Escape

3 • ticK tocK

Hey look it's me. Did you forget about me? Probably. Let's keep going.

Silently, I walked alongside Qual, clutching his hand and listening to 'Baby Bottle', another of Marcel Martini's songs. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him holding out his other hand, changing it from his usual skin to those of others; a young woman's, a small child's, a wrinkled old man's. My eyes widened as fur began to grow, his hand enlarging and expanding, becoming striped and padded. Soon, his arm is growing fur, a bright orange with stripes painting his forearm at a dramatic speed until it reached his shoulder where it stopped abruptly.

Noticing me staring, he glanced over at me and grinned. "That's as far as I can go," he said, shaking off his glamour. "Any preferences?"

I thought for a second. An animal? I hated animals. They were loud, irritating and a pain, especially if I was frozen. Birds were real hazards. But, as I recollected memories of my times with animals, I remembered a time, a long time ago when one creature of the wildlife made me feel at peace with myself.

"Wolf," I said, plucking at my jumper with my free hand, nervously. "A black wolf. As dark as you can go." It wasn't a random choice; wolves had been my favourite animals for years and it was hard not to love them. The sleekness of their fur was incredible and the power that they had was almost unfathomable but them, I reminded myself, I had a power to match theirs. I had met a wolf once, years ago. Before my mother had married my father, she had been in a relationship with a Lupine, 'a tall, sexy man', as my mother had put it and before she knew what was happening, she was flung into the secrets of the Lupine world. Her life was put at risk multiple times, being stolen by the alpha of another pack and abused within an inch of her life.

Luckily she was found but she had never been the same after. She left her wolfy boyfriend and met my father. It was a year later when they had me. But, when I was four, a man came to the door of the house we were living in and demanded to see me. It had been Mr Growl-A-Lot and he was sure that I was his daughter seeing as they had been together before. My mother was crying, trying to usher him away from me, but when he transformed into his wolf form, I remember being astounded. 

So astounded I froze time.

Being a small four year old girl, I was nervous at first but, knowing it had been me who had done it, I knew I was safe. Hours I had spent running my hand through the fur of that animal, nuzzling my face in the soft hair and laughing as I played with his massive floppy tail. Times had been good when I could hold my power for that long. Now, it hurt to barley hold an hour still.

my father had come home soon after I had allowed time to return to its state and he had frozen the animal before exploding the ice in different directions, shattering both the frozen water and the wolf trapped inside.

It was incredible to watch the dark fur grow over Qual's arm, the nails elongated and sharpened into claws and his palm became soft and padded. As I reached across to feel it, I felt tears in my eyes. He had not deserved the punishment my father had given him but it was far too late now.

We continued walking in silence and, slowly, I slid my hand out of Qual's and tucked it into my pocket. Boyfriends are the last thing I need right now (A/N: btw these characters are based on my friends and this one is literally NEVER without a boyfriend so don't worry I'll correct that later in the book (; ) We floated through the gate at the top of the hill without so much of a second glance and made our way to the fountain of Liaj where a small crowd had already formed.