Oops, my hand slipped...
(I recommend reading How to Begin a Journey for context, and everything in this universe by oshnsoa shnedashn kiunepgli for pure enjoyment)
He wasn't very sneaky. The secrets Odd tried to keep had a way of slipping out without notice, and Odd's surprises tended to not be all that surprising by the time they were sprung. Of course, quiet and secretive weren't exactly a part of Odd's usual personality anyway, so it made sense that the blonde was just as bad about sneaking out of their room at night as he was about any other kind of sneaking he attempted in life. The boy was loud and friendly and open, and just simply not good at slipping one past anyone.
That included literally slipping past as Odd, thumping and bumbling about their dorm, hissing whispers at Kiwi when his fumbles awoke his illegal pet, attempted to slip past Ulrich and out into the hall.
The pair had been rooming together for almost three months, and for the most part their relationship had been smooth sailing. Ulrich, worried that, if Odd found out about his parentage, he would be without a roommate rather quickly, was unexpectedly relieved when a cheerful Odd arrived with his non-school sanctioned pet in hand.
The little dragon had bared its teeth at Ulrich, snuffed sulfuric fumes into the air, and quickly claimed their sock drawer as a makeshift den.
Odd called it Kiwi. Ulrich called it Your Stupid Lizard Ate My Socks Again.
Ulrich's other fear, that his linage as a dragon trainer would interfere with friendships, was also quickly and happily put to rest, and Ulrich found himself making his first real companion at Kadic. The duo shared many of the same classes and liked to join each other for lunch, and while whatever bond they were forming didn't quite yet feel like friendship, Ulrich had to believe they were getting close.
Which in-and-of-itself was a good thing, as it helped the pair overcome a few of the initial obstacles they'd tackled as first time roommates, both in general and with one another.
Ulrich would be the first to admit that he wasn't the tidiest. Dragons were known to frequent areas around Kadic and Ulrich, desperate to keep up with his training, had brought a varied assortment of dragon gear to practice with. Most of it spent more time scattered across the floor and draped over furniture than in use, however, as times for practice had proved to be few and far between. Also fan of late-night snacking, empty energy drink cans and protein bar wrappers littered Ulrich's section of the room. Odd liked to hassle his roommate constantly about the trash collection, and yet Ulrich was always quick to point out how the blonde was hardly any better.
Himself in possession of his own strange eating habits, Odd also had a nasty habit of getting his clothes beyond filthy. These clothes tended to end up in smelly, crusty nests in the corners of the room where they would live for weeks on end. The boy actually seemed to generate filth, as more than once Ulrich awoke to patches of soil on the carpet, out of place in their third floor dorm. And it wasn't just dirt, because boy did Odd shed. Blonde and purple hairs dusted everything on Odd's half of the room, even beginning to encroach on Ulrich's belongings. Never had the young dragon trainer seen such a thing. Kiwi wasn't much better, leaving a constant mess of scale sheddings in the socks and damp dragon pellets under the beds.
Not to mention the scorch marks that were getting harder and harder to hide during the monthly room inspections.
Combined with all the mess, one would think their daily habits would be the end of them. Odd seemed to think music could only be enjoyed when deafening, and it hadn't taken Odd long to point out the strangeness of Ulrich's habit of near-constant nail trimming. Odd's wastebasket was filled with an uncomfortably high number of used q-tips, and Ulrich's chorus of bodily noises while sleeping had woken Odd on more than one occasion.
And yet, for all the chaos of it, they liked it. Any teasing about the mess was all in good fun, and suddenly without a parent to scold them into cleaning or acting normal, the pair had no intention of living any other way.
Although there was one thing Ulrich thought he wouldn't mind changing as the dim hallway lights faded behind a closing door.
It wasn't often that Odd snuck out. This was the fourth time since they'd moved in together, at least that Ulrich had observed. The boy never mentioned anything about it before hand, and he was always back before morning. With a pet dragon in the dresser, Ulrich knew Odd wasn't exactly worried about breaking the campus curfew (or any other rule) yet the boy's secretive late night excursions continued to confuse him.
The pair told each other basically everything. Ulrich did it out of the simple relief of finally having someone to tell everything to, and he assumed Odd was simply friendly. And yet, the blonde never explained the late night trips. Ulrich had tried to broach it once, mentioning casually at breakfast that he thought he dreamed that Odd snuck out during the night.
Odd had frozen. In an obvious attempt to remain nonchalant he'd questioned Ulrich about the dream and, realizing he'd stepped into uncomfortable territory, Ulrich made up some quick response and let it drop.
But while he'd left off questioning Odd, Ulrich wasn't about to let it go completely. Two weeks ago he'd resolved to find out what was going on once and for all, whether Odd wanted him to or not. Obviously, whatever it was made Odd very uncomfortable and Ulrich, unsure if he was motivated by curiosity, concern, or both, was going to find out what it was.
As soon as Ulrich was sure Odd was down the hall, he slipped out of bed. Across the room, Kiwi chirruped lightly. Ulrich shushed the dragon and slowly opened the door. A quick glance showed him an empty hallway and, attempting to invoke every one of his novice stealth skills, Ulrich tiptoed down the hall.
At the base of the stairs Ulrich spotted Odd's familiar spike of blonde hair, and again in the courtyard as he ducked behind a bench to avoid Odd's cursory over-the-shoulder look. Peering over the back of the bench, Ulrich watched as, moving carefully, Odd slipped around the side of the cafeteria and towards the woods that backed onto the campus.
"Where are you going?" Ulrich whispered. Lifting up, he allowed himself a last, careful look around the empty courtyard, and then he hurried after his roommate.
Ulrich spotted the blonde again in the forest as the boy slipped off the familiar walking path and into trees shaded with darkness. The brunet allowed himself the thought that maybe he should have brought a dagger as he slipped into the darkness as well.
For a short time they dodged together through the trees, Ulrich remaining just out of sight as they delved deeper into woods that Ulrich had barely explored during the day, let alone at night. If he lost Odd now there would be no way he could find his way home on his own.
Just as the thought began to erode Ulrich's curiosity and replace it with worry, they came upon a moonlit clearing. The trees all around told Ulrich that they were still deep in the woods; unfortunately, they did little to help explain why Ulrich's roommate would want to be out here in the middle of the night when he could be comfortably asleep in his own bed.
Movement in the clearing caught Ulrich's eye. It was Odd, moving towards the center of the gap in the trees. The blonde was identifiable by his cone of hair, silhouetted against the moonlight, which was swaying awkwardly with Odd's stumbling gait. He was limping stiffly. Concern flashed through Ulrich and he shifted, about to move into the clearing to help his friend.
And then Odd dropped to his knees, letting loose a scream that stopped Ulrich dead in his tracks.
"Odd?" Ulrich whispered. He could barely hear himself over his own racing heart, let alone his roommate's tortured yelling. The boy was on all fours in the grass, back arched as he pressed his forehead into the dirt. His limbs were shifting strangely in the moonlight, as if each writhing in their own independent pain.
Odd screamed, his loudest yet, the sound trailing into a howl of pain. It both tore at Ulrich and terrified him. He wanted to run to his friend and run back the school and run to anywhere but here, but his fear only managed to keep him rooted in place.
A crack, like a gunshot, suddenly echoed through the trees.
Ulrich gasped, his body jerking with fright. A moment later and another crack sounded, then another. Odd's screams had faded, replaced with groans as the moonlight danced over his body. The shifting shadows gave the impression that Odd's skin was squirming.
It was both fascinating and stomach turning, and for some reason Ulrich through it looked almost familiar.
His thoughts were derailed by another crack, louder than the others, followed by Odd's shoulder suddenly distending in a way that no human body could ever manage. A moment later and the other shoulder did the same, and suddenly all of Odd's limbs were stretching and growing, muscles bulging, and the illusion of the moonlight was revealed to be no illusion as Odd's skin and hair and bones moved in a way that Ulrich had only seen once before.
It was a few years ago, when his father had taken him out on one of their joint dragon hunts. Intended to be lessons for Ulrich, they'd usually turned into bouts of failure for the frustrated and unskilled trainer.
But not this one. For once it had been the elder Stern who'd burned with fear as they'd stumbled across a young man in the woods. It was late, and the man seemed intoxicated and lost so they'd decided to offer him help.
And then the man started to scream, and Ulrich had never seen his father move so fast as he grabbed his son and bolted through the woods. He hadn't allowed them to stop moving until they were on the back of his father's large Irish Ridgeback and flying high over the trees. Amongst the clouds, Ulrich had learned for the first time what kind of monsters really inhabited their world.
"But wouldn't he be able to tell we weren't trying to hurt him?" Ulrich had asked, thinking back on the pack of actual wolves he and his father had once encountered. His father had explained that the trick with wolves was to move carefully and ignore them, treating them with respect and indifference. As long as you did that they wouldn't see you as a threat, and as long as you kept your guard up they would sense you weren't a pray item either.
The elder Stern had shook his head, his gaze heavy as he explained that a werewolf wasn't like a wolf, or even a human for that matter. When a man turned into a werewolf, the very chemistry of his brain changed. The intelligence and compassion wolves and humans shared was subdued, bolstering the areas devoted to rage and pure animal instinct.
Once transformed, werewolves could think of nothing but one thing and one thing only—survival, and doing every vicious, violent thing they needed to do to achieve it.
A single, piercing howl shattered the night air and Ulrich was quickly reminded of the vicious survival machine that was now only a few feet away from him. Hunched over, Odd's shadowed form quivered in the center of the clearing, whimpering softly. Ulrich's heart hammered in his throat.
He needed to get away, and he needed to do it now.
Running through breathing exercises long committed to memory, Ulrich moved slowly. He placed each footstep carefully, checking for anything that might snap or crunch with a light tap before putting down his weight. He continued to breathe, slow and even, doing his best to keep his body from going into full fledged fight or flight.
It was a dragon trick. Dragons could smell adrenalin and could ear heartbeats, so someone trying to sneak up on them (or away from them) needed to be able to keep both in check. Ulrich wasn't sure if the same held true for werewolves, but he figured safe was his best bet right now and didn't question it further.
His logic seemed to be holding up, too. Odd hadn't moved yet beyond a bit of snuffling and groaning as he shifted his limbs into more comfortable positions. Having never seen a full werewolf transformation, Ulrich wondered if this was normal. Maybe they needed time to adjust to their new bodies, and Odd wouldn't even be able to come after him right away.
Ulrich's father always told him that his rosy attitude about things made him weak, caused him to lower his guard. But Ulrich, as he watched Odd continue to not rip him to shreds, couldn't help but feel a flare of pride. His bright-side attitude wasn't hurting him now, was it? It was probably helping him stay calm as he made his escape—a plus, if his father's training was to be believed.
So calm, in fact, that Ulrich allowed himself to move a little faster, knowing that the more distance he put between himself and his ravenous roommate the better.
He was moving so quickly, and making such good time for someone trying to sneak, that is was almost inevitable that something would come up to slow him down (even if only to, once again, prove his father right).
Every ounce of silence he'd managed to cobble together was scattered by the exposed root that managed to snag his heel and bring him toppling to the ground.
Golden eyes flashed, jagged yellowed fangs exposed under snarling lips.
Ulrich's heart stopped.
"Odd?" he tried to say, only for the word to stick in his throat. Swallowing hard, he whispered, "Odd, are you in there?"
The werewolf growled, a wet rumble low in its chest. Its gaze remained on Ulrich. Neither one of them moved, both waiting to see how the other was going to react. Ulrich's muscles quivered with fear. His gaze darted away from his roommate for a second—only a second—to check for an escape route. It was a tiny motion, barely a twitch, but it was enough.
The werewolf charged.
Shouting in terror, Ulrich scrambled back to his feet and tore through the trees, violent snarls right on his heels. Thankfully his training chose that moment to take charge and he began to dodge and weave, moving on pure, panicked instinct. His agile movements helped to put at least some distance between him and the thudding paws, but these were techniques meant for lumbering dragons, not lithe wolf-man monsters, and even with all his athletics Ulrich could tell he wasn't going to be able to lose Odd completely.
Just as Ulrich skidded around a thick trunk, barely dodging the clawed swipe at his back, he spotted his salvation. An ancient oak, nobly and tall, barely fifty feet away. Praying that he wasn't underestimating werewolf climbing abilities, Ulrich made a beeline for the tree.
The werewolf howled, like a hound after a coon. Ulrich was sure he could feel the heat of its breath on his neck as he closed the final distance to the oak.
He hurled himself into the branches, headless of the rough bark scraping open his palms. Terrifying bays and howls, like nothing Ulrich had ever heard, followed him into the leafy boughs. His hands scrabbled against the rough bark, tearing open bleeding scrapes in the soft flesh of his palms, but he could barely feel the pain as he scrambled higher. It wasn't until he was in the highest branches of the trees, where they began splintering too thin to hold his weight, that he allowed himself to stop and catch his breath and look behind him.
He spotted the werewolf scrabbling at the base of the tree, barking furiously but not following him up.
"Thank everything holy that you can't climb," Ulrich whispered, forehead falling against a branch. He wondered how long he would have to stay up in the branches before Odd got distracted and left him a chance to escape.
In true Odd fashion, it wasn't long. Eventually something scurrying in the underbrush drew the werewolf's attention and, with a final huff at its escaped prey, it trundled off to harangue whatever unsuspecting squirrel had gained its ire.
Ulrich breathed a sigh so heavy it felt like his very soul slipped out his chest. His relief was short lived, however, as he picked up on the sound of the werewolf tromping around in the distance. Werewolves were still a little bit wolf, and liked to maintain a semblance of a territory in their more beastly form. It was likely Odd would stay relatively close by. Ulrich frowned, not sure how long he should wait to be sure Odd had forgotten about him enough to allow him to escape back to campus.
In the end, Ulrich waited until sunrise, not overly willing to test his luck any further. Thankfully his perch was close to one of the forest's walking trails, and he was able to follow it quickly back to campus. As he walked, Ulrich found himself gazing down at his hands, still scrapped and raw, and wondered how he would explain the injuries to Odd. Oh, these? Just spent the night hiding from wolf-you in a tree. No biggie. He shook his head.
He and his roommate were going to have a lot to talk about when he got back to school.
By the time he arrived back at his dorm Odd was already curled up in bed, fresh dirt tracked around the room. Ulrich sighed, rubbing his face. Suddenly Odd's mysterious filth made a lot more sense.
He sat on the edge of his bed, too wired from the night's events to even think about going back to sleep. He would just wait for Odd to wake, and then they would have their talk. Kiwi came to join him while he waited, chirruping and growling as he made himself comfortable on Ulrich's pillow.
The sun was pouring in their bedroom window, the sounds of people shuffling off to class echoing around the halls, by the time Odd rolled over. He yawned loud and wide, stretching arms still dusted with dirt. His cone of hair popped out from under the sheets a moment later. Half a twigging was sticking out of it, just above his ear.
"Good morning," Ulrich said stiffly.
"'Morning," Odd started to respond. He trailed off when he spotted his friend, blue eyes darting as they took in Ulrich's rumpled, sleep-less self. "Oh," he said simply.
"Oh," Ulrich replied, wondering if Odd could remember what happened in the woods. A little bit, it seemed, if the kaleidoscope of emotions playing across his face was anything to go by. Odd tried to say something, paused, and then asked a tentative,
"How did you sleep?"
"I think you know the answer to that one," Ulrich said. Odd bit his lip, picking nervously at his pillowcase. After a tense moment he blurted out an,
"I can explain!"
"You'd better hope so," Ulrich said, scowling. "I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner. By the way, you're buying a vacuum after class today."
"I—what?"
Ulrich motioned to the dirt on the carpet, continuing to frown.
"Vacuum. You. This. If I'm going to share a room with a werewolf, he's going to have to be a clean werewolf."
Odd started at him, mouth opening and closing like a confused fish.
"You still want to be roommates?" he finally whispered.
"Of course I do," Ulrich said. "Who else is going to put up with all my dragon stuff? Or your dragon, for that matter?"
"But I think…I think I tried to eat you," Odd mumbled.
"You're not the biggest thing that's tried to eat me," Ulrich assured him, thinking back to the enormous gold Shanxi Spitfire that tried to swallow him whole three days before his tenth birthday. "Speaking of trying to eat me," Ulrich continued when Odd's stomach gave a sudden rumble, "I think we're about to be late for breakfast."
He could practically feel Odd gaping at him as he got dressed, though it wasn't until he tossed one of Odd's purple jackets at the blonde that his roommate finally started shrugging on some clothing. Ulrich was locking their dorm door when Odd finally spoke again.
"Hey, Ulrich," he whispered, glancing at a few kids walking past.
"Yeah?" Ulrich whispered back.
"Thanks."
"For what?" Ulrich asked innocently.
"For accepting me," Odd said. "Ever since the, uh, bite, no one—well, no one really wants to be friends with a werewolf, you know? So I…"
Ulrich glanced over to see Odd looking up at him through a sheen of tears. Ulrich grinned, and then grabbed his friend in a headlock.
"Don't mention it," he said. Odd laughed, wrestling around until he and Ulrich had their arms around each other's shoulders. "You're my first friend in a while too, you know."
"Yeah," Odd said, grinning. "We're just to weirdo-peas-in-a-pod, huh?"
"Something like that," Ulrich agreed.
As they walked off down the hall, Ulrich thought about all the people he'd met so far at Kadic—William, who liked to hover around but seemed terrified to actually say hi, Yumi, who never seemed to have to actually pick up anything she dropped, Milly, who always seemed to go screaming through any room Yumi or William were near, and Jeremy, who kept making awkward excuses every time Ulrich found him wandering the dorm halls with arms full of bottles and flasks of who-knew-what—and he sighed.
Maybe boarding school wasn't what he'd wanted, Ulrich thought, but with surprise werewolf friends and more surprises lingering around the corner, maybe it wasn't going to be such a terrible experience after all.