Hi, so I've been writing this for a little while now and I'm honestly loving ever second of it. I'm trying to stretch it out time-wise so you really get a feel for my characters, though I haven't added many yet. My main character may not exactly be human, but I hope you guys like her, I've worked pretty hard to try to keep her relatable while still wanting her to be a mysterious bad-ass (you'll see that more as the story goes on) so please tell me how I've done.

Chapter One

The wolf, larger even than most of the bears found within so many miles of the village, watched with concerned eyes as two children fought with large sticks. The wolf's fur was white, though not like snow. Her coat looked like the settling ash of a bonfire, speckled with greys and blacks to make it blend all over.

The worry in her eyes was for the younger of the two girls who couldn't have been more than eight or nine summers. She had long hair, a deep brown, pulled back into a hundred little braids, while the older and larger of the two had a dirty blonde head of hair and an evil sneer as she kicked her young counterpart in the chest and sent her immediately into the ground.

Worried, the wolf stood and inadvertently yelped, her eyes wide. Thankfully, neither of the girls noticed and she caught herself quickly, lowering her body back to the floor and continuing to watch from the shrubbery. She was fascinated, that much was for sure. You see, she had been watching this same pair fight every morning and every evening, though she opted not to on the occasion that a hunting party was out. It would do no good for them to chase her for her hide.

The smaller girl swung her legs around and sprung back to her feet, snarling at the larger girl in a way that made the wolf smirk. Such a small girl was already mastering the art of snarling at an opponent, though nowhere near as good as the wolf's snarl of course. And then they were fighting again, swinging those sticks around and clubbing one another hard until the younger one finally learned to dodge.

For days, weeks, months and years, the wolf continued to watch. She remained hidden in the shrubbery until the day came that the young girl of thirteen years was taken away.

The trip to Polis took two days of hard riding, but the wolf kept pace in the shadows all the way to the city's gates.

For the few weeks following Lexa's arrival in Polis, the wolf sat and waited for an hour each morning, hoping to see those bright green eyes for just a second. Alas, there was no sign of her, not even once, and so the wolf withdrew. Polis was no place for her kind and she knew that.

Finally, when the day came that Lexa and the other Nightbloods left Polis' walls to train outside, the wolf had long since stopped coming. The future commander, though she had never seen the wolf, noticed that there absolutely was a difference in the air. Perhaps it was just Polis, but she suspected not.

The wolf's days consisted mostly of hunting. Winter seemed forever on its way and she had to stay fed. She had to be smart in her kill though, never taking too many animals from the same place and always leaving a breeding pair.

She tried for quite some time to distract herself from thoughts of a young girl with an improved snarl and enormously green eyes. She tried distracting herself by picking fights with angry bears, with panthers and other dangerous animals, but being almost the size of a bear herself meant that as a good fighter there was little challenge in it anymore and she wasn't fond of the meat on either animal. She tried sleeping with another member of her pack, but the pleasure wasn't enough to warrant drinking the foul tea that guaranteed no pregnancies, so that stopped too. She even tried watching other member's of Lexa's home village, but none of them meant the same to her as she did.

In the end, she knew that she either had to let the young nightblood go, or she had to go back to Polis. Of course, there was another form that she could take, but she couldn't risk being recognised. If anyone should see her true face, well, she feared that would be the end of her. The issue though was that she needed a way to get closer to Lexa, she couldn't handle sitting around for months upon months again hoping for just one peek. No, she had to be smarter this time.

And so she was.

Upon returning to the outskirts of Polis, the wolf learned that the fleimkepa had started training the nightbloods out in the forests. They needed to learn how to not only fight in all weathers and on all terrains but also how to survive alone for any given amount of time.

The wolf was excited by this. When she didn't return to her pack, she spent months alone in the woods, doing nothing but surviving. Logically, she knew she couldn't get close enough to help Lexa, but perhaps she could do other things? Yes, surely she could injure a few prey animals, block off a few of the more dangerous areas with fallen trees or large rocks. Yes, that much she could do.

She couldn't help but wag her tail at that.

When the day finally came that Titus lead the nightbloods from the gates of Polis, all of them on horseback, and took them down to a stream a few miles South, the wolf made sure to follow. She had hunted and eaten well that morning, she'd bathed so not as to leave any distinctive or heavy scents strong enough for human noses.

The only issue with having so many people around was that they would, of course, all go their different ways for their two week long survival challenge, meaning that sticking close to Lexa would be tough with the other nightbloods nearby and forever hunting for food.

For the first couple of days, the wolf simply watched. She lay in nearby shrubbery and watched Lexa as she moved gracefully through her surroundings. The girl seemed calm and collected, relaxed even, but she could hear the loud thumping of her heart, speedy and unrelenting at most noises.

The wolf couldn't help but chuckle. All of this training was only good for as long as Lexa stayed in the comforts of Polis, stepping outside like this was where it all really came into play. There was a difference between sparring with Anya and fighting a panther for your life. Luckily, Lexa was competent. She knew where to find good drinking water, where to find edible plants, where to sleep. The wolf didn't once worry about the decisions the young woman before her was showing.

The first time that the wolf felt any fear around Lexa was during the middle of the night. It was late, already pitch black. The night was a silent one, the nocturnal animals were all out in their masses. The wolf knew that this was a good time to hunt, so she took the time to stray away from Lexa's sleeping spot in a small cave, opting for chasing rabbits and sleeping elk in nearby fields. She'd just sunk her teeth into the throat of a frightened young buck, letting it twitch out its final moments in her maw, then she heard the scream.

It wasn't a scream of any human, definitely not Lexa, but that was what worried her. It was a panther.

With eyes wide, panicked and terrified with a chill shaking her very bones, she released her prey immediately and began to sprint.

Her joints were tired from days of following Lexa and stalking low in the tall grass that barely covered her frame, but she ran all the same.

Just as Lexa's grunts began to sound as she jabbed with her sword in the enclosed cave, the wolf barrelled through the last of the trees and didn't once stop. She shot into the cave so quickly that Lexa didn't even have time to be afraid before the wolf's enormous form shot past her and caught the panther's rib cage in her huge jaw, crushing it against the cave's wall beside the dying mare that the panther had attacked while it slept.

The wolf didn't think, she just killed. She tore and shredded, she crushed and she snapped. She didn't stop until the panther lay in pieces as her feet and her ashy coat was red with blood, though very little of it was hers from the poor cat having tried to fight back.

Still worried about Lexa, the wolf turned with large eyes, hoping that her concern was displayed on her features. Much to her surprise, Lexa was stood there, less than three feet away, crouched low with a sword in one hand and her other clasped over a gash on her leg. She was bleeding, the panther had clearly gotten her.

Letting out a low whine, the wolf stepped back a little and lowered her body slowly to the ground. She could still bolt right out of the entrance of the cave if Lexa was to attack her, but she could just as easily stay and make sure the young woman didn't pass out.

The wolf, for the rest of the night, relaxed in Lexa's cave and watched over her when she finally passed out from exhaustion. The wolf knew that she shouldn't stay into the morning, knowing that Lexa may not even remember her if she left, but she couldn't help herself as she curled up and fell asleep. Luckily, she woke before Lexa while the dark was still clinging to the morning, slinking away to see that last night's kill of a young deer had long since been dragged off by hungry little critters and the rest of the herd had scattered. She spent a little while catching her breakfast before returning to watching Lexa from afar.

Over the course of Lexa's trial, the girl went actively looking for the wolf, though never with a malicious hand. Eventually, in the last couple of days, the wolf allowed herself to be seen and watched as the nightblood dropped all of her weapons, her heart beating like a war drum as she gently stepped across the few feet between them and oh so slowly reached out and laid her hand on the wolf's maw. Green eyes met green and something in both the wolf and the girl felt complete.

"Wulf." Was the single word that left Lexa's mouth. It came out like a prayer, as if she couldn't believe the size of the beast before her, or perhaps that she couldn't believe that such an animal was allowing her to touch it. Whatever it was, the wolf closed her eyes and sighed deeply, feeling at peace if only for a minute.

Over the passing months and eventually years, the wolf and Lexa grew together until finally the Commander died in their own throne-room and the wolf took a risk. She took her human form for the first time in years and ventured into Polis under the ruse of buying hides for her people before winter. While in Polis, she hid her face as best she could with dark hoods and attended the conclave. Her heart was in her mouth the entire time, especially when it fell to the final two and Lexa drew last blood, delivering the killing blow.

The wolf didn't necessarily enjoy watching Lexa kill, but to see that she could was a relief. Killing a human was not at all the same to hunting a rabbit.

It was weeks before Lexa ventured from Polis again, but when she finally did, the wolf was ready and followed her out, assuming her canine form behind some rocks before yipping at Lexa and accepting the greeting of both hands scratching at her maw. "You look strong. Did you even notice that I was gone?" Lexa asked her, smiling tirely as she continued to scratch the wolf.

Growling playfully, the wolf opened her enormous mouth and teethed gently at Lexa's arm.

Laughing the young commander pretended to shake the monster away, only to relax a second later and sigh, looking into the green eyes that mirrored her own. "I am the Commander now. I do not suppose you know what this means, but I won't be around as much."

Lexa explained to the wolf about her new duties as if she were a person who understood. Of course, Lexa couldn't possibly know that the wolf really did understand the words being said, but the wolf listened all the same and curled around the girl of sixteen summers when she sat on the floor.

Neither of them knew it in that moment, but in a few months time Lexa would ride off to fight in her first war with the wolf running beside her only to bring her back to Polis when the war was won, allowing her to lie beside the throne, sleep at the foot of her bed and accompany her to every second of her day. The Commander even had a white wolf's head singed into her armour.

The story of the Commander and her wolf may have only just begun, but their path was not to be an easy one. There would be blood, there would be love and there would be loss. All the wolf knew was that she would stand at the Commander's side and kill anyone who threatened her.

Well?

All I'll say here is that I'm really enjoying writing this (I have four or five chapters written right now) so I will carry on writing it, but it's up to you guys whether or not I actually post what I'm writing. I'd love to think that anyone out there could be enjoying what I do, but I can't know if you don't say, so please please please tell me what you think!