The Turn of a Page

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

            The next morning was met by me blushing as I kept getting strange looks off Ashley and Sharlene, only when I had looked in the mirror of the toilet block did I realise how ruffled my hair was; brushing it hastily, I recomposed myself before heading back to the tents. I watched for awhile, something seemed a little off, but in a good way. Finding Baz, lounged inside the bigger tent, I gestured for him to talk to me outside.

            ‘What’s up?’ he said, sounding rather cheery.

            ‘Is it me, or is something going on that I should know about?’ I asked simply.

            He chuckled and walked in a tight half circle around me. ‘You will find out tonight,’ he whispered from behind me, right by my ear.

            ‘Hmmm, so all this howling is going to stop?’ I asked, sounding upset at this.

            ‘I’m afraid so, but things are about to get a little exciting.’ He gave me his dark, ominous smile once again before walking off towards Charlie.

            Spending the rest of the day wandering what was going to happen put me on edge a bit, any small noise or movement that I wasn’t expecting made me jump and my heart miss a beat or two. Baz noticed a few times and tried to calm me down with some talking about anything to try and get my mind off it all.

            Sat around another camp fire, I lay on my front on one of the blankets watching the others; they all seemed a bit twitchy for some reason and a couple of them weren’t as wolves which seemed a bit odd compared to the past week or so. Finding myself chewing my lip and it started bleeding; I went to get a tissue from inside my tent. Coming back out, I saw that the others had all stood up, on twos or fours and looking in the same general direction of the forest. As I stood up from crouching, I decided to walk towards Baz and Kevin before I turned to look at what they were peering at.

            When I eventually turned around, I looked hard in between the trees, as at first I didn’t see anything of interest; I tried to whisper to Baz but he took my hand and gestured for me to remain silent.

            Staring harder, I finally noticed a few pairs of shining lights at about mid-thigh height among some of the trunks. Then as some little mist clouds formed, they appeared out of the gloom and remained standing just behind that line I had noticed when we had first arrived.

            There were five wolves, and I guessed they were from the pack that had been howling to us over the nights we had been here, only they seemed a little different to the ones I had gotten used to in my school. Not only were their eyes lighter and shined in the full moon’s haze but their coats seemed to be greyer or lighter; I could only guess this was due to age, but there was still something I couldn’t put my mind to focus on.

            Turning my head to look at Baz, I was met with empty space so I looked down and saw he had changed to that familiar wolf I had become so used to in the past years. Someone started growling, but I didn’t look around me to find out whom yet it wasn’t any of the new wolves in the distance. The two girls of our group huddled together more and looked a little worried or unsure about something. Not being a werewolf, I had no idea what to make of any of this, so I decided to sit down on the floor.

            Nothing happened for awhile, just the rest of them stood or sat where they were without moving a step or a tail. But gradually, Baz moved forward, around the fire and into the space between the tents and the forest. Similarly, one of the new wolves also stepped forward and they met halfway before something strange happened (strange to me).