A Dream of Death

Ch. 1 Friday, the Day Before Prom

She was a short girl, about four-eleven and at that, she only weighed about ninety pounds (not because she starved herself but because she was so picky with her food that she didn't need to eat much and she exercised a lot). She was seventeen-years-old. Her eyes were blue with purple specks and she had four easy to spot scars: one on each cheek, one on her chin, and one on her neck. She was very solitary and only opened up to her few close friends and family. When she was around other people, she usually read or drew; she also really liked to write books. She wasn't gothic but she wore black most of the time. In the winter, she wore a black, guy's hoody with a dragon on the back, a wolf on the front, and flames on the sleeves; she usually kept the hood up. Her pants were black sweat pants. In the summer, she wore a black short sleeve shirt unless it was hot, then she wore a shirt of a lighter color, and her pants were usually holey jeans. Throughout the year, she wore a blue jean hat and brown or black hiking boots.

She ran silently up behind her boyfriend and punched him in the back, "Hey Babe," she said, laughing.

"OW, what was that for, Madison?" he asked rubbing his back. He had black hair down to his shoulders. He was about six feet tall with yellow eyes, and, if that wasn't odd enough, they were also shaped like wolf eyes. He had on a black shirt that said, "I'm With A Loony" and it had three arrows, one pointing up and one pointing to both sides, and black pants that had a bunch of pockets. He had a black over shirt on and a wolf fang necklace. She saw a large, black and white wolf standing beside him and a ferret on his shoulder.

"Now, Irvin, you know that I rarely have a reason to punch anyone, and there's no need to call me by my real name."

"Hey, you just called me by mine."

"Well that's 'cause you called me by mine."

"Hey, Tala1," called a guy behind them, he (description), "I'm writing a book, do you want to have a character in it?"

"Of course I do, Russ, I'll write everything down for you by Monday."

"Okay, cool. What about you Honi2?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll have everything soon," he said.

"Okay," he said as a school bell rang. "Was that the two or the ten?"

"Two, hey Honi, did you write me back yet?" Tala asked watching Russ run off.

"Yeah, here," he said digging in his pocket and pulling out a folded piece of paper.

"Thanks," she said taking the piece of paper and punching him in the shoulder, then dodging his punch and running off to her first block class.

She ran through the door just as the late bell rang. She walked to her seat in the middle of the classroom and sat down pulling out the note from Honi. She looked at the teacher and thought to herself YES, a sub, either free day or at least no notes.

While the teacher was calling role, Tala opened the note, it was written in dragon script, which was really a runoff of runes. While she was reading it, the girl behind her leaned over her shoulder and asked, "What does all that mean, Madison?"

Tala replied in an almost growling voice, "If I wanted you to know what it meant then it would be written in English."

Actually, the note wasn't that private at all but Tala really didn't like the know-it-all girl behind her. Translated the note read:

From: Shadow-Ookami3

To: Ippiki-Ookami4

May many evil cats fay from heaven to poke you many times and shed their fur on you.

P.S. don't die,

I need someone to beat up also

Just as she finished the note, the teacher announced that today would be a free day as long as the class was quite. About half the class (mostly the boys) let out yes's, yea's, and one woot, woot at the news. Most of the kids started talking and walking over to each other's desks so that they could talk without having to yell across the room at each other. The few kids that didn't have friends in the class pulled out books or CD players (or both), Tala pulled out a pencil and wrote a return letter asking what fay meant and that evil cats can't come from heaven, because heaven is a holy place so evil things couldn't come from there. Then she put a quote under it that said:

There is a point

At which you cannot go further

You cannot lift another step;

You cannot force your arms against the current;

You cannot suck air into your chest one more time.

Your fingers slip;

You cannot hold on–

And you know that

If you are to live–

To survive–

There is an instant;

A second;

A minute;

–A breath,

A step or a struggle;

And a terror that eats at your gut like acid.

And when there is nothing left

With which to fight,

That

Is where fear fails

And courage begins.

–By: Tara K. Harper–

When she finished writing she pulled out a book called Wolfwalker, by Tara K. Harper, and begun reading. She had already read this book but she had recently got the rest of the series and wanted to read the first book again so that she could read the other books without getting lost.

After she had read about three chapters, the morning announcements came on. Since she didn't like America, she didn't join in saying the pledge instead she started getting ready to leave. When she was done packing, she joined the other students by the door to wait for the bell to ring. When it finally did the kids filed out the door, Tala went to her locker and switched books for her next class.

She walked into her classroom and set her bag down by her desk and looked at the clock, she still had about nine minutes left, so she took the note and went out of the class to wait for Honi to come. When he passed by they punched each other simultaneously. Laughing Tala handed him the note saying, "Here."

"Thanks," he replied, also laughing. "So, Prom's tomorrow, you excited?"

"Of course I am, but I'm more excited about the book I'm about to finished."

"Reading or writing?"

"Writing."

"Cool, going to get in published?"

"Planning to."

"Cool."

"Thanks, well I don't want to be late for my class so I'll talk to ya later."

"Ok then, bye."

"Bye, write me bye."

"I will." With that he walked off.

The rest of the day passed without incident. Tala and Honi passed notes between every class, and with every note Tala wrote, she put a quote at the bottom.

At the end of school Tala and all her friends meet in their normal place. Most of them were going to prom so they talked about their plans. In the end they decided who would ride in which "limos", where they would go, and what they would do.

Most of their buses came at the same time so Tala–whose bus came last–was left with her twin brother. He was about a foot taller than she was, he had short black air, and, like his sister, his eyes were blue with purple specks. He wore a black short sleeve shirt, holey jeans, and dark blue tennis shoes. To her eyes there were flames all around him that moved as he moved and large black dragon wings.

"So, Bob, you and Cara still going to the prom," she asked.

"Yes, we are, and what is your obsession with calling by my real name? You know I hate it, and I don't call you by your real name," he replied in an annoyed tone.

"Because, Honoo5, you hate it, that's why I call you by your real name."

"Fine, then every time you call me by my real name, I'll call you by yours."

"Well there's one problem with that, I don't hate my real name, I just like my nickname better. Oh look its raining, I'm going outside," she said taking off her hoody to reveal long black hair in a pony tail and a black short sleeve shirt and scars all down her arms. She walked outside and–in front of the rest of the students who were huddled together out of the rain–laid down in the wet grass and let the rain, fall hard onto her face.

Honoo watched her go, he watched as the small black dragon jumped from her shoulder and onto her stomach as she lay down. He watched the huge black wolf lie down beside her and lay its head on her chest. He saw the faint smile that crossed her lips as each did so.

By the time they got home it had stopped raining, so Tala went to her bedroom in the bottom floor of the house. There she took her young, four-foot-long anaconda out of its huge cage, took it outside and set it on the ground. After doing that she caught a rabbit from the twenty square foot cage that she kept her rabbits in, and set it in front of the snake. Realizing it was in danger, the rabbit took off as fast as it could, the snake in hot pursuit. About ten feet later the snake caught the rabbit and wound itself around the rabbit to suffocate it.

Tala, knowing that the snake wouldn't go anywhere while eating, went inside to check on the rest of her animals. She refilled her anaconda's water bowl. Cleaned out the cage of her corn snakes and refilled the water bowl. She went through all the various snake, lizard, turtle, tortoise, ferret, weasel, fish, frog, toad, bird, spider, scorpion, crab, bug, bat, mouse, rat, and chinchilla cages, changing water, filling food bowls, changing bedding, and other random things that were needed. When she finished, she went back outside to she her anaconda slither into her pond that was a hundred feet in diameter.

He would be in there a while so she set up a temporary fence just in case he tried to get away. She went back inside and opened a hidden trap door that no one knew about except her. She had stumbled onto it (literally) awhile back when she tripped over a loose board that was sticking up. She bent down to remove the board so she could replace it and she pulled up about ten boards. It startled her for a second, but then she realized it was a trap door, and that's how she found it. She grabbed something from a drawer and climbed down a rope later, jumping off about five feet from the floor. She lit a fire in the small fireplace using the two rocks she had got from the drawer.

She grabbed a torch from above the fireplace and lit it in the fire. She walked around the walls lighting torches. When she finished she replaced the torch and looked around. The room, that was about ten feet high and as big as her bedroom, was almost completely empty except a huge bookcase extended from floor to roof and had at least a hundred books, all fantasy or science fiction.

She climbed back out and set up a temporary pulley system that she had made herself. She rolled the anaconda's cage to the pulley and used it to lower the cage in to the hole. She then climbed back down into the hole pushed it by the bookcase at the far wall. Then she climbed back out and did the same with the rest of her forty-something cages. She did this because while she was away her parents liked to snoop around in her room, not that they minded that she had animals but they liked to move things around a lot, so she thought it best that she hide her stuff.

She went out side and looked out across her land; she had a hundred acres, although half of it was hidden in forest. She started running toward a huge, blue barn about two acres away. As she ran she pulled out a little, blue ocarina, that had a wolf on one side and a dragon on the other, out from under her shirt and blew a high note with it. She dropped the ocarina, letting it hang from the black string around her neck, and kept running.

A second later, she heard hoof beats. She looked around and saw, to her left, a huge, beautiful, buckskin horse running toward the barn, but slightly veering toward her. when they got next to each other Tala jumped, grabbed his black mane, and pulled herself up onto his back. She rode him to the barn and jumped off. She grabbed a bucket and filled it with food then walked back out of the barn and, shaking it, blew a note on the ocarina that was high but lower than the first. Then she poured the food into the outside bucket for Virochan6 was still a wild horse and he wouldn't go into the barn, much less a stable. She filled the buckets in ten other stalls and then made formula for the orphaned colt, Small Fry. When the rest of the horses came, Honoo was riding a seventeen-hand black horse that was a hand smaller than Virochan. He rode bareback like Tala but, unlike her, he rode with a harness and reins, Tala had always found that very funny. He jumped off Night, lead her to her stall, and took off her harness so she could eat. Then he turned around and Tala, still leading horses to their stalls, saw an annoyed expression on his face and quickly stifled a chuckle, "Yes Bob?" she asked with a completely innocent face.

The fire around him flared, "First of all, stop calling me Bob! Second, why did you call in the horses? I was riding."

"Okay, I'll stop calling you Bob."

"Thank you."

"Anyway Bobby," she paused for effect and saw the fire around flare even higher, and she saw his wings fan out making him look almost menacing look, "You should know by now that feeding time is right after school, so don't get mad at me for doing my chores." She closed the stall on another horse and went to let in the last horse, which was already standing at the stall, her filly trying to milk. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Small Fry didn't come in so I need to go find him." With that, she grabbed the bottle of formula, mounted Virochan, who had finished eating, and rode out to find Small Fry.

As she rode, she made a whinnying sound that sounded like a dam calling her foal. After a few calls, she heard an answering call and, using her knees, she guided her buckskin horse towards the sound.

She saw the colt running on his long gangly legs toward her. Its fur, which was still its baby fur, was a light brown with white socks. Tala tapped Virochan twice on the neck. He slowed to a stop and Tala jumped off just as Small Fry got near them. He whinnied in happiness when he saw Tala for he saw her as his dam. He ran up to her and she offered him he bottle which he grabbed and drank from eagerly. She held the bottle up as he drank from it and when he finished she walked him back to the barn and put him in his stall, he plopped down and fell asleep immediately.

When she left the barn, she mounted Virochan and rode back to her house. She went inside and climbed down into her hole. She went to one of her weasel cages and stuck her hand inside. An almost completely black weasel ran up her arm and onto her shoulder, opposite the dragon. She pulled her arm out and closed the cage on the other three weasels. She climbed back out of the hole and went to her computer. She got on the internet and checked her e-mail. After doing that, she started surfing the web for information about something. When she finished she went back outside and leapt back on Virochan and rode toward a huge tree in the middle of her land, well at least it was in the middle if you did not count the half covered in forest.

When they reached the tree, Virochan allowed her to stand on his back so she could reach the lower limbs. She climbed the tree swiftly and gracefully. When she came near the top of the old tree, she pulled back an old deer skin that and old Native-American had given to her as a gift of honor. Behind it was a huge hole and inside the hole was a long bow and a quiver made of tough leather and was full of arrows–they had also been a gift, but for friendship. She swung the quiver across her back and did the same with the bow, all the time being careful not to hit the dragon. She replaced the deerskin and climbed back down the tree. When she got near the bottom branches of the tree, she grabbed the branch in front of her and swung down to land gracefully on the ground. She walked over to Virochan and jumped on his back. She patted his neck and whispered in his ear. He whinnied in happiness and cantered to the barn

Tala jumped off and ran inside to a small room designed just in case something was happening to one of the horses, so that they would not have to go back to the house if they needed something. She went to a small portable fridge, pulled out a bag of carrots, and went back outside, grabbing an apple on the way out. She gave a hand full of carrots to Virochan, stuck the rest of the bag in her hoody pocket, leapt back on Virochan, and rode toward the forest.

The hunter aimed his gun toward a ten-point buck. Just as he was about to shoot, an arrow landed at his feet causing him to misfire. He cursed as the buck ran off, "What'd ya do that fur boy?" he asked in a gruff voice as he turned and saw a dark, hooded figure sitting on a huge buckskin horse. The figure had a long bow in its hand and a quiver across its back.

"First of all," the figure said laying the bow across the horse's neck and using both hands to take off the hood, "I'm not a boy. Second, this property is off limits to hunters. The next one goes through your neck," she said as she picked up the bow.

"How d ah know ya ain't just bluffing? Ah mean you could have just missed me with that last arrow." Tala drew an arrow, notched it and aimed it toward his throat. "Okay, okay. Ah'll leave." He grumbled and slouched off. I love it when they think I'm a guy, Tala thought as she dismounted and followed silently, at a distance to make sure he didn't come back. When he was about a mile from her land, she left and ran silently, gracefully back to Virochan, on her way she stopped by her fence and picked up a sign that someone had torn from the fence post. She found the nail and used a rock to pound the sign back up. The sign read, "IF YOU ARE FOUND HUNTING HERE YOU WILL BE SHOT"

As she mounted Virochan, she heard a short song on an ocarina. She returned the song and steered Virochan towards the sound.

She jumped the fence passing Honi who was sitting bareback and reinless on a pure black horse. Tala and Honi raced through the forest until they came upon a temporary coral they had made for this purpose. As they dismounted, Tala pulled the bag of carrots out, grabbed a handful and tossed the bag to Honi, who gave a handful to Shadow–his eighteen-hand, pure black horse–then tossed the bag back to Tala who put it back in her hoody pocket. They left the horses there and ran silently through the forest until they came to a white building. They ran around to the front of the building. The sign on the building stated: Jujitsu classes inside. They walked through the doors and were immediately greeted by their sensei. He was tall for a Japanese man his long, graying, black hair was put back in a braid he wore typical Japanese clothing that had symbols all over it. His eyes were a bright green but faded into brown, then red toward the pupil and a really, clear, almost liquid blue around the edges of the irises. "Madison san, Irvin san, how are you?" he asked bowing. "And how are you Shinen8?" he asked petting the ferret who had moved from Tala's shoulder to her head.

"We are well, sensei, how are you?" Tala asked returning the bow.

"I am well, are you excited that today is your last day here?"

"Well I am excited but I'm also sad because I'll miss come and fighting with you. Oh, hey, you have a fridge here right?"

"Yeah, right over there, why?"

"I don't want my carrots to go bad," she said, pulling out her bag of carrots.

"Okay sure, go ahead. So I'm guessing you brought your horses."

"Yeah," said Velvili storing the carrots in the fridge, "you want to go see them?"

"Really? I would love to." They went back outside to go see the horses, for it would be about thirty minutes until the rest of the class arrived. They ran through the woods to the corral, their sensei kept up with them easily, and he was just as silent as they were. When they reached the corral, sensei leapt the fence and calmly walked to Virochan and started talking softly to him and petting him. "I wish I had a horse," he said to himself.

But Tala heard anyway, "Well, we have a new colt at the ranch; my dad's been looking to sell him."

"Really, then I'll come by after class. Speaking of which, we have fifteen minutes until it starts, people will be coming by now." They ran back through the forest, this time, sensei was in the lead. They got back just as the kids started to arrive. Sensei greeted them all and when it was time for class to start; class started.

"Congratulations, Madison san, you have passed I will miss talking to you before class."

"Same goes for me, sensei." They bowed to each other and then hugged. "So, when will you arrive at my house?"

"Well, what time do your parents get home?"

"They're probably already there."

"Okay then, I'll be there in about two hours." Then sensei turned to Honi, "Congratulations to you as well, Irvin."

"Thank you sensei," they bowed but did not hug, for they did not know each other very well.

Tala and Honi left and ran back to their horses. They raced back to her land, Honi stopped at the gate and Tala kept going. As Virochan jumped the fence a black and silvery Husky ran out of the shadows. "Hey Black-Silver, how are ya?" she asked as she brought Virochan to a stop, she jumped off and played with the Husky for a minute. "So where's Dark-Night?" she asked as she stood up and looked around. Then a large, black German Shepherd ran out to greet her. She wrestled with the two dogs for a few minutes, after which she jumped back on Virochan and rode until she reached her pond. She jumped off Virochan and undid the fence. She grabbed the anaconda, which was swimming near the top of the water, right behind the head so he couldn't bite her. He rapped around her arm trying to get away, but she was used to this and it was fairly easy for her to keep hold of him. She took him inside and down into the hole to put him back in his cage. After doing that she went back to her computer to finish her book.

When she finally finished it she e-mailed the last chapter to her publisher. He happened to be online at the time so he IMed her, "so u finally finished the 3rd book"

"yep" she answered, "r&p7 asap"

"what if it's not good enough to publish"

"it better be people are excited about my next book"

"yes they are what this one called again"

"the dragon-wolf" Then she checked her computer clock, "I hav to go, a friend's going to be here soon ttyl" she turned off the computer and ran outside.

She jumped onto Virochan and rode back to the barn. She grabbed a harness with reins, one without, and a lead rope. Then she rode Virochan to the herd of horses a little ways away. She put the harness with reins on a chestnut horse. Then she put the harness without reins on a black and white, painted horse, she clicked the lead rope onto the harness. She jumped back on Virochan and grabbed the chestnut's reins and the paint's lead rope. She rode back to the barn with the reins in one hand and the lead rope in the other, making it slightly harder to ride but she had done it before.

When she arrived at the barn, she led the chestnut inside and put a blanket and saddle on her. Then she led her back outside and remounted Virochan. She rode back to her house.

She arrived at her house just as sensei and her dad walked out. Her dad was about six feet tall, he has dark brown hair and the same purple flecked, blue eyes. He was wearing a dirty, white T-shirt and worn, sun-bleached, blue jeans. He was a well-built man, although not huge. She looked down at the black jaguar standing at her dad's feet, her wolf had walked over to it and they were sniffing each other warily. "Dad, here's Dark Cloud," she said handing him the lead rope of the painted horse. Then she handed the reins of the chestnut horse to sensei saying, "Here's Apache, sensei, I didn't know if you used reins and a saddle or not."

"Either way is good," he said climbing in to the saddle. "So why Apache?" he ask, slightly amused.

"Well, we named him that because of a horse I read about in one of my books was named that, and I let you ride him because he is good with strangers."

"Ah, I see, so where's this colt."

"Small Fry is this way."

"Small Fry?"

Tala just smiled. They rode past the barn a ways, until they came upon the herd of horses. Small Fry was off a little ways playing with the other colts. They rode over there and as Tala jumped off Virochan, Small Fry saw her and ran over to her. She greeted him happily, petting his face and patting his neck. Her dad and sensei dismounted and walked over. They talked about the price and finally came upon an agreement.

"So when should I pick him up?" sensei asked.

"Two months," Tala answered immediately.

"Why two months?" her dad asked.

"Because we need a month for him to get weaned, and another for him to grow apart from me. Two months." She repeated.

"Okay then, I'll be back in two months." They got back on the horses and rode back to the house. They walked to the front yard, where they said their goodbyes, sensei bowing to them and them bowing to sensei. He got into his big black truck and drove off.

Tala went back inside, went down into the hole to put Shinen back in his cage. Then she climbed back out and started playing on the internet until supper.

1 Tala-Indian name meaning Stalking Wolf(Tal-A)

2 Honi- Indian name meaning Wolf (Hon-I)

3 Shadow-Ookami-Kanji9 word meaning Shadow Wolf they didn't use the Kanji word for shadow because they didn't know it at the time(O-Ku-Mi)

4 Ippiki-Ookami-Kanji word meaning Lone Wolf(E-Pik-I)

5 Honoo-Kanji word meaning flame(Hon-U)

6 Virochan-Indian name meaning Moon, Fire(Viro-Chan)

7 r&p-read and publish

8 Shinen-Kanji word meaning Abyss(Shin-In)

9 Kanji-Japanese dialect (Kan-Gee)

(Not sure if the pronunciations are correct but it's how I say them if I learn the correct pronunciations I will update)