One early afternoon in the land of Muria, Arianna and her friend Skyler were frolicking in the woods, wasting time on their way home from their lessons. The two girls were training to be summoners, which would allow them to call forth an illusion of any creature in the world. Skyler was a prodigy, but Arianna struggled a bit the ability.
Arianna was a hybrid. She was part emo-shifter, a creature that can shape shift based on emotion. Arianna's eyes were normally brown, but, being what she was, her irises would occasionally change color. This change would accompany shifts in her emotions as well. Beyond that, her caramel hair reached almost to her waist and she always had it woven into a braid, which hung over her right shoulder.     
         It was the middle of the summer and the wild flowers were in full bloom. Picking a few, Skyler wove them carefully into her hair right above her ear.
Skyler had light hazel eyes and dark black hair that fell to the middle of her back, which she constantly had in a ponytail.
The sun sank lazily into the western sky as they walked leisurely through the thickly treed woods back to their village.   
After traveling for a couple minutes, Arianna smelled something and looked up to see smoke rising from among the trees nearly a half mile away. Grabbing Skyler's hand, she made a dash for it. A few moments later she stopped dead in her tracks.
There in front of her were the burning remains of her house. The smoldering pile of ash and rubble laid smoking in front of them. The whole village was crawling with armored men.
Suddenly, Skyler was dragged toward the woods. Arianna pulled her over to a thick shrub and shoved her in.  
Crouching in their hiding place, Arianna realized just how many soldiers there were. Their train stretched many yards past them. As Arianna resituated herself, a branch snapped. Both girls tensed as a large wolf-like creature began sniffing at the brush that concealed them. 
         "Stay in line you filthy animal!" Soldier clad in silver armor approached the beast, a spear in hand.
The canine resisted and the soldier struck it over the head. Still the creature would not listen.
Finally, fed up with the stubborn brute, the soldier grabbed the spear with both hands and drove it deep into the beast's body. The corpse fell to the ground right in front of Skyler and Arianna.
When the procession began to move forward, Skyler noticed that certain wolves were dragging cages behind them, cages full of elves - prisoner from the village. The enemies' march was slow and painful to watch.
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         After the soldiers and wolves had disappeared into the trees, the girls cautiously crept out of hiding. These two girls had never seen anything like this. What remained of their village was either on fire, near to collapse, or reduced to ashes. Burning buildings were scattered across the vast plain like sheep in a pasture. A few mangled forms lay scattered about, forgotten and burning, likely the remains of elves.
Arianna suddenly remembered her father. He was there when the attack took place; she knew that for a fact. She stumbled along in shock, not waiting for Skyler. She reached the market place and stopped, staring at the mass of land littered with bodies. The whole of the vast market was layered with charred and burning corpses. Disembodied legs, arms, heads, and torsos were scattered among the carcasses. This is what became of those who resisted.
She began to check each corpse, hoping she wouldn't find her father's remains among this gore.
Skyler grabbed her in her frantic search and pointed, not trusting her voice.
Arianna took off running, leaving Skyler to weep at the edge of the massacre. 
When she reached the place Skyler had indicated, Arianna dropped to her knees next to the partly charred, lacerated corpse of her father. She reached out and touched his raw, blistered skin. With all her emotion pressing down on her, Arianna broke down and sobbed. Skyler stood silently next to her, staring at the mass of death around them. Never in her life had she seen this much hate towards the elves, it was unnerving. 
A thought struck Skyler. She left Arianna to be alone with her father, and when she returned she held a half-broken shovel and a blackened stone. 
         "At least we can give him a proper burial," Skyler suggested.
Arianna glanced up at her friend and gave a weak smile.
So they carried his body on a tattered curtain between them and marched solemnly back over to Arianna's house, or what was left of it, and buried him under a large willow tree that grew near the edge of the village.
Arianna knelt by the newly turned earth, watering the ground with her tears. As she walked away, her heart snapped, awakening an unhealthy thirst for revenge. She stalked over to the glowing coals and shifting rubble that remained of her house. She drew a pair of gloves from the pocket in the butt of her pants and put them on. Digging through the charred boards, ash, and coals, Arianna withdrew three iron studded cedar chests smeared with ash and slightly burned.
One held a meager sack of provisions, another held a bow, a quiver of arrows, and two knives, and the third held a short sword and a cask for water. She equipped the weapons, fastened the cask and food to her belt, and handed Skyler one of her knives and a second sword salvaged from the rubble. 
"What is this for?" Skyler stared down at the weapons in her arms with her large eyes.
Arianna didn't answer. She just turned and walked away, finding a slightly obvious trail of trampled foliage, snapped branches, and disheveled brushes left by the procession. Without a word she dashed down the path, leaving Skyler no choice but to follow. 
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         After several days of travel, Arianna had finally come forward about what they were doing and Skyler, eager to save her mother, whom they had not found in the village, went along with it.
A ransacked village grew on the horizon before them. Soon they reached a similar scene to the one they had so recently left.
In search of survivors, they scoured the crumbling houses carefully. 
          Digging through the rubble was a boy around their age. His disheveled blonde hair hung thick on his head. He was covered from head to foot in cuts, scrapes, and gashes.
When they tried to approach him, he leaped to the ground, rubble sliding as he jumped, and bolted into the surrounding woods. 
         "Wait! We mean you no harm!" Arianna called after him in vain.
Either not hearing her comment or disregarding it, the boy did not cease.
"Come on!" She and Skyler darted after the mysterious boy.
About a half hour later, two maybe three miles from the village, the boy finally had to stop
The girls split up, going opposite directions, ready to converge on the boy as he rested.
When Skyler came into view across the small space, Arianna nodded and began to advance from the trees.
The boy tried make a break for it, but was stopped by Skyler - an unseen obstacle, 
         "Let me go!" the boy struggled frantically in Skyler's grasp.
         "Stop, please. We won't hurt you," Arianna assured, warily approaching him. 
         "I don't believe you," the boy stated.
         "Look, if we had wanted to hurt you, we would have done it already," Arianna reasoned.
         "I guess that's true," he pondered Arianna's words for a minute, "fine, I believe you. Now what do you want?"
         "Just to know who you are and... What happened here. What's your name?" Arianna asked.
         "Caleb," He was still hesitant.
         "Did you live in that village?" Skyler gestured towards the town that lay in shambles beyond the trees.
"Yes," Caleb mumbled, tears returning to his eyes.
         "So... what happened?" Arianna broke the awkward silence.         
He waited a moment as if preparing himself. "These huge wolf creatures came in hordes, wagons strapped to the backs of some. In each wagon was a cage of prisoners that they must have captured along the way. They pounced on us like predators. They used the element of surprise. We were caught completely off guard. They destroyed the village and started rounding up people including my mother." A tear dripped down his face. "Anyone who rebelled was killed, the rest were loaded into the remaining cages and hauled away. They left as quickly as they had come. Then, I was alone, no one in my village escaped their clutches alive."
         "How did you avoid being captured?" Arianna wondered, things not quite adding up.
         "I was in a hidden room under the floor boards of my house. My mom shoved me in there before going to see what was happening and ... that was the last time she touched me," He could no longer hold his grief back, tears welled up in his eyes and finally poured over, streaming down his face. 
         "I'm sorry," Arianna tried to comfort him, "we'll do everything we can to help your mother."
         "What?" Caleb asked, confused by the odd promise. They had just met him.
         "We're going after them to avenge my father," Arianna explained.
         "And rescue my mother." Skyler placed her hand gently on his shoulder. "You're not alone in this." 
         He considered their words. "Let me come with you. If you are going after Ronan, I'm coming too."
         Arianna thought about his offer. "The more the merrier I guess. Alright." Arianna outstretched her arm toward Caleb.
He took it.
They traveled back to the village together, trying to avoid looking at the grotesque scene around them. On the other side, the trail of broken branches, crushed bushes, and scattered leaves left the village. They continued forward, with one more ally to aid them on their journey.

A/N
Header is the wolf creature.
Sorry it's sideways.