Failine - 2. Chapter 2

We walked down the beaten path in Creek Forest that lead to the pack’s cabin. It was early evening, and though it was late September, the air was mild. I loved that time of the year that lingered somewhere between summer and fall, its warm days and cold nights. The dawn, having a hard time to find its way through the many trees, dip-painted everything into crimson shades. It didn’t take much effort to imagine this to be an enchanted fairy forest. Where else would a family of shifters fit in? I didn’t see or hear an animal. They knew who invaded their home this night and preferred to hide. How much I’d love to join them. Though the light was dim and silence lay over the forest, sensations flooded over me, sensations of smell. Since I had gone through the Fever, I could smell information as easily as seeing or hearing it. I knew who had entered the house as soon as the door opened; that it was Dad coming home from his office and his papers; that it was Mom who had a turkey sandwich despite being on a vegetarian diet; that it was Jamie and Mr. Hoppypop returning from the sandlot. The aroma of this place was unfamiliar, and I couldn’t name the things making it up. This could be rotting wood and some mushrooms, but there was so much more detail, too intricate for me to discern. In wolf form, these sensations would intensify. That’s what Mom and Dad had told me. For my taste, the intensity was overwhelming enough as it was.

“The whole forest belongs to the pack,” my dad said. I looked up at him, but he gazed into the twilight with eyes unfocused.

He lived through some memories of his own, and the sentence hadn’t been for me. “Yes, Sir,” I said nonetheless.

I had known the pack lore by heart since I had been Jamie’s age. Mom and Dad were more lenient with Jamie. I was happy for him that his childhood was unburdened, without constant admonitions about obligations and responsibility. He was spared being the first born. That was my gift for him as his older brother.

“Jamie, come back here,” Mom said. “The forest can be dangerous, especially in the night.”

We were the most dangerous creatures here, so what did Mom worry about?

Jamie came back, running. This boy couldn’t just walk. He raised his one-eared companion. “Mr. Hoppypop watches out for me.”

Mom and Dad laughed. “Of course, he does,” Dad said.

If I asked him, would Jamie let me have Mr. Hoppypop this night? Someone to watch over me would be nice. I reached into my pocket and touched the smooth surface of the necklace. Maybe my ancestors would volunteer for this part, though I had never met my grandfather or my great grandfather. Trying to find solace in the remnants of some dead animal was pretty desperate, even for me.