The Forest Guardian

Chapter 2*

I unlock the front-door, before I hurry inside and run up to my room.

Two hours to walk a pair of besties that plays the whole way? What was I thinking?!

When I reach my room, I grab the backpack with military pattern on my desk,- not before shoving down some books in it - and run down again.

Outside my house, Lucy and Maxie are still playing wildly on the front lawn, biting playfully as their tales spins like they were helicopters.

I don't normally lock Maxie inside the house when I leave, mostly because Lucy don't want to and I obey her. After all, she is my best friend. And then I know how I would feel if I was locked up in a house for six hours.

I think Maxie helps Lucy with the pack when they're out, and as long as they meet me after school I'm fine with them hanging out together.

I have ten minutes until first period starts, and it takes about fifteen minutes to walk to my school.

Well, someone's in deep sh*t.

Without thinking twice, I run out and around the house through the front door, locking it behind me. As I stand behind the house Lucy and Maxie speeds off into the woods.

I focus on the grizzly form. The brown, big paws. The sharp teeth. The thick fur.

A roar of pain escapes my jaw as bones begin to snap.

In ten seconds or so, it stands a big brown grizzly in our back yard.

I have to try it out sometime, so why not now?

A few minutes later I've ran to school testing the boundaries of the bear-form slightly, and shifted back to human again. It's about now I realise why I shouldn't have shifted to that bear.

I walk inside the school building, my body feeling like it's on fire. My limbs scream and physically burn.

Why didn't I just shift into the horse?

I told Lucy to wait for me after school, but I think I'll be walking home alone. She's always late, just because she can't play with Maxie and do pack stuff at the same time.

I'm so deep in though, that I forget to watch where I'm going - so, of course I bump into someone on my way to my locker.

''Sorry!'' I say as I send a quick and polite smile to the person I bumped into before I speed off, not wanting to be later to class than I already am.

I don't take a closer look at the student I bumped into, but suddenly I hear a wolf talk, just like Lucy does.

''Mate.''

I stop in my tracks. What was that?

Probably nothing Samntha, you're just being paranoid!

I stick with the decision that I'm being paranoid and shrug it off. Although a new and confusing feeling goes through my body.

Meh, I must have imagined the wolf, but in all seriousness, where's the pain?

They school day continues, without me bumping into any more students. It's actually really chill to be a guardian in school, because I have a secret weapon. A amused smile play on my lips every time I think of it.

Arí.

The goddess.

Since she has lived through all the wars and all the geographic changes, she knows quite the lot. All knowledge which she gladly shares with me.