Learn to Howl {Alex Vreeke | Jumanji}

1; emerald green & mistakes

There's a girl who lives with only her mother, both overworked from school and multiple jobs, not enough free time in the day to do anything, let alone with anyone. So when the girl's mother brings her a board game for her 15th birthday, a game with a rich solo campaign, as well as an interesting multiplayer aspect, she was delighted; it was a special present, all her mother could afford, made even sadder that it had been found at the beach of all places.

Three days after her birthday, the girl was reported missing. There was no signs of struggle anywhere in or around her first-floor bedroom, the window was closed, the light was on, all that was strange was the board game sitting in the middle of the room, looking as though the first turn had just been taken.

The girl's estranged father gets called up and questioned, the kids in her class are all interviewed. Her friends, while they're all lovely people, were mostly incidental, the kids she sat next to in class, or who she shared a table with in the library at lunch. She'd not been invited to a party, not that she would have had time, they knew she worked at the mall and that her dad wasn't around, but all in all, this girl was a solitary figure.

Her name was Connie Lee, a shadow for all intents and purposes, a background character to the rest of her classmates.

After a few years, her mother moved away, childless, followed by the pitying stares of the town, the rumours that followed her everywhere, from murder to payment for illicit activities, the fate of her daughter nothing more than gossip to the people who liked to say they cared about her.

The last memory she had of that night, of the night that ruined her life, was the board game, Jumanji, every piece still in tact. She sold it for a dime at a garage sale, getting rid of anything she couldn't bare to take with her to the city, her new job, her new life. And just like that, she cursed Alex Vreeke too.

On the night Connie went missing, she had played this board game, had picked the player 'Tetra, the Huntress' and was looking forward to going on the quest with the explorer Russel Van Pelt and Nigel, hoping to obtain the Jaguar's Eye. Well, it sounded cliched, but also like it would be relatively entertaining, at least for a night. What she didn't expect was to be sucked into the game in a blinding, green light.

Connie was gone. This girl, this woman she found herself embodying was Tetra, the huntress. From what her character card had said, Tetra was strong at climbing, good with projectile weapons, and was able to calm and command wild canines. She spent months with these men, listening to their repetitive dialogue as they laid out the lore of the game for her. Despite this, and perhaps akin to stockholm syndrome, she found herself rather enamoured by Van Pelt, with his dark, brooding aura, and though it was rather jarring to hear herself referred to as Tetra, it seemed he became quite taken with her too, but was only acting within his character's parameters, but it was passable enough to this fifteen year old girl in a woman's body that she thinks she fell in love.

They make it to the top of the jaguar statue together, with a home-made grappling hook launched from a crossbow she had fashioned herself, they climbed up either side. On top of the mountain, she pulls out the stone and kisses him, awash with power, feeling in that moment, the heart of every wolf and hyena in the land beat in sync with her own. In the next moment, there's a ripple in the fabric of their reality, Van Pelt snatches the jewel from her hand and pushes her from the mountain. Later, he will tell Nigel that she fell, but even the chipper, pre-recorded Nigel is sceptical, and mourning his friend, and betrays Van Pelt with hope in his heart that Tetra is still out there somewhere.

She respawns at the first level, bitter, fuming, having lost her opportunity to leave the game, having been betrayed by the person she had mistakenly loved, now having lost almost three years of her life. Now, however, when she checks her character traits, the screen glows the same emerald as the jewel had, and there's a few changes. Canine Alpha glowed up at her, as did one other. Beast Form.

A day later, she hears the scream of another player falling from the sky.

When Alex Vreeke is sucked into Jumanji, he is told of the Jaguar Stone, the power Van Pelt wields, about how to win the game, and of the legendary Huntress who fell from the sky, who they say still roams the very jungle they were facing.

When she finds him, less than a month later, hiding out in Alan Parrish's old hut (who Alan Parrish is, she's still unsure) he is greeted by a wolf with jade eyes, and moments later, a woman stands in front of him.

"Who the hell are you?" He asks it before he sees the two black marks on her wrist, her life counter. He looks down at his own. "What do you want?" Quieter this time. From the trees comes hoards of wolves, all calm and non-confrontational. A proud pack, with their alpha, the huntress.

"I am-" swallowing thickly she answered, "Tetra. I want your help, I want to return the Jaguar Stone and kill Van Pelt."