Human

Ch. 1 - Adrian

"So, we're moving."

"Yes."

"To . . ." Adrian scanned through the paper. "Reno?"

His dad nodded. "There's another pack down there with a similar problem. Although they don't have as many families as us, they still don't have enough members to keep big threats away."

"Are you sure that those kids weren't just running away?"

His dad shook his head. "Kids don't just disappear. You know that their bonds with their parents are too strong for them to be gone for too long."

"How many kids?"

"About ten."

"About?"

"Well, we suspected that it might be around eleven, but the eleventh one has a temper, so we're not sure if they're just acting up or is actually missing," his dad explained with a frown marring his face.

"No one from ours though, right?"

"None. Thankfully."

"So when did you decide that we're moving?"

"We decided this a few months ago, when things weren't as bad."

Adrian momentarily forgot about the council.

"Who else knows?"

"We already told the other families, but it wasn't official until this week. I'm working on that email right now."

Before Adrian could ask another question, he could smell that something was burning.

"You can finish that later. Go help your sister before she burns the kitchen."

Adrian noticed his father made a face once the fumes wafted over him.

Without a second glance, Adrian got up and immediately went to the door, where the burning scent only got worse.

"Adrian?"

He turned around to see his dad's tired smile.

"Look on the bright side. Maybe this move will do something good."

"Yeah, maybe." Adrian gave his dad a half-hearted smile of his own before he nearly bolted out of the door and headed toward the kitchen. He felt a smidge of guilt about leaving his dad in the office alone, but someone needed to save dinner.

"Ellie! You can't leave it on the stove!"

He heard his mom yell from outside.

"I'm just charring it."

Adrian didn't need to see his mom's face to know that his sister's argument fell short.

Once he got into the kitchen, he immediately took notice of the mess in front of him. On one side of the island, right on the countertops, were neatly cut vegetables—which were obviously done by his mom; and right next to the stove stood his sister, who was trying to explain that the contents in the pan weren't burnt but charred.

"It's fine," Ellie insisted, trying to redeem herself.

Adrian didn't even have to look inside of the pan to know that the food was beyond saving. Just the smell alone was enough for him.

"No, it's really not," he finally said.

"It is!" Ellie then used the tongs to pick up a piece of what may have been meat. "Look! It's not that bad."

"Yeah, sure. That's totally not burnt," he snarked back.

"Come on, it's really not that bad." She took a small bite which ended up looking like burnt potato bits instead of meat. "See?"