Were-Night

Inside the Forest

Solaria watched Sunshine flit in front of her, showing the way. Naming the Wisp was Tourmy's idea - a stupid one, yet Solaria thought it was kinda nice.

By night it had gotten colder, and Solaria was worrying that rain would begin to fall. Autumn nights began earlier, and by seven they couldn't see a thing. 

They came upon a clearing. The 3/4-full moon shone in the bottom-of-the-ocean sky. Cleo pulled a tent from her bag while Solaria started the fire. Tourmaline pulled out some apples. 

"They'll go bad otherwise." she explained. 

---

Eclipse was basically going to fall over from tiredness. Running for hours on end is not easy, especially if you don't notice until you feel like you're dying of thirst. So you stop - and here comes the knee-wobbling, breath-stealing, pure exhaustion. She crashed onto the ground, immediately falling into the black oblivion of sleep. 

Crunch. Crunch. Snap. Sound of something walking through the forest. Slash, and a squeal of pain. Black energy filled the clearing as the Mage pointed her staff at the wolf. Get out, that's my girl. 

NO. Answered the wolf, earning himself another blast of magic. Finally accepting defeat, it slunk away, tail between its legs.

A Sprite whizzed by, noting the Mage's interest towards the girl. Interesting. They would also watch. 

---

Cleo's eyes flew open. Morning. "Ow." she muttered, the first thing you would like to see when you wake up is definitely not the sun. 

She saw Solaria playing tug-of-war with a blackberry bush, her coat stuck in the thorns. Tourmaline was nowhere to be found. 

"Hey, where's Tourmy?"

"She went to get some water. Said there was a stream."

---

Tourmaline skipped through the forest, singing a tune. Something happy about pink fluffy unicorns. 

Lemon tree! Seeing there were no lemons near the ground, she climbed onto the branches. One of them broke, almost sending her crashing to the ground. Hanging on to the branch above, Tourmaline swung up, scraping her shin. Five lemons into the bag! Higher and higher went Tourmaline, until finally - CRACK! And she hit the branch below, which also broke. The one below also shattered. She decided that enough was enough - she had already twelve good lemons. 

Water! That was what she had come for. Well, the lemon tree suggested that there should be some nearby! She skipped away, not noticing that the lemon tree was resurrecting itself. Slowly but surely, the branch pieces slid back together, lemons taken by the girl appeared again. Finally, it glimmered once, twice, and turned into a cherry tree. 

The family of robins living in the trunk flew away in panic.

---

The stupid blackberry bush! Solaria examined her favorite coat, now damaged. Sighed. She should have brought a needle and some thread. Wait. Blackberry bush? Then she noticed the purple-ish smears on her hands, almost black, confirming the fact that there were ripe berries on the bush. 

"Cleo! Look here!"

She had already collected a cup-full of shiny, juicy berries. Tried one. Mmmm! Wonderful! Stuffing the rest of the berries in her mouth, she called Cleo again. 

"Cleo! Blackberries!"

Turns out the only reason Cleo hadn't come over was that she untying a basket from her backpack. "I heard, don't worry!"

When they had filled the basket - took them a while since they both kept sneaking berries from it, thinking that the other wouldn't notice - they sat down and began to eat. It seemed like there was no end to the black gems. There were only more and more - and each tasted like a heaven on earth. They were so full, but they just couldn't stop. 

--

When Tourmaline came back, water sloshing in a thermos, she saw her friends sitting by the bush, eating berries. They were covered in the juice - hands, clothes, faces. It dripped through their fingers, almost like blood. The scariest part was the faerie. Not a fairy, a faerie. Floating above the bush, giggling. 

"Tourmy!!" Solaria's voice was slurred. "Come join us! We picked a basket for you!"

The faerie laughed harder. 

"No! Get away from that bush!"

"Why?! These taste great!" Cleo sounded drunk.

Tourmaline turned around. "Sunshine. I need your help. Please pull Soli away, and I'll pull Cleo."

The Wisp flared brighter, as to say 'yes!'. Solaria turned to look at it. 

"Go away, ow, you're hurting my eyes!"

"No, I don't want to leave!"

"Please, stop!" 

It sounded like listening to a person talking on a phone when you can't hear the other. 

And finally, with the help of Tourmaline, Soli was dragged away from the bush. Stumbling after the Wisp, dragged by Tourmy, they got her to the river and threw her in. Immediately, with little sparkles, black juice drifted off. 

"Uhgggghh..." moaned Solaria. She had eaten way to much. She dragged herself to the bank and crawled halfway up. 

"Okay, Soli, I want you to say here. Sunshine, help me?"

Sunshine dimmed. It was only Solaria's Wisp, it had no control over anyone else.

"Okay. Then watch over her, for me?"

This it could do.

Tourmaline ran off to get Cleo, and soon both girls were lying on the bank, soaking wet, but free of the faerie's curse.

---

Eclipse sat up, rubbing her eyes. When she opened them, she realized she was staring straight into the face of a wolf.