The animal seemed to tense up and grow nervous again.
Luz knew that opening the trap to free the animal would be difficult. She wasn't weak, but she wasn't very strong either. The process of freeing the animal would cause it more pain than if someone stronger had simply pulled the trap open. So she spoke to the animal again: "This will probably be painful, but I'll do my best to be quick and free you from this terrible trap."
Her prediction was accurate. It took her a long time to open the trap, and several times she loosened it, but due to her lack of strength, it closed again, digging into the animal's flesh. The animal cried and whimpered with each unsuccessful attempt. Despite this, the dog did not bite her; it somehow understood that she wanted to help.
Finally, after an exhausting struggle, she managed to open the trap enough for the animal to free its paw. It cried for a minute, licked its wounds, and, as soon as it saw Luz approaching to pick it up, gave a short growl and ran off at full speed deeper into the forest.
"Wait! You're injured. Don't run. Let me help you! I'll take you to the vet!'
The puppy stopped for a moment, turned to look at her and then ran away at full speed.
Luz ran after it, thinking that if she didn't catch up with it, the wound on its paw would become infected and the animal would die a painful death. She didn't want that outcome — she definitely wouldn't be able to forgive herself.
The puppy was faster, but Luz wasn't going to give up. She kept running and calling to the puppy, desperate to catch up with her, keeping her eyes only on the animal in front of her and not seeing the danger approaching her feet. Suddenly, she felt something slippery. With the momentum of her body, her feet moved back and forth, and her hands moved in circles as if trying to fly, all in an attempt to maintain her balance — but to no avail. Finally, she slipped into a large puddle of soft, sticky mud that smelt slightly putrid. It was just like a scene from a comic strip. Her right foot slid forward quickly and was lifted into the air while her buttocks and back hit the mud hard. As the scene unfolded, Luz screamed, 'Oh no, no, no!' #Paf#.
The creature heard the thud and stopped to look at Luz. As Luz tried to get back on her feet, she slipped again, falling face first into the muddy sludge, unable to protect herself. The creature found this amusing, tilting its head and ears from side to side and wagging its tongue with excitement at the chase. Luz looked into its eyes and, for a moment, thought she had caught the puppy's attention. She got up more carefully this time, so as not to fall again. She took three steps out of the puddle, her body and clothes now completely covered in mud, when a strange sound emerged. The puppy looked up at the sky and saw a large branch falling. It hit Luz squarely on the head. She didn't even have time to protect herself. It all happened so fast. Her vision clouded, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.
She heard growls approaching behind the puppy. Four huge wolves approached the puppy and transformed into human form.
'We finally found you, Aliana!' You had everyone in the pack worried, especially your brother. The Alpha would have torn our heads off if anything had happened to you," said Xioma, the Beta of the Blue Moon Pack and second-in-command. 'Ever since you awoke your wolf six months ago, you've been running away from the pack and venturing into the forest alone. You give us no respite, despite knowing how dangerous it is."
'Will you forgive me, Xioma?' she asked through their mental link, her tone somewhere between pleading and mischievous.
Since her fifteenth birthday, Aliana has been able to transform into the wolf she has longed to be since childhood. She was so happy that she ran away from the pack almost every day to explore the surrounding forest, taking care never to venture too far in, lest she encounter the dangerous creatures found deeper in the dense forest. In her intrepid teenage mind, she considered Xioma's warnings to be exaggerated.
Aliana, Xioma and the other wolves communicated only through their mental link, as she could not articulate words in her wolf state. Although it was considered normal to see a naked werewolf, it was unfair that females were only allowed to be naked in their wolf form. Under no circumstances could they do so in their human form.
Holding Aliana in his arms, the Beta noticed the blood on her hind leg. He could sense her pain when she pulled her leg back as he examined it.
"What happened?" he asked the puppy, still holding her.
Werewolves have an incredible ability to heal, so he was concerned to see that, despite all the time they had spent talking, the wound had not yet healed. 'Your wounds should have healed by now!' he added.
Sadly, Aliana explained that she had gone running in the forest, staying only in the safe zone. However, without realising it, her paw had fallen into a trap. It was made of silver and she had felt overwhelming pain. Silver immobilises and prevents a shapeshifter from transforming. In this case, she could not change from a wolf to a woman. With no hands, only paws, it was impossible for her to open the trap.
Aliana had not yet finished recounting the events when one of the warriors shouted:
'Beta, I see a monster or witch over there!'
The soldier wasn't sure what the creature was, as it looked like a humanoid mass covered in a thick layer of foul-smelling mud. This was because of its wide, mud-covered clothes.
"What is that?" Boris, one of the warriors, asked in surprise and concern.
Through their mental link, Aliana said that she wasn't sure who or what it was, but that she had followed it to this place. It had remained motionless when a branch hit its head.
"Bring it here!" Xioma said in a dark tone. "I'll talk to the Alpha and let him decide what to do with it."
While all this was happening, Aliana's paw began to heal. This was due to the silver in the trap, and she was delighted to feel better once it was removed. Despite the Beta lecturing her about the dangers of the forest and strictly forbidding her to escape again, especially given the current events, she was in a very good mood. With everything that was going on, the puppy forgot about the girl who had helped her escape.
And so the disaster began.