Dream Wolf

22: The Before

"What are you doing here?" Ali hissed.
"You're going the wrong way," the wolf said in the blandest voice possible. Ali was pretty sure he was speaking monotonously on purpose, but she could never be sure with him. He was just like an uncle she remembered from when she was tiny, always changing to wherever the wind blew.
She crossed her arms, not quite sure if she should believe him. He had lied to her about the others being locked up. "How do you know that?"
"How do you know you are going the right way?" Quendel countered.
Ali's shoulders slumped. He was right, just like usual, in his wording. "Why did you saw they'd been captured?" she burst. "Why did you lie? To all of us."
"Because you needed to speed things up. You don't have too long left before..." He looked over his shoulder, uneasy.
"Before what?"
"Before something happens," Quendel snapped. Ali took a step back.
"So, you tell me something bad's gonna happen, and don't tell me what? That's very nice of you, very nice." If he was going to bug her, Ali'd do the same to him. Annoyingness could be a two-way street.
"I know," he said, taking a step back and vanishing into the darkness. Ali thought about following him, but there was a voice in her head that said it would be pointless.
She walked, head hanging close to the ground and feet dragging on the forest floor, back to where the other two were.
"Why didn't you tell us the wolf was here?" accused Cocoa.
Ali leapt back in surprise, she hadn't expected Cocoa and Maria to see her. "I-I wasn't sure if it was him," she said. It was partially true, at least. "By the way, his name is Quendel."
"Weird name. For a weird wolf." Cocoa let out a strangled piece of laughter, and Maria shushed her.
"We just would have gone with you," Maria said. "He could be dangerous."
"I guess you're right, but... well, we should get going." Ali shuffled her feet. "He also said something... something bad was coming. Not what, of course. He has to keep up his ever so mysterious image."
"Could it be our dreams?" Cocoa said, voice dropped almost to a whisper. "The order I saw you guys dead in was the order you left me."
The dreams. They had seemed like the least of their problems before, but who knew? They could be coming into play soon.
"We should find Tom and Sandy," Ali decided. "And Ed, I suppose."
"Check the dungeon? That's where we thought you'd be, Ali, so it would make sense." Cocoa said.
"Sure," said Maria. "But you guys owe me an explanation."
Their steps were synchronized for the first couple of minutes.
Just like before this strange place, Ali thought. Before the wolf and evil queen lurked at the edge of her vision every second. Before Roy appeared and disappeared. Before she fell through a wall. Before she had even met Tom and Sandy and Ed, let alone become friends with them.
And most of all, before the dreams.

A/N: Yeah, not too much happened, but isn't Quendel great?
Sorry for the lack of explanations, Elissar_M . It's hard to fit too many in to a single chapter.
Thanks for reading, as always!