Run towards the moon

Chapter 6

The day came to an end faster than Alia would have expected. After the 'meeting', she took Eliza for a run in the forest. The little girl was still too young to change into her wolf form, but she  loved to ride on Alia's back while she was in hers. Once they had reached the center of the forest, they had played Tag, Red light-Green light, Marco Polo, and Hide and Seek. The whole afternoon went by like that, and by the end of the day, Alia could feel herself drowsing. 

"How can a wolf pup have such high energy levels ? We must have played for seven houres straight and it was still not enough", she thought as she yawned.

Nevertheless, she kept herself awake and waited until everyone was asleep to sneak into the kitchen. She walked to the cupboard and quietly took a bag of coffee powder and a few spoons of lavender tea out of it before heading back to her room. She put all of it inside her backpack, put her oversized sweater on, and jumped out the window. 

Outside, the forest was dark, pitchblack even. The faint moonlight stayed hidden under the tree leaves, leaving the earth to the few creatures who thrived in the darkness and claimed it as their own. 

Contrary to them, Alia wasn't used to the murk and couldn't rely on her vision much. After all, werewolfs had long lost their ability to see in the dark while in their human form. Even so, she managed to wander safely through the forest using the sounds, scents, and vibrations she felt through the air and through the ground. It was obviously more time consuming than walking around with a flashlight or, even beter, in her wolf form. But, at the same time, she never attracted less attention than when she was like this : nacked under her sweater, her bare human feet so light and discreet they barely left a trace, surrounded by a putrid stench that would make any wolf turn around in disgust.

After what must have been an hour of walking, Alia started to hear the white noise coming from the cascade. The soil under her feet grew moister as she approached it, and almost instinctively, she began to smell the humid air of the river. 

"No one should be patrolling the border at this hour, but ... I guess it's beter to be safe than sorry".

Once she had finished checking the area, she jogged towards the riverside and took her hoodie off before putting it inside an old trunk. From then on, everything needed to go quickly. She took a few steps away, putting a good 50 meters between her and the waterfall. She took a breath, shook her legs and her arms, and started to sprint. At each large strides, her speed kept on increasing. So much so that when her foot had reached the end of the riverside, and she had jumped towards the cascade, her body passed right through it before falling with a thud on the wet, muddy ground of the cave that was hidden behind. 

"Dang it, it's cold !", she shouted. She shivered and sat on her legs, her arms firmly wrapped under her soaked shoulders as she noticed a hand was held out to her. She looked up to see her friend smiling at her. 

"Finally. You took your sweet time, didn't ya ?". 

Alia furrowed her brows, feeling annoyed, but she took her hand anyway. 

"F*ck you Lily, do you know how much trouble I would be in if I got caught out of the house past curfew ? I can't just come running. Plus, jumping through the cascade still terrifies me. Help me up now, please ?"

The black haired girl shrugged her shoulders and pulled her up before carefully leading her through the tunnel. At the end of it, a few candles were lit next to some old wooden boxes. Lily opened one of them and took out a dry blanket. Alia grabbed it quickly, wrapped it around herself, and quivered when she exclaimed : "B-Boy is it cold in here. I'm f-freezing. Th-thanks for the blanket. Anyway, did you bring the s-stuff ?".