Night Prowlers

"I had forgotten all about that day." Drake began forming a curious face as if he was trying to brainstorm something. "The military really will be perfect since you've already used magic before. Yes that's true, but that was a brief moment three years ago."

James had eventually forgotten about that day as well, until he saw that red scarf. "It doesn't matter, like I said, they will train you to use magic in the military. More importantly, if that thing really was Jimmy, what the hell happened to him?" Drake pushed the thought aside.

"You should try and see what you can do right now. I wouldn't even know where to begin, it was a fluke that I was able to do that three years ago." Truth be told, James was actually afraid to use magic. He had not mentioned it to Drake, but when James had first used his magic, he felt a surge of bloodlust. The bloodlust was great, but very brief. The moment he used his magic he felt it, and the moment he stopped it subsided. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Using magic can be dangerous if you don't know how to. We should wait until we get to the capital and have the military train us properly." Drake nodded in response.

"Well, we've gotten far enough for the day. The capital isn't that far away so we should be able to get there tomorrow. For now we should try to set up a camp just to stay warm for the night." James agreed with his brother's plan. They had been traveling through the woods for some time now. It was a very eerie environment; the trees creaked as they swayed in the wind.

"I'll get fire wood, you get us some something soft for us to sleep on tonight." Drake nods in agreement and began looking for fern, the softest thing he could think of that might be in the woods somewhere.

The sun was still up, but it wouldn't be for much longer. With little to no illumination at night, looking now for things they needed was ideal. Drake was searching for several minutes when he can across a cave. "Ferns love damp places so I should have some luck in there." Visibility was low, but Drake was able to just barely make out a spot that was full of fern. "Jackpot, now hopefully James was able to get decent firewood so we can stay warm tonight." When Drake got back to the campsite, James had already gotten a fire started. "I wasn't able to get anything for us to eat, so we'll have to go sleep hungry tonight, but I got the fire going already, an easy enough task even for me."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, than Drake's stomach began to make a low growl. Neither of them had eaten anything the entire day. With not much energy left in them, they would not be able to move quickly enough to find anything to eat before the sun was fully set. This was quite evident to both James and Drake, so they decided to immediately get some rest.

In his sleep, Drake thought he was hearing his stomach growling louder and louder. A moment later, the growling grew even louder, yet he did not feel the amount of discomfort so much growling surely would cause in his stomach. Drake finally opened his eyes. It was pitch black at this point, their only light came from the campfire. The trees were too tall for the moonlight to provide any form of illumination.

Drake felt as if he was frozen in time for an eternity. He saw what appeared to be two wolves circling their small campsite. Yet, they were no ordinary wolves. Just like Jimmy, they were deformed and looked like a monstrosity. They did not seem to be able to see very well due to their new form no doubt. Drake did not want to speak, for fear they would pounce at the sudden noise. Instead he tried to gently kick James to wake him up. Luckily they had set up the fern within arm's reach of each other, but they slept head to feet.

Drake figured a nice kick to the face should wake James up. James felt the kick and woke up almost immediately with the intent of bursting out swearing. He had noticed the situation luckily before he spoke. Normal wolves are hard enough to try and outrun, these were much like Jimmy. Jimmy in that deformed state moved much faster than any normal person could. Giving each other a quick glance; it was clear that James and Drake thought the same thing to themselves. They both knew that trying to run away would amount to being mauled to death by the creatures. James knew there was only one way out alive, he had to use his magic once again.