Feral For Her Freedom

Wriggling my way out from the bush I continued south. The sun hadn’t quite hit its peak in the sky, alerting me I had dozed for much longer than I’d intended. Cursing myself, I picked up my pace. I hadn’t a clue as to where I was, I’d never been this far east because it was too close to where The Finding took place.

I stopped only to hunt because I couldn’t function optimally on an empty stomach. I hunched down, cupping my hands to drink the water from a river while being careful to stay on a sturdy part of the riverbank as to not fall into the rushing water that was flooded with all of the melted snow from the mountains. I had hardly brought the water to my lips when I realized the danger too late.

Pine hit my nose like a brick to the face.

I leapt back from my spot at the river and twisted around to see my worst nightmare stalking towards me.

He was in his pure state which was not good. It meant he no longer underestimated me.

In his hand he clutched my shirt.

He noticed my gaze and held it up. “Oh, did you lose this?”

I growled at him, the hair on my arms prickling with irritation at his mocking tone.

He snarled back at me, but I did not shrink from him.

“It’s over female. I’ve spent five years tracking you down. I will not waste another second on you.” He took another step towards me to which I took one back.

My foot hit loose soil that then tumbled into the rushing water. I was trapped between him and the river.

“Don’t be stupid. I didn’t come alone. You aren’t getting away this time.”

I’d gotten away before and I would do it again.

Straightening, I lowered my tensed-up shoulders and took a less aggressive stance. The Zeta agent, thinking I’d given in, took another step towards me. He reached out a hand towards me but before he could grab me, I jumped into the river.

The rapids immediately pulled me under, but I forced my way to the top, my head breaking the surface in time to see the Zeta agent racing along the riverbank, cursing at me the whole while.

I was pulled back under again, my body tumbling through the water. A branch hit my side and I yelped, water gushing into my lungs. I launched myself back towards the surface only able to gulp down a small amount of air before I was thrust back under.

My lungs screamed for air, begging me to kick to the surface which was no small feat with the strength of the current. My vision was going black, and my lungs felt like they were about to explode. With one last mighty kick, I forced my way back up to the top.

My head broke the surface and a huge gasp pushed from my lungs. I choked on the water that splashed into my mouth but used what was left of my energy to fight to stay above the surface.

I slammed into a fallen tree that had been uprooted by the erosion the spring water had caused. I clutched onto the branch, wrapping my legs around another that was under the water. The rapids pelted at my body, but I held on, refusing to die when I had come this far.

A hand latched onto my shoulder and I was ripped from the water.

I screamed out in protest but had no energy to fight back. I was dragged back to solid ground and was forced to my knees on the riverbank. A shirt was pulled over my head and my arms were yanked through the holes. Then my wrists were wrenched behind my back and cuffed.

My eyes burned with tears I refused to shed.

Gone was my life of freedom.

Gone was my life without males.

Gone was my life lived the way I wanted.

Nothing would ever be the same again. My life was over. I’d be shackled to a male who could treat me as he wished. I’d be forced to bend to the rules of our society.

“Aww, don’t look so down little beast,” the Zeta agent mocked me. Heaving me up none too gently he whispered in my ear, “You get to find your consort, isn’t that exciting?”

“How did you find me?” I asked instead of answering his question he already knew my answer to.

He shoved me forward and I stumbled, moving as he directed. Two other Zeta agents fell in on either side of me. “Hmmm, well I tracked you all the way to Green Burrow, you were in that plaza. I thought I’d had you, but you were a sneaky little female and boarded that bus where I never would have thought to look for you.”

I grunted as I stubbed my toe on a rock hidden in the tall river grass.

“But after I couldn’t find you, I knew that you had to have gotten on that bus. I tracked its route and by the time I met up with it, they were stopped at a rest stop. It so happened that a female well past her fourth season was suddenly missing. Who could that have been except for my little terror whom I’ve been tracking the last five years?”

“Zeta really has nothing better to do than stalk a poor unbonded female?” Now that my breathing had become more regular my sass was returning as well.

“No,” the Zeta agent replied slowly, giving my ear a quick pinch in a reprimand for my tone, “Zeta has been tracking a female feral who has been terrorizing poor females and encouraging rebellion against our society and the peace that has been established due to the way our society is run.”

A snort from me interrupted whatever other praises he was going to sing about our society. “Peace my ass. Every ranked male is scheming to become Paramount. They’re all biding their time thinking that the veil of ‘peace’ has all of the other Ones fooled into believing that no one would dare disrupt the peace for a chance to be Paramount. After all, who would be stupid enough to challenge all of the other Ones for a slim chance at becoming Ultimate?” I was spun around roughly, brought face to face with the Zeta agent. At seeing his dumbfounded face, I laughed wickedly, “But what could I possibly know? I’m just a dumb female.”

“What do you know about the Ultimate?” he demanded, his fingers digging further into my shoulder.

“What, you think I can’t read?” I mocked him, “you think I don’t listen to the people around me?” I leaned into him, “No one notices a lone female and you can sure as hell bet that I get any information I can to help myself.”

He grabbed my jaw forcefully and squeezed, “Watch yourself female, you’re under my control now.” I would have shot back a reply, but his firm grip kept me from doing so. “Now answer my question, what do you know about the Ultimate?”

The Ultimate was a myth, an ancient legend of one wight who had risen above the Paramount, the King of Ones. He had so much power, to an extent that he was ahead from everyone else by an impossible gap. He had been strong and fierce, cold and soulless. No one had dared to cross him. He wasn’t all that different from what the Paramount had to be, and yet the power he had amassed had been godly, something that had only ever happen once in our entire history.

Unlike all of the other Paramounts, the Ultimate had achieved perfection. An undiscovered secret that held the key to the requirement to be bestowed with unimaginable power.

It was said that Daedra, our deity, was so pleased by him that he gave him a gift greater than any other. He blessed him with his blood and let his power run through the Paramount’s veins. The Paramount became a god, the perfect specimen of which Daedra had intended. He was named Ultimate and there had never been one before or after him. How he had achieved Daedra’s blessing, the very definition of ‘perfection’ to our creator, was unknown except for the small puzzle piece that linked the Ultimate’s success to his consort.

His consort had been the picture of utter obedience, submission and beauty. It was why consorts were regarded the way they were today. It was why submission was demanded of the females.

That one female screwed over the rest of us because she had been cowardly, and her consort had reached godhood because of it.

A low growl rumbled through me at the thought and the Zeta agent, thinking it was towards him that I directed my anger, squeezed my jaw harder until I whimpered. “Speak,” he commanded me.

“I just know what everyone else knows. You must be the perfect One. Just, fierce, strong, uncompromising, everything needed to be the perfect leader and warrior.”

“And the consort? What do you know about the consort?” His tone was urgent as though I had the answer to stopping the our world from ending.

Perhaps I did. If I figured out the missing knowledge about the consort maybe it could stop the bloodshed that was soon to erupt when the battle for Paramount began. Or maybe it would only make it worse.

“I know nothing about the consort. I’ve searched for the answer many times.” And indeed, I had. I wanted to know the secret about the consort that would give one person the power of a god because I wanted to see if there was a way I could become the next Ultimate and change our society. Besides running, it had been my life’s mission. “And I’ve come up empty handed.”

Then lunging forward, I snapped my teeth at him.

He shoved me backwards before I could snap off his nose and I fell head over heels backwards, somersaulting as I went. I used the opportunity to bring my cuffed hands to the front of my body.

By the time the other Zeta agents had pulled me to my feet, my claws had emerged from my fingers and I plunged them deep into their guts and pulled forward.

These idiots had never even suspected that I could have mastered a pure state and were taken completely off guard as I ripped their intestines from their bodies. They wouldn’t die from it, only beheading, throat slashing, or ripping out the heart resulted in death, because our organs regenerated.

With my hands covered in blood, I used it as a lubricant to pull my hands through the cuffs all in a matter of seconds before I was tackled to the ground.

The head Zeta agent tried to pin me to the ground but with my flailing claws and snapping jaws, he was more focused on avoiding injury than keeping me contained. I gouged my claws deep into his torso and kneed him in the crown jewels.

He wheezed and toppled over to the side, giving me the chance I needed to bolt. I tore across the ground heading anywhere that wasn’t here, letting my instincts take over, shutting of my mind and allowing my feet to take me anywhere. I thundered across the wet ground, my bare feet sinking into the mushy earth. The tall grass tickled my bare legs as I ran.

The sound of a highway caught my attention. Where there was traffic there was civilization and vehicles. With renewed energy, I burst through the thin line of trees and emerged on a long strip of black asphalt.

Cars, buses and trucks zoomed past me.

If I could cross the highway and get to the other side, there was a chance the Zeta agents wouldn’t follow me. They wouldn’t risk being in the hospital for days as their shattered bodies mended, but I would risk anything to get away.

Steeling my nerves, I took in a deep breath and darted onto the highway. There were three lanes of traffic heading in each direction, a median between the three coming and the three going. There was a guard rail on the far side which meant there was a drop off, somewhere I could more than likely escape too.

The blaring of a horn passed by as I nearly avoided a full-on collision.

I jumped onto the hood of the next car and leapt off it over the third lane, soaring over a small car and landing in the median. I stayed on my feet, my chest heaving up and down.

When there was a big enough opening, I surged forward again, running straight through the first two lanes before stopping on the dashed lines before I became a splat on a truck’s windshield. I waited for another truck and jumped into the open bed, falling against the other side. Climbing to my knees, I peered over the side to see that the guard rails led down a hillside into a city.

I threw myself off the side of the truck and curled into a ball as I tumbled down the hillside. Rocks and branches dug into my body, my hands shielding my head as I rolled, turning head over heels until I slammed into a tree, stopping my descent. I groaned in agony as I was forced from my protective ball and now laid sprawled out in a mess of limbs.

Distantly I could hear voices.

“Come on, move your lazy asses. Jude said she threw herself down the hill at these coordinates, fan out and search. He’ll have our head if we can’t find her!”

I sucked in a breath, nothing but the sound of my own beating heart echoed in my ears.

Stupid!

I was so stupid to think that Zeta wouldn’t have other agents crawling all over.

Leaves and branches rustled as they fanned out and searched the parameter.

“Is that bear?” I heard a voice close by ask followed by a deep intake of breath. “Do you smell that?”

I closed my eyes, knowing I was done for. It looked as though my luck had finally run out.

“Oh shit.”

I opened my eyes and stared up at the two agents looking down at me with a mix of shock and awe. The one with blue eyes continued to watch me as his comrade started speaking into his comm, alerting the others he had found me. There were warnings to approach me with caution and to be cognizant of my teeth and claws because I was capable of a pure state.

I turned my head away, the fight in me going out. My leg was broken, and my shoulder was dislocated, I was in no condition to fight and I had no more drive.

Soon the small group surrounded me, one brought out a muzzle that fitted a human. It was a metal ring that attached around the neck with what looked like the bottom of a mask attached to it. The muzzle was snapped around my neck, the bridge of my nose and down covered in a protective layer of metal, preventing me from lashing out.

I felt my hands be pulled together and then a curse as my arms were dropped. “That’s blood. She’s got blood up to her elbows.” He sounded shocked by the notion I would ever be able to hurt anyone.

“Get a grip, she’s a feral remember?” The one with blue eyes grumbled, yanking my arms up harshly where he then clasped on metal cuffs that made my arms look like stubs. “She is nothing like the docile females.”

“Are we going to euthanize her then?” My eyes shifted between the two. The one with blue eyes seemed annoyed with his comrade’s question but he answered it anyway.

“That is to be decided tomorrow night.”

Tomorrow? They couldn’t put me down without my consort’s consent, no matter how dangerous I was. Only if I went on a murder spree was I allowed to be killed on sight, but I’d been very careful to not kill anyone, no matter how serious the injuries I inflicted.

“We’re taking her to The Finding tomorrow? But wouldn’t that be–”

A snarl ripped from the other’s throat. “Shut up kid! Learn to keep your damn mouth shut.” He shot me a glance and cursed colorfully when he saw my wide eyes and frozen state.

I had walked right into The Finding without even knowing it.