I'm really sorry for how late this chapter is, a lot has happened

Chapter 10

Springtime

Covering her wound Whisper started to walk back to camp, she didn't know exactly how long she had been gone, but she only hoped that the camp was still in the same location, for all she knew the group could have moved on. She walked slowly, the wound wasn't deep but because of its position it meant that walking was more difficult, she could still feel blood seeping through her clothes, her head was still dizzy and when she looked around she could see eyes staring back at her.

Whisper tried to quicken the pace, she needed healing and if it meant she went through more pain and get better then lose her sanity. That was when she heard noises coming from her left, she didn't know if it was her imagination or something real, neither if these things would be good for her right now. The noise got louder, Whisper started walking backwards, she wouldn't be able to run or change in her condition.

With the noise and eyes watching her Whisper wasn't looking where her footing went, and she fell over, as she fell she could see the bushes moving, when her butt landed on the ground she could hear a barking sound.

A blue hound jumped through the bushes and sniffed the ground, when its head then shot up and when it saw Whisper barked with joy and ran towards her, Whisper couldn't help but smile as the hound jumped into her arms and started licking her face.

"Good boy," she whispered, she scratched the hounds ears, it painted and rubbed its head in her hand, Whisper then heard more noises that were coming in the same direction as the hound had.

"Here doggy!" Whisper heard a girl shout really loudly, she started to stand back up and waited for who was coming, she knew it was Wendy.

"Don't shout," Whisper heard another voice,

"But he won't be able to hear me," Wendy said,

"He's a hound, he'll hear you," the other voice said, that was when Wendy walked through the buses, she looked round and saw both Whisper and the hound.

"Fluffy! Whisper!" she shouted and ran towards them,

"Wendy I told you not to shout, we haven't got strong enough weapons," the other said, Whisper watched as Wilson walked through next.

When Wilson finally caught up to Wendy he was happy to see that the hound, named Fluffy by Wendy, had found his owner, Whisper looked terrible, but alive.

"Fluffy found you Miss Whisper," Wendy said hugging the blue hound, Whisper looked at her curiously, considering he was scared of the hound before they seemed to be inseparable now,

"Fluffy?" Whisper asked, Wendy nodded her head, Whisper chuckled, and flinched a the movement hurt her side, Wilson noticed this.

When he looked at her thigh he noticed the blood soaking through her clothes, he wondered why she hadn't said anything yet, but he was just happy to see her alive, after seeing the shadow hands dragging her through the ground he thought that was the end for her, that he'd never see her again.

"We should get back before it turns to night," he said, both girls looked at him and smiled, Wendy quickly grabbed whispers hand and they both started walking as they walked passed him, with the hound in close pursuit, Wilson noticed how pale Whisper was now, he would have to make sure to help her when they got back, but they didn't have any healing salve.

The camp was close so Whisper didn't have to walk far, Wendy tugged on her hand when they saw everyone, Fluffy ran to the fire and instantly laid down to sleep, Whisper noticed that Wes was busy making the garlands for everyone, when he noticed Whisper and Wendy he stood up and came over to them, he placed the garland he had just made on top of Whisper's head, he smiled he seemed to know she was in trouble.

"Come on Miss Whisper," Wendy said pulling her towards the fire, when they reached it Wendy made Whisper sit down when she ran to get some food for her, when she went Wes came over to her, he had something else in his hand, but Whisper couldn't tell what until he was right next to her, butterfly wings. He then handed them to her, Whisper looked back at him confused, Wes just pointed to his mouth, she knew it meant eat them, and hesitantly she placed the first wing in her mouth and chewed, her mouth made a weird face, they didn't taste nice at all but she could feel her heath was getting a little bit better. Wes had only given her six wings, but even so it made her better than before.

Wendy returned with some jerky, she gave it to Whisper who ate it quickly not only was it better for her health but it got the awful taste of butterfly out of her mouth too.

Whisper looked around there wasn't even a camp to be seen, all they had was a fire pit and drying rack, they wouldn't be able to survive on this, and with it now being spring then they would have the rain to worry about, she sighed she thought that winter would be the worst season and now it wasn't.

"We'll have to get a load more supplies tomorrow, we're in no fit sate at the moment," Whisper looked up and saw Wilson standing there, it was almost like he had read her mind.

"I'll go in the morning, I'm to tiered right now and need time to heal," Whisper replied, the wound in her thigh was getting better, that was the only good thing about this weird and dangerous world, you could heal by eating.

"No you've been through enough already with what happened with Willow, and then the hands you need to stay safe," Wilson said, Whisper smiled and shook her head,

"I'm a big girl Wilson and good night sleep is the best medicine for me for now," Whisper replied, she then got up and stretched her arms, pain shot through her body but she ignored it, she just wanted to go to sleep.

When she got to the fire pit she warmed herself up, her wound had finally stopped hurting her, her belly was full and heat was returning to her body, things were looking up.

Whisper felt something on her leg and saw the hound, he was panting and looked tiered, Whisper smiled and sat on the floor, and the hound cozied up to his owner and went to sleep.

Whisper just stoked his fur for a little, she could see the black stripe going around his body, it slowly seemed to move, but she didn't take much notice, her eyes were too heavy at this point and she just needed sleep.

Now with the hound on her lap she didn't want to move him, so Whisper tried to make herself comfortable in the spot that she was now sitting in, she laid down on the floor with the hound on her lap sleeping soundly.

The ground was far more comfy then she thought it would be, her eyes closed almost instantly.

Wilson felt tiered too, but he wanted to stay up to make sure that that fire was going to last the night, he grabbed some of the wood that the group had gathered before and placed them onto the dying ambers. Everyone else was getting ready for bed, Wilson took a moment to look at each of them, they had gotten through a lot and with Willow going crazy they had lost one of their best fighters, it was lucky that Whisper had come back, he was ashamed when he had done nothing when the hands had first showed up, and it made him think that if he had helped her straight away then she wouldn't of been through all of that pain. He looked at her, and saw how she was sleeping awkwardly with the hound on her stomach; it moved and slid off its owners body to the ground, in almost an instant Whisper moved to her side and cuddled the hound, the hound let out a little whimper and started to move its legs as if running.

Wilson smiled, he never thought that he would ever be ok with having a hound in the camp but he made Wendy happy and Whisper too, so there were some ups to having one around, it also seemed like a pet which made things seem much more normal.

He then started to get ready to sleep himself, tomorrow was going to be a long day of gathering supplies for yet another camp, he sighed first the deerclops and now Willow, things were just getting worst. But with it now being spring, things would be harder to gather, with the weather being unpredictable, he knew that the things they would find could be soaking wet and unusable. But he would worry about this later.

For the first time in ages Whisper didn't have a strange dream while she slept, it was a night of nothingness. She was in pitch blackness, floating in the air, it felt almost peaceful.

She then heard a small noise, looking to her left a picture came into sight, it took her a few moments to realize that the picture was just a copy of their old camp, it sting a little inside because it was now all turned to ash because of how crazy Willow went. Whisper slowly floated towards to the scene, when she reached the campfire her feet landed on what seemed like solid ground.

"Whisper where have you been?" a voice said, Whisper spun round on the spot, Wilson was standing in front of her, she was confused was this a dream or reality? "Better hurry up we're moving soon," he added before walking away, Whisper watched him go, she then looked around and noticed that everything was back to normal everyone was talking to each other like there was nothing wrong in the world.

Someone then grabbed her arm, it was Wes, he had a giant smile on his face as he waved at her, Whisper smiled back,

"You looking forward to going home Whisper?" someone said, she turned her head, smile still on her face, and then disappeared, Willow.

Whisper jumped away and readied her fists, if Willow wanted another fight then she would have one, "Um, what are you doing?" Willow asked with a confused look her face, Whisper didn't answer, was this some sort of trick? "Doesn't matter hurry up, we're finally getting out of here," Willow said smiling.

When she walked away many things were going through Whisper's head, the main thing was what the hell was going on.

Everyone was here, and they all had smiles on their faces, this was too weird for Whisper to even be happy about, going home? That was impossible, to go home they would have to find the main portal, and to find that they would have to…

"Whisper! Come on were leaving," Whisper looked and saw Wilson waving at her, she could trust this, it wasn't real.

Wes grabbed hold of Whisper's sleeve again, and then started pulling her towards the group, Whisper tried to pull away, but Wes didn't let go and dragged her to the group,

"Come on Whisper, we're finally going home and you look horrified," Wilson said.

"So how are we getting home then?" Whisper asked, not believing single thing,

"We found the portal remember," he replied happily,

"How'd we find it?" she asked,

"Just did," Wilson replied, Whisper thought that she wasn't going to get much information, a horrid chill went through her body, Wes's hand was still gripping her sleeve, it was almost like he was keeping her there to make sure she didn't go anywhere.

The group only had to walk a short distance before Whisper saw the thing they were looking for.

Whisper felt the chill get worst, this wasn't anything like the portal she had gone through to get here, as she looked at it she couldn't help but feel dread, the arch itself was black spikey vines twisting around each other, and in the gap was shadows, hands came through trying to grab whatever they could and dragging in into the abyss.

"What is that?" Whisper asked in a breathless voice, she could feel the dark power coming from it and it made her terrified.

"It's the portal that will take us home Whisper, isn't this what you wanted?" Wilson said, Whisper noticed that his voice had changed a lot, it had become more hissy, Wilson turned slowly round to face her. His face was all distorted now, shadows shot out from the portal and wrapped round Wilson, "You came here to save everyone didn't you Whisper? To become a hero, you did so much research, so much time to get to this moment," he said, that was when Whisper recognized the voice, it was the shadows.

She knew this wasn't real.

"You'll never save us," Wendy said in a small hissing voice, Whisper looked down at her, her small body was now covered in shadows, is this what the really Wendy thought?

"Someone who can changed into a monstrous beast at will, of course you're a danger, what's stopping you from losing all your sanity and changing killing every one of us," Wilson said, before Whisper had a chance to answer she screamed.

Her body fell forward, Whisper breathed heavily on her hands and knees, she turned her head round to see what happened, Wes, who had been holding onto her tightly, had now morphed.

His right arm had now grown double in size and his once hand was now big claws, dripping with her blood. Even though she knew it was all a dream and nothing was real it still hurt seeing Wes like this one of her only friends. He stepped closer readying his hand for another strike,

"You going to end up killing everyone and yourself, unless you join us," Wilson said, with a toothy grin, the shadows were flying all around him, everyone was like that now, shadows everywhere, but even though it was very clear that these were not her friends she couldn't help but not want to hurt them. "Join us now Whisper, or you will be your own downfall," shadow Wilson said, the pain from her back was increasing, because of shadow Wilson talking she didn't realize that the shadow Wendy had her hands stretched out, and from her figure tips shadows poured out and straight into Whisper wound.

This was when she could feel the change close, she pushed it back with all her might, causing tears to fall from her eyes.

"Do you want to kill you friends, the people you've come to save?" shadow Wilson said, Whisper didn't raise her head, the pain was too great, she could feel something in her body now, it felt like something slivering round. It reminded of snakes.

In the end she just shook her head, "That's what I thought," he said, he held out his hand to help her up, she still didn't move, there were now pictures in her head, so all her friends bathed in blood, it flashed to each person, each ripped to pieces, some with limbs torn off others with their stomachs open. Each image almost made her sick, but the last to were the worst Wes and Wilson, they were the worst of them all.

Tears were now flowing out of her eyes, Whisper hardly ever cried and didn't understand why she was now, "Save yourself and join," shadow Wilson said, this was when Whisper finally looked up, the Wilson figure was hardly recognizable now, she could still see his shape but it was completely shadows now.

Anger flared in her eyes, now that they had gotten rid of their disguises she didn't mind hurting them, with all the might she still had she stood up and faced the shadowy menace.

There was still a shadowy like hand there waiting for her to grasp, all Whisper did was try and whack it away, but hr hand went right through and hat had touch the shadow tingled.

As she hit it, the shadow figure disappeared and was replaced with a monstrous laughter, the pictures of her dead friend flashed into her head again, Whisper shook her head the same trick wasn't going to work twice.

"Leave me alone! I came here for a reason and I'm not going to fail, I will save everyone in this awful world!" she shouted with the top of her voice, all the figures then disappeared like a gust of wind.

Whisper took a few moments to take deep breaths, she then gently touch her back where the shadow Wes had hurt her, but there was nothing there, there should have been a big gross wound bleeding out. But her hand was clean and there wasn't anything wrong with her back at all, this made her confused but it didn't matter as her vision became all blurry.

Wilson had been dosing off to sleep when he felt something weird, he turned to his side and saw the source. Whispers body was covered in shadows, he then heard he moaning in pain, Wilson slowly got up and crawled towards her. Her body was twitching, he reached his hand towards her body, as he got closer a shadow hand grabbed his arm, the moment it touched his skin his entire arm transformed, he jumped backwards as the change scared him, seconds later, blood started pouring out of Whisper's body. Weird things were happing to quickly for him to noticed, Whisper started to quietly scream, Wilson's changed hand covered her mouth, if the others saw this then they would say things and throw her out of the group.

The screams were now muffled and hardly noticeable, when they finished she breathed lightly, Wilson sighed, it was a close call, he slowly removed his hand, it was at that moment her saw Whisper's eyes were now open. Wilson just stared at her in shock for a moment, but Wilson wasn't shocked at the fact that Whisper's eyes were pure red, he was more terrified that she had now seen his arm in changed form. There was a moment of silence, Whisper was just looking at his arm, but she didn't say a word, the silence then become awkward.

Whispers just looked at him, his arm was that of a monster, how did it happen? But she didn't say anything it was obviously something he wasn't going to talk about, and she wasn't the person to question him, considering she was a monster.

She was about to sit up and speak when a picture of Wilson's dead body flash in her mind again, she cried out and covered her eyes, this was becoming more torture then changing, before she knew it tears were falling down her cheeks again, Whisper hated showing herself as being weak, he needed to be strong.

Wilson didn't say anything, he just pulled her towards him and hugged her, this made her cry even more, he didn't complain and allowed her to cry, he didn't have a clue what was going on but a gentlemen wouldn't allow a women to cry on her own.

After a few minutes of endless tears Whisper finally stopped, but didn't move, it took Wilson a few moments to realize she had fallen asleep again, he chuckled to himself, Whisper had, had a bad day so it was understandable that she was completely tiered. Wilson place her body back onto the ground, he got up, there was then the sound of growls, Wilson looked over to the hound, who was on its back legs stretched out and tongue hanging out of its mouth, Wilson smiled.

He then looked up to the sky, the moon was now setting down which meant morning was soon coming, Wilson had to get to sleep now otherwise he would not be good in the morning.

The morning came with a cold breeze, Whisper woke up shaking a little, and she stretched her arms yawning after, the breeze hit her face slightly making her hair flutter, Whisper smiled, she didn't have another horrible dream after her cry. She felt her back again and there was still nothing, even though it had only been a dream she was certain the pain had been real, she looked over to where Wes was sleeping, she knew the real one wouldn't do anything to hurt her but seeing him covered in shadows and evil, made her sad.

As Whisper stood up she felt something cold on her cheeks, her eyes shot to the sky in time to feel the rain pour down, this wasn't good, everything was going to get soaked.

"Great, I didn't want it to rain so soon, but I guess that's spring for you," a voice said, Wilson walked up towards her,

"We need something to stop use getting wet," Whisper said, umbrellas would be good or straw hats, just something to keep the wetness at bay.

"We better go and get resources," Wilson said putting on his backpack, "Stay here and rest," he added as Whisper was starting to get ready,

"Um no," Whisper replied, she then stroked the hound who was still sleeping, it shook it's head and growled a little, when it notice it was its owner it wagged its tail and barked happily. "Besides what if you run into something nasty," Whisper said.

"Ready!" Wendy said with her hands on her hips looking proud, Whisper giggled and covered her mouth with her hand,

"Well we have a good group now, shell we get going?" Whisper said, Wilson was about to disagree when he saw Wes running towards them, he had a backpack on and had two umbrella's, Wilson always wondered how Wes had the things they needed at the right time. When he reached them he handed them to Whisper and himself.

"What about you?" Whisper asked opening her umbrella, she was glad to stop rain getting to her, she could cope with the raging heat, freezing cold breezes, and even the long nights, but rain, this was something she couldn't handle, soaking clothes that stick to your body making it hard to move, and then freezing you quickly, yuck.

Wes just smiled at them and placed a straw hat on his head, Whisper smiled back, at least he had his own protection.

"Well let's get going, with the four of us we should be able to get a lot of resources," Whisper said with a big smile on her face, "Let's go!" she said shouted putting her fist into the air.

"Yippee," Wendy said grabbing hold of her hand, the four then headed out, Whisper was glad to go with them, she needed to protect them, these were her friends, and she needed to protect them, the others would be fine as long as they stayed near the camp.

They didn't go far, just the closest grasslands, they would get everything they needed there, and Wendy soon went off to dig up every rabbit hole she could find, when she was busy collecting all the poor defenceless rabbits that came out of the holes, Wes was busy collecting flowers, Whisper chopping down trees and Wilson colleting rocks.

"So you going to tell me what happened last night?" Wilson asked as he picked up a gold nugget, Whisper didn't even look at him, she just carried on chopping, after a few minutes of silence, "What happened, tell me now, why were there shadows all over you why…" Wilson was interrupted by a flying axe just missing him and hitting the tree next to him. Wilson's heart was beating drastically,

"Please stop asking questions," she said, she looked a little different, her eyes red again, he watched as she shook her head and her eyes turned back to normal, she looked back at him and then walked towards him to grab the axe back, she continued to cut down some of the trees around them, Wilson was going to stop but his curiosity got the better of him, "You're going to have tell me soon, things are happening to you lately, weird things, and if they are going to cause trouble to the group then we need to sort things out," Wilson said bravely he could tell Whisper was on edge all of a sudden.

"So what are you going to throw me out?" Whisper said crossing her arms, Wilson didn't reply, he didn't want that to happen, if he threw her out then anything could happen to her plus the group would lose a good fighter. "Don't be like Willow please," Whisper said in a quiet voice, Whisper looked down to the floor, and if he did turn into another Willow then she wouldn't be able to cope,

"I'm not I'm just worried, I've been in this world enough to know that shadows are bad news, and with what happened with the hands last night, I just don't want you hurt," Wilson said.

Whisper smiled, he was just worried, but that was bad, when people worried about her that was when they got hurt.

She was about to say something else when they both heard a high scream, they both quickly looked towards the scream,

"Wendy!" Whisper shouted running towards it, this was stupid why they leave her on her own.

When she got back to the grasslands she saw something horrible.

Wilson wasn't as fast as Whisper but he tried to keep up, but before he got to the grasslands he heard the honking noise, this made him speed up, he had never really seen this monster but whenever they heard it he ran.

When he reached the land, he saw it the Moose/Goose, and Whisper was trying to fight it.

As Wilson was about to help she was flung towards him in the air, she landed on the floor with a bump,

"You ok?" he said helping her up, Whisper moaned as she moved, that had hurt, the creature had ran straight for her and caught her by surprise, she had tried to fight but the monster but she had never seen it before.

Wendy had been hiding behind a tree now, she had done what Whisper had told her to do, but when she saw Wilson she ran towards him.

Whisper quickly stood up,

"I have to fight," she said, the list of creatures she could change into, none came to mind that could face up to this,

"You don't have to do this, we can just go and run like normal, Wendy's safe," Wilson said holding onto the shaking girl's hand, Whisper nodded her head and turned round, as long as they could run away then they should be ok.

But before she could even take a step she heard barking, looking towards the sound she saw her hound running towards the Moose/Goose,

"No!" she shouted but it was too late, its mind was set on protecting its master, the hound growled and barked all the way towards the monster, when it reached it the hound went straight for the legs. The Moose/Goose had obviously not noticed the tiny hound running towards it until it felt the bite on its leg, when it did though it let out a loud honk and started to stomp the leg that the hound was biting.

It was able to hold on for a few seconds, but was then thrown off, it hit a tree and then got back up, after a second to shake it's head it went straight back to the fight, but this time the Moose/Goose was ready and face it head on.

Whisper knew what was going to happen but wasn't able to move, the hound wasn't going to win this fight, it couldn't the size difference alone was proof enough for that, but the little hound still tried it's best to protect everyone, a single tear fell down her face, they hadn't known the hound long but it was nice having a pet.

"Fluffy!" Wendy cried trying to run to him, Wilson made sure not to let go of her hand, he wasn't going to allow her to run off to her death, hearing its name the hound turned its head towards them, this was when the Moose/Gosse attacked and got him off guard.

Whisper snapped out of her trance and tried to move face enough to save him but it was too late, the hound was in the air again and landed on the ground hard, this time it didn't get back up.

Whisper's heart sank to her stomach, tears weld up in her eyes, but this feeling was soon replaced with anger, she screamed, it echoed throughout the lands, after she began to breath heavily, her anger was taking control of her.

Whisper wasn't thinking, her mind was full of mist now, nothing getting through, she begun to change, but because she had nothing in mind to change to there was only one thing she could change to… the beast. The anger had brought it to the surface, the beast had calmed the hound and now this pathetic monster had killed it, the beast wasn't happy and was going to get revenge.

Her eyes change bloody, her teeth sharpened and her claw grew, she howled as she changed, this caught the Moose/Gosse's attention it turn to the new competitor, but when it saw whisper it whimpered, she hadn't finished changing yet but everything changed quickly until she had completely changed.

The Moose/Goose started to walk slowly backwards, it knew when it couldn't win a fight, but Whisper had noticed and now in full beast form it was looking for a fight.

Wilson had fallen over in fright, he didn't know what had happened to Whisper but she had got mad a changed into something fierce, his heart was beating like crazy and his breathing had increased, what was happening? Why had whisper changed into him?