Camhanaich was not sure where he was. By the towering trees surrounding him, it was easy to see he was deep in some forest. The only problem was he did not know where in the world this forest was, or even what world he was on. All he knew was that for whatever reason, the guardians did not follow him here.

The forest was quiet and peaceful, and for the first time in ages he was able to relax. He sat down at the base of one of the largest trees he had ever seen, and tried to get his body to stop shaking. After taking some time to calm down, he began to climb the tree in hopes of orienting himself. As he reached the top of the tree, he could see what looked like several buildings in the distance. He decided that he could at the very least head in that direction, even if he would try and avoid meeting actual people.

The journey would be a few hours at the least, and would require walking through the thick and untamed forest he found himself in. Luckily, he had always felt at home within forests, and he knew how to navigate them with ease. As he began to walk, it soon became obvious that this was no ordinary forest. The magic here was thick, and the wildlife clearly was anything other than mundane. He could tell that the forest was alive and dangerous, but for some reason he felt it welcoming him. He had not felt this way in a very long time, and had to fight back tears of relief.

As he approached the edge of the forest, he began to hear large shouts of ….. encouragement? He genuinely couldn’t tell, but it sounded positive. He allowed his curiosity to get the better of him, and began to walk towards the noise.

At the treeline he could make out what looked like a large group of very burly men chasing balls around. What surprised him the most though, was that their scent was that of wolves, not men. He had never seen such a large gathering of werewolves in broad daylight before. All the packs he had ever met were always secretive and hidden out of fear. He began to approach their practice, and hoped that they would simply ignore him as he watched.

This was not to be however, as when he was about 50 feet away one of the weres stopped and sniffed the air. Immediately the others did the same thing, and turned to look at him. He found himself frozen in fear, not sure what to do. At that point one of the weres began to run over to him, and soon the rest followed. As the lead were approached him, he wondered if this was their leader. The closer the were got, the more Camhanaich began to lower his head and shrink away. He knew he should just run, but he was so tired of running away.

The lead were leaned in close, and began to sniff Camhanaich. “GUYS I WAS RIGHT THIS ONES A WOLF TOO!”, the lead were shouted back to the pack (team?). At that the whole team started to woot, and a few began howling.

Still shaking, Camhanaich tried to tell them he was not actually a werewolf, but his voice came out as a whisper, “U.. uh, … I … I’m .. not rea”

Before he could finish his sentence one of the weres yelled out, “DOES HE WANT TO PLAY SPORTs BALL???”

Another yelled out, “BALL? BALL? LETS THROW A BALL!”, which was met with cheers from the whole team.

The lead were looked really excited now, and asked Camhanaich “Play sport with us?”. He was clearly so excited he could barely form a correct sentence, at least Camhanaich hoped that's why the were could barely form a correct sentence.

Camhanaich at this point was completely overwhelmed, and had no idea what was going on. So, he just quietly muttered out, “um… o .. ok”.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

At this the team went wild, and began throwing and chasing balls around everywhere. Camhanaich was unsure as to what they were actually playing, but was a little jealous at how much fun everyone was having. All of a sudden he felt a firm grip on his shoulder, and looked up to see the lead were’s huge smile. “Catch?”, he was asked simply. He gave a small nod to the lead were, and the were immediately rocketed the ball across the field.

Camhanaich was astounded by the sheer power that went into the throw, and assumed the were had gotten a tad to excited. But at this point Camhanaich stopped caring, and for the first time in months ran towards something instead of away. He put everything into running towards that ball, and once again felt the joy that running freely could bring. Before he even realized it, he was right where the ball would land, almost 70 feet from where it had been thrown. He even had to wait a few seconds for the ball to come down.

When Camhanaich looked back at the team, everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at Camhanaich. They quickly looked back and forth between where he had been and where he was now. Then they started shouting and running right towards him.

“THAT WAS AMAZING”

“DID YOU SEE HOW FAST HE WAS”

“HE CAUGHT THE BALL”

Camhanaich could barely make out what they were saying, but he realized that they may not have been expecting him to be so fast. He had always been faster than others, even for what he was. By the time the pack had gotten to where he was, his entire face was bright red from how embarrassed he was from all the praise. Compliments were a rarity for him, and he just did not know how to deal with it.

The lead were began to push his way to the head of the pack, practically vibrating with excitement. “WE HAVE A NEW RUNNING BACK GUYS. WELCOME TO THE TEAM …. UHHHH.. What was your name?”

Camhanaich was flabbergasted. He didn’t get what was happening. He began to look around, and for the first time realized that he was at a high school. This was crazy, and too much to handle. Just a few hours ago he was lost in the woods with no idea of what would happen to him. He had to answer them though, and decided he should just start with his name.

“I’m Camhanaich”, his voice a little stronger now.

The lead were attempted to pronounce it, “Camel…. no, Camhal .. no, Camhac”, the were was trying his best, and was clearly struggling to pronounce the name.

“You can just call me Cam, if you would like.”, Cam was surprised that he was able to say so much, as he hadn’t spoken in the last few months.

“Im Tristan”, the lead were, no Tristan, gave one of his big smiles.

“But, um well, the thing is, um Tristan … I do not attend this high school”

“What school do you attend?”, Tristan asked, appearing sad that Cam wouldn’t join the team.

“Well, I don’t go to school actually, I have never gone to school”, Cam really didn’t want Tristan to be sad, but could not figure out what the right thing was to say.

Immediately Tristan perked up, “Then join our school and team! COACH! COACH GET OVER HERE, WE HAVE A NEW TEAM MATE”, he shouted at the coach who began to approach.

Reeling at the thought of going to a high school, he began to think of excuses, “But, but, but, I am in my 30s, and I don’t know anything about attending school”. Even though that was true, deep down he secretly hoped he could. He felt safe and secure here, and if he was really honest with himself, there was something incredibly fun about chasing that ball.

Tristan just laughed at that, “Man we got people here that are centuries old, and hell, most of our student body is over 20”. Cam thought that was really strange, but then he saw the coach. He had never seen a weretiger before, and realized that whatever was happening at this school would be much stranger than just the age thing.

“A new team mate I hear? He is so scrawny, but don’t worry we will have you beefed up in no time. Nothing some supplements can’t cure.” For some strange reason Cam shuddered when the coach said supplements.

“He isn’t actually a student at the school yet, can you enroll him coach? Please we need a new running back after the last one was assasinated”, Tristan asked the coach, almost too nonchalant at the mention of assassination. Cam assumed it was a figure of speech.

“Ofcourse, I will get it squared away with Principal Giant Spider immediately.”

Cam was taken aback by just how easy that was, but couldn’t find it in himself to complain. He felt a something strange on his face, and realized that he was smiling. He didn’t really understand what was happening, and decided that was ok.

At this point he was dog piled by about 15 weres all chanting at the same time, “ONE OF US, ONE OF US, ONE OF US, ONE OF US!!!”. He should probably mention at some point that he was a fae wolf not a werewolf, but that could happen later. For now he was just going to enjoy being included in something, even if he didn’t believe it would last.