(Un)wise by Melissa Haag

outnumbered them.
    For the first time in days, a smile lit my face.  Maybe there was hope after all.
    *    *    *    *
    I wore a new rough woven tunic that my mother and I had dyed with a red and brown pattern.  At almost nine, I was glad to have something that made me feel pretty especially when I stepped out of our sod home and saw the stranger.
    A boy on the cusp of manhood stood before me.  His sudden appearance surprised me.  Winded and shaking, his eyes traced over my tiny frame just as I studied him.  His dark hair dripped with sweat and stuck to his olive skin.
    My mother and sisters stepped out of our home behind me.  I gave the boy a small smile and wondered why he’d come.
    The boy fell to his knees before me and brought his face level with mine.  His move surprised me, but I didn’t budge.  I was too curious.  My mother made an anxious sound behind me but didn’t tell the boy to leave.
    His deep brown eyes locked onto mine.  “They are coming,” he warned with a slight growl in his voice.  “Just behind me.  They will kill your family.  You need to run—as far as you can—to save them.”
    In this life, I remained unaware of the danger of which he spoke.  Perhaps this was one of my sisters’ lives where I didn’t have the dreams to remember.  Or perhaps I was too young for the dreams yet.  With the boy’s shaking, I knew what was coming even if my dream self did not.
    My mother gasped and tried reaching for me.  It proved too much for the struggling boy, and he burst into his fur.  My sisters screamed and ran toward the field where my father struggled to turn the hard-packed earth.  My mother, sobbing and pleading for mercy, followed them.
    I stood frozen, watching the wild creature before me.  He struggled with himself, slowly pulling back the beast until he was again in human form.
    “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to do that.  You must hurry.  There are too many of them coming this way.”  He glanced over his shoulder, looking back at the way he’d come.
    He turned back toward me with worry and desperation in his eyes.  “Come here,” he said.
    Heart hammering, I stepped forward.  He clasped my hand in his own and looked at me with kindness in his eyes.  “I’m going to protect you the only way I know how.  After I do, you’ll need to run, little one.  Go west.  Look for my people.  We will help you.”  He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.  “I need you to bite me.  It will confuse them and allow you to move away from your family.”
    It took some convincing, but I did as he asked.  He shuddered when I broke the skin, and as I apologized for hurting him, I patted his shoulder.
    “Never mind that.  Remember, west,” he said.  He moved back a step, burst into his fur again, and took off at an amazing speed.
    By then, my mother and father were running toward me.  I waited for them and admitted to biting the boy but forgot about his plea for me to run.
    My mother clasped me to her and wouldn’t let go.  We were still standing like that when a group of men arrived.
    I watched as the men attacked my family. Too late, I remembered the boy telling me to run.  I screamed my anguish while the leader yelled and cursed.
    “Find him.  He needs to die so she can Claim another!” the man snarled through his elongating canines.
    The dream shifted, but the memory did not fade.
    The lady in the taupe gown stood in the circle watching the women depart.  One woman turned back, a worried look in her eyes and a hand resting protectively on her belly.
    “What is it, dear one?” the Taupe Lady asked softly.
    “I will do as you ask and keep her safe.  But, who am I protecting her from?”
    The Taupe Lady drifted from the circle, her gossamer skirts flowing as if in a breeze.  “Not who, but what.  Diversity may have gone too far in the beginning and created creatures your fragile race has no hope to withstand during their evolution and their struggles