Maybe Scotland wasn't so bad after all. School was out for a week in February and Myrtle and her friends had a week full of activities planned, starting with finally exploring the woods behind her house. Myrtle still hadn't stepped foot in there, neither had either of her parents, but they were never really the outdoor type.
"Hullo! Meet my pooch, Rupert," Leslee smiled as Myrtle opened the door for her, a very excited black and white border collie pulling on a black lead to try to say hello.
"Aw! Hello Rupert, aren't you a good boy?" Myrtle chuckled, bending down to greet the dog. Rupert returned the greeting by covering her face with licks and trying his best to clamber into her lap.
"Woah there lad, don't get too excited," Leslee bought her dog closer to her, "Da ye want me to leave him tied up ootdoors? Am guessing the others aren't here yet,"
"No, it's fine - we'll wait for them out here," Myrtle knew there was no harm in leaving the dog outside, but she just wanted an excuse to spend more time with him, "How old is he?"
"Aboot two years, he was a rescue ye see," Leslee bent down beside Myrtle to give Rupert a scratch behind the ears, "He was rescued fae a puppy croft, tairible place."
"Poor boy," Myrtle said sadly as the dog continued to happily lick her face. The two were too caught up in talking about Rupert that they didn't notice Jess and Coira had arrived and had been walking down the driveway for a while now.
"Hey girls!" Jess said loudly, perking up Rupert's ears as he pulled on Leslee's lead to go say hello to the two new faces, although he had already met both of them before.
"Hullo Rupert!" Coira bent down to say hello as the collie bounded up to her just like he had done to Myrtle.
"Make sure it doesn't get any mud on me," Jess said roughly, taking a few steps away from the dog.
"We're going intae the forest, Jess, did ye nae think about this sooner?" Leslee smirked at her friend who obviously didn't spend much time in nature other than collecting flowers for her flower pressing displays.
"For pictures, we're not going round digging in the dirt, come on then," Jess groaned, she didn't seem to be enjoying the prospect of exploring the woods but it had been Leslee's idea after all.
"Ah think ah just saw a pine marten, ah love those thing," Coira smiled brightly, looking around at the various species of trees that surrounded them. The forest was pretty, Myrtle thought, she didn't know why she had never explored it sooner.
"Look, there's a nice clearing to take some pictures," Jess said excitedly, jogging to reach the clearing atop a small hill. She had spent the whole walk here complaning about anything she could think of, it was nice to finally see her face light up.
"We can take a few nice group photos and then leave, I've already got some stuff planned for what we can do at Myrtle's house once we get back," Leslee took out her phone and thrust her arm around Myrtle's neck for a photo. Myrtle sighed slightly, she had never wanted to go into the forest before but now she was here she did'nt want to leave. Leslee had let Rupert off the lead, he liked to explore but she knew he wouldn't go far. As the girls gathered together for the picture, Rupert jumped out from a bush whining loudly, his tail pressed between his legs and his ears flat back as he ran.
"Rupert! What's tha matter lad?" Leslee bent down, comforting the dog. Leslee groaned, "He probably just stepped on a thorn or something can we please just leave this place is freaking me out!" Myrtle gave Jess a confused look, she was acting really strange, she was never this stern or uncaring at school.
"His paws are fine, ah think something spooked the laddie," Leslee remarked, checking his paws one by one to see if Jess had been correct.
Gradually, Myrtle began to hear footsteps approaching closer to them and the low sound of a generator or motorycle running - or was that growling?
"What's that noise?" Myrtle said, stepping back a bit as the sound apparoched closer towards the group.
"Stop trying tae spook us, Myrtle," Coira chuckled a bit, Myrtle felt her panic rise as she glanced at the others, it was obvious that the three of them couldn't hear whatever she was hearing - but Rupert was going crazy.
"The noise! It's footsteeps and it sounds like a motorocycle or an animal growling, can't you hear it?" Myrtle felt her panic rise within her body, her friends glared at her like she had gone crazy.
"No one find your jokes funny Myrtle, let's go back now," Jess sighed and began to walk back the way they'd came; Coira, Leslee and a still scared Rupert following. Myrtle tried to make herself follow them but her body didn't seem to allow her movement. She watched as the three walked closer to the noise and she suddenly yelled out, "Stop moving!"
The three turned to glare at her, "Myrtle come here you're acting like a stupid kid!" Jess yelled back at her, obviously pissed off. Beside Leslee, Rupert turned towards the noise and began to growl and bark furiously.
"What's that noise?"
"Calm down, lad,"
"What the hell is that?" Coira yelped as the three screamed out, a large brown dog appearing out of the bushes and chasing Rupert around as he yelped and tucked his tail in fear.
"Git off Rupert ya stupid pooch!" Leslee yelled at the brown dog, it didn't seem to hear them and was obviously locked onto Rupert, whatever it was it didn't like the collie one bit.
"Let's get out of here!" Jess yelled, Coira dragging Leslee by the arm s she struggled to free herself and go after her dog.
The two canines ran deeper into the forest out of sight. Myrtle felt her panic rise, she spun around looking for something that would cause her to be anxious as the dogs had run out of sight but there was nothing. Suddenly, she got an immense headache and grasped at her head, yelling out in pain as she fell to the floor. Her gut felt twisted and she tried to yell out but the screams were soon silenced by something. She tried to cry but her eyes wouldn't let her, all of her bones began to ache as they semed to crack beneath her skin, her spine dragged along her back and it felt as if it was being pulled out of her body. She could hardly breath the pain was too much, her entire mouth seared in pain and it felt as in someone was pulling on her front teeth and squishing her skull down. Her shoulder blades dragged down to the sides of her body and her ribcage collapsed in on itself. For a second, she opened her eyes to see a large black dog stood above her - before it all went black.
Myrtle slowly opened her eyes, she could barely remember anything that had just happened a few minutes ago. In fact, she wasn't too sure about anything. Her mind felt fuzzy, almost numb, like it was throbbing but at the same time not even there. Everything hurt - had she fallen onto a rock? Yes, she could feel a rock underneath her. She blinked her eyes multiple times but everything looked different, she wanted to panic but didn't seem to as she realised that her vision had been affected by whatever had happened - everything looked different and hazy.
Myrtle went to stand up. Time seemed to slow down.
Wait, why do I have fur? I have... paws. Is this a dream?
Myrtle shuffled backwards after looking down at her new body and felt a rock stratch up her hock, sending a searing wave of pain washing through her body.
This isn't a dream.
