Kragdon

Disclaimer: I dont own them, though I wish I did. Buffy, Faith, and the rest of the BtVS characters belong to Mutant Enemy, Joss Wedon and everyone else thats not me. :(

PROLOGUE

It was restless that night as Faith prowled through the wood of Denver, Colorado. She had been here ever since she had left after the incident with Buffy and the whole body switching fiasco. She still had a few bruises from that fight in the church; the worst part of it was that it was her doing most of the damage, just not in her own body. But it did feel good to be in her own skin again.

After she and B had switched back she had run, not knowing what to do or how to make the chaos that she had caused better, she hopped the back of a truck and left SunnyD for good. Though she had no idea what B had been doing with her body she had a good idea that it had to do with the council. Faith really didn't want to think about right now. Right now she was on the hunt and yes to her it was a hunt.
Faith had figured out a long time ago after she was called that she was a huntress and predator in it rawest form. She had accepted the slayer within, the darkness that B had tried to deny. So she hunted, her hunting grounds the forest around her and the town's graveyards.

It was tonight exactly five months after she had left Sunnydale that Faith had been in Denver. It was on this night during a blue moon that in one of the town largest cemeteries that connected with the forest and rolling hills that out of the corner of her eye she saw movement. Stretching out her senses she felt that whatever it was strong and she could sense that it was demon and something else that completely baffled her.

It wasn’t like Oz, so she knew that it wasn't a werewolf, but it still got her curiosity peaked and with Faith that was never a good thing. Slinking through the forest and greenery using some mud as camouflage she followed this seemingly new creature to a valley that stank of magick dark magick at that.

Crouching down on the ground she watched as the creature who, out in the moon light look almost like a over grown panther, approach the small mountain stream in the distance. She could see it pause for a second looking around as if it were expecting company. 'What the...' Faith thought as she saw it stand up fully on hind feet; almost looking like a really hairy man with a tail and the face of a cat. Just as she was about to come closer to get a better look she heard it. "Rooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr." It sounded as if it was coming from all around her. She couldn't pinpoint how many there were or where they were and the sound was getting louder and stronger to the point where she thought her ear drums were about to explode.

Reaching her hands up to her ears to try and block out the sound that was getting higher in pitch she started to scream right along with them to try and dull the feeling that someone was driving and ice pick in her head very slowly. The creature forgotten at the moment Faith fell to her knees still clutching her head and screaming when all of a sudden the noise just stopped; as well as the pain.

When she took her hand away from her head and looked up panting she found herself no thirty feet away from ten of the same creatures and that was including the one that she had tracked and they were all staring at her.

"Oh. Fuck," she said before dropping into a defensive stance waiting for the attack to come. But they just kept staring at her not moving. It was as if they were assessing her, studying her almost, it was then as she had started to take a step back thinking that she might get out of this alive yet that the separated into two groups and fell back to all fours that she saw him.

Faith didn't know who the fuck he was but he seemed to be the alpha. She could tell by the low whimpering growls that he was in fact the Alpha. She could also tell that he was assessing her. Still in a fighting stance she called out to him trying to keeping up a front of bravery or stupidity, depending on how someone looked at it. The Slayer within her not backing down an inch and trying to assert its power; "Hey, what the fuck are you, some kinda pussy cat?" she asked, saying the last part sickly sweet. She knew that she was taunting him and a part of her brain knew that that was a bad idea especially with thirty of them and only one of her but she would never ever run it wasn't in her to back away from a fight. And her brain was right as all of them started growling in anger, including the leader, and though she was ready for it even expecting it she was still too slow to avoid the tackle attack from the leader.

With a stake in one hand in the other she and the Alpha fought.

Faith: Punch. Kick. Elbow. Duck.

Alpha: Kick. Claw. Flip. Tackle.

Faith: Side Step. One Hand BackFlip. Spinning upside down kick.

Alpha: Spin Flip. Growl. Bare Teeth. Tackle from below.

Faith: Jump. Flip OverHead.

Both Faith and the Alpha had been going at it for more than a half hour neither gaining the upper hand. Somewhere in the middle it had started raining hard that caused Faith to slip in the mud when she avoided the low tackle. She had fallen flat on her back knocking the air out of her. Feeling the rain pound into her and trying to get the air back into her lungs, Her body screaming in protest at her trying to get back up again. She knew that she only had a small window of opportunity to get back up again before she was done for. Unfortunately she had under estimated her foe, 'cause just as she had climbed back up to her feet she was tackled from behind and went face first straight back into the mud. Struggling to get back up she tried to get the Alpha off her, his claws digging into her back, it was then that she felt it. His teeth came down and into her shoulder, breaking her skin and clamping down on the bone. Before she could stop it how ever a scream of pain fell loose from her lips as reached for her dagger that she had dropped not so long ago, in front of her. When the Alpha had withdrawn its teeth, it was with renewed strength that she didn't know she had that she grabbed the dagger and brought it behind her and into the Alpha's neck instantly killing him.

Rolling his body off of her she tried to push herself to a standing position, for just a second forgetting the pain and just how badly her arm was messed up as she put some pressure on it. Which made her almost fall back flat on her face. Gritting her teeth to hold back the scream which wanted to escape when she caught herself from completely hitting the ground again. She pushed herself back up into a kneeling position breathing heavily from both exhaustion from the fight and the pain that was ripping through her body from the wounds that decorated her body.

Raising her head and looking around her Faith noticed that it had stopped raining and that she was all alone with the exception of the body of the Alpha that she had killed. Looking over at the horizon she noticed that the sun was just beginning to rise she didn't know how long they had been fighting but she sure as hell didn't feel like she had been fighting all night. An hour or two sure, but not all night.

Rising to her feet, cradling the shoulder that had been bitten and was still bleeding profusely she decided to take her chance of being caught by the police and going to one of the many hospitals within the city limits to get patched up. She headed off towards the direction of the rising sun, not even turning back to look at the remains of the demon that she had killed, though if she had she would have noticed that the so called demon had started changing back into a regular man just as the sun was rising.