Running with wolves 14

Through the whole mess I had barely noticed that Zak had stayed by my side instead of joining the fight. He seemed to watch over and protect me. The second Drew, Doc and Doyle recovered they were over by my side too. I whined.

"Ugh," Drew muttered. "It is so hard to see wounds with all the fur." I swiftly transformed to a human and instantly most of the family gasped.

"What?" I asked. Drew gently caressed my arm where Jaws bit me and I winced. Then she started to go near my eye but withdrew like she was positive it would cause me pain.

"You have a black eye," she said, when she noticed me watching her. Doc grunted.

"It will heal quickly, and so will the bite," I assured them and as if on cue I felt the throbbing around my eye go down. Doc and Drew stared at me in disbelief.

"What? " I questioned again.

"Your eye… it just stopped, now its just… like a… like a bruise."

"I told you I could heal quickly."

"That is kind of weird," Zak said. "It'd take me at least a week to get rid of one of those!"

"How do you feel?"

I tried pushing myself up as I looked at the dissolving openings in my arm, before wincing.

"I'm- oh- ow… I think one of my ribs is cracked."

"It probably is."

Fisk then appeared through the door and Zak gave him an order.

"Pick her up, but be careful."

Without much objection I was lifted into the air by a friendly, furry, monkey cat. He carried me through the door and back to the medical room. That was the last place I wished to be. Over the next 20 minutes not much happened. I was x-rayed and it turned out that the crack hadn't been so bad, but there were a couple of them. They should heal before Epsilon comes back to get me in two days.

I was bandaged quickly and given some kind of pain reliever. It was almost nightfall then and I was dead tired. IT had been a big day. I was excited to sleep in my new bed rather than in the medical room. I curled up into a ball as best as I could without disrupting my rub cage. I cuddled up to the cozy dog bone blanket and thought about my day.

I left the medical room.

I was given a tour and got a room.

I trained.

I met Doyle.

I trained some more.

I got beat up.

And somehow I was landed back in the medical room again.

I shut my eyes and slowly drifted into a deep peaceful slumber.

When I awoke again the sun was shining brightly through the closed shades of the window. I slowly got up the light in the room was dim but warming. My eyes hadn't needed to adjust to this light so they shot open. I pushed myself up. Jaws' bite seemed to of finish healing nicely and when I looked into the mirror the black eye was almost completely gone. My side ached from finally recovering from the bullet wound along with my rib cage, which no longer caused great pain. I lethargically moved to the blinds and opened so more sunlight peeked in. I looked out at the scenery and saw Zak. He was fighting with someone. I could see very clearly their expressions, but I couldn't quite tell if it was real or not.

The other person or boy was odd looking. He was a soft blue color and he had big red eyes and no nose. He looked a little scaly like a serpent of a fish.

I growled and glowered down at the fight and hoped it wasn't real. I hoped there was no real danger, the only thing keeping me not tearing down there to help was the fact that Zak looked fine, and he was doing good along with the truth that Doc and Drew hadn't come to save him already. I went to investigate anyway. I crept down the hall quietly and swiftly. I took the stairs down and then phased into the wolf form and crawled outside. Looking about the nice day I came around the building and stuck to the wall, then when I deviated from the wall I stood straight and tall in front of the two boys wrestling on the ground.

The blue guy pinned Zak's arms down, and I shifted my wait and the kid's head snapped out and he caught me in his gaze. His red eyes popped and he stared at the giant wolf in front of him.

"Ulraj what is i-" he paused and craned his neck back as far as he could up against the ground.

"Oh hey, Clare." I continued my scowl at the guy who had Zak pinned.

"It's okay we were just practicing hand to and combat fights."

"Who is that?" The guy apparently named Ulraj asked shakily in a whisper.

"That's Clare."

"A new pet?" he asked calming down. I growled at the word pet.

"No, she's a werewolf." It was Zak's turn I growled at him for handing out information that was better kept a secret freely.

"Well you are, and what am I supposed to say? You gave yourself away," he mumbled. I let down my head and my ears went limp and I shook it back and forth knowing I had practically screamed I'm a werewolf, when I changed my appearance, of course Zak wouldn't keep an oversized wolf as a pet. Would he?

"Clare this is Ulraj, would you mind uh, turning human? Seeing a giant wolf usually freaks people out. And Ulraj, doesn't usually show even the smallest amount of fear."

"Actually its just a little overwhelming," he grunted.

"Yeah sure," Zak grunted. I made the switch between wolf and human and Ulraj let out a sigh of relief.

"I was really that scary?" I asked smoothly.

"You were not scary, just overwhelming!" Ulraj said. I snapped my teeth at him.

"How dare you snap at the king!" He hissed.

"Ha! King? You're like no older than Zak!"

"And now you laugh? It's on!"

"Uh- Ulraj? Maybe it's not the best idea to challenge her. I grinned evilly at him.

"I'm sure I cold take her!"

"Uh, no you can't, both of us put together couldn't beat her! Doyle and I couldn't even beat her. We were no where close."

"I know that's true," I smirked.

Ulraj sighed and let it go.

"Hey, why don't we go back to the house, we need to get more training done before Epsilon attacks. Unless… Clare are you feeling better?"

"Yup," I lied. My ribs still felt fragile, but I could pull it off.

"Ok then. Ulraj can help this time! And hopefully we won't have another disaster but… I have nothing more to say on the subject," Zak decided.

I ran after Zak and Ulraj cautiously followed behind me. When we got inside Doyle was all ready with loads of training items in his arms. All of his hard-core training stuff was piled up in front of his face. I stared at him as he accidentally pranced around the room keeping his stuff from falling to the ground.

"Clare, Zak, if you want to help out that would be finaaaah!" He leaned forward to keep from dropping the whole pile and to keep from falling himself. He seemed to maintain fine balance after that though.

"You're doing great uncle Doyle," Zak said. Doyle turned his head and seemed to notice the royal fish out of his peripheral vision.

"Oh hey Ulraj."

"Hello."

"Clare, if you're just going to stand there make your way to the gym. You, Mini-man, and Fisk are going first."

"What? Really Doyle? Me? A-and Fisk? We can't do that!"

"Look, right now I am kind of sort of busy and would appreciate help, but if you're going to complain, I don't care. It's her training anyway… not yours."

I nodded and hurried to the gym. I skittered across the carpet, and from expert hearing I heard Zak and Ulraj whispering something back and forth… like I cared! I continued to make my way up the stairs and went forth through the door and into the empty gym. I sighed.

Epsilon would come tomorrow. I sighed.

"This probably won't end well for me," I muttered under my breath so no one could hear me.

"Hey, um Zak said to give this to you," came Ulraj's voice. He handed me a chew toy.

"What? No! Ulraj! You don't tell her I told you to!" Zak popped up from underneath the windowsill in the room. I turned saw him, his eyes widened, and he went back down.

"Zak! Give it up! I saw you!" I said annoyed to a point.

"Ugh…" He face palmed but came up. He turned into the doorway and leaned against the glass he had been on the other side of only seconds ago.

"Ok, Clare, Fisk is helping Doyle with his stuff. They'll be here in a minute."

"Got it."

We waited and when Fiskerton and Doyle came I jumped off the canopy. We trained long and hard until about noon. Then we all took a lunch break. Zak and Ulraj sat on one side of a table and I on another. I scarfed down a huge amount of roast beef and some kind of fish before I was full. Zak was still eating at that time, but Ulraj was just gaping.

"How can you even fit that much in your stomach?"

"I'm a wolf."

"Aren't you worried your stomach will explode or something?"

"No, why should I be?"

"Nevermind."

I got up from the table and trotted down a step to gaze out the window. I frowned. The lingering thought in my head that Epsilon was coming tomorrow wouldn't let me be. The fact he was coming to make sure I was dead or kill me was even worse. I growled unaware of two sets of eyes watching me carefully.

I recalled the moment when Epsilon had made his sentence and told me what he had done. I knew I had tried to forget my past but this was a hard thing to keep forgotten. I growled again this time with a ting of a hiss mixed in. Maybe I needed to remember this, to keep me angry and unstoppable.

"Clare? Are you ok?"

"Yeah," I said shakily. No doubt Zak knew what I was thinking of at the moment. I knew he knew full well what because he remained silent on the subject. I felt anger boiling up inside me and I turned furiously and ran down the stairs. I grabbed the nearest rock and crumpled it to dust with my hand. Zak and Ulraj who had followed me out and stood in the doorway grew looks of shock. Zak's shock slowly faded to worry, and Ulraj just remained shock, no concern whatsoever crossing his fishy face.

"Clare… Maybe you should take a break and clear your mind," Zak suggested. I had no intent at the moment to listen to him.

I brusquely turned on my heel and swung my fists around. One hit a tree, but that didn't stop it and it tore through the trunk. It wasn't very thick or tall. As my wrist and fist chopped it down, brushing against the bark and slicing the wood my hand hurt from all the scratches, and splinters. It healed quickly though and the tree fell. Zak stared at me in awe.

"I can see why you don't like sparring with her," Ulraj grunted as he dodged a tree limb.

"Clare! Snap out of it! Calm down!"

"Wow, getting cryptid creatures to listen is a lot more complicated nowadays," the fish king said.

"Cryptid? I'm not a cryptid! I'm a werewolf! They count more as monsters than cryptids. I'm not sure I could be classified in the cryptids group," I paid no attention to anything I was saying. I growled.

"Cool down," Zak continued.

I growled a rough sigh. I looked at my feet then back up at him. I shook my head, slightly amazed I hadn't transformed yet, slightly upset about my parents, and slightly showing Zak he didn't understand my anger. I looked down at the poor tree I had knocked over. I turned and sprinted then. Zak was right. I needed to get away, clear my mind… I needed to think… about other things, besides training.

I went and sat by the seaside on a slippery mossy boulder. Water lapped up and down on the rock on which I sat. Every time it withdrew and pushed forward I was sprayed. I sat with my head sitting on top of my knees and my arms wrapped around me, grabbing the ankle on the opposite side of them.

I sat here a while before returning despite the fact that training called. Literally. Doyle was calling my name all over the place. I remained silent and cool. If I could do to Epsilon what I did to that unfortunate baby oak, I was good on training.