It was a Monday, one of the most boring days in the history of my school year, honestly, did the teachers deliberately give me maths, English, History, and ICT all in the same day.
I remember when I first read my timetable, what... the heck... WHERE THEY THINKING?!
Seriously, and as if my day couldn’t get worse, oh yeah, wait this is my life we’re talking about of course it could get worse. I was set homework in every single lesson, and when it was time to go home, I ended up walking home alone due to the fact all my friends either went the other way or they needed to stay behind.
So I did the usual thing, head down, headphones in, music on, walk.
Those were the simple steps to getting home safely... most of the time.
As I walked down the road playing my usual playlist of songs I thought I could hear them; hear them shout, yell, scream.
“Tilyer you piece of shit.”
“Screw you.”
“Go die.”
“Burn in hell.”
“We hate you.”
Chills ran up my spine, I couldn’t take this anymore; the insults were just too much, my home life was bad enough and this wasn’t helping. I took a left off the main footpath and headed down a small dirt path which lead me to a lake.
From here I could just walk through the forest all the way to my house, this was took about 15 minutes longer but today was one of those days which I could afford to walk for 15 more minutes.
I turned off my music and put the headphones inside of my backpack, the sounds of the forest and the lake sufficed me.
The gentle wind stroking my arms and the songs of birds seemed to take all the anger out of me, like soft, calm music sends a child to sleep.
That small moment of pleasure was soon eradicated.
I looked ahead to see a group of 3 boys, “Idiots” I said to myself, they were the sort of boys who caused trouble and no surprise to the fact they were smoking. Weed I presumed.
“Yo, wassup bro?” An average height 16 year old guy with short brown hair spoke.
“Screw you” I snapped back at him a bit more offensively than I had originally meant to.
“Oh, feisty” he sniggered. The idiots name was Joe.
“Piss off.” I said as I walked through the middle of the 3.
“Or what?” this time a guy named Jack spoke as he stood in front of me. He had short, scruffy blonde hair and stank of alcohol.
“Just leave me alone for crying out loud.” I tried to push past them but they just pushed my back.
“Wanna fight then prick?” A boy named Mark spoke this time.
He was calling me a prick, I was impressed, coming from a prick id have expected something more violent and insulting.
“Come on Tilyer you fucking loser.” He spat at me. Now I was pissed off, I didn’t like people insulting me, and i didn't care who said it to me, i had a short temper, and if you pissed me off, i'd lose my temper, simple as that.
We stood there motionless staring into each other’s eyes as if we were planning the best way to kill one another. I took off my backpack and dropped it to the floor along with my IPod.
“Hey look guys, Tilyer wants his ass kicked.” Jack laughed.
I took off my jacket and dropped it on my backpack along with my watch and keys.
“Fuck you” I said almost calmly, I rarely swore at people knowing it would make things worse but to be honest, I couldn’t give a crap right now.
“I’ll handle this.” Mark walked towards me; he was now only a few inches away from me.
“So...” he said slowly “you think you’re tough.”
He swung at me, but the way he moved his shoulder gave away his move so I ducked and punched him in the stomach. A small groan came from him and in that time I knew I had just made a mistake.
“You’re a dead man” Mark said almost whispering.
1, 2 ,3 punches he threw at me, he was slow and I evaded each one of his attacks, but the 4th took me by surprise, his foot came up and thinking he was going to kick I threw my hands down to block, at the same time he punched me in the face.
“Not so tough now are you Tilyer” he sniggered.
“Grrrrrrr” I threw a punch and it was the only one i knew the name to "Uppercut" and it landed straight in the middle of his chin pushing upwards, this punch could have taken out one of his teeth, and only afterwards did I realise I growled at him.
“Did you just growl at me?” Mark smiled “Freak” he took a few steps back and put his left leg back.
What was he doing, stretching? Mark was pretty well built and could have beaten me up now and then if I wasn’t so agile.
“Hut 1.” He shouted. Huh, I thought to myself, isn’t that used in rugby.... then it all clicked, Left foot back, 15 feet away from me, Hut one... charge. I used to do P.E with him and whenever we did rugby he useed to say hut 1, Why? i dont know, we all blamed it on video games and TV.
Mark charged at me, he had been playing rugby since he was 8 years old and I wouldn’t last a tackle from him. As he came closer and closer I got ready for the blow but instead I stepped aside grabbing his arm and spinning him 90 degrees to his right.
Mark face planted and hit the ground at full speed.
Jack and Joe were motionless, speechless, and even a little scared.
I felt good, I felt as if I was filled with power and energy, did I just do that?
Mark got up and looked at me, his nose was broken, he lost a tooth, and was bleeding from both the nose and mouth.
“Bastard” he said as he punched me in the face. I fell to the ground and a surge or emotions flooded me, not pain, not shame, nor defeat, but power, anger, and the feeling that had flowed through me the night before.
I twisted and stood up, my vision went blurry and suddenly I couldn’t feel myself anymore.
My body went numb and I felt it twist and reshape itself. It didn’t hurt, in fact, the pain I felt kind of felt good, like I was becoming stronger. I felt like I was fainting my head went light headed and I dropped to the ground.
When I opened my eyes I didn’t see in rich colours but in shades of blue, yellow and dulled down colours. My ears and nose were assaulted with a hundred smells and sounds.
It took me a few seconds to realise what had happened.
As I looked down at where my hands should have been, I saw paws, huge grey paws.
They were bigger than any dog paws I had ever seen. I found myself able to move my ears and I had a tail. I looked up to see Mark shaking, he seemed scared. Of course he would be, I was a wolf, well i was a guy, but a guy who shifted into a wolf, now thats scary.
A low menacing growl came from my muzzle and I took a step forwards holding my tail high.
I was using everything I knew about wolves to act like one of them but I didn’t really need to, it all came like second nature.
“Ok, ok, ok, don’t kill me Tilyer, just don’t kill me.” Mark was hyperventilating.
Mark moved over to Joe and Jack for protection, but they were no good.
The three of them seemed like statues, motionless and still.
What was I going to do, I was amped, hyper, exhilarated. I had just shifted into a wolf, the best thing that could ever happen to me, but I shifted in front of my 3 worst enemies, and they witnessed everything. I began panic until one of them kicked me.
“RUN” Joe shouted.
I rolled on the floor and got back up swiftly to the sight of the three of them running.
Instincts told me to chase them, and for the first time in my life, I listening to my instincts.
I didn’t fight the urges this time, I knew why I had them now, I wasn’t just plain old Tilyer, I was a wolf and I was going to show my true self for the first time in my life.
I sprinted after them; it was weird to run like this. A sprint wasn’t one leg in front of the other it was two legs at the same time and a sort of pounce, or a leap, then land all four feet close together and keep going as fast as you can.
They had run into a bit of forest I was pretty familiar with, and soon I realised how close I was to my woods, only a few hundred feet and we would reach the “boundaries” of my woods, I called them the boundaries because then it became too much of paths and the chances of people there were bigger.
I wasn’t used to the whole wolf thing as this was my first time so I seemed slow, they managed to keep their distance till we reach my woods and then, they lost.
Jack and Joe took a sharp left towards a clearing which wasn’t a bad idea since it was very open and then they might have a chance of getting away because sometimes people stayed there... however this was March and that meant not many people would stay long.
As if chasing a herd of deer I decided to go for Mark, he had taken a right, and boy was he in trouble.
The path he decided to take soon ended and as it did he had to run through bare forest, something I could do pretty quickly for a... a human I guess, but as a wolf this felt like running on a path.
I jumped over stumps, roots and ditches that slowed down Mark, what he didn’t know was the river up ahead. I slowed down to a gentle jogging pace and kept my distance from Mark, close enough to keep him in sight, but far enough for him to feel he was winning.
Mark soon reached the river and stopped, he hesitated, how deep was it? That must have been the question in his head right now, how deep is that river? Answer to that question Mark, is very, I remember falling in when I first explored this part and it was a good 10 feet deep.
Mark turned round and looked at me, was that a tear I saw in his eye, I was also surprise by the fact he managed to run this fast and this far for a guy who smoked and took drugs.
“What do you want?” His voice was frail and weak, poisoned with terror and fright.
Of course, as a wolf you can’t talk, so I simply growled again at him.
I wanted to kill him, but no good would come from that, and anyways, these were my woods, these may be public woods but this was my territory when it concerns people I hate, and he was one of them.
Mark was shaking and took a step back tripping on a root, “Please, please Tilyer don’t kill me, I beg you please.”
As I walked closer to him I could smell his fear, the beer he had drunk, the weed he had smoked and the drugs he had snorted.
I put my right paw on his throat and pushed lightly, the poor bastard couldn’t react he was too scared.
“Please don’t kill me.” He begged again, this time with tears flowing down his cheeks, I had finally uncovered the soft person he was inside, I knew Mark could care if he wanted to, he had a small weak spot for love and had once and once only cried for a girl.
“Please Tilyer, I won’t tell anyone, ok, and I’ll make sure we don’t bully you again, ok.”
I looked at him and tipped my head sideways as a way of telling him to keep going, and surprisingly he understood.
“Um... I’ll protect you, I know you don’t really need it, but people will stop taking the shit out of you and they won’t insult you. Please Tilyer... Just... don’t kill me.”
I took my paw off his neck and placed it on the ground. I was going to need him, I had questions.
Mark let out a giant sigh of relief “Thank you Tilyer, I promise I’ll help you and I won’t mess with you again.” He stood up and stared at me for a bit longer before turning to leave.
I growled at him, it wasn’t menacing, more of a soft, low growl, the sort that translated would mean, “Don’t forget” I warning growl of sorts.
Mark turned and smiled nervously, and then he ran back the way he came from, which reminded me...
I was a wolf, in the middle of English woodland.... crap.
I was more out of place than an anorexic person at a weight loss meeting.
I had to get out of here, and fast.