Chapter 28
I was almost asleep until I overheard Joshua say my name.
“Shh…keep your voice down. She doesn’t know that, and until we figure out why it’s affecting her this way, there’s no need to tell her.” Joseph’s voice was low and throaty.
Tell me what? What’s ‘affecting’ me?
“Well… transforming shouldn’t take all her strength, even when she’s first learning to control it.” He paused for a minute. “It’s obvious something’s not right…and we’ve got to figure out what before we get to Devils pass,” Joshua snapped.
“She’s just tired, that’s all.” Joseph didn’t sound too convincing.
James chimed in. “Joseph, you know it’s going to take all of us to get past Zane’s henchmen. If she’s not one-hundred percent, we’re as good as dead.”
They all grew quiet, so I opened my eyes. Luna was the first to see me awake.
“Feeling better?” she smiled weakly, but I could tell it was forced.
“Yeah. Much better.” I lied. “How’s your leg?”
“Healed. See?” Luna had changed into a pair of short blue jean shorts, which showed off her muscular legs. When she pointed out the place on her thigh, it was nothing more than a thin red line. “We’re fast healers.” She peered at me and giggled, I assumed, at my wide open eyes.
“Let’s get going. We still have a long way to go,” James said, and climbed onto his ATV, and we all followed suit.
The sun’s rays burned heavily on my bare skin, and my energy lessened by the minute. I cupped my eyes and peered up at the sun. It was about to drop behind the mountains and I counted each second.
I caught myself falling asleep several times, and almost fell off the atv more than once. I think Joseph felt it the last time because he clamped his hand securely over mine.
We didn’t stop until well after dark. We were in the mountains, somewhere in New Mexico. When I climbed off the ATV, I quickly realized I had loads of energy. I felt almost like I had drank a bunch of energy drinks.
“Where’d the sudden burst of energy come from?” Joseph asked skeptically.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Who cares where it came from.” I danced around. “The important thing is, I feel great.”
“Don’t burn it all off yet… you’re going hunting, again.” Joshua said severely.
“Okay…let’s go.” I slapped my hands together feeling like I could take on the whole world.
“This time it will be harder. No light. You’ll have to rely on pure animal instinct. And, you’ll have to be able to transform quickly.” Joshua added gruffly.
The further we walked into the trees, the more nervous I became. It wasn’t going to be me and Luna like it was before. The brothers were coming this time. I had to transform, hunt down a rabbit, catch it, then transform back… all without any help. If I went too far, Luna wouldn’t be there to stop me.
Joshua finally stopped, and turned to look at the rest of us. “Everybody ready?”
The “everybody” he was referring to was me. My whole body shook, and I’d broken out into a sweat.
“I’m ready.” I floundered as I tried to move next to Luna. They were all so graceful-like when they moved. I, on the other hand, looked like a baby giraffe, all legs, and fumbling over the rocks. We weren’t on flat ground like we were during the earlier hunt. I quickly realized the uneven floor of the mountainous terrain would be much harder to maneuver on.
“Let’s go.” They transformed and were on the move. I didn’t have time to think about anything. I suddenly dropped to all fours, and followed. I smelled something straight ahead of me, but it wasn’t the familiar scent of a rabbit. It smelled like blood mixed with a gut retching stench.
I heard a series of low growls, and I knew something was wrong. I bolted in the direction the growls were coming from. I leaped onto the top of a series of stacked boulders and looked below. Luna and the boys were surround by a large pack of coyotes.
They weren’t your regular everyday run of the mill coyotes either. These were quite large for coyotes and their features were almost grotesque, like something out of a bad horror movie. One of the coyotes had its teeth bared and was slowly inching toward Luna.
I crouched down low, then pushing off hard, leaped from atop the rock. I landed in front of Luna, and reared up, growling louder than ever before. It cowed down, but I didn’t care. I grabbed that coyote by the throat and snapped its neck in one shake of my head, slinging its lifeless body to the side.
My pack saw that as their cue, and a viscous and bloody fight ensued. Even though they were greater in number, we were much greater in both size and strength. Joseph leaped right into the middle of several coyotes, and Joshua joined him. The sound of crunching bones and the smell of blood filled the air. When I glanced at Joseph, he was ripping out their throats one after another. His fur shined in the moonlight from the fresh blood splayed everywhere.
In the midst of the growling and snarling, I heard footsteps trailing off in the distance. As soon as I felt sure they didn’t need me, I gave chase. I knew we couldn’t let any of them get away, or Zane would know for sure we were coming.
I was having a hard time tracking the coyote, because the mountains in that area were covered in their scent. It was their home and they hunted the mountains all around the Ice Cave, and Devil’s Pass, which was where James had said we were going.
The smell of fresh blood grew stronger, and I realized the coyote had probably been wounded, and that’s why it was trying to escape. I continued following the scent until I was sure it was somewhere close, then I slowed down to make sure it wouldn’t outsmart me by hiding and having me run right past it.
Sure enough, it had circled around and when I came to a clearing near a ledge, I stopped and looked around. I saw that I could get around, and block it from passing.
I quietly climbed over rocks and slid down dirt passes, until one final leap landed me directly in front of it. I reared up and growled. When I came back down on all fours, it was laying down just waiting.
I leered at it, and when it raised its head, I saw the terror in its beady eyes. I couldn’t kill it when I didn’t even feel threatened. I transformed back and stepped out of its way. “Go.” It just looked at me, burning those sad eyes into my memory. “Go now, before I change my mind and kill you.” I pointed up the path.
Slowly it stood, but still in a cowering way. It started past me. “Run fast and don’t look back, or I will kill you.”
I could have sworn it bowed its head while passing me like it had known who I was. the coyote promptly did as I ordered and disappeared through the rocks.
I had already turned back, and climbed back down the rock face when Luna and her brothers trotted out from the trees. They seemed shocked to find me just standing on the path.
I was afraid to look at them. “It’s gone…it got away, somehow,” I said, then lowered my eyes and started back toward where we’d left our bags.