At Dawn, in the Forest

After twenty-four hours without any complications, Dawn was removed from the hospital wing. Twenty-four hours after that her cast had been removed. Still, she hadn’t uttered a single word.

“You can move around however you want without your cast, but still be careful. I would like to check up on your legs and arm in a week to ensure everything has healed properly. Until then nothing extensive, be gentle,” Harper instructed Dawn.

The young woman did not pay mind to the doctor. She wiggled her toes as she sat on the bed. It felt good to have the cast of, the summer was starting and it was getting sweaty and uncomfortable. Harper had told her she was lucky to be a werewolf, humans had to have casts on for six or even up till ten weeks on.

However, Dawn didn’t feel lucky she was a werewolf. If she hadn’t been then she wouldn’t have been captured, abused, tortured and her teenage years would have been hers to enjoy instead of to suffer. Dawn stayed for a long while in the room she was assigned to. She didn’t come down for any meals, they were brought up to her, but hunger never came to her. It was weird, withholding food was a form of punishment she endured many times and she would beg in her mind that food would come, would magically appear and now she chose not to eat. Well, she didn’t really see it as her own choice, it was her body’s choice.

It was on the third day after Dawn’s cast was removed, it was the fifth day after Dawn had woken up and the eighth day after Dawn’s arrival there was finally some life that lit up in the young woman. She had been watching the trees from her room when suddenly the idea, but more the realization came up to her that she could go outside, that she could touch and climb the trees. She didn’t need anybody’s permission for that.

Carefully she sneaked out of the pack house, her small frame made that easy for her. Once outside standing in the treeline she took a deep breath and a tiny smile lit up on her face for the first time in nine years, and then… she ran.

Dawn ran through the forest spreading her arms and touching the flowers, plants, and leaves on her path. If you didn’t know Dawn you thought she wasn’t happy at all. The tiny smile was gone and her face was back to neutral again. But if you looked up close you could see the subtle frown of discontent had disappeared. She felt thirteen again, running through the woods, chasing her brothers. When Dawn ran out of breath she let herself fall onto the forest ground, caught by the moss and dead leaves.

She lay there for hours, it felt like she could finally recharge. For hours she identified the trees, animals, plants, and flowers around her. She took in every sent and enjoyed every second of it. And when she could no longer identify any living being she let every episode of every documentary replay in her mind. It was glorious.

Until it wasn’t anymore.

A loud growl was heard, followed by a man shouting. “Hey! Hey, you! Who are you?!” Dawn immediately stood up. A muscular man followed by a huge wolf walked in her direction. She tried to conceal her face from emotion, but scared she was. Dawn didn’t know what to do. Should she be careful? Should she be defensive, or offensive? Or run away?

“I asked you a question. Who are you and what are you doing here?!”

“Hold your horses, Ajax. No need to be worried,” Max had come to the rescue. “She is one of the rescues. I think she just got lost…” A look was shared between the two men and the angry man named Ajax now expressed pity. “Dawn, how about you come with me? They made some fresh lemonade back at the house.”

Dawn didn’t want to leave, she didn’t want to come with Max. She wanted to stay here, with the trees. However, staying with Ajax didn’t sound too appealing as well. So she followed Max back to the packhouse. Once there, Max put his hands on Dawn’s shoulders and gently guided her through the house to the dining room where a woman was waiting with a big jar, of what Dawn assumed to be lemonade.

Dawn was annoyed. Annoyed that she had to leave the woods. Annoyed that she was being told what to do and where to be.