𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓸𝓪𝓭 𝓣𝓸 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓔𝓷𝓭

𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕘

A wet, cold nose nudges my cheek, waking me up. I blink for a couple seconds, before stretching, letting out a small yawn. I glance to the side, jumping when I see a large blond-colored wolf standing not far from me.

"You scared me," I mutter, running a hand through my hair. "You're a curious one, huh? I've never seen a wolf get this close to anyone." I close my notebook that's on my lap, and dig around in my bag, pulling out some of the food I brought with me. I set some of the dried meat I brought on the ground, and glance at the wolf.

"There you go." It eyes me for a second before grabbing it from the ground, downing it in one go. I chuckle, watching him.

He smells different from other wolves, but it's probably just my nose being stupid.
I wonder if it has anything to do with.... no it can't, animals have never acted differently around this form. The wolf sits, looking at me, cocking his head to the side.

"Pretty sure you don't care, or can't understand a word I'm saying, but I'm Reika." He shuffles the tiniest but closer and the corner of my lip twitches up. Of course, a wolf is more interested in me than my entire village. I hold my hand out, almost touching his fur on his neck, but not quite. He eyes my hand, before sniffing me for a second, and then licking my hand. I giggle, letting him lean into my hand, making sure I wasn't going to scare him off. "So soft," I mumble, petting his fur.

"Reika! Where are you!? It's almost curfew!" My brother, Apollo, yells.

"Coming!" I shout back. I pet the wolf's head, standing up and slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"Gotta go, I hope I see you again," I say, tossing another piece of dried meat to him. He catches it easily, watching me walk backward, and I swear he looked like he was laughing when I tripped over a tree root. I scramble back up and run down the hill, out of the forest.

"Took you long enough Rei," Apollo mutters, tossing a rock at me when he sees me. I swat it away and stick my tongue out at him.

"Whatever."

"You know other shifters come out at night, you could get hurt staying out in the forest as you do." I roll my eyes.

"Almost all the shifters are dead thanks to humans. And those that don't stay away from here because of it," I grumble, kicking a rock and starting towards our house. I kick the door open, walking in, and throwing my bag on the table.

"I'll start on dinner," I mumble, grabbing different things and starting to work.

By the time I'm finished cooking dinner, the suns been down for about half an hour. I set the two plates on the table and the both of us start eating in silence.

He finishes first and goes upstairs, probably to sneak out later to go see his girlfriend.

I grab my notebook out of my bag, looking around for my pencil.