Shadewylf

37 - Beach

Tipping her wings, Angel completed her third circuit of the town. There was still no sign of trouble, but something was tensed in the air, like an invisible serpent coiling backwards in readiness to strike.

The Shadewylves were coming. There was no physical evidence, no tracks or trails to back it up, but she knew.

Passing over a street, she watched a Flamewylf pace back and forth, orange tail whipping back and to. They all knew it. It was why preperations were so unsettlingly tight. The Wylfire had attacked, and so now the Shadewylves would fight back. A simple act of revenge, except far more fierce.

Suddenly, the Flamewylf froze, his tail growing stiff. Angel slowed her pace and whirled herself around in the sky, angling her wings downwards slightly so that she began drifting steadily downwards. She followed his gaze, peering into the gloom of the forest.

In the suffocating dark of night, it was hard to make out what might be lurking behind the trees. The shifting shadows could be black, stalking bodies, or simple tricks of the eye. The specs of light could be silver beams of stars, or a watching pair of eyes, searching for a victim to pounce on. Perhaps it was even a glint of claws she saw down there.

There was a beat of pure, stinging tension as Angel hovered there, eyes fixed on the patches of shade. But nothing emerged. The Flamewylf shook his head and spun on his hind paws, pacing in the opposite direction.

Beating her wings to keep her aloft, she sighed heavily, and continued her flight. Everything set her so on edge tonight. Her eyes seemed to shape all manner of fearful wolves.

Another few wingbeats, and there was sand below her. A small smile played on her snout. Nearly an hour had passed since she'd stepped from the beach's soft touch and launched herself into her true domain - the sky - but the sight of it picked up her heart's flutter. If she peered carefully, she could make out Morgan's blue form, keeping his own watch not too far from the sea.

Mere steps from where they had shared... whatever had occured in that moment.

Her wings slowed, her gaze more intent on watching the lapping waves now than any flickers of danger. What had it been? She knew that a single moment could change everything, for better or worse. She'd experienced that firsthand. Had it been a moment like that? Only quite the opposite to the moment she had spent with her father; instead a wonderful moment, one so inexplainable she could attribute nothing to it but firmly good.

Had Morgan meant it that way? Or was it simply an ask for comfort, a pass of deepest sympathy between two friends?

Shaking her head, she tugged her head away, refocusing on the trees. Her attention should be on the threat of attack, not on Morgan. She didn't want her life to change if it was going to mean a constant battle against distraction, or the squirm in her chest as she debated within herself.

Thankfully, another, far larger distraction kindly presented itself immediately.

There was movement in the trees. For real this time. A rustling in the leaves, a creaking of the branches, a crunch of the dirt. Someone was in there. Sharp focus drilling through her, she swooped lower, eyes darting between the shadow and Morgan. The stillness in his paws and the force of his stare conveyed he had seen it too.

Empty silence waited, anticipation tangible in the faint wind. Morgan crept closer, so few steps away from the stalked forest. The shadows stilled, and for a brief, breathless second, she wondered whether she'd seen anything at all.

The second after confirmed she most definitely had.

A Shadewylf burst from the trees, claws flashing, immediately met by a blast of water gushing from Morgan's outstretched paw. As it tumbled aside, soaked, two more leapt over its struggling form, both with sharpened fangs glinting in the moonlight.