Something Wild --- A "Pete's Dragon" Fanfiction

Chapter 4

NOTE: I forgot to mention earlier, but this is a collaborative work (one of the first I've ever done). Shine_on520, the user I mentioned earlier (check out her books, btw!), worked with me on the original story, and for this work some of the chapters will be ones that she herself created.

If you see the tag #Shine on any chapter, it'll indicate that the chapter is her work.

Shifting in her shower, she was rather eager for work. She was always eager for work; she loved being in the forest after all. She did grow up there. Ayodele Braon was a redheaded seventeen year old girl, the second oldest of four and the only tomboy of her immediate family. She was born two minutes and forty-three seconds before her twin sister Nikki, now a mother to a three year old. Ayodele knew deep down she envied her twin because of it.

Ayodele had never really been interested in relationships, though. She was athletic and strong, but also bright and caring. Drying herself off from her shower, she proceeded to dress for the day. When she was finally done, she didn't put on her green jacket yet and slung it over her shoulder as she went to go meet her brothers downstairs; Steven and Maurice still lived at home but Steven was trying to get a new place. Nikki was at work and so was their father. She passed by the picture of her mother and grabbed the necklace of hers that she always wore, grabbing her keys as she did so.

She finished packing her bags, but didn't leave. She needed Grace for that. "Put a shirt on Ayo, you know Pa don't like you walking 'round in just a tank top. People stare at the tat." Maurice said in a serious manner, her younger brother standing at the stove cooking scrambled eggs and sausage. "I will when I leave, Rice.

"Not like I'm going to work without my jacket." Ayodele replied with a smile as she sat down. The minute Grace walked in she knew she was in trouble. The girl proceeded to tie back her hair in a half up style and put on her jacket while Grace slid a plate of toast in front of her, the two pieces buttered and covered in grape jelly. Ayodele was sitting beside Grace that morning in the younger of the two's kitchen, munching slowly on a piece of toast that she was making her eat. It was either eat or don't go to work; Ayo knew she'd rather eat and go to work because Grace was her ride there considering the fact she didn't have a car (it was needing a new part which name she (and the author) forgot; it's written down at in my room) and she didn't want her running all the way there.

Ayodele had before and she was scolded for it. But the cabin's had showers, she usually got there early enough to wash off. Finally when she finished, Ayo ran out to the car, eager to drive there this time. And she let her. They waved a goodbye to Steven and Maurice before they departed, her behind the wheel skillfully putting on the seat belt with her right hand while driving with her left. It didn't take long to get there seeing as Ayodele took different roads than Grace, making the trip quicker meaning more money on the hour.

Just.. There was something different about today, Ayo could feel it, she knew it every time her tattoo began to itch and bones began to ache. Mama used to say she had a gift nobody else did, a gift that could sense when something good or something bad was coming. This one was good because the ache in her bones wasn't harsh, but gentle. Ayodele told this to Grace whom merely smiled at her, for she had heard the words many times in the past few years and none of her predictions ever came true. She didn't know they did.

Or, to be more precise, she was never around when they did. 

On the drive, Grace told Ayodele of her father and how he was telling the town's children of the "dragons" he had seen in the forest when he was a boy. Ayo was always on his side of the arguments. "Grace, hear me out," The younger redhead said as she drove, grey eyes still on the road. "What if your father is true?

"Just what if? Then wouldn't you be embarrassed by not believing him in the first place?" She said, glancing over at him. "Well, if it were true, wouldn't I or you or anyone else at the station have seen one by now?" Grace countered. They had the same argument every time Grace brought up her father.

"Perhaps, but think, if that old song, the old tale is true, none of us had been that far north in years. We wouldn't even be close to them without taking a half weeks trip through the woods. Believe me, I'm the one that literally lives in those trees when I'm not in my fathers home in town." Grace smiled fondly at the mention of the younger girl's father. Mr. Braon was a respected hunter, he kept the butcher open with the game he and his sons caught whenever none of them were helping Gavin with his work at the lumber mill. The Braon family hadn't been from Millhaven, they were Irish immigrants, the whole lot of them.

The only one to be born a US citizen was Maurice, he was born four years after Ayodele and her twin, the year that marked the family US citizens for four years. They had duel citizenship, not something they told often or let anyone know. Only a few people knew it personally, like Grace and her family. Nobody else did. "I see your point. We can discuss this later," Grace said in a friendly tone though Ayodele knew better. She knew Grace didn't want to hear her theories about dragons, she heard it enough from her father.

Upon reaching the station, Ayodele parked the car and grabbed her bag from the back. She tossed Grace the keys on her way into the station where she clocked in, double checked her inventory of her backpack and left to go begin marking where the lumberjacks couldn't cut trees down from. They weren't big on tourists, they were known for wood. And only she had the stamina and drive to make sure all trees were marked. Ayodele did this once every month or two, maybe twice depending on the season. And she liked doing it.

She knew the woods like the back of her hand, she enjoyed the peace she felt when in the forest. She reached into her jacket to scratch the head of the dragon on her collarbone, the tattoo seemed a lot more itchy the farther she travelled from the station. She always had that weird sixth sense that her mother once prided her on. Ayodele never knew if she truly liked it or did it because she were her mother and she felt obligated to do so. "I certainly have a day's work ahead of me." She said to herself, the thick Irish accent of hers the only thing heard aside from the chirping birds and the small woodland creatures in the trees or on the ground.

She took a deep breath as she walked; she felt more at home in a forest with nobody than she did in a town full of people.