The rest of the day Will spent in front of the grill. For lunch he grilled up meats and grilled cheese sandwiches. The hamburger was well thawed and cooked in eight minutes flat. The grilled cheese was a little bit of a challenge. He had forgotten the order of butter, flip, cheese flip. It took him a few tries to get it right. After a half dozen or so he was once again the master of fried diary on wheat.
The place was a lot busier than he would have imagined especially since it never looked like the cafeteria was ever really full on his previous visits. Then again, he was the only one cooking so he had to guess that that had something to do with his work load. After hours of being in front of a hot stove with very little rest he was pretty tired. The thrill of cooking again had worn off around lunch time and dinner was just a bland monotony of flipping meat and sandwiches and throwing them into deep dish pans to be served. Now that dinner was finished, he just wanted to go home and sleep.
He finished cleaning his stove and griddle and made sure the fat fryer was off. He wondered why the thing had been empty when he walked in that morning, of course it didn’t really matter now anyway. He walked back to the deep sink and washed his hands for the thirtieth time that day and dried them on a clean towel hanging next to him.
He walked back towards the stove when he ran in to Charles. “Hey, man we’re done for the day, right?”
Charles nodded his head and put his hands on his hips. “Yes, yes we’re done.” He started to turn then looked back at William. “Remember, we have to help Aceso in the forest tomorrow if she didn’t finish her task today.” He leaned in close to his friend, “I really hope she finished.”
William smiled and laughed at the little joke, “So do I, my friend, so do I” William looked around the now clean kitchen, “So I can go home then?”
Charles nodded, “See you tomorrow, Will.”
“I’ll be there…wherever there happens to be.” William raised his hand to his friend in salute as he walked back out the front of kitchen into the cafeteria.
William walked out into the city to find that the ceiling crystals were already dimmed into a nighttime luster. He really felt like there should have been a cool breeze blowing. He couldn’t help but think of some nights in his forest where the stars would be out in force and there was always a cool wind blowing in off the ocean. He would raise his nose and inhale the familiar salt tang of the sea. Then a wolf would howl in the distance and he would look up at the moon, to see when he could run with his pack again. If he had known that he could run with his pack whenever he wanted, the time in his forest would have been that much more enriching. But if that was the case, would he have taken the time to enjoy the starlight of a new moon sky? The memories were pleasant and a smile spread across his face as he once again promised himself that he would get back there one day.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The next morning, he awoke by himself. He got up and looked outside at the ceiling crystals. They were still reflecting an early morning light. He got himself dressed and walked down to the bathroom and took care of himself there. In the mirror he wondered where all that hair had come from. He told himself that was going to have to be cut at some point. He went back to his room. Stripping himself of his clothes he transformed into his werewolf form. There was nothing for him to do here so he headed out to where his pack usually met up in the morning for training.
Walking up to the meeting point he found that he was the first one there, or just in the wrong place entirely. He decided to wait for a few minutes just to see if anybody would come along. He looked up as he heard a fluttering of wings. His tail twitched and his ears pointed behind him toward the direction of the sound. It was not uncommon to hear some of the forest birds from this spot; it just caught him off guard.
“Looking for something, Will?”
He turned around to see the familiar cream colored form of Katherine walk up. “Yeah, I heard birds and they sounded really close.”
Katherine cocked her head to the side as her ears twitched forward and backward trying to locate the sounds that William was referring to. After a moment or two Katherine shook her head, “I don’t hear anything.”
William shrugged, “Being crazy isn’t all bad, at least I’ll always be entertained.”
Katherine smiled and shook her head at him, “What is wrong with you?”
“Besides the being able to turn into a movie monster with the ability and need to eat twice what a normal person eats, nothing. Why do you ask?”
Katherine laughed and shook her head, “You are something else.” She turned around and looked up at the early morning light from the ceiling crystals. “Will?”
“Yeah.” He replied.
“When do you think they’ll let us out of here?” She turned toward him and there was a sadness there that he had never seen before. “I am starting to hate all this black smoothness. Not even the forest gives me much comfort anymore.” She sighed and shook her head. “I need to talk to my family. They probably think I’m dead by now. Not to mention the sky.” She looked at him and her gold eyes met his in a look as intense and sincere as he had ever seen. “There’s no wind here, Will…I know I’m just complaining but the thought of feeling wind again ruffling my hair and blowing across my skin…” She looked out over the city as she spoke to him.
“I had a dream last night. It was so real” She turned back toward him, “I was standing on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The wind was clean with the tang of salt. Sand was blowing up and down the beach underneath the bluff.” She turned toward the forest in the underground cavern. “I turned around and behind me, was a rich forest. I knew that I had to choose, either the beach or the forest.” She smirked as her head moved to the side, “the call of a wolf drew me into the forest, big surprise, right?” William listened but made no move to acknowledge or disregard her decision.