Ravenrook Chronicles: The Mysterious Student

Chapter 9

The students began running through the forest. Their path illuminated by the light of the full moon filtering through the canopy of the trees. Tim could hear his classmates' hurried footsteps falling on the soft forest floor. The howling was getting closer and closer.

"Lycanthropes!" Tim called, "They're tracking us."

"Find some aconite and keep it close," Sam called back.

Aconite grew wild in the forest, but it took a good while to find some. The forest floor was dark and their constant hurried pace made the task very difficult.

"Over here," a voice to Tim's right called

Tim turned to see James, the insightful poet, pulling his jumper off and removing a pocket knife. Using his pocket knife, he cut seven large bits of cloth from his jumper and carefully picked seven stems of the deadly flower. While the others stood watch, looking for any sign of the werewolves. Placing them in the pieces of torn jumper and handing one of them to each of his remaining classmates, throwing the remaining three in his pocket, in case they should stumble on Matthew and the others.

"That'll cover our scent and prevent them from tracking us." he said with a knowing

smile.

Tim returned the smile and started running toward the manor. After a while Tim could hear the sound of the pack beginning to quieten and turn in the opposite direction. He shot Sam a look and could tell that they were thinking the same thing, they were going after Matthew and the others.

They turned and ran back to where their classmates had broken off from the group, despite the risk it posed to them completing their task on time. Tim and the others felt that despite their uncivil behaviour, Matthew and the others didn't deserve to be wolf food. They were greeted by the sight of two werewolves scratching at the bottom of a tree. Tim signalled to the rest of the group to get low. Matthew and his group were perched in the boughs of the tree. Their fear was palpable. Matthew's usually well groomed blond hair was hanging in face, wet with sweat. If the situation wasn't as dire as it was, Tim would have died from laughter. He motioned to the group to spread out and hide amongst the underbrush and amidst the trees.

Once everyone was positioned, Tim picked up a twig and snapped it, getting the attention of the two snarling werewolves. He rolled a rock to make it sound as if there was movement in the opposite direction. The werewolves hesitated for a second, saliva and foam dripping from their frenzied mouths. They looked at each other, as if deciding what to do, coming very close to where Tim had hidden, before sprinting after the noise. Tim held his breath and remained very still hoping not to alert them at that moment. Once the wolves had run away, searching for the noise, the rest of the group quickly and stealthily emerged from their hiding places. Tim motioned over to James, signalling that he was to give the extra three bunches of aconite to their freshly saved classmates. Tim then led them to a safe clearing, near where they had found the aconite.

"There, you're safe and we're headed in the right direction." Tim said, a tinge of anger in his voice.

"We were doing just fine until that flash and bang went off alerting the werewolves," Matthew said indignantly.

"The test only starts when everybody leaves the dropzone. You left before I could brief you and before the test started. You walked right into the wolf's jaws."

Matthew looked as though someone had knocked the air out of him. He wasn't going to admit he was wrong, but anyone could see that he definitely felt guilty.

"As for insulting and disobeying a commanding officer," Tim said as he punched

Matthew across the jaw.