King was awestruck as he watched the threatening mammoth who stood next to the skeletal remains of the vampire earlier in the distance. Its sculpted body belittled a lengthy scar that ran across on its back. Douglas and Pandora, on the other hand, kept darting their eyes around them, hearing low growling blend with the whispers of the forest. 

'Douglas,' Pandora directed through their link. '... Ready yourself.'

Douglas huffed, swiping a finger below his nose.

King's face contorted. "Well, I don't think I'm ready to die just y—"

Suddenly, the lad felt an intense gaze bore through him. His gut was squawking at him not to look back, convincing him to keep his head still only. 

But of course, that's just not King. He turned his head and his breath slightly hitched when he saw one of the most enchanting pair of cerulean eyes. It was glowing bright blue, almost like some sort of heaven's light. King felt pulled by it. It was kind of mysterious and almost so magical.

... Before the creature who owned it, the gray werewolf menacingly sneered at him.

King flinched, jolting when the big, bad wolf began to inch towards them with an alarming snarl. Pandora and Douglas, keeping half of their attention on the concealed werewolves, backed off in response.

'... I think we should leave. Now,' Douglas linked, slightly snarling to whoever owned the glinting pairs of eyes he saw.

"You think?" King murmured between clenched teeth, unconsciously gripping Douglas' hide tighter. "Any plans, Pandora? I really don't fancy being dog food."  

Pandora scowled. The werewolves were creeping closer towards them. She had finished analyzing their numbers—seven—and positions before finally pinpointing their escape route to Douglas in the link. They just needed to move now. 'In three,' she hinted. 'One—'

'Three!' Douglas roared. Pandora didn't take the time to roll her eyes. Rapidly, they dropped on all fours and thundered towards the werewolf south of them, who was the farthest from the others.

The lone werewolf, startled, instinctively lunged at Douglas. But before reaching eight feet near, it let out a whine and shuttled away towards a tree when Pandora swung a roundhouse kick on it. The force whirled from her legs and the physical divergence from a human was immense.

The other werewolves were shocked. But not a second wasted, they roared and barreled after them, barking and snapping their jaws like wild, rabid dogs.

'Damn lunatics!' Douglas linked.

'Just keep running!' Pandora snarled.

King turned his head, his eyes dilating when he saw the canines racing after them from behind. 

Pandora maneuvered around ridges and chunks, nimbly evading timber and obstacles and her speed syncing with the wind. Douglas kept up, not bad himself, and having a fast framework despite his bulk. It was the werecat's specialty—their agility.

The terrain levered up, the setting sun on the horizon peeking from behind gargantuan trees. At one point, they reached the edge of a towering cliff. The next few moments, they ended on the margin of a floorless gap. They halted.

"What now?" King asked. They peeked at the fissure, Douglas kicking a rock off to test how far it will go.

'... We're jumping,' Pandora quoted, backing off. Douglas emitted a raspy gurgle of excitement; King was the opposite.

"Hey now," King blurted out, chuckling nervously. His heartbeat soared, and his grip on Douglas tightened more than ever. The werewolves' barks closed in on them. King wasn't a fan of heights, but he contemplated between it or the wolves. The first one seemed better—

King was in the middle of his thoughts when Pandora barreled past them, and, whoosh! She leaped down the two hundred feet of air.

'Hold on tight, King!' Douglas cried. Well, King was already.

"Wait a sec—"

Douglas leaped.

King took back what he said earlier, screaming while he saw his life flash before his eyes. A sick sensation barraged his stomach as the air gushed around him. His screams came to a halt when the wind choked him.  Suddenly, his muscles stiffened, causing him to lose his grip on Douglas.

'King!' Douglas yelped.

The altitude dropped. King gritted his teeth, trying to gain control of his body and balance. He couldn't damn land just like a cat with this height unlike his two cousins, though he could probably survive it. Surely with broken bones.

The ground doomed closer. King's face paled. He cursed out loud.

Just before crashing down, Douglas caught King's arm. He tucked him into his chest and, grimacing, had a brief moment to balance his feet for landing. But he failed, and he collided with an enormous tree instead, breaking dozens of its thick branches and causing him to lose his grip on his cousin.

King grunted, meeting clusters of branches on his way below too. Then he fell back to the earth, planting face-first on the dirt. He groaned. 

After a few moments, King propped his arms on the ground and spat, tasting putrid in his mouth. His body was throbbing again, and his leg felt worse. He grumbled and tried to push himself up, and stared at the slumped-on-the-ground Douglas who was a few feet away from him. King scowled when the latter remained unmoving. Then, Douglas weakly grumbled indescribable cryptic words in a hoarse, burbling voice. He was just half-asleep.

King heard cracking branches and he turned, seeing Pandora in the distance. She patted herself, plucking leaves and twigs out of her fur. 

King was about to get up when, suddenly, the wind whispered from above. Pandora twitched. She snapped her head immediately towards his direction and her face bore horror.

THUD

King's blood went cold, a sudden ball building in his throat when a deep humming growl and a monstrous shadow loomed over him. Something had just landed behind him. Something sinister. He didn't have to spare a second to guess what it was. He knew he was so dead for sure.