The Midnight Star

Chapter Two

This Chapter is dedicated to FluffehKittehz  because they are my biggest fan so far and I don't even know them in person.

Thank you! And go follow them.

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As I arrive at the doorway to my den, I swiftly turn back into my human form. Stepping inside, I reach for a blanket to wrap around my naked body in like a towel. In the seconds that I don't have anything covering myself, I can already feel the cold brushing against my pale skin. Winter is coming.

Crossing the room, I take the leaf from my mouth and start to examine it...

One side slightly crumpled, with what looks like to be a brown hair attached to it. There was something about this bit of information that reminded me of something well known to me, but also brought fear and anger from the bottom of my gut.

Putting this piece of evidence in a little jar from my collection of bits and bobs that I brought to my den the other day. Silently thanking my past self for thinking of that.

I make the decision to go investigate further. Pulling off my blanket and Turning back into my wolf form, I run back to where I found the tracks. Ears twitching, eyes searching and nose trained to the ground, following the scent.

Only a couple hundred metres down the track I stopped short. Listening.

I can hear something in the distance that sounds like voices, male ones if I can hear right. I start to cautiously make my way towards the sound, all my senses on edge. I have never had someone out here before.

There is a hiking trail about 15 kilometres away though, so maybe they are some hikers that have followed the river down a little way to go camping.

Keeping to the shadows, I spot a clearing in the trees with a few tents set up near the waters edge. Four young men, probably around the age of 20, sitting on the rocks overlooking the river in only their boxes. By the looks of it, they had been swimming because not only is hair wet, but the usually clear water, is murky from mud at the bottom of the river being stirred up.

I must have been distracted because one of them turned around and spotted me pointing. I look around to find that I am no longer in the cover of the trees, I probably have been walking forward unconsciously while I was observing the young men.

Fear and adrenaline getting the best of me, I turn and flee back into the undergrowth of the woods. Heading back to my den to settle my racing heart.

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Bounding through my doorway still in my wolf form, my heart pounding against my ribs, no longer with fear, but with anger.

'Why in the world are these men camping in my woods!' I think to myself.

Turning back into my human form and reaching for my clothes. Not feeling secure anymore with just wearing a blanket. Pulling on my jeans and T-shirt I think about what I am going to do.

'Tomorrow, I will go back and see what they are doing here. Somehow, I will get them to leave this place and never come back.' I think.

Then I remember the scent that I found earlier, the one that I have on a leaf with a hair on it in a jar on the counter. Walking over to where I lift it, I grab the jar before sitting down at my makeshift counter to study it more closely.

It's an oak leaf, browned by the cold Autumn. Completely normal except for the fact that half the leaf was crumpled and had a big hole in it, most likely to have been made by a claw. Then the hair. I would have to Turn if I want to know any more than the colour, which is a light brown.