Author's Note:
Man, have I been busy! I moved a full house in three weeks, put the whole house in storage in two and a half days, moved all the necessities in their right places in with my uncle and cousins and cousin once removed, AND I've been living in this sorry excuse for a garbage dump house for about 2 weeks. I REALLY hope I move out soon… -_-
Chapter 2.
"Wow, look at this place!" Cleo exclaimed, looking around.
"Yep, pretty awesome…" Rikki sighed.
"So! Where are all the lakes? I've heard there's tons of lakes around here." Cleo was definitely curious.
"Nope… mostly it's just forests and fields. But yes, there are a few major lakes here." Lu sauntered into their room, and sat down in a chair.
"Hey Emma, you wanna go for a ride? Maybe Cleo could come too." Amy ran in, carrying tack and riding boots.
"Wow, you're ready to go." Lu laughed.
Cleo nodded. "Sure, we could go for a ride. Right, Emma?" Emma nodded a second later.
"Alrighty, it's all set. Let's go!"
A half hour later…
I was taking a walk with my hands in my pockets, thinking about what had happened two years ago, when I had first turned into my wolf form and was so confused, when Cleo, Emma, and Amy rode by.
"Hey Autumn! How's life?" Amy stopped her horse, and turned to talk to me.
"Fine, I guess. Who're they?" I had always been wary of new-comers every since I had turned into a semi-wolf.
I squinted my eyes warily at them, suspicious. They smelled of coral and water, and… I sniffed lightly, not enough for them to see.
And sand.
"This is Cleo and Emma; they're here for a visit, and staying with us." Amy explained. Cleo and Emma both said hi.
"Hi." I said quietly, and walked on.
"She doesn't seem very friendly…" Cleo whispered. I heard them talking with my extra-excellent hearing that could hear things from miles away.
"I know. But she warms up to you once she knows you're not a threat. All you can do is try to gain her trust, which is hardly easy, trust me." Amy laughed, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.
Emma and Cleo were quiet.
They turned back; I could hear the clip-clopping of the horses' hooves fading.
I howled when they were out of ear-shot, and as I was howling, I turned into my wolf form. My wolf form was a dark grayish black, the color of the ashes in the volcano cave. I half trotted half galloped toward the volcano where I was first transformed into a semi-wolf.
Over the years, that cave had become a thinking place, and a place where I could settle down when I was frustrated with my parents. It had become my safe-haven, a place where I could just lay down and rest and not worry about my life.
Today, though, it was a thinking place.
As soon as I smelled Amy's new friends, I knew they weren't from around here. They didn't smell like forests or pinecones or anything familiar. Amy smelled like that horse smell you smell in farms, sort of like hay and grass mixed together. That was familiar.
But them? They were from the sea. I knew it. They smelled like fish and sea water and sand and palm trees all mixed together. That was definitely not familiar. Somehow, though, they smelled like fish more than anything. Even more than the disgusting human smell. I try to block it out of normal humans, but this time I didn't even need to.
I needed to figure this out.