Animal

Chapter 21: The Facility

I was glad I ended up shifting into wolf form- The journey was far too long for mere human legs.

Lily, Emma, and I still strode through the forest, but by now the trees were hardly more than silhouettes in the darkness- even with wolf vision. 

Speaking of my wolf- this was the longest time I had spent in this form, and I was starting to get used to the smooth routine of lifting and placing my paws on the ground. Still, there was something unnatural about the smoothness of my wolf's steady gait.

I was also starting to become used to the powerful senses this form possessed. With each sniff came an assortment of smells, each of which I could identify. The dry bark of the trees, the cool dampness of the soil...

And I could hear everything from the continuous song of the crickets, seemingly surrounding us, to the small creaks of a branch a bird had flown from, bouncing up and down.

Even though I was slightly more used to this large, hunching shape, part of me always felt unsettled by this inhuman- almost supernatural- feeling, and the knowledge that in this form, I was as far as possible from normal.

Suddenly, my sharp eyes caught the slight jerk of Emma's ear.

I looked in that direction, and at first, I couldn't see anything except a small, tree-less clearing. But a small dot caught my eye- a window. There it was, the facility.

I couldn't tell what was stronger- the relief that we weren't on a wild goose chase, and that we had abandoned our parents for nothing, or the ice-cold fear of what might happen to us if we went in there. After all, werewolf or not, we were only kids.

The strong thumps of Emma's paws and the large stride they took revealed that Emma was feeling much more confident. She practically cantered towards the building. 

I caught a concerned glance from Lily, her powerful eyes jumping from me to Emma in front of us.

I gave her a sharp turn of my head. Our current mission was to set off the alarms, anyway- there was no need of caution.

We reached the edge of the clearing, feeling much more exposed without the cover of the trees. 

The facility's outline was now alarmingly close. No pun intended. 

I trotted ahead, falling next to Emma. I suddenly noticed her slicked-back ears, her eager strides- she was rushing to prove her point and get revenge on these guys.

The facility grew even closer- 50 feet...... 40 feet......

I felt my ears rise in concern. Emma... I started.

But suddenly an ear-piercingly loud noise sliced the cold night air. The alarm.

Wincing, we all turned tail and bolted the opposite direction, not daring to look back.

When the noise was finally dampened by distance as we reached the woods, we all simultaneously plopped on the cold, dead-leaf covered ground, panting.

When I finally caught my breath, I looked over to see if my friends were ok.

Emma was slowly gaining her strength, her panting slowing as she looked up at me.

I turned farther right to see how Lily was doing, but was hit with a wave of panic.

Lily was gone.