Manipulation

Ch 5: Unchangable

I brushed myself off again and shook my head. "It's okay, you'll get the hang of it." Heath says beside me with a lop-sided smile. He was tall with shaggy golden brown hair and warm hazel eyes.

"Sure,"  I say rolling my eyes. Apparently everyone here was a wolf but only five people had changed so far. Which left three quarters of the class unchanged.

"It takes some time," He offers encouragement and smiled. "It took me two classes to learn, and that's not adding the times I tried out of class. Just take a deep breath and think of your wolf. Think of what you want. Think of your wolf's strong muscles, long powerful legs, the wind though it's coat."

His word soothed me and I nodded. "Okay," I closed my eyes and let the image come again. The wolf stood in front of me, it's coat pure white, eyes a cold icy grayish blue, but face turned away. Slowly it's head turned to me. I tied again, wanting to change, willing the wolf to be set free but instead the wolf just watched me, like it was standing in front of me, like it wasn't apart of me. I felt the tingle go through my body and I couldn't suppress a shudder as something stirred inside me. Then it vanished and I opened my eyes to look around. I was still standing.

"It's okay. You have time," Heath squeezed my shoulder to reassure me. I glanced back at him before looking around.

"I can't feel it," I told him. "Like, the wolf inside of me.... it isn't me." I said the words out loud and instantly something inside me stirred again. My words felt weird and strange but that's what it was like. It was like the wolf saw me, heard me but refused to listen.

"Do you feel anything?" Heath asks after a little bit of hesitation.

I turn around and look up at him. "Barely. It's just a tingle. Nothing more."

Heath opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by a loud howl. It hung though the air, high and loud. For a second I though it was one of the people standing around me then realized it was too far away. Another howl hit and cut off short before the sound raised again. Heath turned to Mrs Hervena who nodded a quick, jerked a nod before putting her hands around her mouth; "Class!" she shouted over the noise.

Everyone went silent and turned to the teacher. "Class, please move to the bottom oval!" Everyone started moving off with her instructions. "Hurry please!" she called from the back. Heath gave me a nudge forward and I nearly ran into the person in front of me. I turned around and glared at the grinning wolf.

When everyone was on the oval, and I mean everyone we all stood around. People asked what was going on and why there were howls. When the last students had made their way into the crowd Miss Fray stood up on one of the side benches and raised her hands. Like always everyone fell silent and she smiled warmly at us. "What you just heard was one of the wolves on patrols howl. If you ever hear that, at any time, you must all gather here on the oval at once. It means there is either a fire or something is wrong. You must not dillydally, you must make your way here ASAP!"

Miss Fray paused and looked at everyone in the crowd. "Any questions?"

Some people shifted and moved but said nothing. Miss Fray smiled and nodded her head. "That's all, you may return to your classes." With that everyone scattered. I was just walking up back to where we were just trying to change when the bell went. I started jogging and got to the place where the other students were collecting their books. So far we hadn't used them but we didn't know when we would need them.

I then went to my next class. Track. When i got to building seven I walked in with the other students. I felt out of place as we walked in but that quickly faded when I looked at the building. The inside was so different from the outside. We had walked into a hallway, on either side were windows overlooking weird places. On the left side, down a floor was a large flat area, small buildings littered it and there was crates, buckets and wood scattered over the walkways.

It reminded me of a training ground, like the police would use. "Move along!" Someone shouts making me jump. A tall muscular guy stood in the entrance, his face was sharp and dark. He heard us forward. "Door on the left!" he shouted and everyone turned left and piled into the classroom.

"This is Track!" The guy shouted and walked to the front of the room. He then wrote 'TRACK' on the board in big letters. "I'm Mr Gibson. Not Mr Gib, or Son, Gibby or even Gibble," he then turned around and faced the class. "Track. Tracking. You are all young pups. I don't expect you to be able to hunt down a vampire in under two minutes, not yet anyway. But I do expect you to put in effort." He then crossed his arms. "Is that clear?"

No one moved, nodded or spoke. "Anyone know anything about tracking?" with that the class started.