“Anyway,” Kat continued, “I walked back into the forest. There was a dark passage into the deep foliage. Pretty soon there was no sunlight that could break through the canopy only shadows. I could still see the sunlight but it was getting farther and farther away. I don’t know why I kept going, but I did. The forest became thicker and thicker and I had to fight my way through to keep going. I remember a scene from a book I read when I was a little girl, these kids were in a forest and it got deeper and deeper as they pushed through it. That was me pushing blindly through this thick forest until I ran into solid obsidian stone. I followed it around and soon there was no forest only the black stone and an earthen cavern ceiling for a sky. I woke up and I had such a feeling of loss that I…” She shook her head and smiled shyly up at Will. “Never mind Will, it was just a stupid dream. I have to learn to be stronger than that.”
William shook his head, “Kat, dreams are the things that our mind is trying to tell us when we can’t actually hear it.” He waved his hands in front of him, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not into those dream readers who think that dreams always tell us something significant and it’s a way for the universe to open itself up to us. I’m not saying that at all, but you shouldn’t be so quick to disregard your dreams either.” He ran his claws over his head through his pointed ears. “As to your first question, I have no idea when we’ll be able to get out of here. The only thing we can do right now is train and wait till the elders have something for us to do.” He smiled encouragingly at her, “Maybe this stuff that Nicolas is doing will give us that chance.”
Katherine shook her head. “Will, even if that were true, its city law that only full packs get to leave the city. And since Achelois… well, we’re one healer short of a pack.”
William felt his body slump a little. He understood where Katherine was coming from. He wanted to feel the wind on his body just as much as she did. The stars in the sky, birds soaring overhead, and sunlight on his face were all things he wished he could have. He had to remind himself though that Katherine had been here for quite a bit longer than he had. He looked at her and wondered if he would be as composed as she was after being stuck in this place for as long as she has. Would he be able to handle the call from his forest any better? He looked up at the crystals in the cavern ceiling. There light was constant and good and it kept time with what was going on outside, but it was no substitute for true sunlight. What he wouldn’t give to feel the sun on his face, just for a few minutes.
“Good morning, Katherine, Will.” Charles said warmly as he walked up to join the two of them. He was also in his black furred werewolf form.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
William had long since gotten used to his friend towering over him in human or werewolf form. “Good morning, Charles. How’d you sleep?”
“Really well actually. I think I’m getting used to being able to move around again. You have no idea what it was like being in my room for all those weeks like that. I thought I was going to go crazy.” He drew in to himself a little bit as he finished, “it almost made me wish that I was back home again… in Africa.”
William couldn’t really understand what it was like for his two pack mates. Charles had moved here from another continent only to be snatched up and kept here for his safety and the safety of others. Katherine had been here for months. What he hadn’t known until just now, was that she hadn’t been able to contact her family at all. He realized that it had been years since he had spoken with his family. The thought of it only dampened his mood further.
What would he say to his folks anyway? ‘Hi mom and dad. Sorry I’ve been away so long but you see I was living in a forest as a werewolf. Then I got taken to this underground city to be trained by other werewolves.’ The sound of it was preposterous to him and he knew that even if his parents were open minded people, and they certainly were not, that would be a hard pill for anyone to swallow. He sometimes wondered how all this was possible and he was living right smack dab in the middle of it. This was the stuff of pure fantasy and he was the monster of children’s nightmares.
Thinking about it wasn’t going to get them out of this cavern any sooner. And it wasn’t going to make the face to face with his parents any easier, when and if that ever happened. He looked over at his friends who were deeply lost in their own worlds. He looked around the city and at the brightening ceiling crystals. It was getting late. “Have either of you guys seen Aceso?”
Charles looked up as if startled by something, his tail twitched and swung out behind him. He looked at William and shook his head, “No, I was hoping she would show up here. If she was going to be here, she would have been here by now, right?”
Katherine’s ears flattened out behind her and swiveled around curiously, “I don’t hear anything. But Charles is right, it’s getting really late. What should we do, just hang around here and wait for our Alpha to come pick us up?”
William flicked his tail out behind him, “Aceso may be my Alpha, but I’m not just going to sit here waiting for somebody to pick me up like I’m back in the third grade. I’m going to go snoop around a little.”
Katherine looked sideways at him, “Will? I don’t like that look in your eye. What are you planning?” Charles crossed his arms over his chest; apparently, he too wanted to know what plan had hatched itself inside of William’s brain.
William smiled slyly at both of them, “I was just thinking of giving Nicolas a visit. Don’t you guys miss him even a little bit?”