To Cheat Death

Chapter Twelve

Siren woke at the brink of dawn. I was already awake, sitting on my bed and waiting for anyone else to wake up.

"Sky?" She said groggily.
"Why you up, crazy? You don't have to take a watch shift."

This led me to review yesterdays events when Siren was assigned an hour shift and I was not, because I was not pack.

She gripped the whole time we did the laundry. Or rather she did the laundry and I watched in awe. The fact that just dumping their clothes in a giant metal box made them clean, boggled me. My mother and I did all our clothes my hand.

Siren and I were at a house full of these boxes, some of them were vibrating, and with this terrible throaty noise in the background.
"I know, I know why it's nessesary. But it's not what the kids keep saying. There will be no rogue shifters or wild wers. I'll probably just stare at a leaf the whole time...But maybe,"
She sighed.
"Maybe if watches like this had been set up at the beginning we could have stopped so many people from disappearing. Or getting murdered in their beds."
Deep hurt reflected in her eyes and she was in a brooding silence till we left the landry house.

I decided to answer the question and try to avoid any resulting conversations that would put her back in that brooding silence.

"My pack always got up at dawn. Sometimes earlier."
Sometimes we didn't sleep at all.

"Girl, your pack was crazy. I'll be back in an hour, probably." She stumbled out of bed and into the hall.

I waited a good ten minutes till I heard her leave through the front door, then I opened the window.

I had things to do.

I had not heard my animals speak for a while and it worried me.
I did not want my animal's voices to fade.

If I waited long enough without using that animal, it's voice became weak. I had never waited long enough for the voice to disappear entirely, so I did not know what would happen. But I did not want to find out.

Pulling out the blackbird's feather from above my heart, I checked the string holding it, before I focused.

I had begged the string from Siren. After knoting the feather at the end and the ends together, I wore it around my neck like a necklace. I was not going to be caught without an escape again.

Though I searched the forest as long as I dared, my efforts produced only a tuff of dark brown wolf's hair.

This was good just in case they expected me to Change again.

I was human and well back into the camp, when I saw Alecc, in his hands he held a leather bag with a broken strap.

He knocked on his Aunts door. When no one answered, he cautiously peered around the corner of the house.

"Siren's doing her watch." I said, fighting a blush.

"Oh." He said sounding relived despite himself.

"Some of the scouts found this. It had your scent so..."
He shrugged.
"What is it for? If I may ask?"

"It-it's my collection." I stuttered.
I pulled the feather out from over my heart.
"I collect things."
Shrugging, I took the bag from his overreaching hands.
"I lost it when I was running away from the wers."

"How did you get in such a predicament?" He said causally.

"I was searching for my packs killers. They saw me and I became the hunted instead of the hunter."

He asked me a few more casual questions, which I answered reasonably.
Like: How did you know the tent would explode?
I said, I saw someone running from the site.
Which was true.

When he made his excuses to leave I saw his suspicion melt like summer snow.

The days pasted quickly. And I quickly fell into a pattern.

Alex swore he would help me bring my parents murderers to justice and the matter of revenge sunk and lingered in the back of my mind.

Many times over was I able to sneak away to use my animals. I fed all of them and rested them even more.
Mindful of the wolves keen sense of smell I would use a bird to fly far from the camp. Change back into a human, usually at the top of a tree, and Change into what ever animal needed me the most.

At night I would ponder and weigh the risks of telling my friends the truth. I supposed I was a coward to keep it from them.

"Tomorrow," I resolved,
"I will tell them tomorrow."

My animals had nothing to say. It seemed the more I spoke to other people and the less time spent with my animals affected how chatty they were.
I puzzled over this till I fell asleep.

Sobs woke me. It was still black. The ever waning moon winked through the window.

"Siren?"

The crying stopped.
Throwing off my blankets, I felt my way to her bed and sat on the edge of it.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"I'm ok." Her words were muffled against her pillow. I leaned down and hugged her. Then I sat up and waited for her to speak as I knew she would.

"It happened years ago." Her voice was husky from crying.
"We were winning the war against the wers but my uncle wanted to make a treaty anyway. The blackshadow pack came here when it was finalized and I met a boy named Dareien. I fell in love with him, Sky. We dated for a year and everyone thought we were going to get married."
She hiccuped a sob.
"Then a boy was found in the woods. Dead. One of ours. His name was Jason. And the daughter of the chief of the blackshadows, scent was everywhere. She was suntouched and was not of her right mind. Of course she got blamed for the murder but her father denied her ever being there. He said he never let her out of the house.
Everyone was angry and most people had someone else to blame. The treaty was dissolved and the blackshadow pack banished from the camp. The tide of the war turned slowly against us...
Me and Dare continued to meet in secret. But I refused to get married against my packs will. I knew my uncle would make another treaty soon because of the war."

I knew why her voice seemed familiar now. She was the girl I had seen in the clearing.

"He did make another treaty with the blackshadow pack. But when I searched for Dare his chief said...He said...Dare had disappeared three days before...I hate crying! But sometimes...The dreams."

She buried her head in her pillow refusing to cry any more.
I sat with her till she fell asleep.

.................

On the other side of camp, long after Sky had surrendered to sleep, sat Alecc. He was a wolf and he was watching.
He was also thinking. Thinking about the werewolves hunting Sky, and the strange picture the scents, around where scouts had found her bag, painted.
Thinking about the mystery surrounding the girl. But thinking most of all about how his heart had started to leap within him very time he saw her. And scolding himself for dareing to fall in love with a girl, he knew nothing about.