The Wolf

"Where is Tiffany?" asked Natalie looking around.

They were sitting in their usual café; Jackie had to use her magic powers to manipulate the manager into believing they were normal people so that he wouldn't throw them out again. As they sat in the café waiting for Tiffany to come, all of their phones went off. Kaitlin unlocked their phone first and saw with surprise that Tiffany had sent a text to her a text in their group chat. She read it aloud for all of them to hear, "'have to do something important, tell u guys later'".

"Well then," began Stella, "I guess we'll just have to talk to her later about Kyle."

Delia yawned, "But… the masquerade is tomorrow and we have to have a plan by then."'

"At what time was it?" asked Jackie.

"I think it was…" Kaitlin paused, thinking, and then she said a moment later, "11 o'clock wasn't it?"

Gertrude closed her eyes for a while and said, "I don't think we have to plan anything."

"Why's that?" asked Stella, confusedly.

Gertrude was just about to answer her when Jackie intervened, "Well isn't it obvious? It's because all we have to do is go to the ball, then escape and start the quest through the portal that we can go back in time to."

Kaitlin nodded once she heard this and replied, "Well, that is a good idea, and it kind of is the only idea."

"Yes, I guess," muttered Natalie.

Stella shook her head, "I still don't want you guys to go on that stupid thing."

"Give it up Stella," Jackie reached across the table and patted her hand. "We have to."

Gertrude chuckled, "So, now we have a plan, no more planning?" They all nodded their heads in agreement.

"Yea," Delia acknowledged her head towards them, "So, no more planning, let's put our plan into action."

"Let's get some rest first though, we have a long day planned tomorrow," Kaitlin said.

Gertrude got up first and walked towards the door, "Yes, I am so tired right now, I didn't get enough sleep."

Natalie asked, "But what about Tiffany?"

"Huh?" said Gertrude turning to them.

"Well she doesn't know about our plan," replied Natalie.

"We should text her," Stella pulled out her phone.

Jackie shook her head, "No, we shouldn't text her, they might find out."

Grinning sadly, Delia said, "let's tell her at school tomorrow then."

* * *

The drive to Kyle's house was scarily smooth. The polished and tranquil convertible, onto of Kyle's experienced driving made it seem like a magic carpet ride. Tiffany rolled her eyes every so often, her right arm hanging out the window. The wind was whistling through her hair, brushing it back like a feather caressing her gently.

Tiffany couldn't help but marvel at how good Kyle was at driving. She loved to drive and race through the streets and highways around their city, miles above the speed limit. Kyle almost matched her driving skills. Almost.

"Like the ride, dear?" Kyle called out through the wind and brought Tiffany back into reality.

Tiffany rolled her eyes, pointedly not staring at Kyle, "It's alright."

"I wish you would be nicer to me, as I will be aiding you in the quest, princess," Kyle responded with a side look at her.

Looking alarmed, Tiffany sat up straight, "Wait, WHAT?" She stared at him like he was mad, "no… no… no this can't be…"

"Yes it can," a smirking Kyle whispered. His head was turned towards her completely now, with no inclination that there was an intersection and they were driving towards a red light, and clearly feet away from hitting a large red Chevy truck.

"Hey! Watch out!" shouted Tiffany, she pointed straight ahead.

Kyle grinned as he saw the Chevy and with a swerve to the right, he cut through the line of cars behind the Chevy and onto the next road. "Nothing to worry about, princess."

"I wasn't worried," muttered Tiffany, that made Kyle's grin spread even wider. "Okay fine, your driving is terrible and I was worried that the car would be ruined."

"And stop calling me that," Tiffany added as an afterthought.

Kyle smirked at her again, "What, princess?"

"Stop that," Tiffany replied, annoyed.

"Would you rather me call you darling?" Kyle wondered, raising his eyebrows in mock concentration, "or perhaps Tiff, as a nickname."

"No..." Tiffany muttered quietly, but Kyle heard her, and laughed.

After a few more minutes of speeding down the road, Tiffany asked, "Why do you live so far away?"

"Well, you see, in order for no one to track me down, my house moves simultaneously around princess." Kyle said in a calm tone.

Tiffany rolled her eyes, "So how do you know where you live?"

Kyle smirked, "you don't trust me, so why should I tell you how I find things with such importance to me?"

"Whatever." They elapsed into the silence again.

They had been driving for half an hour now, and Tiffany was becoming antsy. "When are we going to-" she didn't finish her sentence as they arrived in the fields surrounding the busy city and Tiffany was able to see a gigantic gothic mansion.

As they passed through the black iron gates that opened automatically for them, Tiffany was able to get a better look at the castle.

The mansion was three stories tall with peaking turrets at the sides. It looked very old but was finely polished and shining in the afternoon sun, with stone statues on the rooftops. Considering its age, the mansion would be from around the renaissance time period. Surprisingly, there were no ivy or leaves that hung onto the mansion. There were many shining grey marble balconies that overlooked the plantation on the second and third floors. The building overall was a gleaming silver and black diamond set in the middle of nowhere.

"We're here," announced Kyle matter-of-factly, "Now please don't talk, like I said before, I don't want to wake him up." His voice had dropped to below a whisper so that Tiffany had to strain her ears to hear him. He parked the convertible a quarter of a mile from the house, on the grey cobblestone driveway.

Tiffany shook her head in confusion, "Who?"

Kyle didn't answer, he just gestured with his head to the mansion and they got out of the car, Tiffany jumped out, leaping over the frame once again.

As they walked quietly across the driveway towards the house, Tiffany tripped over a loose stone, and began to fall onto the cobblestones. She saw the ground rushing closer and closer, and let out a scream, holding her hands out to catch herself.

With a rustle of fabrics, Kyle swiftly ran over and caught her arm before she hit the hard ground. Grimacing, Tiffany used Kyle's support to steady herself and murmured a thanks.

Kyle looked at her in concern, just then, Tiffany heard a rumbling sound coming from behind the mansion. They both looked at the mansion and saw a huge figure looming out from the distant trees.

It was a huge grey wolf, standing than Kyle. Its shining silver grey fur rippled over its muscular form. Claws the size of dinner plates thumped heavily on the grass. Large blue eyes glared at the pair of them from the distance. He began to snarl and crouched low on the ground.

"So that's your friend, is it?" asked Tiffany, staring with amusement and recognition at the wolf as it began to sprint towards them at top speed.

"Yes dear," Kyle replied. He was staring at the wolf with a worried expression and glanced at Tiffany.

As the wolf neared them, Tiffany spotted droplets of water spraying down from his fur, making it shine brighter in contrast to the green grass. The wolf pounced over them in a great leaping bound, and turned quickly to snarl once again.

"It doesn't seem to like you much," observed Tiffany with amusement sparkling in her eye, her lips curved up into a smirk.

"Well isn't that obvious?" replied a sarcastic Kyle. "We have to get away from here, he needs to go back to sleep."

With that, Kyle jumped up into the air and conjured up a ball of fire, he shot up into the air and rocketed back towards the Carrera. The wolf ran after him, ready to pounce.

Just as Kyle reached the convertible, so did the wolf. He opened his mouth and shot a jet of water at Kyle, knocking him down, drenching both him and the convertible wet. The fire that Kyle had held diminished, and Kyle landed on the car hood, hard.

The wolf cocked his head to one side, and a large icicle formed out of nowhere, with a deadly jagged spike at the end, poised for action hovering in between the wolf and Kyle.