Wolf Children

Chapter 2

***UNEDITIED

Chapter 2

Enjoy

~Ink

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By the time that we had reached the entrance to the national park, we had been running continuously for at least 17 hours. My legs were aching and my lungs raw from my breathing. The trees that we were now trotting past were huge, and I could clearly smell the tracks of deer and rabbit across the path. Small streams of clear water gushed past and I heard multiple crested kingfishers in the trees above.  

By the smell of it, the rest of the group with the cars had already got here before us, about an hour or two ago. Lucas picked up his pace and we all began to run again, much to my discomfort. A little ways further and we had arrived at the heart of the national park. A large log cabin that I would assume was used for school groups say in the middle of a gravel area, with a huge fire bit outside and another bunk room about 50 meters away. There were also smaller log houses running across the edge of what looked like a small oval with a basketball court.

Some of the pack that had not shifted threw us clothes, and the female wolves went to the smaller cabin while the males went into the big dorm/bunk room. I felt my bones snapping back to their natural form, and I groaned, massaging my neck. “Damn… you would think he would have given us a rest, even a small one” Shia nodded, changing into some leggings and a tank top. “Yeah, my legs are killing me right now.” I sighed as I slipped on some hiking boots and black cargo pants with an army pattern tank top.

“This place is beautiful though, I must say.” Shia nodded. “Yeah it is beautiful, I hope we can actually stay here for longer than two weeks. I smiled reassuringly. “I don’t think Lucas would have had us run the whole way here if we weren’t going to stay.” She shrugged “I guess so”

We staggered back out onto the gravel ring road of the camp, and made our way over to where everyone was unpacking their bags from the back of the utes. I grabbed my green Nike duffle bag and hauled it over of my shoulder. “Okay ladies and mutts! I have a bunk assignment paper here; we have ladies and males separated. Don’t want any random pregnancies in our situation right now, if you catch my drift!” I rolled my eyes; it was Natasha, the oldest and most strict girl of the bunch. Order in the court was her motto. “There are the two dorms, males in the mess hall and ladies in the gallery. There are a few who will be in separate cabins too.”

Turns out that Shia and me ended up with one of the smaller log cabins, along with two other girls, Tash and Pepper. I hardly knew anything about either of them, all I knew was that Pepper was extremely competitive and built stronger than most of the girls here. The whole of the group were still confused as to what was happening and what we were supposed to be doing, but it wasn’t long before we were called for a meeting in the mess hall.

“We are going to be running a tight programme, physical training all week, mental training on the weekends. You will be split into groups, 1-10, and you will each participate in different activities to boost your abilities. Basically this whole place is like a summer camp” Lucas grinned. “One where you will be beaten until you cant stand, until you can bounce back better than before.” There were some groans and snickering from the people around me. “Considering we are part wolf, these people around you are now your pack. We run like one, and we fight like one. No man is left behind. Your place in the pack is determined on how well you fight, track, hunt and defend yourself. Do well, you don’t have a choice”