“2:47AM” was the time I read aloud of my alarm clock on my bedside table, seriously, I only fell asleep at 1 AM after going to bed at 11.
Ugh, I was fed up, restless nights were something I had never appreciated, but since I learnt how to shift, I used them as opportunities to go out for night strolls and sometimes even for hunting if I was hungry enough.
I got up and picked up my backpack, it was my old school backpack; I had recently bought a new one when I told my mom my old one was starting to get worn out.
I put in my last bottle of Mountain Dew from when Mark had given them to me. I hadn’t heard from those three idiots since... well for about 3 weeks now. So first they disappeared then Matt... Was it a coincidence? Or was it something else? I had no idea and to be honest right now I didn’t care.
I slipped my shoes on and put on a hoodie, I was still in my pyjamas; in other words, shorts and a tank top, these were meant for summer and it was June, so I didn’t really need to change clothing, apart from wearing a hoodie, that was important, people give you weird looks at 3 in the morning when you’re wearing shorts and a tank top.
I slowly opened and closed the door behind me and as soon as that was done I was off.
I always kept the same things in my backpack, a simple list of things I always needed:
1. Swiss Army Knife (never know when it will come in handy)
2. Something to drink (usually Mountain Dew or water)
3. Something to eat (Chocolate?)
4. Spare clothes (they come in handy when your other ones tear or become muddy)
5. Phone (camera, music, contact, pretty useful really)
6. A black bandana (because if you get hurt its nice to tie that around the wound)
My very simple list of things that I always carried on me.
I jogged to the forest and it was well lit by the full moon. I loved running when it was a full moon, usually makes me feel better or happier.
I crawled into my bunker which I now called “The Den” because now it felt like a den, inside I had decorated it with deer antlers of every size, the biggest being the most recent. This place was like my second home and I couldn’t exactly stay away from it, I came here a lot, and even though I had exams to study for I spent most of my Sundays if I wasn’t revising or doing homework, days off, and sometimes I would even bunk off school for a day when nothing important was on just to spend the day out here. I also spent around half my Saturdays here when friends weren’t around or I didn’t have homework.
I put my backpack in the corner and took off my hoodie and placed it on a hook I made. I placed my tank top on top of my backpack and walked out. What the heck was I doing?
I puffed out the air from my lungs and started running bare foot, this was going to hurt.
I concentrated hard on shifted and I started to feel my body tingle. I was getting closer, last time I tried this I ended up with cut feet because the path of soft dirt ran out. This path was extremely soft and felt like running on carpet, but once it ran out the soft dirt became sharp stones, sticks, and even thorns which meant you couldn’t run on it without getting hurt.
I groaned slightly as my insides twisted, I was praying I would shift.
As I shifted my shorts slipped off and I landed on my front paws, I snarled on the way down. This... was... the single most epic moment... of my life.
I smiled to myself in wolf form and let out a short howl and continued to run.
I was overwhelmed with my new found ability; I had been trying this since I managed to shift almost instantly. This time I had been running and it had taken me around 4 minutes to shift, I knew this because the trail ran out after 5 minutes and it only took me a few seconds to reach the end of it as a wolf.
I had made incredible progress, I was sort of amazed at myself, my head began to be filled with all sorts of other possible things I could do. My mind started to wonder in a dream world of all sorts of possibilities.
A loud snapping sound disturbed my thoughts and I saw that I was now in the middle of the woods. I turned around and started to head back. I enjoyed long morning runs but, it was still around 3 in the morning and I was pretty tired.
I let out a little wolf yawn and shook my head. The point of this run had been somewhat useless I guess I slowed down to a walking space and looked down; I couldn’t believe soon I would need to leave my family. Matt had caught up to me on the way home and told me my deadline was to be next Sunday.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move, I instinctively span round to face whatever was moving, I was glad I was a wolf, we could see in the dark, a very useful gift at night. I stared harder into the shadows and it moved again.
I let out a growl, whatever this was it was big, bigger than any deer I had ever seen in these woods. Its sent was strange; it was animal, but not deer.
A howl caught my attention and I span back around in the direction of the howl. There weren’t any wolves in these woods, so why was I hearing a howl.
I let out my own howl, it wasn’t the usual, casual howl that I’d so often let out, no, this one was defensive, which is you could speak wolf would translate a bit as “Get the heck out of my territory.” I really didn’t like people coming here.
A different howl came from a completely new direction and a large roar back behind me where the massive animal was. What was this? Seriously, now I began to worry. I let out one final howl before running back to my den, if they had been in there I would be so pissed off.
When I finally reached it, I ran inside to check everything was here, and sure enough everything was there, not a single thing had moved so I'm guessing no one came in.
I looked around once more and shifted back into my human form. I didn’t bother to change back because I wasn’t going home a human, I put all my stuff that I had taken out back into my backpack and only realised I had left my shorts behind. I put my backpack on and let out a sigh, this might not be a good idea.
I tightened the straps on my backpack and let out a small sigh as I spoke “Here goes nothing.” I said before I closed my eyes and shifted back into my wolf.
My backpack made things pretty uncomfortable, and to be very honest, I didn’t like it very much. I ran out of the den and headed towards where my shorts should be, only problem was that my shorts where back in the direction of whatever the other three animals were, I knew two of them were wolves because of their howls but one wasn’t, and I had no idea what the other one was which worried me slightly.
I found my shorts and quickly shifted back and put them in my backpack, I was about to shift back when I heard a deep growl from behind me, it sounded a bit more like a roar though, or a grunt. I shifted back instantly and spun round.
What on earth... I was motionless, there in front of me, stood a bear, on its hind legs. No way could I take on a bear, and what the heck did it think it was doing here; I was suddenly filled with anger, worry, and the overdrive of instincts. I growled at it and it simply smiled at me, as if it was playing a game with me.
It took a swing at me suddenly and I dodged it. He was trying to kill me I couldn’t do much right now, my paws hurt, I had a freaking backpack on, and I was tired.
The bear smashed down on the ground right in front of me, it was trying to scare me, not kill me, once again it smiled and reared up, from what I knew of scents, I was guessing he was a male, wasn’t sure though.
He let out a terrific roar and turned away. What was he doing? Why run away? I was so confused. This definitely wasn’t an ordinary bear, because if this was an ordinary bear he would never walk away from this, not after threatening to kill me like that.
I followed him a short way until it met up with the two other wolves; they all nodded and went behind a car, why go behind a car?
They were pretty far away and I couldn’t make out any small details but what happened next was crystal clear, the three of them shifted into humans.
I gulped knowing this could be trouble.
One of them took out some keys and the car lit up with two small beeps, he opened the car and threw two backpacks at the two wolves that were facing away, giving him some privacy.
They took some clothing from backpacks, got changed, and got in the car. The drove away slowly in a big black SUV, I didn’t know much about cars so I couldn’t tell what the car was exactly.
Great, just my luck. Some shifters had just tried to scare me or possible kill me. What the heck did they want?
Knowing it wouldn’t matter, I shifted back and slipped on my shorts and T-shirt and took out my last bottle of Mountain Dew as I looked at my phone to check what time it actually was now.
“4:10AM... great, just a few hours of sleep left” I said aloud to myself.
I started to drink my last bottle of Mountain Dew and gratefully walked home. Funny how one simple drink can make you feel slightly better.