Animagus

Chapter 4: Training

  "Okay so I'm going to teach you how to hunt first," I said. For some reason it seemed like Ashton basically shrunk in size when I said that.

  "Come on, why can't I teach you how to fight first? That's what we are supposed to be doing!" Ashton complained.

  "How do you expect to be a "wolf" if you can't hunt? You don't even hunt in your human form! So stop complaining," I said. I shifted into my ocelot form. Ashton followed, shifting into his wolf.

  "I don't have to be a wolf. I just have to be an Animagus. I am supposed to fight Thwigs not kill animals," Ashton said.

  "You're acting strange today. Well anyways I'm going to have to take your man card then," I said with a small smile. Ashton growled at me and turned towards the forest.

  I held my head up in satisfaction and led Ashton into the woods, looking for a good place to catch squirrels or birds. I stopped in front of a large tree and looked up. I could hear a squirrel chattering in the branches.

  "Okay, here's the plan. I'm going to climb up there and scare the squirrel down here. You have to jump on it and kill it," I said. When I mentioned killing the squirrel, Ashton's eyes got a little bigger in size.

  I turned and jumped onto the tree. I raced to the closest branch and sat in the leaves, camouflaged. I could see a branch that was a couple feet above my heads that was twitching. I could hear the scratching of its nails on the bark.

  There were no other branches that I could jump onto that were between me and the squirrel. If I tried to climb up the trunk the rodent would probably jump into the tree to my right. So there was really only one thing left that I could do. I had to jump.

  I crawled out of the leaves carefully so I wouldn't spook the critter. I squatted down and prepared to jump. I leaped off of the branch and onto the branch with the squirrel on it. Just as I thought, I had taken it by surprise and it jumped from branch to branch down to the ground. I chased after it, leaping on the branches. The squirrel was starting to swerve back towards the main trunk of the tree. I jumped right in front of where the squirrel was. I landed on an extremely fragile branch that broke under my weight. Before I fell to the ground, which was at least 15 feet below me, I was able to grab another branch. I hung in mid air gripping the branch that was also way to fragile. If I tried to climb up I would probably fall for sure.

  I looked around and saw a branch that was a good 6 feet away. I swung from the branch I was on, onto the other one. I landed on my paws and started climbing down the tree.

  When I got to the bottom, Ashton was holding the squirrel down with his paws.

  "Now what?" Ashton asked in a low growl.

  "Bite it's neck," I said. Hadn't he listened to me earlier? Apparently not or else we wouldn't be having this issue.

  Ashton looked at me like I was crazy. During his moment of staring at me the squirrel was able to slip out from under his paws and run for a different tree.

  "What was wrong with you?" I asked rounding on him.

  "I don't want to kill things, alright? Not unless they are Thwigs. I don't believe in ending lives for my own enjoyment," Ashton said breathing hard. He obviously had run to get the squirrel.

  "Ashton," I said walking up against him. Wow he was a big softy. My heart swelled for him.

  "I didn't want to tell you earlier because... Well... What guy doesn't like to kill stuff?" Ashton said shaking his head.

  "The kind of guy that has seen things that humans haven't," I said. I pushed him towards the direction of my house and lead him back.

  "Thanks for understanding. Brendan would probably laugh," Ashton said.

  "Uh no. Brendan would laugh," I said. Ashton bumped into me and did that stupid half smile.

  "Well, we should probably go do our fighting techniques before Carlos-," Ashton started but a whistling sound interrupted him.

  The whistling was really high pitched and pretty much hurt me. I tried to shake my head but was thrown off guard by a shadow that rammed into my side.

  "Thwigs!" I heard Ashton yell.

  I hit the ground and rolled. I landed on my stomach trying to suck in air. I saw a dark shadow in the corner of my eye and I jumped up and spun around. I was completely unprepared for the monster that was standing before me though.

  It was a dark black figure. It literally looked like a shadow but instead of sticking to the ground it was 3D. The place where the eyes were, there were rings of red and then pure black that was illuminated by the red glow of the outer eye.

  I stumbled backwards and the Thwig advanced on me. I hadn't been taught anything about how to get rid of these things, let alone fight them. So I went with the first thing that came to mind that actually made since. Go for the neck.

  I leaped at the Thwig but landed on the ground. The beast had disappeared. I saw a shadow on the ground and swung around. Damn they could become shadows. I turned and ran for the nearest tree. Before I could reach it I saw the tree shudder and come out of the ground, roots and all. There was a faint black shadow that went around the tree. Nobody had told me that they could do that!

  The tree flipped in the air and flew towards me. I swung around and tried to run but felt something collapse over me. I felt a cold sensation then lost consciousness.