What He Heard

Chapter 10

            Willow pulled her T-shirt over her head and tossed it onto her bed before reaching down to undo her pants, feeling her heart begin to beat faster. She did her best to ignore it as she concentrated on undressing. Knocking at her door had her freezing, eyes going straight the blank wood face of the door. “Aren’t you done yet?” came Rune’s muffled voice.

            “If I were done, I’d have come out already,” she called back. “Hold your horses, I’m almost ready.” Tossing her underwear onto the bed, Willow had her bracelet following it a second later. She carefully laid her earrings onto her desk, unclasping her necklace last. She let it hand between her fingers for a moment, watching the way the light made it shine, before she let it drop beside her earrings.

            Warmth flooded her as she felt the tug of her body expanding along with the prickly, tickling sensation of hair bursting out of her skin. In less than a second, she went from solidly-built girl to hulking bear creature.

            She rolled her shoulders and stretched up on her toes a bit, feeling simple pleasure in just being in her real form. It just felt so much more right. But the faint sound of Rune shifting his weight back and forth from behind the door reminded her of why she was squatching out in the first place.

            Willow padded over to the door and opened it, revealing a wide-eyed Rune. The expression disappeared a moment later as he grinned at her. “I’ve got to say, while I know you can look like this, it’s still a bit of a shock to actually see it.”

            “Spend enough time around her and you’ll get used to it,” she replied, voice deep enough to faintly rumble. She closed the door behind her and led the way down the stairs and towards the door in the family room that led to her deck. Being inside for too long bothered her in human form but was infinitely worse in her sasquatch one, with the walls and ceiling just that much closer to her.

            Rune followed her, chuckling a little as she hurried outside, not stopping until the stood in the middle of the deck where the cool afternoon breeze could wrap around her. He closed the door and dropped into one of the chairs, studying her. Willow turned to look at him, the skin over her eye ridge shifting upwards in much the way her eyebrows often did. “So, what’s with wanting to see me in squatch form again?”

            “You really need to ask?” he said, shaking his head. “You’re a freaking sasquatch! That’s cool! I’m curious about you, and since I only got to see you like this on our oh-so-fun race back to your place after our run-in with the grower, I wanted a second chance to examine you.”

            “Thanks for making me sound like a science fair project,” she replied dryly.

            “If you were my science fair project, I’d be a super-villain level mad scientist. Which would actually be pretty sweet. Doesn’t your fur make you hot?”

            Willow rolled her eyes and moved over so she could sit on the chair beside him. “It’s not fur. It’s hair. And it’s not too bad. It helps it’s cooled down a bit since the heat wave finally broke.”

            “Can I touch it?”

            She offered him her arm by way of answer, amused by how interested he was. Hesitantly, Rune reached out and patted her arm, much the way she’d seen other people petting their dogs. “It’s a bit softer than it looks,” he said after a moment, pulling his hands away. “But it’s still not like head hair.”

            Willow chuckled. “Of course it’s not. It’s on my arms. But yeah, it’s coarser than my normal hair. On the plus side, I get scratched way less by stuff when I’m hiking in the woods when I’m like this.”

            “Okay, you’re officially walking in front from now on then. I always get smacked in the face by branches.”

            “You need to learn to duck better.”

            “Well, well. You’ve adapted well to us, Mr. Campbell,” a male voice said.

            Willow jumped, jerking around to face the man who’d spoken, her hair rising in an unconscious reaction to her surprise, making her puff up. “Uncle Allistair!” she cried, recognizing him in an instant. “You know I hate it when you sneak up on me like that.”

            He chuckled as he sauntered up the steps towards them. “You need the shaking up, niece. You’ll get complacent otherwise. And complacency is-”

            “What will get you killed,” Willow finished along with him, wrinkling her nose. “I know. You tell me that almost every time you teach me.”

            Rune grinned. “I didn’t know it was possible to sneak up on you when you’re like that.”

            “It’s not. Uncle Allistair’s pretty much the only person who can do it. He’s sneaky.”

            Her uncle laughed, sitting onto the edge of the lounge chair Willow was in. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. Besides, you’re just as sneaky niece. I heard how you turned Carol’s aggression into something more productive and less…direct. Keep that kind of effort up and I’ll retire early.”

            “Retire from what?” Rune asked, leaning forward.

            “From being Defense Leader,” Allistair replied. “Willow here’s the top candidate to replace me.”

            As Rune turned to stare at her, Willow rolled her eyes. “I just did best at tactics testing is all. And it’s probably the least used position of the Elders. We really don’t get the mobs of villagers coming to drive the monsters off any more.”

            “It suits you,” he said finally. “You already organize and try and protect anyone close to you.”

            Willow gaped while Allistair chuckled again and stood. “Oh, I like him. You should keep him around. And don’t forget,” he said, moving towards the steps, pausing on the top one. “You always have option three.”

            For a second, she only frowned, until the memory of her first conversation about Rune with him floated to the top of her mind. “Uncle Allistair!” she cried. He only laughed while Rune just stared, confusion written all over his face.