Clan

Chapter 1: stranger

The loud sound of lockers slamming and the constant chattering of mingling students rang in Aloy's ears as she trudged through the narrow hallway packed full of students. "This is something I will never miss" she thought to herself. As Aloy entered the classroom she was greeted by the kind smile of her best friend Sebastian. "Aloy!! It's been forever hasn't it?" Sebastian exclaimed while running to her with his long arms stretched out for an loving embrace. "Hey Bastian!! I missed you so much!" She said while hugging him tightly. "So how was your summer in Washington?" Sebastian said looking down at her with a grin. Aloy looked to the side for an instant and hesitated. "It was alright I guess, what about yours?" she said with a small little grin. "Mine was great but something strange happened to me." Sebastian said while looking at Aloy with a serious expression. Concerned, Aloy led him away from her fellow classmates, to the corner of the classroom. "What happened? Are you alright?" She said worryingly. Sebastian hesitated, unsure if he should tell her. "Can I tell you later, at the park or something? I'm don't want someone to overhear." "Yeah that's alright we can meet up after school and walk to the park later." Aloy said. With that she grins at him and the teacher walks in. "Hello everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful summer and welcome to history class. I'm Mr. Abner." he said while looking at the board "Your assignment is on the board, please complete it for your first daily grade of this new school year."

Later that day, Sebastian was walking to the park, where he was meeting Aloy to talk about what happened, with knots in his stomach which caused him to feel extremely nauseous. His thoughts were racing, thinking of how he can tell her the truth, and if she'd even believe him. As he held his stomach with one hand Aloy runs up behind him "BOO!!" she exclaimed while giggling. Sebastian nearly jumped out of his skin. "ALOY you scared me so bad, don't do that right now." He said shakily. "Bastian, what's wrong? I'm sorry for scaring you, I just couldn't resist" she said. Sebastian stops in his tracks and turns around to face Aloy, who's staring up at him with a worried expression across her face. "Aloy I need to tell you something, you have to promise me you won't think I'm crazy or you won't go and tell everyone." Sebastian said seriously. "I promise I won't tell anyone and I promise not to think you're crazy." She said looking up at him wonderingly. Sebastian gets really anxious about telling her, he looks to the side for an instant then looks back into Aloy's forest green eyes. "So the thing that happened to me is pretty crazy. I didn't even think it was possible when it happened. I've only ever read books about it." Sebastian said. Just as Aloy had opened her mouth to respond a man came screaming and running out of the forest like a mad man. Sebastian turns around to face the man in one swift movement. "What happened to him?" Aloy said alarmed. The man runs towards Sebastian and Aloy "Help me, please help me, I've been attacked." The man says breathlessly. The man lifts his tattered shirt to reveal his waist. Aloy gasps in horror and sympathy as her eyes met the gruesome sight of five deep gashes that went from his right underarm down to his right hip. The man trembles because of the immense pain he was in. He falls to his knees and his breathing rate increases. "What happened to you sir?" Aloy said worryingly while untying her hoodie from around her waist to sop up the blood and immediately rushed down to the man when she untied it. "I'm going to put pressure on your wounds, I'm sorry in advance, this isn't going to feel good." Aloy gently pressed the wounds with her hoodie. "Here Bastian hold this here while I call an ambulance." Sebastian knelt down to put pressure on mans wounds. "I don't need an ambulance. I'll heal soon." Sebastian looks into his eyes, perplexed. "You need to be seen by a doctor sir, your wounds are extreme." He said. The mans blood soaked through Aloy's hoodie and got on Sebastian's hands. The blood appeared to be glowing to him. "Um sir yo-" He was interrupted by the mans coughs. Sebastian feels a fuzziness in his head an his vision gets distorted. "My names Roan." The man says. Sebastian looks at Roan perplexed as to why he heard his voice ring in his ears but not a single sound escaped his lips. "I was attacked outside my home in my village, I ran away from my village in an effort to lead the beast away. It followed me for a while then disappeared. " "The girl cannot see that my blood is glowing like you can and she cannot hear me. I'm a shifter, I'm telling you this because whether you have awakened or not you're a shifter as well" Sebastian is bewildered by what Roan had said. He is reluctant to listen to him but decided its best to believe him. Sebastian looks at Aloy. "Aloy stop, everything will be alright we just need to get him to my house." "Wh-what we can't. He needs medical attention." She said seriously. Sebastian helps the man to his feet and wraps Roan's arm around his shoulders. "We're taking him to my house my dad is out of town for a couple weeks he can recover there." Sebastian said. "But we have to take him to see a doctor. He'll die if we don't." Aloy said worryingly. "Just listen to me Aloy, he will be okay if he recovered at my house. We can take care of him together." Sebastian says sternly while Aloy follows behind. "Alright fine, I will do more research on herbal remedies to help him heal when I go home tonight." Aloy said reluctantly while still following Sebastian. As Sebastian helps the man up his front steps of his house the man coughs vigorously. "Are you okay Roan?" Sebastian said. "Wait how do you know his name Bastian, he never said it did he?" Aloy said questioningly. "He told me, you must not have heard him." He said. Aloy doesn't believe him but decides to ignore it "Alright maybe I didn't hear him." She thought. Sebastian struggled to hold Roan's body up as they got close to the couch. He gently laid Roan on the couch and sighed. "How are you feeling now?" He asked Roan. "I just need some rest" Roan said exhausted. "I'll go and get a couple blankets and the health kit from the upstairs bathroom." Aloy said while walking up the stairs. Sebastian waits to talk to Roan about what happened until Aloy is far enough to not hear their conversation.

"How did you do that? That thing you did back in the park." Sebastian said questioningly. "It's my skill I discovered at my awakening day ceremony when I was 18 years old. It's extremely rare in my clan." Roan said in a hushed whisper. "What did this to you?" Said Sebastian. "A rogue shifter from another territory invaded my village in the early hours of the morning while everyone was asleep and raided the food storage building. I woke up to the sound of branches being snapped. I shifted into my wolf form then I turned to the direction of the branches breaking, I was met by the behemoth grizzly's blood stained claws and his gaping mouth wide ready for a deafening growl when I exited my tent. All I remember is him raising his blood dripping paw glistening in the moonlight." He said softly. "Did your recognize the other shifter?" Sebastian whispered. "I may have seen him in human form before but I do no-" They heard Aloy walking down the stairs and stopped talking. "I found three blankets and a kit in the guest bathroom. Hopefully they're are things I here to help you heal sir. My mom is a nurse so I've picked up on some of her practices over the years." Aloy said while walking over to Roan. Roan lifts tattered and blood stained shirt to reveal the five deep gashes. Aloy kneels down and searches the kit for sutures and gauze. She gently cleaned Roan's wounds with a gauze pad with alcohol on it. Roan winces and his breathing rate increases. Sebastian grabs a rag from the kit and offers it to Roan to bite on. Roan bites the rag without hesitation, his fangs showing slightly. Aloy then proceeds to dress his wounds with the gauze and medical tape. "Alright were gonna need to change the bandages every three hours or so." "Alright, thank you Aloy." Roan said softly, exhausted because of the pain of cleaning his wounds. Roan slowly drifts off to sleep as his pain eases. Aloy motions to the kitchen "lets go in there I have some questions." Aloy leads the way as Sebastian follows.