Instincts ✔️ [COMPLETED]

Chapter 18

When we reach the school gates, a thought hits me, and I feel very, very, very dumb. I look over at my group of friends, and let out a long sigh.

"How are we going to get there?" I moan.

Vera laughs.

"You know, w're not rich, so we can't buy a car, but, I think there is someone willing to take us," Vera's eyes trail over to a hunched form by the stairs, quiet. She approaches him, and calls out, "Derek?"

Derek! My driver, the one that brought me here!

He shakes his head, and seems to come back to the real world, like he'd been dozing off. Then, he looks at us, bewildered, and asks, "What are you doing at this time in the night?"

I walk up to him, and ask, "We were planning to go to uhm... Jalstie, but we can't get there on our own, nor do we know the way..." I trail off.

"Don't worry, that shouldn't be a problem. In fact, I can't really drive to Jalstie, but you four, as your instinct animals, can get there in a few hours. Here, a map to Jalstie. It's just north of Alkrok, very close."

Uh oh. That was bad. That meant the Jalstones could arrive here quickly, or the devil wolf could escape into protection easily. But, that also meant we could get there and back here easier, so pros and cons to it.

Derek gives us an old, yellow, and crinkly map. I can see Alkrok faintly outlined on the map, no more than a mere box, and a highlighted road leading up through a forest into a city encased in walls. That must be Jalstie, and it was huge.

Derek also gives us a compass, and tells us to follow north.
"Farewell, students. I hope your journey is successful," he says before turning and going back inside the school.

We all wave goodbye before handing the map to Vera. She looks at it, and takes a glimpse at the compass, and points towards the beginnings of the forest, shown by a few sparse and wimpy trees swaying in the night wind. These small and pitiful trees broaden, widen, become taller, and multiply even more as you get deeper into the forest. However, there was a barrier between this forest and Alkrok:

The alligator pond. It's not so much of a pond as a thick and deep stream, but it was named the alligator pond. Multiple beady, yellow eyes peek through the blue and cold water, staring, and waiting for prey. Two small noses stick out on top of their snout, searching for the scent of food, and long, shiny scales glisten in the moonlight, beautiful but dangerous.

Vera sighed, and transformed into owl Vera. She cocked her head, listening for sounds.

"There's some small stones, and a small spot where the alligators seperate, and it's safer to cross. You guys can easily cross as animals, because you'll be much quicker."

I look to where she's pointing, and see she's right. I transform into a cheetah, Jax into his "special" black leopard, and Jasper into a wolf.

"What about our luggage?" I ask.

"I'll carry it across, I just hope it's not heavy."

"No, I think we all brought some light bags," Jax answers.

I pad lightly towards the stream, and narrow my eyes, my tail thrashing behind me. I sniff the stream, and the small strip with the tiny gray pebbles sticking out as stepping stones smell like water and rock, nothing more. Checking left and right, and leap as far as I can, land in the middle of the stream, and then with a final leap I make it across.

Vera nods, and beckons for Jax next. He approaches cautiouslly, and then eyes the alligators, who are drawing nearer, slwoly but surely. In the black of the night, Jax is hard to see, but he smoothly runs across, and sits down next to me. Jasper is next, and he runs towards the river, which excite the alligators, who surface enough that we can see their scaley heads. Jasper draws his lips back, reaviling pointy teeth, and he's not afraid to use them. With a whimper, he dashes across, but not without recieving a painful bite from an alligator crashing into his rear. He turns his head back and snaps at the alligator, but it holds on. I stand up, and run towards them.

I claw at the alligator's eyes, and it releases Jasper, and Vera flies in and tris to drive the other alligators back. She thens goes back, graps four bags, and flies back with our luggage. We drag Jasper to the other side, and observe the wound.

It's small, but deep. Jasper whimpers, but is mostly okay. The wound is on his right leg, on his shin. He limps towards us, and Vera turns back into human.

"I'll get some water to cleanse it," she says, and walks back towards the river. Before I can warn her, she cups up some water swiftly and runs back before the alligators come back. Vera walks back to Jasper, and pours it on Japser's leg.

She opens her bag, and brings out a towel. She tenderly pats it on his leg. In her other hand, she has a gauze, and wraps it around his leg.

"That should do," she says, and stands up. "We can give you further treatment at Jalstie."

We all nod, and Vera transforms back into an owl.

"We should start," I suggest, and go towards my bag. We all get them, and I turn into human Kate and put on everyone's bag for them. I take Jasper's bag and wrap it around his stomach and back, and do the same for Jax. For Vera, she said she'll just carry it in her claws. In human form, I shrug on my bag, and transform into a cheetah. To my satisfaction, I end up having the bag neatly around my bag and front limbs. I grab the compass in my mouth, and we run into the forest - but not at full speed.

We go at a normal pace, with Jasper limping behind. The wound doesn't bother him that much, but it does give him quick, sharp pain when he forces himself to run too fast, accompanied by a whimper from him.

Vera flies silently above, occasionally flapping her wings. Jax runs smoothly beside me, quite and almost invisible.

We do this for half an hour, until Jasper collapses. We all halt, and turn around.

"Jasper, are you okay?" I ask.

He grunts, and we think fast.

"We need to keep going. We barely covered one-half of one-tenth of the way there," Vera persists.

I have an idea, and go into human form.

"Maybe we can drape Japser over Jax... if you don't mind?"

I look over at him, and I can see he's hesitating. Then he shrugs and nods, and I go over to pick up Jasper. It's harder than I thought.

I struggle to pick him up, and try to half-carry-half-drag Jasper over to Jax. I heave him up onto Jax's back, and drape him over like a rug. It worked. Jasper was lean and smaller than Jax, who was more muscular and bigger, so Jax was able to carry him.

"Oh, I think this may help," Vera said, and handed me a coil of rope. I nodded, and tied Jasper so he was securely on Jax. Now he wouldn't fall.

With that, we continued on our way to Jalstie.

[A/N]

Soooooo this chapter is longer... hope you enjoyed. You can see we're nearing the end of 100 days, with like 2 months left till show time. Yay!