A Golden Moon

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I had only been a wolf for two days, but it still felt strange to wear the human body again. I felt so weak, and my senses were so bad I immediately longed to close my eyes and wake up in the wolf body again.

       But that was wrong. I was a human, and I was gonna stay a human. Just hours ago, I had been desperate to get back. What was I thinking?

       I sat up in my bed and pulled away all the woolen blankets that had been covering me while I slept. My head was light and my legs weak. It reminded me of that time when I was sick with a terrible cold, and almost couldn't stand upright.

       Walking slowly over the cold wooden floor, I listened for my parents. But the house was silent, so I guessed it was early in the morning. They would still be sound asleep, to get as much rest as possible before a new, long day filled with the exhausting preparations for winter.

       A mirror hung on the wall, a tall and beautiful thing with spirals and curls carved out of dark wood framing the glass. I stepped slowly in front of it, as if to make sure I was a human.

       The creature that met my eyes in the mirror was definitely me. But the eyes that met mine was not mine. Before all this craziness, my eyes had been light blue; like the sky on a summer day with only a thin layer of clouds. But now, they looked like they were soaked in melted amber.

       Golden eyes. This was why Thomas had talked so much about golden eyes. It had to be some kind of werewolf-thing, since both him and Cole had them - and now me. Most likely Shay had them too.

       As I stood in front of the mirror, admiring the two pieces of glimmering gold in my face, a sound suddenly made me jump. It was only a slight sound - the sound of someone stepping on those terribly creaky wooden planks in our living room. Someone was coming.

       Before I knew what I was doing, I had jumped back in bed and dived down under the seven layers of blankets. As the door opened a crack, I froze, and tried my best to sound like I was sleeping. My mother's soft voice sounded from behind me.

"Cay? Are you awake?"

       She sounded so worried that it was a pain not to answer, but there was something in my heart that told me not to move. As my mother retreated and silently closed the door, I wondered why the hell I had done that.

       And suddenly I realized.

       I was going to sneak out again.

       It felt so wrong thinking that, after all my longing-to-get-back-to-the-human, but in some way it also felt right. I hadn't given much thought to this in my yahoo-I'm-a-wolf-state, but there was actually a strong bond between me and Shay.

       And I also had to admit - I wanted to get back to Thomas. I liked him. I liked him quite a lot actually. I knew I couldn't go back to my normal life, and just forget both Shay and Thomas.

       And anyway I would surely soon wake up in my wolf body again, and my human body would lose consciousness again. Which would only cause my parents more worry.

       I knew it now - I had to go. I quickly slipped on a woolen dress and warm trousers, and grabbed some gloves and my winter cloak as I tip toed over the living room. The wind went howling into the house as soon as I opened the front door, so I hurried outside and shut the heavy oak door as silent as possible.

       It was snowing. Not a pretty, first-snow kind of thing, when the tiny crystals spiral silent towards the earth, but more like a snow storm. It wasn't that much of the snow itself, but the violent wind were throwing it in my face as hard as it managed.

       I dived deeper into my cloak, and regretted that I hadn't taken my scarf. The snow was hard and crispy, and when blown into my face with maximum force it felt like a million icy needles were stabbing my cheeks. If I didn't turn back to fetch some more clothes, I was going to freeze dangerously.

       I continued.

       Soon, making my way started to get difficult. The snow covered the ground, and in the woods it piled up against trees and rocks and made the ground bumpy as well as yielding. My boots sometimes went through the snow without warning, so I became stuck in some roots deep down. After half an hour, I was more stumbling than walking, taking small breaks every few minutes, and almost frozen with cold.

       I didn't know the way, but I thought I could sense it. It was almost like I could feel whether I should turn right or left in that turn, and that I should go on that side of the mountain and follow that stream. I followed an imaginary golden bond through the forests, leading me back to Shay.

       I couldn't walk anymore. My legs were numb with cold, and just lifting them up above the now deep snow was too much. I couldn't feel my toes or fingers, and my nose was burning with cold. I felt so tired and weak that I had to rest.

       After some minutes leaning against a tree trunk, things didn't feel so bad anymore. I felt almost warm, and a wonderful sleepy feeling was taking over me. I wanted to sleep.

       I closed my eyes, making my snowy eyelashes freeze together, and went to sleep, all the time knowing that this was actually called hypothermia, and if I didn't get up soon -

I would freeze to death.

---------------------------

I command you to comment. Right now!! ;)