The Wolf (Book 1)

Training.

“Again...” I said slowly, bored out of my mind. So it’s either I'm good at the whole shifting thing, or Chris just sucks at it.

“I CAN’T DO THIS.” Chris shouted and stormed out of the den.

I growled under my breath and followed him out.

“Then how is it that I can shift? You will learn Chris; you are one of us and if you don’t you are almost sure to die.” I said slowly... ok so everything I said wasn’t completely true, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t die if he didn’t shift but still.

“NO, I QUIT!” he shouted back and started to walk off, he was pretty annoyed, we had spent the last hour and a half sitting in the den, I had been waiting, and he... well he had been trying to shift, obviously not trying hard enough.

This time I growled louder as I started to sprint towards him, he turned round just in time to see me slam into his side. We flew through the air and hit the ground; we slid along the dirt floor for about 2 meters due to the speed I hit him at leaving a fine cloud of dirt behind us. I stood up as he started to pick himself up.

“YOU WILL SHIFT.” Now I was furious, he couldn’t just quit, why should he quit, that wasn’t the right thing to do at this point in time.

To my surprise he let out a growl and charged at me, this felt like déjà vu from the fight with Mark. I dodged his attack and punched him in the stomach and sure enough this was déjà vu.

Chris twisted round and landed on the floor, his body morphing into whatever he was. He turned out to be a light grey wolf, he was average size and average build, nothing stood out on him, he was just average, the only thing that did stand out were his dark brown eyes contrasting his light fur.

“Hey, you did do it, see told I ya you could do it.” I smiled at him I was pretty proud that he finally managed to shift into his wolf. This moment would have been pretty much perfect if it wasn’t for how he had shifted, I had punched him and he did it out of anger. Suddenly I remember what Matt had told me when we had met up once after school

“Tilyer, you’re a good kid, I'm happy to be the one looking after you, when you first shifted, you shifted because of anger, you are one of the few who didn’t attack his aggressors, many of the new shifters who shift via anger tend to kill them, bite them, some torture them, not many nice shape shifters in this world.”

“What about the good ones?” I remembered asking

“Well, that’s only about 1 in 5 of the new shifters who shift via anger, mainly because they are scared, not because they can control themselves, some shift when they are running, or out and about in the forest, freedom brings them closer to their other side and poof, they shift.”

“Ah I get it now, thanks Matt, well I have to go home, see ya soon.”

“Bye Tilyer.”

That had been our conversation, I gulped as I looked at Chris, he didn’t look too nice right now. One in five, the thought came to mind. Chris stared at his paws and lifted his head slowly, curling his lips back showing his teeth. He started walking backwards trying to shake off the rest of his clothes off and I stepped back as well preparing for the worst.

We must have been a good 25 meters apart.

“Calm down Chris, I don’t want to fight you...” I hesitated on what I should do, but Chris made the decision for me as he growled and sprinted towards me. I was still in school uniform. I took off my shirt and dropped it as I ran towards Chris.

“Please don’t fail me now.” I told myself as I came closer to Chris.

He distance between us was shortening rapidly, I wasn’t going to make it, and just then I made it. I shifted into my wolf and smashed into Chris, wrapping my paws around his shoulders and throwing him backwards. I rolled off and stood up. It was only now I realised how much that small difference in height, length, and build meant. In comparison I was huge, I was a lot bigger and stronger than him and this in the wild could save my life.

I growled at him but he was fuelled with anger, and charged again, I spun round and kicked him away. He got back up only to charge once again, this time I didn’t act so nice and bit down on his shoulder. He yelped in pain and started trying to bite me, I let go and took a few steps back ready for his next attack but none came, he had shifted back to a human.

I ran back into the den, shifted back and got changed in some spare clothes I had kept in here, just for emergencies, guess it was a good thing to do. I went out to find Chris dressed back in his uniform. I picked mine up and walked over to him.

“Let me see your shoulder.”  I said as I walked over to him.

“Ok...” he looked at his feet as he pulled the collar of his shirt over his shoulder “Not that bad...”

“No... we will get Carla to look at it later.”

“Later?”

“Yeah... later, right now you need to learn to shift.”

“You are joking me Tilyer, you freaking bit my shoulder.”

“Don’t give me a reason to do it again.”

“Ok...” Chris said as he walked back into the den.

We spent the rest of the afternoon practising shifting, and by 5pm Chris was doing ok, he could shift back and forth and it only took him half an hour of meditation... ok so he could do better but this was his first day so it was pretty good.

We walked all the way back to Jerry’s house and got Carla to look at his wound, she dressed it pretty well and then we went home and got ready to leave.

I sat in my room and packed a bag full of stuff I would need, I didn’t bring any electronics, no phone, IPod, or Games. I took a torch, clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, money which was about £500 (£300 came from Mark), my knife, pens, paper, a spare coat, and three books.

I had planned on wearing my jeans, t-shirt, and leather jacket to go to the USA, so I kept a spare coat and other clothes in my bag, it was the size of a suitcase and I could hold stuff that should last me a while.

The books I was going to take were two encyclopaedias, one on science and one on animals, knowledge was always good and finally a book on survival in the wild, this would always be handy.

I kicked the bag under my bed and lay down, thinking of the day I would have tomorrow, a goodbye to friends... it was sad really, saying goodbye to friends I had been with since I was about 11. I guess this is how it was going to be then. I still didn’t know if I should tell my family I'm leaving or leave them a letter... I’ll leave a letter easier to tell them that way.

“DINNER” my mom shouted from the kitchen.

I got up and stretched, I didn’t really need to stretch but I felt like I had to after lying down. As I headed out I looked back into my room, I stood there for a few seconds until I turned off the light and shut the door. I was going to miss my room.