a wolf in sheepskin

a Wolf in SheepSkin | Chapter 1

Stats

Rating:
Category:
Fandom:
Language:

Teen
Gen
One Piece (Anime & Manga)
English

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וגר זאב עם כבש

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb - Isaiah 11:6

Relationships:

Eustass "Captain" Kidd & "Massacre Soldier" Killer

Characters:

Eustass "Captain" Kidd, "Massacre Soldier" Killer,

Tags & Warnings

Archive Warnings:

No Archive Warnings Apply,

Alternate Universe - Not Human
Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters
goat(kid)!Kidd

'wolf'!Killer
Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters
Curses

Harm to Children

Chapter 1

 

He smells the blood first, pain and fear following after in the wind.

The flock bleats away, grazing on the grass in the sunny field, avoiding the woods like they know something. Kidd can't help but drift to the trees shadows, nose flared at the cloying stench on the breeze. It was fresh and that meant danger, leaving him listening intently. The shepherd calls to him but Kidd waves him off, slipping into the forest.

The woods are silent, no birds, no bugs. Still other than a slight breeze in the tree canopy above. Enough to follow the smell.

Finally, Kidd can hear it, rustling of leaves and a strange clinking. The tinks of metal and metal hitting itself. That perked Kidd up - that was new, and sounding like chains. Its not that metal was an unknown to his herd, but it was expensive and rare and he really always wanted to play more with the loud shiny stuff.

The blood was not the deterrent it should have been, and Kidd crouched low in the undergrowth and snuck forward. Thrashing, clanking, and now some snarling. The blood was heavy now; more being split. Was it a fight?

Was Kidd gonna see a fight!?

Then a low warning snarl - he's been spotted.

It was not a fight he found on the deer path, not even the aftermath of it. Kidd found himself face to face with a wolf right off the trail, snarling with foam and blood in his teeth, hunched up on himself under branches of a rather old twisted tree. He tries to skulk under the brush when Kidd spots him, and the clink of metal can be heard again, the wolf remaining out in the open.

The man with his sheep would have fired on the pup by now; wolves aren't worth the risk to the flock. But the wolf doesn't flee, and as Kidd picks his way closer, he sees the front left leg of the creature soaked in its own blood, fur ripped away, muscles exposed and shredded, mauled by its own teeth. Then he sees the shine of metal, the clang of chain chiming again. The wolf's paw is caught in a foothold trap, and the poor thing had been trying to gnaw its way free.

Not an adult - a full grown wolf would have ripped itself free by now, this one was doing its best but had only succeeded in dragging the teeth of the trap down its forearm, tearing muscle right from the bone. A pup; small and weak. The fear of a wolf with is teeth and bloodthirst was nothing compared to the pained whimpers and the splash of its on blood on the forest floor.

Kidd inched forward. He should put it out of its misery. It's done enough damage to its leg he probably wont survive long enough for it to heal anyway. Kidd contimplates the knife in his sporran; he's never taken a life himself, but he's seen it done. He knows the idea. A strong cut to the neck and the poor thing will bleed out quickly and it probably will be no more painful than the damage already done to its leg.

As he stepped forward, the wolf flinched, dropping to its belly, head whipping around to pin Kidd in place with a look of... fear. Terror. It's face a picture of trepidation Kidd had never seen before, much less had it directed at him.

Kidd had his own bullies at home. He was the smallest, the youngest, the weird outcast. His fought hard to instill an uneasiness in the older kids. He’d strove so hard to make them afraid of him.

He’d done nothing at all now, but this wolf was cowering already.

It didn’t make him feel big. It just made him mad.

“What are you afraid of, I aint done anything to you yet?”

The wolf cowered, sulking back. How disappointing.

Annoyed, Kidd stomped forward, going to grasp the chains keeping the trap tethered to the tree, meaning to drag the pathetic wolf over and deal with it so he could go on with his day. Maybe be could use the trap for something new?

He’d barely gotten his hand around the chain when the wolf surged forward, slamming into him and pinning him to the ground. But no teeth circled his throat. Instead it was a hand formed into a fist and Kidd grunted, struggling to breathe. An almost person stared down at him, as human as Kidd's own face, but wild and feral in the eyes.

One of the volkolak - cursed by the sins of their parents - too furry to be human, too bipedal to be wolf. His grip was firm, waiting for Kidd to attack, to lash out. To yell and hit him like the humans have before. Well, Kidd couldn't disappoint him now, could he?

Kidd grunted, grabbing at the hand around his throat, wincing as it tightened. He grinned up for just a moment, before punching out and hitting the wolf's trapped leg... arm...

It didn't scream, but the sound was low and hurt, and it dropped Kidd immediately and curled around the injury. Kidd sat up, rubbing his neck before gently tugging on the chain again. “So... you aint just a wolf then, huh?”

He looked over the creature, more person now than it was before. Still furry, but its mane had grown out with thicker blond locks, paws longer to form fingers, snout shorter, teeth blunter, eyes... still scared.

Its eyes are blue, and he looks at the him like it knows what Kidd plans. Kidd falters, he hadn't expected to see any intelligence there. The pup whines and tries to back away, fear on its face.

Kidd looks to its trapped foot instead. The trap's is just a bar, no teeth, but it's snapped down deep into flesh, exposing bone. Kidd pulls the knife out, if the wolfboy knows what it is, maybe it wont try to attack when Kidd approaches him again. Kidd keeps it pointed at the beasts face and teeth, as his free hand toys with the trap itself.

The trap is small, like it meant for a fox at best, the pup is just unlucky enough to wander into it.

Kidd moved slow, projecting his movement, hoping that between that and the knife, he won't get jumped again. The beast should of torn his throat open. He’d been stupid. His momma was gonna ream him a new one for that. And he was still being stupid but something in that face had him moving forward.

“Lemme see the trap, I'm gonna try and open it. Get you out.”

Kidd chattered as he worked, the boy making no effort to join the conversation, but his fear was considerable less which made Kidd feel less on edge. Kidd wondered where the boy came from - sometimes he was wolf, sometimes almost human - but like he wasn’t sure what humans actually looked like and was piecing them together from near forgotten memories. The closest he could get was looking at Kidd, who wasn't very human either.

The longer Kidd fiddled with the trap, the more the boy’s features seemed to to shift to match Kidd’s more human features. The jaw and nose, his brow. His fingers actual shrank back to more paw like, nails thick and sturdy not the fragile human ones - not to unlike Kidd’s own hooves.

Kidd uses the blade to leverage the teeth wide and the trap finally opened and the wolf-boy jerked away, quickly putting space between them - featured flashing back to the beast Kidd had first found in an instant. He jolts away, fleeing into the brush.

Kidd should walk away and be done with it. He's lucky the wolf fled instead of attacking. But the blood is thick where he was trapped, and its spilt heavy where the pup as fled.

It won't make the night if it keeps bleeding.

Kidd puts his knife away... and follows the blood deeper into the woods.

The pup hasn't gone far, managing three strides before his front leg collapsed under him and sending him face planting into the forest floor, before crawling into a shallow under a bush.

“I don't think you should walk on that leg.” Kidd knelts down to peer into the dark - "If you come back out," Kidd tries to coax, "I can try to wrap your leg? You can't let it keep bleeding like it is..."

The pup the crawled out, ears back, tail tucked between its legs. Kidd pulled his own shirt off, using his knife from opening the trap to cut into it before tearing it into one long spiraling strip.

“You probably need a doctor,” Kidd warned. Did he know what a doctor was? "If you wanna come back with me, my momma can at least look this over."

Wolf-boy was back to his almost person look again, still fuzzy, but a form that would allow him to walk without putting weight on the injured limb, and Kidd wrapped the strips around the mauled arm. The wolf-boy sat docile next to him, not making a sound as Kidd pulled the makeshift bandages tight. He kept his focus on his work, feeling the boy's gaze boring into him. The cloth was red almost immediately, but no new puddles formed under them.

It he had looked up, he would of seen a curious look on the other boy's face. Curiosity and the beginning of fascination. Maybe even admiration.

 

Author Notes

Started drawing goat kid/faun!kidd and sheep!killer for last years' KiKitober Prompt Mascot and killer wanted to be sad and became wolf in sheep clothing and it started to be more mythic creature, cemented by volkolak talk by bestie and now i have a new au in the works XD

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