𝑷𝑨𝑷𝑬𝑹 𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑺 • 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧. 𝐦 (wolfblood)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐱

.・。.・゜✭・.

.・。.・゜✭・.

RHYDIAN AND I made our way into the forest as soon as school was finished. We walked most of the time and ran towards anything that looked like the place on the poster we brought with us for reference, but with little luck.

"I don't understand!" I said to the blonde haired boy next to me, "The place I thought it was, we passed it 15 minutes ago!"

Rhydian chuckled at my outrage, "Don't worry, we'll find it... eventually." I grunted and quickened my steps. We had to find this wolfblood before anyone else did, if we didn't we could be putting the whole village in danger.

"Over here!" Called Rhydian from a few meters away. I ran over to him and held up the poster and we compared it to the fallen tree. It looked exactly the same. I smiled, "Nice job, tracker!"

He smiled proudly but our smiles faded when we heard sniffling coming from behind the tree. We sniffed the air upon instinct and my lips parted. We both looked at each other - we knew exactly who it was.

We walked over to the fallen tree and ducked under it and we were greeted by a tearful Shannon, hugging her knees with tears streaming down her face.

"Hey, Shan." I greeted her quietly, not wanting to scare her. She looked up at us and quickly wiped her cheeks dry with her sleeve. I gave her a sympathetic look as she did so and sat down beside her.

"Hay fever?" Rhydian asked in an attempt not to make Shannon feel even more embarrassed. She looked up at him and nodded silently in response. Rhydian came and sat down on her right, "Looking for the monster, I suppose?"

It wasn't surprising to either of us. Shannon had been bullied ever since the day she discovered her beast and today she had the chance to prove that all those people wrong about her and what they said didn't matter. But her whole world had turned upside down in a matter of minutes.

Shannon sighed, "Rhydian, just leave it, okay?" He nodded and rested his forearms on his knees. After a few moments of silence, curiosity got the better of him, "Why are you so interested in it, then?"

Shannon shuffled uncomfortably at the question but started answering it anyway, "I was seven. I was on a camping trip with the Brownies not far from here."

"You were in the Brownies?" Rhydian asked with a raised brow. I gave him a look and he gave Shannon an awkward smile and let her continue explaining, "All the tents were arranged in a little circle. I was sharing with Kay..."

"Kay from school Kay?" Rhydian asked. Shannon smiled a little and I did the same, remembering how young we were back then, and how much we had grown and changed as people.

"Yeah. She was my best friend," Shannon said distantly in memory. She sniffed continued on, "Anyway, we'd all gone to bed for the night. But I couldn't sleep. There were sounds coming from outside. Probably badgers and stuff, but you know how your mind plays tricks," Shannon told us knowingly, "I was playing shadow monsters. But there was a real shadow on the outside. So, I turned off my torch and it came closer. It was right over us. I thought it was just one of my friends. So I unzipped the tent to have a look... and there it was. This, monstrous face. Hairy, with these... yellow eyes."