The howling fills the night, drowning Daniel’s oinking screams. The creature snorts, sending twin plumes of moon dust into the wretched man’s face. The great jaws, snapping together like a steel trap, close a hairsbreadth above his head. The monster’s shoulders, stopped by the small doorway, keep the teeth from reaching that final mortal inch.
Ripping the edge of his tunic where the beast’s paw pins him down, Danial flies, crawling on all fours like a starved cat chased from a kitchen. He shrieks at the pain, his exposed side breaking out in boils, the redlight burning his skin off. Running across the street, he smashes open the first doorway that presents itself.
The beast reaches for him, stretching its clawed arm out the door as far as it will go. From the drooling snout, viscous drops of saliva stretch and fall, the hungry tongue licking the air after the escaped pig farmer. Tachi watches those hind legs rearing up, pushing the gargantuan shoulders into the far too little exit. The lengthy curved nails scrap along the dirt floor, unable to gain traction.
This thing, this changeling, backs up, and then jumps forward, crashing into the wall. Fractures spread out like the spokes in a spider’s web. Shaking itself, the monster rears up again, and shoots through the front of the mud hut. Tachi screams. Throwing the thin sheet over herself, she cowers on the floor, the moon’s deadly light burning the threadbare cloth.
Click here to finish reading the next installment of Wolf Head: The Shepherd
Wolf Head
Part 1: The Job
Part 2: Foreboding
Part 3: Aftermath
Part 4: Into the Night
Part 5: The Struggle
Part 6: Expelled
Part 7: Out From the Bones
Part 8: Respite
Part 9: Sunset
Part 10: Transformation
Part 11: The Shepherd
Tale Told 