"What?" Hedgehog sinkers snicker and Susie fires a look over to the girl instantly. "Brazen, Bayley?" She flings the question at the witch, like a loose stone over a wide riverbed, though she gets no reply. Susie only looks at the girl with some sort of bitter resentment and even outrage, if Hedgehog had to put words to the expression displayed in the shadow of the campfire anyway.

"Yes, Hodgepodge." The witch groans. "The brazen, Winchester Bayley." She steps a bit closer to Hedgehog. "I gotta say, I'm surprised it's a story you haven't heard." She flashes a knowing smirk. "Given you're meddling in island secrets." Hedgehog lifts a brow and leans back along with Oliver. What could she have meant by that, Hedgehog wonders. Was this Winchester Bayley really such a notable figure she had to know? And why bring him up? Unless Susie knew something. Specifically, about a certain secret training the young girl was attending.

That couldn't be. Susie would have called her and Betsy on it already. Not marched the entire camp out into the woods just to lecture her alone. The witch had done some strange and petty stuff before, but this was a bit too extreme for such a little thing. And to use a story of all things to proceed with the pretentious lecturing.

It wasn't really a story she was interested in. There had been a lot of talk about this kid, Winchester Bayley. From what she could pick up in her half-conscious state, there was a lot of talk about the guy's gusto, stubborn bravery, and pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge? That last line quickly grabs Hedgehog and brings her out of her semi-aware trance.

"Knowledge?" She interrupts Susie again. "What kind of knowledge, exactly?" Hedgehog carelessly tosses another question at the witch. Susie scowls at the girl, slowly turning her head over to Hedgehog again, but soon that scowl would turn into a grin and not a nice one by any stretch of the word.

"Why the occult of course." Susie slowly walks over to where Hedgehog sat. "But not any of this dinky magic you or I know." She stops just before reaching the girl and bears a twisted smile down at her. "Something much older, much more powerful... and much darker." Hedgehog brings her eyes away from the witch and back to the ground.

Darker? What could the witch mean by that? Hedgehog would try to ask again though Susie had already been spouting on about her story and interrupting once more might get the young girl a kick to the back of her head. Or something like that.

Instead, Hedgehog leans forward, away from Oliver. She puts her elbows on her knees and rests her chin in her palms while keeping her fingers drumming against her cheeks out of sheer boredom. Susie really marched them all out there to listen to one of her stories. Hedgehog could barely believe it, or maybe she could. Susie was that kind of person after all. Angry and bitter all of the time and she had to make other people feel the same. If she was going through it, everyone was.

If anything, there was some attire motive for having them all out so deep into the woods. If only Hedgehog knew what that was. All the girl could do was speculate otherwise and bear through the story.

It wasn't all that interesting. The last thing she wanted to do was actually listen to the entire thing and given how Susie was going, it was sure to be long. Hedgehog hums to herself, maybe she could tune it out, just a little, and focus on anything else that was worth nothing.

Her eyes slowly drift back over to Oscar and Max. She watches them as they watch Susie speak. They looked so strange together and that was not considering the circumstance presently.

Oscar was a scared kid, almost anything could set him off, that was a given. Her attention lies mostly on Max. He looked like a lost puppy every time he was near the other boy. With his lack of functional capability, Hedgehog wonders why he even bothered to pursue Oscar at all.

Her eyes flutter when Max stares up at her and she quickly guides them away. She hadn't noticed she'd still been staring. It was thoughtless, out of her control she was sure. She hadn't meant to look for so long. She was merely curious.

She continues to tap her fingertips anxiously against her cheeks. She wondered where they were in the story. Hedgehog had heard Oscar ask Susie a question, but she was too out of her own mind to catch it. Her eyes slowly start to wander again, this time to the boy next to her.

How on earth was she able to come across this boy. After Max's rejection and subsequent, and outright stealing of Oscar, Hedgehog thought she was down and out with no other way to go but further down, as far as love was concerned. But then Oliver came along, no he didn't just come along. He was always there, always watching her, and she had always caught herself thinking of him when Max was absent from her mind.

And now there they were, in a strange thing that had hit her like a freight train so suddenly. She didn't mind, didn't mind him one bit either. The young musician had a hard time leaving her thoughts. His affinity for music nearly matched her own, though he was certainly better, she was no worse.

She always loved the way he got around her too. The way his face glows and how much he minced his words. She'd always try to push her luck with him by teasing him with threats of kisses and suggestive acts the boy barely knew how to comprehend, then pulling back at the last moment, leaving Oliver more flustered than he had been at the beginning of her teasing.

He was adorable in every way she could think of. From his light blue jacket, down to his sneakers, and right up to his stupid, albeit cute hat.

"You okay Hedgehog?" Once again, her daydreaming is broken up when Oliver gives her a concerned, and somewhat funny, look.

"Hum." She hums, springing up after her mind registers that he had noticed her staring. "Oh, nothing." Hedgehog brings a finger up to her mouth. "I thought you had something on your face." She said as he brings a hand to his face, attempting to wipe away an abrasion that hadn't been there.

She was looking again. Her mind seemed to like wandering off on its own a lot recently. At least she could say she had an excuse this time. Susie's story was far too long and far too boring for her to properly care about the outcome and the witch had still been rattling on.

What else was she supposed to do other than block out the voice with other, more interesting, things? Even then Hedgehog couldn't stare for long without anyone getting slightly weirded out. She needed something else, to do something else except sit and hear Susie go on about... where were they in the story now? Something about some strange group.

This sort of thing should have been right up her alley, but since it was coming from Susie all Hedgehog could do was grumble and take the tale with a grain of salt. Her eyes begin to wander again and instead of it being her friend, boyfriend, or some other random kid she had little affiliation with, they head upward. Toward the sky where many things seem to lie and nothing all at the same time.

The night sky was always so beautiful to her. Empty and bright, much like how she felt most days. It was the definition of emotional turmoil, even now amidst the vast sea of far-off spirits, the moon dances just above the clouds in all its full glory. "Whaaaat...?" Hedgehog breathed a long-drawn-out whisper when she witnesses the moon slowly climb into the sky. "Oh..." She looks at it and then down to the theatrical performance that was Susie. "Uh-oh, uh-oh!"

She begins to panic. Was it that time already? She had forgotten that things on the Island worked differently than back home, including the laws of astronomy. Her bickering with Max had left her mind so much in shambles that she had forgotten that she was hiding more than one secret from Susie.

"Hedgehog?" Oliver turns to her once she's on her feet. "What's wrong?" He asked but she didn't have time to answer.

"I-I- uh, I gotta go use the bathroom." She choughs. She barely had time for a flimsy explanation. All she knew was that she needed to go, and that Susie didn't catch a glimpse of her. Or Oliver. Hedgehog didn't know how much he knew but she would assume it wasn't much.

"H-hey. Hedgehog?" Oliver tried to speak but she had already taken off and not too soon by the way her body started to feel.

As she jets through the dark wood, Hedgehog could already feel the change. Fings protrude from her mouth, bone structure changing, slowly but surely. The whole transformation was never as painful as it sounded, she could at least count herself lucky for that. Her screaming out in pain every time it happened would have made it much too obvious and a bit more of a curse than it actually was. Though the howl that would escape her maw right afterward never helped either.

After some time and distance from the campsite, she would find a nice tree big to duck behind. This was just her luck. Why'd she has to turn into a werewolf that night, of all nights? She wouldn't moan about it though; she was safe now and out of Susie's sight. The transforming girl would just have to hide out in the woods for the rest of the night.

"Hedgehog?" A voice calls out her name. She wasn't expecting anybody to follow her. She was expecting it even less for that person to be Oliver. "Hedgehog? Where are you?" He had pursued her into the woods and was actively looking for her.

"Y-yeah, Oliver." She calls back. She should have kept her mouth shut but an automated response would have her rising her voice as he was heard. She peeks out past the tree to watch him.

He looks around, squinting his eyes to get a better view past the thick tree line. She wanted so badly to ruse out and tell him that he wouldn't be able to find anything off of sight alone. That he should be more hands-on in his approach.

"Uh- I-I'm fine." She stammers. There were more important things on her mind than berating her lovable dunce of a boyfriend. "Just using the bathroom." Hedgehog peeks out past the tree; she could tell he wasn't exactly buying her shaky excuse.

"You sure...?" He persists with his visual search. "Do... you need help...?"

"Oliver-" Hedgehog covers her mouth. Her voice had begun to shift and sink into a deeper tone as her snout grow out. "I- I..." She clears her throat before speaking again. "I'm fine, honestly... no need to worry." Hedgehog covers her eyes with a newly formed paw. She did her best to bring the pitch of her voice back up, though it was still raspy and noticeably faked.

"What's that?" Oliver held his arms to his sides and raised a brew. "Are you doing a voice?" A smile begins to form on his face. She couldn't believe she was caught like this, mid-transformation. A rock and a hard place indeed.

"Oliver! I am not doing a voice." She places a big furry paw over her mouth again. "Just go away, Oliver." She coldly scolded. She had to be blunt and to the point, she should have known that her turning the cold shoulder wouldn't be enough to discourage the boy. He did like her after all.

"Uh- okay... but why?" Oliver looks around, his eyes coming to a rest on her as he peers past the darkness of the thick brush. Hedgehog didn't know if he could actually see her, though given that he had begun to tense up it was safe to say that he could see something. What confuses her was that, if he could see her from just behind the large tree, why wasn't he running away?

"You wouldn't understand Oliver."

"But why? Why wouldn't I understand Hedgehog?" The boy was persistent, unlike anything she's seen out of him before. Oliver was always quick to throw in the towel unless the challenge revolved around something he was really interested in. It dawns on her, of course. Something he was really interested in. "Why don't you just come out? I know there's something wrong. Something more than just an emergency bathroom break."

"I said go away, Oliver!" She growls through vicious snarling, and he flinches and jumps back slightly. The fur on every end of her body stood up through her apprehension. Did she just growl at him, why would she do that? She didn't mean to, it was on some strange impulse

"Oh... okay." His shoulders slump, and his pride was wounded, clawed at, and gnarled by the person it was out to protect. She didn't want him to leave. She wants to go after him, though she finds herself rooted in place by her own trepidation. All Hedgehog could do was watch him slump away with a broken heart. Until he stops in his tracks. He shakes his head and turns back around with a new resolve. "You know what. No. No, I am not leaving until you tell me what's going on."

"Oliver."

"Stop it Hedgehog." She starts up another growl though before anything could come of it, he silences her. "Just talk to me Hedgehog." He looks back in her direction. She was still, frozen in her own fear and she didn't know how to thaw herself out.

"I- I can't, Oliver." Hedgehog forces out anything that came to mind that wasn't her driving him away. "I'm scared..."

Oliver's shoulders fall again. He was more relaxed. Even though by now he'd be able to see her glowing eyes by the big tree, he was calm as the night breeze. "Why is that?" He questions. There was nowhere left to go. She could run deeper into the woods but she was still locked down by her own nerves.

"Because you wouldn't want to be with me anymore if you saw..." His expression softens when she gives him an answer. He couldn't believe what she was saying, dropping his head and mumbling to himself. She couldn't make out what he was saying but from what she could see, they were words of disapproval. Not directed toward her but to himself.

"Let me be the judge." He brought his head back up. He was confident in her and that gave her the confidence to start moving and step out in front of him.

"Okay." She was finally able to uproot her clawed paws from the damp dirt below. Hedgehog wasn't completely sure about showing herself to the boy, but if he was willing to hear her out maybe the outcome wouldn't be so bad. "Here I am..." She lurched out toward him, taking some time and a few gentle breaths before bringing her eyes up to him. His expression was steely, nearly emotionless. She couldn't gauge what he had been thinking then. "Is it that bad?"

"Well..." Oliver's steel gaze gives way to a warm, amused smile. "I've never had a girlfriend this furry before. But I guess I never had many werewolf girlfriends, have I?" He rubs the back of his neck with a whisper.

"So..." Hedgehog begins. She couldn't say she was stunned. She would say she was pleasantly surprised all the same. "You're really alright with this?"

He shrugged his shoulders and crosses his arms over one another. "Depends," Oliver smirks, looking her over with a light blush. Honestly at this time? "Are you okay with me staying with you?"

Hedgehog flashes a wide sharp-toothy smile at him. "Of course."

"Hmmm..." He hums, bringing his eyes to the werewolf girl's ears. "Hey? Can I..." He holds a handout to her. At first, Hedgehog doesn't understand, but it takes her no time at all to get what Oliver was asking for.

"Sure." She gives him permission and he waste no time. Oliver steps up to her, hesitantly hovering his hand over the girl's head. He didn't have much experience with Hedgehog to know all of her favorite spots, but he did have experience with taking care of dogs. This should be no different.

He positions his hand around the back of her right ear and starts to rub gently. She never let anyone stretch behind her ear, werewolf or not. She never thought she could derive any kind of pleasure or good feeling from a simple touch. Oliver however had been proving otherwise.

He was hitting all the right spots then, petting her head, searching the sweat spot behind her ear, and going so far as to bring his hand down to her neck to start rubbing there too. The feeling was pure bliss, brought on by someone she cared for deeply.

At some point, her eyes had closed shut. She needed to surprise the sense to further enhance the feeling she was receiving. She hadn't even realized her leg had started moving on its own, thumping up and down on the ground and kicking up dirt in droves. She only opens her eyes when Oliver starts laughing.

"Woah, someone's excited." He said with his encompassing smile. "Sorry if I went too far."

"No, no. It's fine." She looks away embarrassed. She was happy to be covered head to toe in fur then, otherwise, she was sure she'd be able to light up the whole forest. "Hey, Oliver? Did you want to go somewhere?" He shrugs at her, carefree as always. She crouches down to the ground, positioning herself on all four limbs.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Oliver stops to question her sudden stance change.

"It'll be faster for me to carry you there." Hedgehog briefly explains and he nods, carefully climbing on her back without further inquiry. She takes off in a heartbeat, barely giving Oliver anytime to properly sit on her back.

The werewolf girl sprinted through the woods without pause. She had been through them so many times, though even without the knowledge of certain areas, she had little to no issue traversing the Island when in her werewolf form.

Hedgehog assumed it had something to do with the nature of her lycanthropy and the connection her blood shared with the werewolf queen. It was like having infinite knowledge for a brief period and she always made sure to make the most of that short time.

"We're here." She said, letting Oliver stumble off her back. He was left in a slight haze due to how fast they were speeding.

"Woah," Oliver asks once his vision was clearer and his legs less shaky. They were on a hilltop overlooking the ocean. The moon hung in the sky, dancing about and not paying any mind to the many insignificant matters below.

"It's one of my favorite spots to come to when I turn." She said, planting herself on the grass much like any old dog would and staring up at the moon. "Other than the sanctuary, it's where I come to sit, relax and watch the moon."

"Oh..." Oliver takes a seat next to her on the ground. "Sanctuary?" He said but she doesn't have an answer for him yet. The werewolf could barely hear him though, all her focus had been drawn to the moon reflecting off of the sea. Then a sudden howl erupts from her.

"Awooooo!" Oliver jolted at the sound but when she does it again, he was more prepared.

"That's a bit loud, isn't it." He chuckles nervously.

"Oh sorry." Hedgehog had nearly forgotten he was there. "Hey, you should try it. It's really fun." She takes her eyes off the brightly shining moon and looks over at him.

He rubs the back of his neck and lets out more uncertain laughter. "I don't know..."

"Trust me Oli. It's great." All of his doubts melt away along with his heart when she abbreviates his name. "Eh, why not." He looks to the moon, opening his mouth. "A-wooo." His howl wasn't so loud, defiantly not as loud as Hedgehog. A pitaful attumit compared to her.

"Come on Oliver. You have to use your diaphragm. Like this." She stands and cups her paws around her muzzle. "Awooooo!" Hedgehog howls again, even louder this time.

"Right." He follows behind her, standing up as well. "Awoooo!" He howls, a bit louder this time though still not quite loud enough.

"Yeah, see. You got it." Hedgehog continues to encourage him. "Awoooo!"

"Awooooo!" He follows her lead, mimicking her technique as threw his voice to the sky above.

"Awoooooooo!"

"Awooooooooo!"

"Awooooooooooo!"

"Awoooooooooo!" They both fall to the ground in a fit of joyful laughter. Oliver had exhausted himself, but he had fun doing so and Hedgehog could see that.

"Hey- you were right..." He spoke through heavy breathing. "That was fun." He huffs out as she lies next to him.

"Hey?" She speaks.

"Yeah."

"Thanks for putting up with me. Even now." Hedgehog couldn't even begin to express her appreciation to the boy. Not properly. Anyone else would have found her too unbearable to be with as herself alone she thinks. She was happy that someone like Oliver even existed at all.

"Yeah..." He turns to her. "But I don't feel like I'm putting up with you one bit." She smiles at him.

"Do you want to see the sanctuary?" She asked. "The werewolves are really cool with anyone who isn't Susie basically."

"Uh..." Oliver pauses for a moment, giving some consideration to the offer. "Sure." He nods to her. If she said it was cool, then it must have been. A werewolf sanctuary does sound like something he'd never thought he'd witness. Like most things on the Island, he hadn't even known of its existence.

"Alright, let's..." She stops and sniffs the air. "Hold on." She makes a quick dish toward the woods, sniffing the ground along the way.

"Wait Hedgehog! Hold up!" Oliver takes off behind her, blindly stepping into the foliage to keep up.

Why had she taken off so suddenly? He had been walking through the woods for a few minutes, but she was nowhere to be found. The forest being so dark didn't help his search either, all he could see was darkness and a thick of trees. "Come on Hedgehog." He mumbles to himself swatting at enormous branches to get through the woods. "Were in the- AH!" Oliver screams as he's engulfed in something suddenly. A net from what he could tell.

"What the- Oliver?" A voice calls his name in surprise.

"Susie?" He looks up to see the witch crouched down beside him, already in the middle of freeing him from the giant net.

"What are you doing out here?" She asked. Her voice was stern though he could tell it was mostly paved with good intentions and shocking, dare he say it, concern.

"Not tossing big nets at kids, that's for sure." He jokes though she doesn't see a reason to share a laugh with him then. "So... what about you?"

"I'm hunting werewolves." She spat, getting the net from around him.

"Hunting, werewolves?" Oliver chokes down a gulp. Susie being out here probably wasn't a good thing for his werewolf girlfriend. Maybe that's why she had taken off so suddenly.

"Oh yeah. The Island's crawling with them and they are so annoying." The witch lets out a loud groan. "They are sooooo bougie like you wouldn't believe. Never wanting to share the cool things they have, never chip in with the bills. They're basically a bunch of freeloading hippies." She spits on about one of the Island's many magical inhabitants. "You wouldn't happen to have seen any of 'em, right?"

Oliver tenses up at the sudden question. "What? Me, no." His body essentially locks up defensively. "I mean if I did, I'd tell you, but I haven't, so there's not much to tell even though I'd tell you, that I saw something you didn't like, which I defiantly didn't see... anything." He sputtered and Susie rises a brew. Oliver thinks he could have been more subtle. Just a little.

"What did you say you were doing out here again?" Susie said, stepping closer to Oliver.

"Uhhhhh..." Oliver didn't know what to do, he was starting to feel the heavy arm-twisting pressure of Susie's iron clade gaze. Before she could press him further, however, Hedgehog would appear from the brush, rushing up to Susie and roaring.

"Ahhh!" Susie stumbles backward and tumbles onto the ground. The werewolf that had startled her ran over to the boy and snatched him up, taking off soon after.

"Sorry, Susie! We'll make it up to you later!" He shouts back as the worn-out witch rushes to her feet.

"Oh damn. It got Oliver... What do I tell his parents?" The witch brings a hand to her chin to ponder her next move. "Eh, you win some and you lose some."