Maddy looked up at the moon. Tomorrow night would be her first full moon without Rhydian. She sighed. She missed him so much.
Mrs Smith came outside and put a hand in her daughter's shoulder.
"You're missing him aren't you?" Maddy nodded. "I miss him too." Maddy made a disbelieving noise.
"You couldn't wait to see the back of him!"
"Now you know that's not true! He was a part of our pack, of course we miss him!" Maddy shook her mother's hand off her shoulder and turned to go back inside.
The next day at school was awful. Her body was alive, telling her to run, skip, play, laugh, have fun, but her mind was telling her that none of that would be right without Rhydian. Tom and Shannon noticed this strange conflict of emotions in Maddy, but they didn't say anything until after school. As the moon wouldn't rise for another few hours, the three of them had met up at Bernie's for ice creams.
"What's up Maddy?" Shannon asked the instant they had all sat down, "it's a full moon tonight, yet I've never seen you so down!" Maddy sighed.
"Rhydian," she began, "it just doesn't seem right without him somehow. This is the first full moon of my transformation that I've had without him, it just doesn't feel right." Shannon and Tom looked understanding.
"Yeah, we miss him too." Said Tom.
"No, you don't, not like I do. Him and me... I'd never had another wolfblood of my own age before, and now, he's gone." She sniffed, swallowing hard to banish the lump forming in her throat. She finished her ice cream and stood up. "I have to go... The moon will be rising soon..." Shannon frowned at her.
"But its ages til moonrise..."
"I know, I, er, promised my parents I'd help them set up the den..." And with that she dashed out of the café and down the road.
She didn't go straight home, however.
Shannon had been right, there were still a couple of hours until the moon rose, so she ran into the woods. She ran and ran, trying to get rid of what Rhydian had called the "pre-transformation blues". But no matter how fast she ran, she couldn't get rid of the aching feeling in her heart, and deep down, she new that what she was experiencing wasn't because of the full moon. It was because of how much she missed Rhydian.
She ran on, not noticing where her feet were taking her, until suddenly her foot slipped and she found herself tumbling down the side of a bank and into a small stream. She gasped as the sudden cold of the water shocked her, then crawled out, shaking herself on the bank of the stream. As she stood up, pain flared in her left ankle and she fell down with a gasp. She was fairly sure it wasn't broken, but there was no way she was getting home before tonight! She remembered what her mum had told her just before her first transformation, when Rhydian had faked a sprained ankle so that they could remain on the island. "the full moon heals almost anything in a wolfblood." Maddy sat back on the pebbles. There was no point trying to return to the den tonight, she was miles away from home. She would wait here for the moon to rise, and spend the full moon out in the woods, with the memory of Rhydian to keep her company. This was where he had been the happiest, this was where her best memories of him were. Maddy smiled. What better way to spend the full moon?