THE DETOUR AND SILVER LINING

22 FEBRUARY, MONDAY, CONTINUED

Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm... shifted into my alpha wolf. Wow,it's been a while since my last shift, and it felt really good the moment I made the dive forward. I had to, Touru had shot another bullet, at my head! How dare he seriously try to kill me!

Mid-dive I shifted, and the moment my large front paws hit the ground, I took off at full speed - I had to. Touru and Tori were fast even in their human forms.

{But not as fast as me!}

Yeah, I was speed! But blue, and because of the bullets zinging by, my wolf's fur had taken its blade form so I was also spiked with metallic blue blades. My larger wolf made an easy target though. I was hit twice - in my rump - which would have hurt and been embarrassing all at the same time, but my blue blades doubled up as armor, and proved to be impenetrably even by magic pistols.

After a while, I realized that I had either lost my pursuers, or they had gone into hiding, or... I stopped to scan the area. I wished I could smell something - anything! The woods was dark, even in the light of the full moon, and who knew what lurked in behind the trees and trenches. My wolf chuffed a bit, I could not sense anyone. I wandered about trying to figure out exactly where I was.

A few moments later, I plodded out of the woods and found myself in front of the walls of what seemed to be a castle - was this Heller's castle? Or some other castle? I regretted not paying more attention when we had slipped out of the building earlier. Now I had no idea which building this was. I suppose it was safe to guess people didn't build castles next to each other like city apartments, so this was probably part of Heller's castle?

{Trap.}

Okay, thanks. I looked around but saw nothing of terrible danger. What was interesting was the great old trees as I neared the building, their petals falling like snow, and the golden fountain... I went closer to take a look, it was a trick of lights. The fountain was lit with golden lights, so that it was not really gold, but water.

The only weird thing about this was that the fountain was still running outdoors in winter. I dipped my large head and lapped up the water, it was sweet and clear. Ohhhh... magic water! Either that, or wolves had a different sense of what tasted special. I remembered how dogs liked to drink from the toilet. Hmmm... I should test that theory one day.

Okay, so where was the trap? I headed closer to the building.

{Trap}

Okay... how about a hint? I looked around cautiously. There were vines growing up the house, another one of those weird things that shouldn't be happening in winter, but I was in the Colored Mountain, so how would I know what was normal? I sniffed the air but couldn't catch any scent. This was immeasurably frustrating for me. I couldn't smell if there was metal, or gunpowder, or if there had been wolves here recently, or where they might have passed. I couldn't get a single clue! Grrr....

Okay, I'm going to guess the trap was up on that balcony, because it looked like the most obvious way into the building. I turned to go around the building, looking for another way in. My lucky sense of direction just felt like that was the right way, but I didn't want to spring the trap... why was there even a trap there? Was it meant for the T&T? I got excited at the thought - because it meant I was on the right track! Heller was protecting his mate and daughter. This trap probably meant they were hidden inside.

Wait, but why would I want to see Heller's mate or Adelina? Wasn't I supposed to be attacking the T&T? Instead i met just two of them and ended up running away. Suddenly, I was undecided. Part of me felt like going into the building would be a good idea. The other part of me wanted another go at Touru and Tori. The more I thought about it, the more I regretted running away. I was the alpha! So were they, yes, but I was never one to run from a fight!

I carefully slipped back into the woods, making sure I didn't leave tracks. It wasn't difficult because there were flag stones and the white trees continued snowing their petals to cover whatever petals my large paws had crushed. If I had my sense of smell, I would be able to double check that the crushed petals didn't smell particularly obvious, but of course I couldn't. Grrr...

Once in the woods, I was quite taken aback at the damage I had made. So much for covering my tracks. My large wolf and its blades had quite torn up the place. Like I had left horrendous scrapes across the trunks of every tree I had brushed past. And don't get me started on the undergrowth - most of which were bare thickets, but my blades had torn them off when I had run past.

Wow. This would have been an epic fail in hunting/tracking class.

It would also not be easy to explain to Heller why something had shredded a path through the woods, and directly to where he had hidden his mate and daughter - well almost. My wolf stopped running before the edge of the woods so maybe the T&T would be too dumb to find their way past the next few meters of woods to the white flowering trees and flagstone pathways.

Or maybe, their wolves wouldn't warn them about the trap and they would fall into it. Well, let's hope it was a big trap, or that Heller and his string of ambushes would cull off most of the other T&T.

I turned back to the flagstones and crept up to the building to look for another way in. I wasn't being indecisive! I was just changing my mind... again! Wait, I had a really good reason too! Now that I knew I probably led or at least marked the quickest route over for the T&T, the least I could do was to go lend my protection to Heller's mate and Adelina.

It would have been easier to enter a building in my human form, but it was winter, and I was brought up very conservatively, so no... I'll stay wolf till I get some clothes, thank you very much.

I was about to give up, when I finally found my entrance - the garage. And guess what? Someone left the garage door open! LUCKY!

Something exploded... but this was from the other side of the building - the side I had come from, but it also assured me that my senses were correct. There was no one around this side.

I slipped in, and felt rather shocked because it wasn't a garage- I would have known this if I could smell, it was a stable. But the pens were all opened and empty except for one. There was a white horse with a grey muzzle. I looked him up and down, and he looked back at me totally unimpressed at my awesome wolf. I checked back at all the other empty pens, and then the horse.

{You are the only horse here. Why?} I frowned at his open pen. Maybe someone had opened the pens to let the horses out so they wouldn't be trapped in the stable if it caught fire or anything like that. What a dumb horse. He should've run for his freedom and safety with the others.

And then to my utter surprise, the horse spoke, or rather, he mindlinked me, {Young wolf, stay here. It is safe.}

{You've gotta be kidding.} I told him, {There's a battle outside and this place is a fire waiting to happen!}

The horse snorted, {It's a wolf battle. It has nothing to do with me.}

{Yeah, tell the trigger-happy wolf you meet later. Or the one with the over-sized sword. Or better still, tell the fire not to burn you. Even if the battle has nothing to do with the grass, the hay would still burn.}

The horse snorted again, but this time it sounded like he was laughing, {Young wolf, you amuse me. What is your name?}

{I'm Sam.} My wolf answered, surprising me yet again since I've always called her Boo, but I didn't have time to think about that. I was busy investigating the door I had found.

The back of the stable had a small connecting door to the rest of the castle. This was shut tightly and probably locked. It was also a very small door - not standard sized at all. There was no way my wolf would fit through. My wolf chuffed. A dead end.

Grrr... The last explosion was pretty close even though it was from the other side of the building. What should I do?

{Are you lost, Young Sam?} The horse asked.

{No. I'm just looking for the right way.} I answered still peeved at the dead end. I was so close too!

The horse snorted his laughter again, {There is a key hidden under the old pail over there. The stable boys often lose it so the stable master has kept it there for them.}

The stable master sounded like a very kind man.

I went over and tipped the old pail over with my nose. Sure enough there was the key, just sitting there in the dirt and bits of hay. I just needed to pick it up with my non-existent hands. Grrrr....

{Do you not know how to shift back, young Sam?} The horse asked.

Now it was my turn to make a snorting sound at the horse, "Of course I know how to shift back! I just need clothes."'

The horse snorted again, {The women wash their laundry in the washing house just across the courtyard outside.}

This was a very helpful horse.

{Okay. Be right back!} I rushed out to look for the "washing house".

Washing houses had to be a castle thing. Next time I go to Henry's, I would ask him where his "washing house" was. Hahaha.

The courtyard was paved, but very roughly. There was something like a fountain with pumps installed on one side, but it looked icy in the trough under it. I didn't bother to try to work the pumps - mostly because I was in wolf form, but also because the horse had said it was a house - so it should be indoors right?

I found a door into the building the pumps were attached to and was quite surprised when the doors automatically parted, and I found myself in front of what looked like a laundromat. Hahaha... from the outside, it looked like they still had to manually pump their water! Oooohhh! It wasn't just the automatic door! The room was heated. Ahhh... I was so cold. I looked around at the huge piles of laundry. It looked like whoever was working on them left in a hurry. Mum used to complain we made a mountain of laundry...she hadn't seen nothing yet! Now this was literally mountains.

Most of it were sheets, but then I found labelled bags with clothes inside. I opened up a few before finding something I could actually wear. It was really pink though, everything in the bag was pink, but there was a bra my size, and everything else a teenage girl might need - just in pink. Pink undies, pink t-shirt... she even had pink jeans. It was unbelievable, and I almost thought it was just a trick of moonlight. But nope, I double checked with against the other clothes, it really was pink! The only thing not pink was a red baseball cap.

I seriously considered changing out to something else, but the other things I found were like dresses and button up shirts and tailored trousers. I didn't notice at first, but the clothes here in Heller's castle was a lot like the clothes we wore in the plains. Except no one seemed to like to wear jeans except this pink girl.

Maybe I just wasn't opening enough bags, but I didn't have time. The pink bag was my size with everything I needed - even a pair of pink fluffy socks. I wished they washed shoes here! But this would do. I'd run barefooted over to the stable. I can put on the socks once I got into the castle.

So pink fluffy socks in hand, I dashed across the courtyard and slipped back into the stable. The horse looked over when I entered, {Young Sam?}

"I'm back!" I said with my usual grin.

Now the horse looked surprised, (which was quite a comical face), {You're female?}

You'd think a horse would be able to tell when he was mind-linking a she-wolf! I laughed, "Yes."

And just in case, I decided to ask, "What about you?"

"Of course, I am a stallion." The horse snorted.

I bent over to check.

{Don't be rude, young Sam.}

I quickly straightened again, "Sorry."

Then I remembered what I was here for, "The key!"

Outside began the noise of battle. I swallowed, please goddess don't let anyone die!

I turned the key and the door opened. On the other side was dark, I had to use my wolf vision to see. It was a passageway. I guess it should be the one the stable boys used to get somewhere? So the servants corridor?

"Thanks for your help, horse." I said.

{My name is Silver Lining.} The horse informed me huffily.

"Thank you, Silver Lining." I bowed, to make up for my rudeness. I can't believe I was talking to a horse!

"You should run... the fighting is coming closer." I added, because it was common sense.

Silver Lining shook his head, {You do what you must. Leave me out of it.}

Oh wow. I used to think old wolves were stubborn, but it looked like old talking horses were just as bad.

"Okay, maybe next time if we meet, you can teach me to ride." I smiled.

{Do you think just anyone might ride me?} Silver Lining snorted. Silver lining was also proud like the old wolves.

I laughed at that, I knew exactly how to answer old wolves, "Do you think I'd just ride any horse?"

I hid the key back under the pail and hopped through the door, "Don't die tonight, or I might never learn to ride!"

{I never promised you anything!} Silver Lining neighed.

"But wouldn't the best riding teacher be a talking horse?" I teased, and then I shut the door behind me. The moment it shut, I was suddenly aware of the narrow passageway, and my instincts hummed to life again. I was back on track to wherever I should be.