Wolves

Chapter twelve

Nick and Aliah walk through the forest.
Aliah tells him all he needed to know.

" So that thing was called an Lirocane?" Nick asks astonished.

" Yes," Aliah says, shivering.

" You still didn't answer my other question" Nick says

" Which one?" Aliah asks her eyes focused in front if her.

" The one about how you knew I was hurt, and why that...... Lirocane thingy attacked me," Nick asks, his mind buzzing with new information.

" I knew you were hurt because..... I heard the Lirocane from my home and came to see what was happening," she said with a shrug.

" And the other one?" Nick asks
" I don't know why it attacked you," she said slowly," Lirocane's are usually not around that much."

" Oh," nick ended.
" How about the wolf," Nick asks.

"What about the wolf?"

"Why it was following me,"
Nick says

" Well when I came, it ran off with the dead body of the Lirocane, leaving you unconscious on the ground," Aliah said
" Probably sensed th Lirocan and came to finish it off," Aliah says.

Nick let out a sigh of relief, happy that he would not see that Lirocane thing ever again.

Aliah seems to read his expression.

" You do know there are more of them," she says she ends.

Great.

..................

Once they where near Nicks town Aliah stopped.

" What? what is it?" Nick asks.

" Oh um nothing......" She says staring at the town. " I haven't been here in a long time."

" Well then I'll show you around,' Nick says happily.
Nick takes her hand in his.
Come in it'll be fun.
Then Nick noticed something.
She wasnt happy like she was on the way here.
She seemed worried, and anxious.
" Aliah? You ok?" Nick asks suddenly worried too.
She breaks her gaze with the town and looks at Nick.

" What? Oh. Yea," she says in thought.

" Then come on," Nick urges.

" I- I can't," she says, dropping her gaze and pulling her hand out of his.

" What? why?" Nick asks.

" I- I just can't," and with that she looks at him, a tear rolling gently down her cheek.

She turned quickly and ran back into the forest, leaving Nick staring after her, frozen in his spot.

...............

Nick walked the familiar gravel path back to his home.

He couldn't get Aliah out of his mind.

Aliah.

Aliah........

Why couldn't she come?

And what she meant by not being in the town for long, did it mean that she was gone for a reason?

Nick tried to push the thoughts from his mind as he walked through the front door of his house.

His mom runs up to him and embraces him in a tight hug.

"Oh sweetie, where have you been?" she asks sadly

" Oh. um. looking for dad again," he remembers his excuse.

" Right," he says and pulls away from him. " Gone for almost three days looking for your father, Nick that's crazy! " she starts to yell at him.

" Well I love him mom! I need him!" nick yells back.

His mom shakes her head.

" Nick, you LOVED him, he is no longer with us" she says more quietly.

" He will always be with me!" Nick yells not wanting his mothers sympathy.

" NICK, HE'S DEAD!" she shouts pushing Nick back a little.

Nick looks at her, pain in his eyes.

" No." Nick says quietly

His mom sighs

" Nick," she says

" NO!" and with that Nick sprints out the house, tears streaming down his face, running as fast as he could to the forest.

The only place he could think.

The tree house.