Secrets under moonlight

Chapter 2

 Evangeline

The full moon sparkled, lighting up the night sky, the stars twinkled keeping it in company. Today it had been a hard day at school, and I was extremely exhausted. But something kept me awake, it was weird. I felt as if I could hear a melody hummed silently outside and I wanted to sing along with it. My life was pretty normal till my seventeenth birthday a few weeks ago. I lived with my parents in Idaho, went to high school, had two best friends and got good grades. I never got bullied in class and I was averagely beautiful, I guess but something made me never fit in. A part of me ached to run into the forest and never look back, of course I never did. My parents believed it was a dangerous place, and they were very overprotective of me, this is the reason I never told them about the weird things that kept happening to me. 

This afternoon when me and my mom were preparing dinner, she worked as a vet in their town animal hospital. I heard my dad's car turn around the road to the small path that leads to our house. He was a forest ranger , so it was his job to keep hunters out of this protected area so that wild animals were not caught in traps. But lately the wolf attacks in our area were more frequent, and hunters visited more and more unauthorizedly. I loved animals, just like the forest, maybe it was because both my parents engaged in animal related occupations. Sometimes I felt as if I have a connection with them. Whenever I am in the forest it feels like something within me comes alive, like the forest was a part of me. Another weird thing that happened to me is that I have a sudden craving for meat. Mom teases that I will gain weight but my stomach says otherwise. 

I was in deep thought , when a sound from downstairs made my body tense in fear. Both my parents were deeply asleep, I could hear their snores all the way to my room. No this was something else , and I ached to go and investigate what it is. I pondered about it for a few minutes then got out of bed, grabbing my phone and switching on the flashlight as I crept downstairs.

The floorboards creaked beneath my feet, and the flash light kept making weird shadows as I sneaked through the hallway towards our back door. As I grew closer to the door , I could hear the scratches and whines . I immediately knew that it must be some sought of animal , probably it was hungry and lost. Pitying it I opened the door , a large dark blob rushed past me.

 Before I could check what kind of animal came in, gunshots echoed through the surrounding forest. I realised why this creature was terrorised in fear, there were unauthorised hunters in the forest and they were probably after this innocent creature. I closed the door and locked it behind me and switched on the light.

I gasped, in front of me stood the most bewitching wolf. He was covered in a soft black coat of fur , and had glittering emerald eyes. He whined then , stretched in his front paws as if he was bowing to me in respect then he collapsed on the floor. That's when I noticed the crimson liquid oozing out of his front paw. He had been caught in one of the hunter traps , I realised but he must have gotten away before the hunters caught up, that explains the gunshots and his exhausted state.

I went into automatic mode , getting up gently and I encouraged him to move upstairs. After a few pushes we came into my room, then I locked the door behind me. I went to the bathroom to collect medical supplies and a bowl of water with a washcloth. When I came back into my room , the wolf collapsed on the floor panting with exhaustion. I crouched down beside him, gently running my fingers through his fur to calm him down. I took some water to my palm and held it out to him. As if knowing what to do he drank the water greedily. After he calmed down I started to assess his front leg. It was clear that he had panicked and pulled his paw out of the trap, the flesh had been wrenched out. Making sure not to startle him, I let some water trickle down the wound, then applied some saline water to his wound. A small whimper escaped him as he tried to tug his paw free. "It's okay, I won't hurt you , it will be over soon." I whispered , gently running my finger through the fur in his head, he grunted in response and stopped struggling as if he could actually understand what I said. Once he settled down, I put medicine to the cut and wrapped it with a bandage so that it won't get infected. I knew he must be still exhausted , so I brought some leftover roast meat from dinner and gave it to him. He seemed to be excited from the meal , but I noticed how he sniffed it out first then gently started eating. 

After he was done eating, he seemed to be exhausted , he rubbed his head against my side wanting pats. I smiled, "are we friends now?" I whispered to him, he replied with a little "yip!" then rested his head on my lap and instantly fell asleep. I smiled , it looked like I made a new friend from a long time. But I knew I had to let him go back , if my parents found out in the morning I would be in trouble. "Come on! We'll get you home," but when I opened the door for him after looking to check if any more hunters were around , he seemed reluctant to go , probably he's still afraid I thought to myself. "Come on puppy , you should go before my parents wake up , they will get scared if they see you." He looked at me with tear filled eyes , I felt a pang of sadness looking into those emerald green eyes, it was a quite strange colour for a wolf to have . I did the only thing that would make it a better goodbye. I pecked his soft furry forehead and scrubbed underneath his neck , "I hope we'll see each other in the future." He yipped and took off without looking back. 

It was a strange encounter , almost as if it was destined to happen that way. I smiled despite the pain I felt in my heart and made my way back to bed. It felt safe back in my room, the wolf scent lingered but it was nothing bad , it smelled woodsy and minty. Like the smell of the forest after a rainy day. It soothed my nerves and made me immediately fall asleep.