Chapter 2: Monster Kid

Lill'un wandered through the school after she was left in the dorm. It was a pretty strange place.

"So this is the world of humans." All she had known was the dark forest and the ramshackle city of the island. This place was nothing like home; everything was clean and bright, designed like the palaces she had read in her old books. But her thought were cut off by a voice.

"Excuse me, are you lost?" Lill'un spun about at light speed, claws at the ready to her side. It was a spiny little dwarf of a boy, with thin glasses. She inhaled his scent, baby powder and soil.

"Umm… I'm visiting a friend, but he's not here. How do I get out, and where's the main square of town?" She asked cautiously.

"Oh, you just go down the stairwell towards the west wing, halfway there you'll see the grand hall. Just out the door and down the road you'll hit the main street. I can take you there if you-"

"No!" She jumped, guessing her pupils had probably dilated. "I-I'm fine." Before he could speak she ran off. Lill'un never really had human interaction, and when she did, it never ended well. Back home, it was a strange population. Everyone had their own skeletons in the closet, whether literally or not, so acceptance would be expected and it was common. However, at the same time they were all the scourge of the earth, hence their banishment. And as a Half-Breed, she was the strangest of all the monsters.

The boy's directions where correct because in about 10 minutes she was in a bustling town circle. People, animals, and vendors littered the streets with smiling faces and laughing banter. No, that's not what it was. They were beasts with teeth bared and snarling like a hellish chorus. So far she hated it, wishing to be back in the suitcase. Her heart beat quickened like the bet of a drum and every nerve in her body was telling her to either run or fight. If she fought they'd over power her. She was out numbered, so she ran.

Lill'un ran like a daemon, over carts and through the crowds. Her thoughts were blank and fear was tucked away, but tears brimmed in her golden eyes none the less. She ran into an alleyway and just beyond a little gate was the hope of a forest. Faster and faster her strides became a gallop, vision cleared becoming more focused and the gate was getting closer. With a bounding lead she soared over the gate into a clearing, but she kept running.

At last her legs gave into exhaustion and flopped down beside a creek. It was nothing like home, the water was bright and clear with the sunshine breaking through the non-existent canopy of the forest. Peering into the clear water she saw a face; it was long and black and covered in fur with shining eyes of a predator staring back at her. I did it again. Shifting was one thing but it was always problematic when she did without intending. Father always told her to keep it under control, but her anxieties got the best of her and she shifted. It's not like he was the best at keeping his form. That was the whole reason they got shipped off anyway. He was the reason the curse was alive in her. But no matter how hard, she couldn't stay angry at him. He was all the family she had left.

Well he's not here, she chided herself. Slowly the fur began to fall off in patches as her head fell. Soon she was just a sad little girl beside the creek with tears in her eyes. "And you won't see him for a very long time."

Home to her was nothing nice. As a Half-Breed, she was the pariah despite her father being the Alpha and him being the one who chose this. They scorned her as a pup, always shifting, always struggling to keep control. This grew to contempt among the pack. Lill'un assumed it was their disappointment in her father that they took out on her. No, her childhood was lonely, accepted by neither man nor wolf. She was alone.

The sun was going down fast, the sky fading into a darker shade of blue. He was on his way home from school, and he couldn't decide which road to take. Mother told him to take the main path, but the guys at school said it's faster to go through the woods. "Well, I'll never know if I don't try." And he shifted his bag before wandering down the less beaten path.

The path was lined with green leaves and black soil and the air was filled with the sweet smell of the wild. The first few stars poked from beyond the light and the blackness of the gaining night blended with the green of the woods that seemed to glow. He wouldn't be surprised, half of the things there were magical. The chirps of birds soon ceased as they returned to their nests, but the music of the forest was continued by the rustle of the wind-blown leaves and the babbling of a creek. But the lad had a realization, there was another sound. Like the cry of an animal. It drifted in the cold air like a ghost haunting the night's song. But he drew near the sound, perhaps like a fool.

The moon began to cast a glow upon the creek in the distance and the voice grew louder. He hid behind a tree that stand before the creek's clearing, but he saw no beast. Instead be a figure covered by a large fur cloak. A child on her knees crying in the moonlight, her song a sad one but so beautiful. Like seeing a graceful coffin before in is lost in the earth forever. The dark echoed with her lovely pain before coming to an end. The shimmer of tears fell from her face and the shadow of lips quivered. The night was silent

Then came a rhythm. Tapping on a log with small sticks of wood the boy pulled from his bag. A sweet yet strange rhythm. He heard the girl shuffle, but he kept his rhythm steady and calm. With his back to the tree, he let words out free. They began soft a quiet, a mere mumble, but slowly they grew stronger until they made sense.

"-And I may be a fool, but the moon is full, and the monsters lay in fear of the mighty Wolf. And maybe tonight, we can make it out alive, if the Wolf doesn't find us tonight. So walk with me tonight."

The rhythm was gaining, varying between speeds.

"Perhaps the path is gonna' be the death of me. This road's never safe, when the night is clear. You can only implore what the dark has in store. But the chances don't play out for us.

"Sometime I wish the path wasn't so hard to see. Perhaps we're already lost in the deep dark wood. But every other so while I'll play a song for you, and the mountains and stars will show how you don't need to- Be afraid of the dark that's circling the two of us. Perhaps we'll make it back alive.

"And I may be a fool, but the moon is full, and the monsters lay in fear of the mighty Wolf. And maybe tonight, we won't make it out alive, because the Wolf gonna' find us tonight. So walk just with me tonight."

He heard soft breath from behind him. She must've been on the other side of the tree.

"And the monster's roar, the monster's roar is the sweetest song I've ever heard before."

His song halted but the rhythm kept on. It was matched by a sort of growl from behind, like a beast but there was none before. No matter he drummed on until the growl was gone. The boy stood and looked to the sky; it was already dark and every star was out.

"Mom's gonna' kill me." He whispered to himself. Carmine let his eyes fall to the forest floor. That person was gone. Guessing they would just be a mystery he headed for home, but he didn't see the cloak of the girl asleep in the bushes.