Hey guys.
I now have a Facebook page for FTLON. It's called For the Love of Nessie so go and ike I so you know when updates come out!
Previously…
"What do you mean? Of course he's dead." I blasted in his face. I hated it, but it was the truth and I was going to have to accept that.
"Did you check for a heartbeat?" Come to think of it no. But he couldn't be alive. It wasn't possible.
"In that case, there's a chance he still lives. Trust me, I've dealt with this kind of thing with my own tribe tons." He said as he traipsed back towards Big Field.
"Why are you helping me?" I asked.
"Because you're a pretty girl who needs it and as a self-respecting gentleman I couldn't deny it to you in any form." I gave him a look. "Plus I'm bored."
I wondered then whether to trust him. I knew nothing about him, and he didn't know much about me. But he wanted to help, and that was all that mattered. I could get my Jacob back.
My Jacob…
"So what do we do?" I asked desperately. I hated the idea of Jacob lying helpless, he'd want to be the centre of help. Although in a way, he was.
"You wait till the psycho and his little cult have gone, and I'll find Wyllow." He spluttered and ran off. "I'll find you." He called out as an afterthought.
"You do that," I said to myself as I trudged back towards Big Field. There was a huddle around Jacob's body, which picked him up and carried the now human body of my truest friend through the forest and to the main clearing. The wolves always had meetings in that one spot, because there were so many of them. I wondered who would be the next Alpha until we managed to get Jacob back. Sam probably, but who knew?
As I walked towards them, I saw Dad turn towards me from on the rock. "I'm going to be with him." I said quietly, knowing he could hear me and read what I thought to him. I followed the pack bearing Jacob through some shallow trees, over the river separating the boundaries, and into the wolf pack meeting ground. Jacob was laid in the centre and the carriers joined the wolves already sitting around where his body lay still. They would sit there all day, guarding him until dusk. Seth and Leah (two of the few I knew by wolf appearance) shuffled aside and let me take a seat. Leah moved into the centre and lay down beside him with a whine. When she rose, she howled sorrowfully to the sky. She returned to her seat I the circle as the wolf on her other side stepped forward. The rest of the circle worked its way around, some whining for their lost leader, some howled, some just lay there. A few simply nodded and returned to their place. These tended to be the newer members, who didn't really know him. As Seth returned, Leah nudged me forward. I walked towards him, and lay down with my head on his side. Somehow, he had been returned to his wolf form, but I didn't remember when exactly. My hand stroked the fur of his face, behind his ear where he liked it, and put my hand on his chest. I felt something. I thought I'd imagined it, but it came again and again.
His heart kept beating. Faintly, but beating all the same. He was still warm. I'd noticed this before, but I thought that had just been his fur, but it was life.
"Sam," I almost whispered. The huge black wolf raised his head. "He's still alive."
Shane
I swung my arm around and swept gracefully into a flying eagle. I liked doing that in front of girls: they always thought it was 'hot'. As I flew to find the rest of the tribe, I found the small deer with Ryan and Skye. They seemed to be deep in conversation, with Wyllow sitting absentmindedly a few feet away, watching the trees. She had a better sense of nature than us. She could sense where water flowed, where the wind blew, where the forests lay and even where living creatures stood.
"Wyllow, I need you." She looked up, exited to be needed. Her past had been lonely and hard, but she'd made it through and was valuable to us as a wild tribe. I walked back the way I had come, the girl deer followed silently. "I need you to locate a large group of shifters, and then we need to heal their chief."
She rose back to her human shape. Everyone phased differently. The new wolf pack seemed to explode, I leapt high, Skye's shape flowed through her body as she jumped high or reared back again, Ryan shook onto all fours as it rippled through him. Wyllow just had to move her arms to the floor to phase, and stand again to turn back. It started in her arms, and finished in her feet. For me it spread wings through to my toes.
"Why do you help this chief?" she asked me softly. She had a very tuneful voice, never swayed by situation, just calm and collected. "I will help, but I need to know about the case."
"Then we must find them." I finished and swept back into my wings. As I circled above, she phased in one fluid motion. Funny thing was, Wyllow and Skye's clothes just seemed to melt into their phased forms, part of them. Me and Ryan, well, we had to go through the awkward task of carrying clothes with us, and then putting them back on. When I phased, my shorts just fell into my clawed rip. Ryan had it harder, and had to shake them off as he phased. They were tatty, but they managed to stay whole.
The small deer below me started to zoom through the forest, and it was all I could do to follow the blur from overhead. Normal deer were fast, but shifters were given incredible speed to help us hunt down those we hated. Vampires. I had never seen one before, and yet I just knew that when I saw one, I'd know what it was.
I could see below me, the huge pack of wolves I had seen only a minor fraction of earlier. In the centre lay their fallen leader. I glided to a nearby tree and 'thought' to Wyllow to stop and wait. I told her to phase back so they would feel less threatened, although I found it hard to see why anyone would find Wyllow dangerous. Once in the branches of a particularly strong tree, I gently swung my arms back so I could return to human form. When my legs were turning back, I slipped the claws of my eagle feet into the shorts and managed to be dressed fully with no awkward situations. From the tree I could hear Nessie talking to the biggest wolf there. Anyone would assume he was Alpha, unless they'd seen Jacob's skills.
"Fellow shifters," I called from my vantage point. "You're leader is not yet lost." The girl scowled up at me, and I realised she's only just said that. "A new member of my tribe may be able to bring him back to health, if you'll accept our help." Most of the giant wolves looked at me, confused as to why I had chosen to help. I glanced in the direction that Wyllow stood. The pack followed my gaze.
"My name is Wyllow," she said, and shifted down into her deer form, still walking. As smoothly a she'd phased, she shifted back and was walking to the centre of the circle. "And I am here to heal your fallen. I have a feeling your leader's opponent knew all along he still held a thread of life, maybe purposefully. I will be able to wake him from his weakened sleep, but he will have to heal at a pace which is right for your phase-forms." She looked towards a pair of silvery, smaller wolves, and addressed them by name. How she knew I don't know. "Seth," he pricked his ears up. "Go into the forest and find a flower the shape and colour of a fallen star. This will contain the pollen I need to catch his subconscious attention. It's like putting me into his dream state. Leah, find five leaves the shape of you paw. I do not mind what variety or species they are, but they must be the right shape and the colour of his fur." The two wolves left to complete their task. "Shane, bring me some waking water please," was all she said to me.
I swept into my wings and soared back to main camp. I rummaged through the medicinal bag and found one of two bottles of the slightly pink water. With shorts in one foot and bottle in the other, I flapped hard to keep myself airborne as I made my way back to the pack.
Nessie
The small girl, a head shorter than me, had deep green eyes, like jade pools. She wore a short white flowing dress with no bodice, just falling material that seemed to stay on her chest even without straps. She wore nothing on her feet, and she had waving hair that flowed to just past her shoulder blades. She had a small delicate face, unmarked by scars or smile lines. She walked over to me and I realised, unlike her companion, she had no mark on her shoulder. I later discovered that your mark depended on your tribe, but most females didn't get them. Each mark differed for each tribe, and appeared and changed naturally. She studied my eyes, never blinking. But when she looked away, she turned toward Jacob, and knelt before his head. When the eagle glided down with a bottle of pink liquid and a pair of shorts in his grip, Wyllow looked up and took the bottle as he passed her on his descent. He dropped his shorts and phased back, already dressed. He winked at me, so I rolled my eyes and returned to Jacob. The mysterious healer was uncorking the bottle and closed her eyes. She sniffed it, and when Seth returned with his star flower, she poured the pink liquid into it. I could see bits of gold pollen swirling in it, blending with the liquid. Leah trotted towards us with her paw leaves, which were ripped up into shreds and sprinkled over Jacob's head.
All this seemed a bit weird to me, and kind of pointless. But if it would wake him up, then weird was fine. She poured the drink out of the flower and into Jacob's mouth. Then she sat there stroking his ears lightly.
When one ear flicked her hand off, she smiled and stood up. "He is waking." She said, and with 3 bounds, she was a deer again, galloping through the forest.
"Jacob, wake up. Come on, wake up and loo at me." I whispered in his ear. He yawned, stretched his front legs and opened his eyes.
I flung my arms around him and squeezed tightly. "We all thought you were dead." I whispered. Shane was standing nearby looking bored.
Jacob spotted him and growled.
"Um, hey. I am the guy who just figured how to save your life. Oh, and I'm the bird who made you look stupid earlier." He laughed to himself.
Jacob rose to all fours. Shane looked a little bit unnerved at a close view of his height, and when Sam (Jacob's Beta) joined him from behind Shane, he swept quickly into his eagle form and perched on Jacob's head. Jacob knocked his head back and held Shane lightly by his clawed feet, eventually letting go. I put my arm out, and Shane sat on my shoulder, preening his ruffled feathers.
The trees behind Sam rustled, and out of them prowled a huge black horse, with a long waving mane and tail, and the same black jaguar from earlier. A few steps behind, Wyllow returned. The huge black Friesian horse reared back and shrunk into a human shape. She was very slim, and wore all brown. On her torso, she wore a tight brown long-sleeved top, with black arm guards. She had dark brown leggings, and everything was made of the same tough material as the top. Her hair was long, black and flowing, with a shorter section tied in a gold band. Around her neck, she had a leather necklace with a deep red pendant. She glanced at Wyllow, who shifted back to her human self, with waist-length fawn coloured hair, and a long braid hanging over her shoulder (a basic image of the tribe is available on the Facebook page, but Wyllow's dress and the boys' shorts had to be changed).
Shane almost jumped off my shoulder, and shifted back to his human self to stand by his companions. The last to change was the black jaguar. He shook all over and managed to end up in his shorts. This boy had the same colour skin as the horse-girl, but instead of being slim and beautiful, he was muscly and handsome. His hair was also black, but slightly longer than Shane's falling around his head in ruffles. A long piece of hair came over his shoulder, the same band of gold holding his as it did the horse-girl's.
"I am Skye Redwynd." Said the horse-girl.
"I am Ryan Redwynd, Sky's sister. This is Wyllow Whitebrooke." Said the black-haired boy pointing at Wyllow.
"And I'm Shane, Shane Black."