Exciti

Chapter 11 (Adam)

Adam's first thought was that's... Liam?

His second thought came out in a shriek, "He is going to get himself killed! LUCY DO SOMETHING!"

Liam had appeared out of nowhere with a rather impressive war cry and leaped onto the wolf's tail. He then somehow managed to scale the tail to the beast's expansive back before the wolf started twisting to try to throw him off, or worse, bite his head off. Adam watched in horror as his childhood friend held on for dear life.

Please let him have a hidden talent for rodeo!

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm fresh out of wolf repellent!" snapped Lucy. She was dancing around to avoid being trampled by the frantic wolf. Adam looked back at Liam, who was now trying to hold on to fistfuls of the wolf's fur. The fur kept tearing in his hands, making it a wonder that he held on at all.

Liam squeaked when the wolf gave a sharp buck.

"Your sword?!" Adam reminded her. He tried to inch ahead to the wolf's left. If I could just get closer.

Lucy had to jump and plant her feet on a wall to avoid the wolf's flailing snout and snapping teeth before she pushed off, flipped in the air and landed back in the alley. "Apprentices don't wield weapons unsupervised," she panted.

"That is the stupidest... Woho!" yelled Adam as a paw landed right between his feet, missing him by inches and gouging three claw mark in the cement pavement. Adam flattened himself against the nearest wall.

"Ada...Oomph!" was Lucy's reply as the wolf's snout whacked her midsection and threw her far down the alley. She hit the wall head first with a startling clunk and fell to the ground in a heap.

"Lucy!" Adam's scream was loud and urgent, but Lucy didn't stir.

He felt desperate and helpless. He needed help, but there was no way he could run out of that alley to get help and leave those two behind.

Liam gave another yell. He slipped and fell on the floor behind the wolf, which managed to twist around in the narrow alley until it faced him, growling and foaming at the mouth.

"Leave them ALONE!!" Adam yelled, and without thinking, he took a leaf from Liam's book and leaped at the back of the wolf. His fingers tingled as they gripped handfuls of the wolf's fur. He held on tight and screwed his eyes shut, waiting for the bucking to come. Fear was burning in his gut like rising bile.

However, instead of rearing and growling, the wolf's back caved beneath him, arching away as if Adam was burning it. The wolf wailed in an ear-splitting sound that made Adam wonder if Lucy had run it through with a sword after all.

He opened his eyes. It wasn't just its back. The wolf's entire body was deflating and collapsing on itself like a soggy piñata. Liam was crawling backward, terrorized.

Seizing the chance, Adam slid off the wolf's back and ran to Liam's side. He had barely made it a few steps when a whoosh of wind made him look back at where the wolf was standing just a second ago.

The wolf was gone, leaving nothing behind but a swirling pile of old, tattered papers.

____________________________________________________________________

A moment later, Adam got up on shaky legs and grabbed a handful of the papers. He then helped Liam up and, without exchanging a word, they both started to carry Lucy out of the alley. Adam strained against Lucy's surprising heavy weight and searched his head for something to say. "Are you okay?" he mouthed.

Liam shook his head, but waited until they left the alley behind and sat Lucy up against a planter to sign with trembling hands. "Not okay, what was that?!"

Adam pressed his lips together. "I have no idea, but we were on our way to meet someone who may know." He signed then pocketed the papers that were left behind by the wolf.

Liam frowned, looking down at the unconscious girl. "Do you think she is okay? Maybe we should call an ambulance," he mouthed.

A different kind of fear started trickling into Adam. Lucy may need help.

But Lucy chose that very moment to sit up, make a weird clicking noises and yell, "Who said cake?" making them both jump.

Adam could never remember who snorted first, but soon they were both caught in an overwhelming bout of laughter that left them gasping for breath on the ground, next to a very dazed and confused Lucy.

When their laughter died down, Adam felt terrible and started helping Lucy up. "Are you okay?"

She looked at him cross-eyed. "Yes, let go, I can walk." She tried to stand, but her legs gave out from beneath her. She frowned. "Or maybe I can't?"

Adam and Liam exchanged a look. "Help me support her, we are close," Adam signed.

They each took an arm and lifted her up.

"Why are you here?" Adam mouthed as they started walking, he'd asked that question a lot today.

"I was following you," admitted Liam, mouthing the words. "I wanted to say I'm sorry," he stopped, hesitating for a second before he took a deep breath and continued, "You are not crazy. I'm sorry I didn't tell everyone the truth. They wouldn't have believed me and I didn't know what else to do."

Adam was grateful that his eyes were already teary from their laugh earlier. It meant so much to him that Liam believed him, it felt like his world was tilting back the right way up. "I have to lie to my mom all the time now. It helps me look for Tam."

"I want to help," mouthed Liam.

Adam nodded then cleared his throat, "Thank you, for this and, um, for jumping on the wolf?!" he mouthed, frowning at the absurdity of it all.

Liam snorted, "I know, what was I thinking? Right?" He then looked back at the alley and swallowed, his expression puzzled. "How ...?"

Adam shook his head and shrugged; he was sick of the horde of unanswerable questions he had had to face as of late.