Dimension Ah

The ginormous wolf raised its large, clawed paw and brought it down on her. She shrieked upon contact and toppled to the ground.

"Get up!" The wolf growled with a vividly familiar and unnerving voice.

Realizing she was alive, April sprung to her feet and bulged her eyes to the beast before her. Its voice was clear and audible in the sense of being more like a person talking into her ear. For some reason it sounded like that whitehead.

"You…!" her voice lodged in her throat. "...are naked!" She screamed in her head.

Saka, crouched down to her with a burning scowl.

"Move if you don't want to die!"

He juddered her from her paralysis. April tried to blink out of it, but she was met with a whole lot of skin.

Bare. Raw. Bare skin.

"Hey, you insufferable piece of chum! Are you retarded?"

The question rang rude inside April's head. She furrowed her brow and focused her eyes on the young man.

"How dare–"

Saka didn't wait for her to finish. He pushed her aside before an enormous lycan fell down on him. April watched for a second as the naked person arm wrestled the creature, their skin tones greatly contrasting. How was she still looking at this?

"Get the hell away!" Were the words she heard before a blinding white light burst out. Out of it, the previous giant wolf emerged, biting the lycan in half. April felt her blood curdle.

She was off! Heading to who-knew-where - away from the chaos.

"Riddance!" The wolf gnashed, glancing in her direction.

A moment later on the other side of the forest, bewildered, April's thoughts rang:

"He's a wolf! A wolf?! A werewolf!... Wait, he's the same wolf from last night?!"

The only explanation she could come up with as she blindly sped through the forest was that it–he had probably never left her alone and stalked her all that time right after she injured herself. Yes. That was the closest thing to soothing her racing heart. All she could do now was run.

Run the hell away from everything!

This was not a situation she wanted to endure any longer. She needed to get out of that forest. She needed to find to get back to…

She lurched forward and face-planted on the ground, almost biting her lip.

"Ugh…"

Raising her head in shock, she knew she had just been jerked to a stop. She was still feeling her heart pounding when something gripped her two tails and pulled her back.

"Ah! No!" She tried to dig her fingers into the ground to stop the lycan she saw pulling her but it flung her away. She smacked hard against a tree trunk with her back and blacked out immediately.

* * * *

Something kicked her shoulder and a man barked for her to wake up.

She yelped awake and met with the gray eyes of one Saka, with all white hair and glares. He looked like a gorgeous mythical creature – or something out of a terror-filled forest.

"You little rat!"

To his far left, a lycan – what was left of it – lay torn to shreds in a pile of blood and flesh. He had not a spec of blood or dust and not even a blade of grass on him, looking as elegant as he was eerie.

Naked.

"Do you know how frustrating you are?" He roared.

"Put on some damn clothes!" April retorted, covering her eyes.

This seemed to enrage Saka. His eyebrows twitched.

"Do you know the trouble I went through to save you?!"

April tried to crawl away, panting. Saka stepped on her ankle to stop her. She yelped.

He flipped her onto her back and grabbed her collar, making her face him.

"You're such a pain in the ass. Why didn't you just get eaten?"

"Good lord, please take my eyes!" April whined, trying to turn her face away even though the man was holding her chin tightly, making her look directly at him.

She squirmed in his grasp trying to escape him.

"Lemme go…!"

Her words amused him, and he sneered at the corner of his lips. He scoffed.

"Let you go? I had to maul that beast and now its tailbone is damaged thanks to you. I should rip you to pieces too!"

"Saka!"

Every fiber of his whole body slacked, and he turned even grimmer.

"What do you think you're doing?" The oldest blonde in blue hissed, appearing from behind a tree followed by Semacoar, the brunette, and the redheaded elf. "Leave the girl be."

"Why?" Saka crowed while a restless April fought in his unflinching hold.

"You're naked."

"You must have the best eyesight."

"Don't start. I'm the leader here."

"Give yourself a medal then."

There was a slight possibility the paladin was insulted by the younger man's blunt response. He viciously snatched Saka off April, pulling him to himself with a ferocity contradicting the calm expression on his orange face, where he calmly smoothed and dusted his sleeves before spitting:

"Calm down and listen to me, you little brat! I'm your older brother. Your only brother."

Semacoar pouted.

"What am I, chop liver?"

"You've always been very sensitive." Saka cooed to the paladin. "You know I'm setting her free."

"Free?" April panted on the ground. "For whatever reason would you need to set me free buck naked?"

The blonde in blue paladin glanced at April and then sighed. He threw a black coat in Saka's face. "Cover yourself."

"I'll do what I want when I want!"

It was like an argument between an adult and a petulant child. Seizing the opportunity among the arguing, April suddenly had an idea and silently scuttled away on her knees, not aware that the brunette was watching her.

Brunette glanced at the squabbling males and back at April… who was gone! She whispered something in the redhead's ear who looked at the boys and casually cleared her throat.

"The little tailed creature has run away."

Everyone silenced and looked to where April was lying choking in Saka's hold. She was gone. They turned back to Saka with frenzied glares.

"That's good!" He yelled at them, his tone scornful. "Let it die!"

The blonde in blue paladin sighed and turned to the others. "Find it–er, her!"

They immediately scattered to scour the rest of the forest, looking this way and that but came right back together, faces filled with confusion.

Where, they asked the brunette, did she run off to?

She had extended her feminine finger in the eastern direction when a horrified scream of a girl filled the forest in the western distance. She screamed again and they all bolted after her voice. Unable to see her, they heard her scream again – that time in the treetops. So, they followed on the branches using speed and agility unbeknownst.

Finally, they saw her, caught in the gnarly clutches of a slightly above-average lycan, pained and petrified. It flitted from tree to tree, oblivious to the company behind it.

April could see them all except for Saka, nimbly running behind. They would have looked spectacular if she had not seen an even more spectacular sight on the forest floor just then.

His sight set in the distance ahead of him, fur and five tails decorating his sinewy wolf body, Saka ran alone on the ground. He ran faster than the speed of light (and sure to heck faster than any elite athlete April had ever seen) leaving behind what looked like a fading blurry trail of afterimages of himself!

"Wow…"

April lost her breath and almost succumbed to the lycan's tightening grip around her waist.

Another agonized scream tore the atmosphere. The elves were forced to choose between letting it go or trying to shoot it down and catching April in the fire. What was more, the lycan was incredibly fast!

Fortunately, they did not have to choose for at that exact moment in time, the wolf jumped into the trees, mouth wide open and baring fangs.

Her first time seeing the inside of a beast's mouth, April screamed in terror. Was he trying to eat both the monster and her? She instinctively cringed. But the jaws of the wolf caught the neck of the other monster.

The girl simultaneously slipped out of its claws…!

She instinctively squealed, hurtling down to the ground, her back facing it and her hair flailing. That was it, right? She was finally going to die! Not even a prayer for her soul would be enough. She just had to scream and brace.

In the blink of an eye, Saka launched himself forward and caught the elf in midair, somersaulted with her in his jaws, and landed gracefully on the ground – her still squealing. Her hair was caught between his canines. He looked sternly at her fear-stricken face and growled threateningly.

Eventually, the noise woke April up and she stopped screaming. She glanced around her surroundings, instantly calming down. The rest of the Elves were standing around staring at her, exasperated gazes locked on her. She brought her sights to Saka's piercing stare. Something was odd in his gray, wolf eyes. They were ashen – yes – but seemed to have glass shards in them. That was the first time she noticed the gleam in them. How detailed they were.

The shards gave them a sharp yet subtle quality. They were communicating in a seductive yet creepy way as the gray iris swirled like two miniature cyclones. The shards trembled. What an absolute beauty!

He set her down on her feet carefully.

"Huh? You saved me again?"

His snout lowered to her as they maintained eye contact, spraying a bit of breath that gently blew some of her hair off her face. Those eyes were beautiful. She felt like she had just survived death to definitely be in this Toothless-Hiccup moment with this… wolf… elf… man.

She slowly raised her hand and hesitating at first, gently placed it on Saka's snout. His nose was wet. His fur was silky soft.

It felt like they were stuck in that exact moment in time. That felt like a warm dream. A subconscious smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

But the wolf suddenly shrunk and a paper-white and welt-built but unclothed body replaced the animal's.

"Do I look like some sort of pet?!" He roared angrily.

April was startled to the point of falling back and onto her two tails.