QUICK TUMBLE IN THE WOODS

QUICK TUMBLE IN THE WOODS

7 March, Sunday, BEFORE BREAKFAST

The rush I felt the moment I stepped out of the back door was nothing short of exhilarating. I didn't wait, I didn't slow, the moment my feet hit the grass I started running, my lucky sense of direction was urgently drawing me towards something in the woods.

I would have run through the new giant crater at the end of the backyard, except that it must have rained last night - the ground was soft under the grass. If we stomped on it enough, it would become mud, and the crater - now that was a mud hole. I'm not joking… as if the smell of fresh mud in Spring didn't convince me, I had to look into the crater - like ideally, shouldn't a hole behind my house fill up with rain water and become a lovely pond? But real life had a way of running my life here and instead I had a large mud pit.

I was not kidding. If I were a hippo or elephant on the geographic channel, this would be my mud bath. I think it would fit two hippos quite comfortably.

Anyway, beyond the crater, and the tree line, was the usual footpath that ran behind the alpha house and packhouse - all the way around and then up to the park with the duck pond. But my lucky sense of direction knew no roads, or footpaths, I cross it into the woods proper. A few trees further in and the scene closed up to the quiet of the woods.

This was my childhood playground - in many of our wildest adventures, it was our hundred acre woods, our Sherwood Forest, our Journey to the Colored Mountains. It was where my Dad and Mum ran regularly in their wolves. And I knew it was patrolled discretely by elite warriors - at least that was what the earlier footpath was for, and Gamma Harry personally inspected this wooded area personally for irregularities.

Further up would just be more woods before a hilly slope and road and houses for our wolves. So this was really the woods, more like an extended peninsular of trees that did link up to the real forest that connected most of the Green Packlands.

I genuinely loved the forest running through our lands. In Spring, when the trees bud and burst into life, when the ground thaws and the rabbits and squirrels and other woodland creatures wake up, when the grass sprouts and the flowers and herbs smell bitter sweet, when the morning dew falls like a fog between the ground and branches… Oh! The smell of it was like nature's magic.

Dad had always avoided annexing the wooded areas off from the forest. It was something Grandpa Alpha taught him, and he taught me too, but back then, I was a dumb pup who thought I knew it all. When Dad told me that the forest had its own life force, I had brushed it off as traditional lycan rubbish.

"Please, Dad." I had huffed, "You need to move with the times!"

In which I meant like one of those big cities - specifically Gold City because I learned about it in school. It was the largest city in the continent and the example of a modern urban lycan society. The kids who had been there for holiday with their family attested that it was amazing. They had this huge amusement park by their Marina.

While adults were usually impressed by the luxurious Marina Gold City boasted, the amusement park by their Marina was like the ultimate travel destination to any pup here at home.

I had never been there. I had never even been to Disney Land. My Dad's the Alpha and our pack needed him here… at least I had always assumed that was the reason why we didn't go for family holidays like some of my friends.

The only other kid who had gone out of packlands less than me was Shannon. He said it was because he was poor.

I went home and asked if we were poor too.

"Oh, Sam." Mum shook her head ruefully, "It's not that. We just have different financial priorities."

"Like what? End of year sales?" I asked.

Dad laughed like I had made a good joke. Mum shook her head, but she was smiling despite herself, "Among other things."

Anyway never mind the financial priorities of my family, I had something more urgent to deal with. We had all run into the woods behind the Alpha House - like my entire Morning Entourage.

"What is it Alpha?" Harvey asked when I stopped to check the air. There was something definitely happening, I could smell magic - which was a HUGE IRREGULARITY. We were deep in our packlands - like just behind the Alpha House. There was no magic here.

It was like spraying Chanel N° 5 in the forest - a dead giveaway. And this wasn't even just a little spritz or two. It smelled like someone moved the entire perfume section of the department store into the middle of the woods.

"Over here." I told my wolves and moved towards the magic stirring the air like some kind of peculiar updraft.

"Something's not right." Wolfgang said, "My flame is reacting strangely. Princess, please link up."

Oh right. So I opened the mindlinks to my Morning Entourage. Wolfgang drew his sword out of nowhere, {Be on alert.}

Suddenly, Harvey and Ki had a shot gun in their hands too - but I knew they wore in the upholsters under their jacket.

{Ah, shoot.} Jax said, {I only have my flip knife.}

{You work with what you've got.} Neil shrugged cracking his knuckles.

Fluffy smiled. I guess his smile was arguably his best weapon, hahaha, but no, I caught the glint of metal in his hand - throwing knife. I was just guessing though, it was mostly concealed in his hand. I mean, he could just be holding a wad of gum in its foil. I wouldn't know.

I shook my head, {Quietly.}

And then I took the last few steps to meet the magic fragrance department.

We burst out into a small clearing, but there was nothing there.

{What exactly are we looking for?} Jax wanted to know now, {Like is it a big thing, or a small thing?}

{Fun thing.} Boo said. I had wanted to tell my wolves that I don't think it was dangerous. I mean, after hearing them talk about taking cues from my hair, I thought it was obvious enough that we were just satisfying my open curiosity.

But Wolfgang's warning was keeping my wolves on their toes, and my wolves' suddenly on the alert, was making me start to feel suddenly a little more edgy.

Did Wolfgang's flame sense magic, or danger, or both? He wouldn't be wrong either way. Boo did say it was "fun." and magic definitely happened here - like just happened - it was dissipating quickly, carried off with every breeze, but this was its origin point. I was very sure.

The only thing was I had no idea what I was looking for either. I breathed in deeply, trying to separate the other scents from the heavy magic in the air.

{There!} Fluffy said, {Something moved. Alpha's 2 O'çlock.}

Where? My team turned to look towards my right.

{There!} Boo decided, {Follow it.}

The hunt was on! Whatever it was, it was fast. I had to run at full speed. It was agile too, and didn't run in a straight line.

Sometimes it was in the tree, sometimes on the ground… I think. I could only follow my lucky sense of direction.

{Fluff, report.} Harvey decided to get more information while we ran.

{I don't think it was very large.} Fluffy started.

There was a crunch sound further up. I think a fallen branch broke. I sped up.

{Of course I could be wrong…} Fluffy amended.

{Just tell us what you saw.} Harvey pressed.

{I didn't see it at all.} Fluffy confessed, {Just a bit of shadow, and the branches moved.}

{It could be a squirrel! Or a bird!} Jax protested.

{The movement was a little too big for that.} Fluffy answered, {I would say raccoon, but jumping off a tree branch.}

{That's one suicidal raccoon.} Jax joked.

I could hear Jax and Neil's labored breaths. We were going really fast. Neil was kind of noisy too, and now he was making the crunching noises… the entire area here was littered with dried twigs. They were wet on the outside so they didn't snap all that easily IF you ran lightly.

{Neil and Jax fall out.} My good beta decided.

Yeah, they were definitely gonna give us away.

I started running again, I couldn't afford to wait. Our target was on the move again. This was probably the fastest raccoon in the world.

{Maybe a fox?} Wolfgang asked as whatever we were chasing skittered on ahead of us.

{In a tree?} Killion challenged, {Really, Sir Wolfgang?}

{How large is our target.} Harvey frowned, {We just passed broken shrub… I would say human damage.}

Now that was quite different from a racoon and fox, but it explained the crunch. If a sizable human had misstepped just now, he would have broken the small sticks. So we were talking about someone bigger than me, and smaller than Neil?

Sharp right turn, we hit a small steep slope. I jumped it… and suddenly the dappled light through the trees shifted with a rustle. I spun around… now it was in the trees behind us? That didn't even make sense. How did it get around us so quickly?

WTH?

{Be careful, Princess.} Wolfgang warned, {Our opponent is not simple.}

It was definitely in the tree but… I decided to go with my lucky sense of direction and take a sharp speed burst into the hedge in front of us.

{Princess!} Wolfgang was immediately alarmed.

But he was too late, I had shot forward like a bullet, I would have crashed into the large shrub in front of me, but of course my hair zinged at the last minute and hacked the barrier down.

"Ooof." I hit something quite large and we tumbled twice. I couldn't quite see though. My hair had decided just before impact to unzing. Don't ask me why, and instead of the sharp blades, burst around me like another shampoo ad - completely blocking my line of sight.

Something pushed me off and ran for it.

A bright metal knife suddenly shot past from behind me, I felt sure it would hit its target. My wolves crashed into the scenes.

Thuck. The metal hit wood. Sounds like our prey had escaped Fluffy's knife.

{Over there!} Ki noticed a movement off to the side.

Fluffy shot a series of knives at lighting speed. Missing every time - or at least I thought he was missing, but then I realized Wolfgang had taken a guard position by me, and my two betas had stepped up, shot guns in hand, waiting…

Fluffy was chasing the creature out from under the thick hedge of brambles for us.

I held my breath…

"Ah!"

"Stop!"

"NOOOO!"

A gunshot rang out.

{Shit.} Thought my good beta quite by reflex.