Chealsea looked and was appalled at what she saw. Her white fur, and likely her body, was replaced with a flowing coat of an inky black vicious substance, and her ice blue eyes were replaced with two pink spaces. Chealsea doubled back away from the mirror her body seemed to pool with her scaring her even more. What the hell is this place, what did they do to me? she thought to herself.