Winter was coming to an end, something that was already beginning to show in the changing weather. Cold had been gradually receding, giving way to a warmer, spring-like temperature, and that had made the snow melt, dressing the landscape in a radiant greenness. There were still a few patches here and there, in areas that were usually in the shade, but almost all of the white blanket had melted. The vegetation, nourished by the humidity and heat, had begun to grow vigorously, covering itself with tender sprouts as bright as emeralds. The birds had also entered the season, beginning their courtship songs and the construction of the nests where they would raise their offspring.

That afternoon Sofia and Dave had gone for a run in the woods. Since it was warmer than when they started that routine, they were both dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. It was the first time Sofia really looked at his body, at least what he was allowing her to see, and she couldn't say that she disliked it. Both his legs and arms were strong, with hard but harmonious muscles, without being exaggerated like those of bodybuilders. Every time he put his foot on the ground his calf would show under his skin. However, the boy had a considerable amount of body hair that made him look more adult than he really was, even when such hair was blond. Sofia couldn't help but wonder, not without blushing of course, what he looked like under that t-shirt that was too wide to let her appreciate a bit of his pectoral musculature.

“Huh? What are you thinking about now?” asked the young man, catching her again gazing at him.

“Nothing in particular. That I'm glad we're back to our routine,” said Sofia, blushing.

“Me too,” he replied, smiling, and again it was that wide, spontaneous and sincere smile that made butterflies sprout in her belly.

Sofia hadn't told him that she was really drooling over him because she thought he had a great body, but the answer she had given him wasn't a lie either. A couple of days after the encounter in the forest, Dave came over to talk to her, and as she had expected, he gave off a strong forest scent. If there had been any lingering doubts about her white cinanthrope's identity, that had been cleared up. At first she thought he had realised that she was the huntress behind the balaclava, but what he really wanted was to return to the usual routines. Blushing, Sofia remembered how she threw herself into his arms with a cry of excitement. She had missed her friend so much.

Not only did the two friends return to their trips to the forest, but they also met almost every day to study for a while, and he joined her to take Kas out. When he got really stressed, as was the case now with exams, he had episodes of pain again, but they were short-lived and he seemed to be able to manage them better. He had never again had an episode as hard and long-lasting as that day. Nor had he stopped smelling like forest, although Sofia had no idea where he roamed. He had become much more elusive, although on several occasions when she went into the pine grove she heard him moving through the undergrowth. She had been tempted to call out his name but hadn't had the courage, because she was afraid of what he might think of her when he found out she was a huntress.

“Have you been taking that concoction Sara gave you?” Sofia asked as they ran.

“I took it for a few days, but it has some nasty side effects so I stopped taking it. Why do you ask?”

“You're much better. You scared me that day. I had never seen you so bad.”

“Yeah... it wasn't my finest hour, definitely. I decided you were right, I couldn't go on like that and I chose to go out more again, to try to get away a bit from studying and do other things that I find fun and stimulating. Sadly I don't have my piano or my video games, but there are other things I like to do as well.”

“Piano? You can play?”

“Yes, I can play,” said the boy, blushing a little. “It's still at my parents' house, and I'd like to get it back when I pass the public exams and find an apartment to live in. I want part of my old life back. That's why I get anxious, because I’m risking a lot in these exams, but I was risking more with the path of destruction I was leading. I'm not suited to stay locked up in a house, it feels like a cage and it stresses me out. I need open spaces where I can breathe and....”

“Let yourself go,” Sofia said, empathizing with him.

“Yes. I hope I don't end up stationed in a big city. I think I'll go crazy if I don't have a park or a forest nearby to go for a walk,” laughed the boy, blushing a little.

“I hope the same thing. I hate big cities, the noise, the smells, everything. Every time I've gone downtown I've thought the same thing; I can stand it for a little while but I wouldn't live there even if they gave me the apartment for free,” she answered, joining him in his laughter.

Suddenly the laughter died down when the two teenagers simultaneously realized something they had not thought of; when they finished their training at the Civil Guard Academy in Baeza, and if everything went well, they would be able to ask for a posting. Even if they asked for the same posting, there was no guarantee that they would both get it. It could be anywhere in Spain, and then it would be more difficult for them to see each other and keep their friendship. They exchanged glances, their faces saying what words dared not, and that was that they did not want to be apart. They had both become very important to each other and the thought of ending up hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away horrified them.

“If you pass, what would you like to specialize in?” Dave asked.

“SECYR, the K9 service.”

“You're pretty sure about it.”

“Yes, ever since I decided to join the Civil Guard I've known what I wanted to do. You?” Sofia asked.

“I'll settle for being a regular officer, patrolling, taking reports, issuing fines and solving whatever comes up. I don't have any big aspirations and I don't want a position where I have to play the hero, risk my neck in an infiltration or anything like that. I just want to be able to help people. Maybe I'm a little idealistic, or a little boring,” he said, twisting his lips into a sheepish smile.

“What are you, some kind of knight errant?” Sofia laughed a little.

“Something like that,” he replied, joining her in her laughter.

They kept running, their breath matching their steps, but Sofia stole furtive glances at him, simply because she enjoyed his looks and those warm emotions evoked by his smile, his gaze, and the blush on his cheeks. As they ran something caught her attention, something she had not noticed until that moment, another detail to add to the long list of things that kept adding up. The boy gave off a pleasant scent, a warm, masculine, appealing musk, but he wasn't sweating. They had been running for quite a while and there wasn't a drop of sweat on his body. Sofia bit her lip. They had been doing these running routines for months. How could she have missed something like that?

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Kissy! Kissy! Where are you?”

The two teens slowed down a bit. As they came to a bend in the path that wound through the trees they saw Lola standing by the edge, looking towards the forest depths with concern. As always, she was looking divine, even dressed in the most casual way, with a short skirt, matching t-shirt, sneakers and a light-colored blouse that completed the outfit. However, seeing her so distressed made Sofia feel a certain sympathy for her, instead of the usual disgust.

“Lola, what are you doing here?” Dave asked when they reached the girl's side.

“Oh, it's you two. I was looking for Kissy, my cat. I usually take her out so she's not always cooped up in the house. She always goes into the plants and I lose sight of her, but she doesn't usually wander off. I haven't heard her in a while and I'm starting to get worried, because she's never done this to me before.”

Sofia and Dave exchanged a meaningful look and nodded at the same time. There was no need for words, they both knew how dangerous the forest could be, and what they had to do. They were, after all, going to be cops, and in theory, helping others was going to be their duty. Disliking Lola was no reason to deny her help when she needed it, even if there were too many rotten apples who took advantage of their position in the law enforcement corps.

“We'll help you find her,” Sofia said.

“Would you really do that for me?” The girl replied, looking at Sofia as if she couldn't believe she was willing to help her.

“I'm brusque and rather difficult, but I'm not a monster, Lola. We'd better hurry. If it gets dark we'll have a harder time finding her.”

“If we split up, we'll cover more ground faster. We'll have a better chance of finding her,” said Dave.

“I don't know the woods. I've never been off the path,” said Lola, daunted by the maze of trees in front of her.

“Don't worry. We’re familiar with it. I'll go with you,” Sofia replied.

Dave nodded, and after agreeing on the areas they would each comb, they dived into the forest where he broke into a run as fast and quiet as a deer. Sofia took Lola in the opposite direction. She seemed like a completely different person, so worried, so small, as fragile as the stamen of a flower. Her haughtiness and pride had been reduced to nothing by the worry of not knowing if her cat was allright, and that was something Sofia could empathize with because she would feel the same way. They belonged to different worlds, but there was always something that was able to bring two people together, no matter how different they were.

“The moon is full tonight, I think. Do you believe those things Rodrigo says?” Lola asked in a whisper.

Sofia rolled her eyes. Rodrigo had become the new class freak, and all because he was becoming more and more vocal with what he called the White Wolf or the Ghost of the Forest. Now he was obsessed with the idea of showing everyone that this being was a real werewolf, and to do so he had set up some photo-trapping cameras and went into the woods on full moon nights. Obviouslt, neither the cameras had captured anything, nor had the cinanthrope appeared, because the fool was being vocal about his plans, and was telling them to the very same werewolf he wanted to capture. Naturally she couldn't tell Lola any of this.

“No, the full moon is tomorrow and Rodrigo, besides being out of his mind, is a bad person. I've seen him and he's just a mastiff, but he won't let himself be caught and thank goodness, because that wretch wants to shoot him.” Sofia, feeling the energy in her chest awaken, clenched her jaw and had to control herself not to growl.

“But why? What did he do to him?” said Lola, horrified.

“To Rodrigo? Nothing. Miguel lost a lamb and the mastiff ate it, and since then they haven't left the poor animal alone, especially Rodrigo. He's obsessed with him.”

“Do you think he could do something to Kissy?” Lola asked, covering her mouth with one of her thin hands.

“I don't think he's fast enough to catch a cat. Besides, he’s usually deeper in the forest. It's unlikely that we will see...” A bark echoed from the depths of the forest, “Him...”

A second bark rumbled through the trees, and then a third. Sofia felt her whole body tense, and her energy reacted by stirring harder in her chest. It was a call for attention. It wasn't a play bark, it wasn't a greeting, and he definitely wasn't hunting. He was trying to attract her attention. She recognized it because Kas barked the same way, and because a part of her had the language of her ancestors burned into her blood. Then he appeared, his white fur silhouetted against the trees in the distance, his thick curled tail swishing slowly over his back. The mastiff. The cinanthrope. The boy she had a crush on.

“Is that a mastiff? It looks like a wolf,” said Lola in a whisper.

“Or a very big Samoyed, but right now he's our best friend. Follow me!”

The cinanthrope turned tail and, still barking so they could follow him, began to run. Sofia and Lola did the same. The creature was nothing more than a flash of white in the distance, appearing and disappearing among the tree trunks, and if it hadn't been for his barking Sofia would have lost him a while ago. It was clear what he was trying to do, let himself be seen as little as possible so that he simply looked like a big dog. At first sight, a cinanthrope on all fours was not very different from a mastiff, but a closer look revealed details that were not consistent with a simple canine.

After a while of following the cinanthrope through the forest, they reached a place not too far from the path where the undergrowth was thicker. The animal pointed at something on the ground at his feet before disappearing into the vegetation. As Sofia and Lola approached, they saw that there was a Siamese-colored cat lying on the ground next to a dismantled snare. She was wearing a pink collar with a little heart on it, and perhaps that was why she was still breathing, albeit with some difficulty.

“Kissy!” cried Lola, bursting into tears. “No, Kissy, no.”

The girl, who always avoided getting dirty, dropped to her knees on the moist forest soil and put a trembling hand on her unconscious cat. Sofia unceremoniously pushed her aside and bent over the unfortunate creature to give her the kiss of life. She had been on the verge of suffocation and was having a hard time restarting the machinery. Sofia breathed three breaths of life into the cat and on the fourth Kissy awoke, her first reaction being to scratch her savior in the face. The feline's sharp claws opened four long scratches on Sofia's left cheek, and she jerked away with a hiss.

“Kissy! Thank goodness!”

“Be careful. She just woke up and still doesn't know what happened to her or where she is,” said Sofia.

Lola held her cat, who was disoriented but conscious, and hugged her. As she turned to Sofia to thank her, her words died against a mouth open in an expression of surprise. Sofia brought a hand to her cheek, to the place where she should have had four perfect scratches marking her skin. Nothing, not a scratch, not a scar. Nothing, and the worst thing was that Lola had seen the wounds close in front of her own eyes.

“Shit...” she mumbled, aware that she was not going to be able to get out of that predicament easily. “Don't say anything about this to anyone, please. You'll put me in danger if you do.”

To Sofia's surprise, Lola smiled determinedly and nodded.

“You offered to help me when I needed it and you saved Kissy. I will keep your secret, you have my word.”

Sofia smiled gratefully. Lola didn't understand, she couldn't understand that this was the other clear symptom that determined if one was a cinanthrope. A human could have an exceptional sense of smell, be stronger, faster, and even manifest some cinanthrope behaviors. No human would ever suffer burns in contact with silver, no human's eyes glowed in the dark, no human had large, dog fangs and no human would heal as Sofia had healed.