Chapter 3

Dream

Maddy opened her eyes as the car pulled up at the camp site. Rhydian helped her sit up and she looked around through each of the windows taking in the view she was being offered. There wasn't much to see at that exact moment. They were in a narrow tree lane with a barrier blocking them from entering the site. Dan reached out the driver's side door and pressed a button on the side of the empty entrance booth.

"Who's there?" asked a man asked in a thick Scottish accent.

"It's Daniel Smith. We had a booking here." Dan said into the speaker.

"Aye, drive on through, lad." The barrier rose and Dan drove through.

"What's the point of having a booth there if he's not manning it?" Maddy wondered.

"Don't ask me." Rhydian shrugged. "This is your dream."

"I guess technology advances all the time." Maddy muttered.

As they drove down the narrow lane, Maddy slowly became aware of sounds around her. There were birds singing in every tree and she could even hear the sound of a waterfall in the distance.

"This place is beautiful." Rhydian mused.

"I remember it pretty well." Maddy told him. "The clearing should be coming into view any second." Sure enough, the tree line eventually broke out into a clearing. No other cars were parked there. There was an old wooden lodge on the far corner of the clearing not far from the waterfall. It wasn't a small waterfall either. It was a great thundering waterfall that ended in a small lake at the bottom. If someone fell from the cliff at the top and landed wrong it could easily kill them. Wildlife thrived near the lake. The whole area was ringed with trees that housed families of birds nesting in their branches. Maddy could even see a young doe gazing at them between the tree trunks.

"This place is truly stunning." Rhydian muttered. Dan pulled up the car just as a man with a flaming head of red curly hair and an equally red beard came over and started looking through a book of guest listings

"Welcome to the campsite. I'm Mr Wallace. I'm the groundskeeper here. If you need anything, I'll be in that shack over there." The man's voice carried a thick Scottish accent. Maddy noticed the shack he was pointing to. It looked like a run-down wooden public toilet that had been crudely converted. It actually reminded her of the shack from a fairy tale her mother told her once.

"Is there any particular place you'd like me to park?" Dan asked.

"There's only one other family here at the moment so you've got free pick of the space." Wallace took the money Dan passed him and ripped the page from his book. "This has your name on it and proves you have a place here. Display it at all times and I'll check up each morning to make sure nothing is urgently wrong. No music after seven, but you can have a fire as late as you want. Barbecues are allowed at any time so feel free to have them. If you offer me some, you get a partial refund when you leave because I eat enough for an army." Maddy found that hard to believe. The man was like a stick insect and yet really well muscled at the same time. There didn't look to be a scrap of body fat on him. He was the sort of person Emma would take in and wouldn't allow to leave again until she'd fed him up so that he didn't look like an x-ray.

"Thanks, Mr Wallace." Dan nodded. Wallace returned the gesture and walked back towards his shack. Dan pulled away and turned right into the parking field. Sure enough, there was only one other car there. It was a convertible people carrier that looked like a scrap yard had coughed it up. Dan pulled in on the other side of the field and Maddy got out, stretching to work the stiffness from her joints.

"If you two want to go and explore, we'll set the tents up." Emma said as she opened the boot and she and Dan worked together to haul the tents out.

"I don't believe it." Dan muttered, a look of anger crossing his face.

"What?" Emma asked with concern.

"It's funny, I was only saying about this just before I left." Dan muttered. "Maddy, can you go over to the other family over there and ask if they have any spare matches or a lighter we can use tonight for starting the barbecue? If you have to, promise them food in exchange. It's not like we're short."

"Is the food in that spare rucksack?" Rhydian asked just as Maddy expected him to.

"It is that rucksack." Dan replied proudly as he hefted the giant bag onto his shoulders and fought to keep his balance at the sudden shift in his centre of gravity.

"Okay, I'll go and see about those matches." Maddy nodded. She started off slow at first, breaking into a run as her muscles accustomed themselves to moving in the dream without actually moving in real life. She wondered what was going to happen to her body regarding physical degradation if she didn't wake up soon, but also remembered Rhydian's warning about not rushing the process. She would just have to bide her time and deal with rebuilding herself if she woke up. Instantly she wanted to snatch that thought back. She would wake up. She would get back to the waking world and see the real Rhydian again and she would be able to right her wrongs to the best of her ability.

"Who's that?" Maddy heard a woman's voice ask. As their eyes met, the woman's husband and son emerged from their tent. Maddy felt time slow down around her and dropped to her knees as she started hyperventilating. She didn't know the woman at all, but the husband and son looked all too familiar. She felt Rhydian's arms around her in an instant.

"Maddy, stay really calm and tell me exactly what's going on!" he instructed quickly but gently.

"It's them from the blood moon." Maddy fought to control her breathing. "My wolf broke free of the cellar and killed them!"

"But was it truly your wolf?" Rhydian asked. "Was it your wolf, or was it you?"

"I wasn't in control." Maddy dropped her head into her hands. "It was like watching a video."

"So why do you feel guilty about their deaths?" Rhydian asked.

"It was my wolf that killed them!" Maddy protested as a copper taste crept into her mouth. "God, I can still taste their blood!"

"That's just psychological." Rhydian told her. As soon as he said that, the copper taste faded from Maddy's mouth. "The only way through this thing is going to be to face it head-on."

"Rhydian, I don't think I could ever face them!" Maddy practically screamed.

"You don't have to do it yet." Rhydian replied calmly. "It's whenever you're ready. This is just to test the waters. You don't even have to talk to them. Just talk to the wife with them around."

"Do you think there even might be someone at home waiting for them?" Maddy asked hopefully.

"There probably is." Rhydian shrugged. "Do you remember you saw them walking through Stoneybridge once? That blonde woman was with them."

"That doesn't follow she was the kid's mum or the man's wife!" Maddy practically spat.

"No, but it'll serve a purpose." Rhydian helped Maddy up as everything seemed to speed up again around them. "Off you go." Maddy reluctantly trudged over and turned to the woman.

"Hi, can we borrow some matches, please?" she asked. "We've forgotten ours."

"Oh, of course, dear…" The woman reached over to the table she'd just set up and grabbed a box of matches. She slid six out and passed them over.

"Thanks." Maddy nodded gratefully before turning to run back, not missing the dead-eyed glare from the man as he ambled over and wrapped a protective arm around his wife.

"Was that so hard?" Dan asked as he took the matches and tucked them into his wallet before turning back to what he'd been doing. Maddy took another glance over at the couple, wondering if the boy was in the tent and praying he wasn't going to run up behind her and catch her by surprise.

"More than you'll ever know."