Could it even be called howling? The continuous caterwaul of a badly injured, starving, and maddened group of animals?

Alex shuddered. A sudden thought crossed her mind that the effects of the comet might have mutated normal animals…but she soon shrugged the thought off—it was unlikely that that would happen…very unlikely…

She froze, almost agenst her will as she heard the chilling calls. Her heart fluttered, like a bird desperately trying to escape it’s cage, and she looked around, trying to pinpoint the direction from where the horrifying sound was coming.

Something broke into the clearing, silver and black blur as it sped towards her. So many thoughts rushed through her head, one being, ~Why didn’t I get a piece of glass from Justin?~

The large creature slammed into her, making her cry out in shock and pain. As she fell she punched its muzzle. It yelped, throwing its head back and almost running backwards. It shook its head, covering its muzzle with one paw.

But…what exactly was it? It seemed wolf like…but could it be called a wolf?

It was completely bald, and one eye was missing. It had burns all over its body and its teeth were chipped and deadly. It’s eyes were wild and reflected the starlight. It threw it’s head back and let out a terrifying howl; a signal to the others to come.

It swung around to face her, and she swore she saw it…laughing? Broken growls that it let out sounded like laughter, but it died out after a few moments. Was this really a wolf? Or had she been right before when she had thought about the animals being mutated?

Alex leapt up, backing away. In an impossible amount of time the wolf-creature was behind her, snarling and baring it’s teeth, lunging at her to keep her in the center of the clearing.

~What is this thing?~ She thought, suddenly breaking into a sprint to try to outrun the wolf. No use. The wolf was in front of her almost before she had started moving. ~No way!~ she thought, backing up.

She looked to her left, where there was a seemingly strong tree, rearing into the sky, it’s charred branches reaching out in all directions. She ran, leaping over the wolf when it got in front of her and just managing to scurry up onto a low branch before the wolf caught her. She expected it to rear up and paw at the tree, barking angrily, but instead it did something that a wolf should never be able to do.

It turned, leaping at another tree, digging it’s claws in before twisting and leaping off, landing on the branch of the tree that Alex was on and slowly stalking towards her.

She watched it with wide, scared eyes. It seemingly grinned, and she backed up into the trunk of the tree, pressing back onto it, not seeing any way that she could escape.

It took several slow steps, then bared it’s teeth, howled, then leapt at her. She cried out, trying to twist away and not fall out of the tree. The wolf lunged, it’s teeth inches from her neck before it stopped.

Alex turned her head away, trying to back up but pressed agenst the tree so that she couldn’t go farther. If she wasn’t so terrified she would have been wondering about how the wolf could possibly stand on the thin branch.

It tipped it’s head to one side, glaring into her eyes, it’s eyes almost saying, ‘Let this be a warning…’ before looking down at the ground, it’s ears perked as if it heard something. It leapt down from the tree effortlessly and bounded away, joining the group of other wolf-like creatures that had gathered at the edge of the clearing, and disappearing into the darkness…