Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 35 - Wolf Whistle

Whoop whoop it's Watty's time of the year again! Exams start this week :/ Enjoy your long chapter, and in the next few weeks you'll start getting a lot more updates because I've got three months of summer to do jack squat.

I let the thread decide which way I ran. For a long time, she had been coming towards me. And then the thread had held taut for a few minutes while she went past, a handful of miles away, and then it had stretched a little further. It was pulling me northwest, now.

She was in one of the valleys near the castle. Why, I had no idea. Flockies didn't tend to leave their territories, as far as I'd seen. And yet my mate was a long, long way from Silver Lake, in the heart of rogue country for — what? A day trip? It didn't add up.

I slowed as a thought struck me sideways, one paw poised to crush a poppy. What if she was with someone else? Her other mate? The longer I considered it, the more doubtful it seemed that anyone would drive dozens of miles on their own on a day like today. And should I be interrupting them?

I stared at the poppy sullenly. It was out very early, and it was utterly alone. A single, insolent splash of red against the greens and browns of the spring forest. It had no right being there, and yet there it was, growing where it didn't belong, a month before its time, because the poppy didn't give a shit whether I thought it should exist.

It was a clear answer. I stepped over the poppy and carried on going at the steady trot that a wolf could maintain from dawn until dusk, since it was too hot to lope. The woods were friendly enough: the overcast, rainy season seemed to have finally passed, and the canopy scattered sunlight in glittering patterns. I was sweating buckets, and I had already shed my winter coat.

There came a point when the thread felt very, very short — a hundred metres at most. I stopped to shift back and get dressed so I could walk the rest of the way, because my jaw was aching. I had stopped to grab a day pack with lunch and basic equipment, since I wasn't sure exactly where I was going, how long I would be gone for, and what the weather might decide to do in the space of a few hours.

With the rucksack strap dangling from a shoulder, I trudged through the new ferns and ash saplings. The thread was so short now that it was useless. I could feel the distance without the direction. It wasn't as tightly wound as that of a mated couple. I reckoned it was probably because there was no mark or mating, no real bond. Just the possibility of one.

So all I could do was scout the terrain and hope I bumped into her. And that was a good plan and all, except that I got distracted by the faint rush of falling water within ten seconds. I adjusted my route ever so slightly, heading into a valley rather than along it. It wasn't long before the stream came into view and with it a silvery vertical slash down a cliff side. The rapids at the top tumbled over into nothingness, past a hollow in the cliff and into a pool at the bottom, where the water frothed and bubbled like a hot spring. It was big enough to swim, and I was willing to bet that you could stand behind the fall on a good day.

But, perhaps most remarkable of all, a circle of standing stones neighboured the stream. They alternated between standing upright and lying sideways. Most were as tall as me, and none were much shorter. It reminded me of a crown in a vague, abstract sort of way.

I let the rucksack slide off my shoulder and wandered to the water's edge, where I splashed the icy water over my head and arms. My wolf was nagging at me to go and hunt Jess down and, I dunno, probably complete the entire mating process if she was agreeable. Either way, it wasn't happening. We were sharing control of this body, and we were compromising. He had been whinging about seeing Jessie for three days, so we were going to do that, but I got to pick when.

Dripping wet, I wandered into the circle and pressed my hand against rough rock, warm from a morning in the sun. There was a calmness about the whole valley which inexplicably appealed to me. Normally I was drawn to chaos, but this place was different.