28th Lupine

Won in Glor Giveaway Contest: Naming!

Name means "Laughing One," so named for her resemblance (to me) to a hyena!

She's a fierce pack gaurd, despite her size, and one of Prometheus' Piccolos!

2014 Halloween Short Story!

"... paws on the path, paws on the path, tippy-toe down the way..." When the voice first pierced the dusky shadows, Risa was sure she was imagining it. But the sing-song chant was definitely not her imagination. It had started so soft, barely a whisper. More like the rustling of the wind through the tall grass from her birth home on the plains... but even though it wasn't full winter yet, most everything was leaf bare already... and still as death with not a wisp of a breeze.

"... fire and heat, meat that is sweet, shadows at end of day.... " Her watch over the pass had started at just before sunset. The canid she had replaced was well out of sight down the path back to the den that the whispering had started... now, with the sun well down and the sky pitch as black but for the stars, the melodic chanting has grown distinct and clear. But she cannot figure out where the voice is coming from. It seems to be jumping all over the hill, sometimes even seeming to come from straight out in the open air beside the path, over a drop that plummets into the chasm.

"... dance in the dark, silence your bark, be careful whence you stray... " She had tried barking out a challenge, but as the voice just kept sweetly repeating the sinister rhyme over and over. She was beginning to doubt her sanity... and then the screaming had started. All over the mountainside, in the valley, back up the path to the den... screaming and screaming, half in voices she recognized, half in the terrified howls of voices turned strangers. Blood-curdling wails that cut off gruesomely. She had tried running to the aid of the nearest voices, but in the dark the familiar trail seemed alien and then just seemed to disappear from beneath her paws, leaving her stumbling over unworn rocks and through frost dried grasses. The moon should be up by now... but even the meager light of the stars was obscured by clouds.

"... quiver and shake, shudder and quake, will you flee or stay... " She almost does not believe this is happening. Just this evening, the last night of the Hunter's Moon, they had treated the cubs to the traditional games and sweets, and sent them off to bed with spooky tales. Tales of monsters and demons, and things in the dark... cautionary tales meant to teach and entertain. Silly, fanciful things she thought, tales claiming that the Hunter's Moon was once called the Blood Moon for good reason.

"Tuck back your tail, courage will fail, won't you come out to play?" The moon finally peeks out, turning the landscape into an ethereal melding of silver and shadows. The voice.... was so much clearer, so close. Her teeth bared fiercely and ears pinned, Risa whips around as fast as she can, already leaping towards the source of the taunts...

The last thing she sees is vicious, glowing eyes and gleaming teeth.