Wolves Of Secrets

The Camera Never Lies

It had been close to a week since the Amare festival and almost everyone in the pack had butterflies in their stomach. Most for different reasons though. Jay and Nya had finally become a couple, but they had agreed to keep it secret, mostly from Kai. Her brother had relationship issues of his own, however; when he woke up naked in Cole's room with a hangover, it didn't take him long to figure out what had happened. Before Cole had woken up Kai had gotten dressed and climbed out of the apartment through the fire escape.

He never mentioned what had happened to anyone, especially Cole, who seemed to have no memory of the drunken incident.

In truth, however, Cole did remember spending the night with someone but he couldn't remember who. When he finally woke up he saw that he was alone in his bed and when he asked his dad, Lou said he had been asleep when Cole came home and when he checked on him there was no one else in his room. With that, Cole just shrugged it off as a wet dream. Zane's love life wasn't going so great either. Pixel wouldn't even look at him since he sort of stood her up at the festival.

When they found out Morro had ditched Harumi, his foster parents had grounded him, again.

Right now, Lloyd and his friends were sat in the cafe, watching the small TV with all the other kids from their high school. Pixel was sat on her own on the other side of the cafe. After what had happened at the festival, she couldn't be around Zane right now. On the TV was a pair of boots running across a sandy beach. The camera then moved up to reveal a little toddler in the boots before ending.

"'Big Boot's To Fill' by Jay Walker and the winning entry for last year's junior filmmakers' contest." Burke chuckled as he turned the TV off and started handing out flyers for the contest.

"If we're going to win this thing we need to know all the rules," Jay said.

"Forget the rules." Kai grinned confidently. "It's a short film contest, we make a short film, how hard can it be?"

"Last year they rejected an entry 'cause it was seven seconds over three minutes," Cole replied and Kai's smile dropped.

"OK filmmakers, this year's theme is heroes!" Burke announced to the crowd. "And thanks to Harumi Jade's father, the very generous and wealthy Richard Jade, this year's prize money has doubled!"

"So your Dad's judging and sponsoring? I wonder who's gonna win?" Chad sneered.

"If you're implying that you're an automatic loser then I'll second that." She smirked at him.

"Why does Harumi's Dad gets to judge?" Morro glared.

"Probably because he's putting in all the money, and he's a local hero too," Nya said and pointed to the picture of Harumi's father standing proudly by a yellow mountain bike hung up on the wall behind the counter.

"Oh yeah, that's the bike Mr. Jade used to ride all the way the forest, over the mountains and back in record time and the record's stood for 15 years," Zane explained...

****************

When Harumi had got home that afternoon she saw that her mother was out and her father was in his office, talking to his secretary. Harumi and her family lived in an actual palace. Her great grandparents bought it and refurbished it into a home. Legend says it belonged to a great king as a stronghold long before anyone came to this land. Five strong, round towers surround the castle, they reached twice the height of the walls and were connected by huge, chunky walls made of grey stone.

Stylish windows were scattered generously around the walls in seemingly perfect symmetry, along with overhanging crenelations for past archers and artillery.