'Here we go', she thought to herself, driving by the greyish green sign with the remains of white letters drawn across it. The curious excitement in her guts left her a little shaky and unsteady, as she took a turn, driving past a luscious green forest. Although she loved and almost craved the feeling of experiencing the unknown and getting into new adventurous situations, she had to admit that it also scared her. But she pushed herself to ignore the fear and turned to enjoy the beautiful scenery around her instead.
The street she had been driving on for the last hour was tugged away between a thick forest, which had now given away to a small stretch of a rocky coastline. Although it was late fall and much too cold to even think about going for a swim, she briefly considered it. Just to calm her jittery nerves and because she was already way too excited to think straight and rational anymore.
What was she even doing? Without any connection to this side of the country, she one day decided to move here just for the sake of the adventure. She hated staying in one place for over six months, which was part of the reason she loved to travel. But this was big, even for her. It was too late to turn back now anyway, as she was turning into the driveway of her new home. At least for the next six months, she thought hopefully as she looked upon the tiny misshaped house in front of her.
She had fallen in love with it immediately after seeing its crooked roof and tiny windows, which were located right next to the big, green and ragged front door. It was the perfect house for one, not too big and not too small. The small porch was surrounded by a big unkempt garden, that offered her a lot of space to learn gardening. Once she would get around to cleaning away the weeds first, of course. Although she had just arrived, she felt like she wouldn't leave this place for quite some time. She felt very much at home.
The next morning, she started unpacking the few things she had brought with her and then went to take a breakfast break and the old, wooden kitchen table. She made herself some tea and sat down to look at the brochures the landlord had kindly left for her. "LaPush is a traditionally friendly and generous place", she read. "As much as we love hosting visitors, we would also like them to respect our traditions and spiritual teachings in return. If you do not offend them, your patience and understanding of our culture will be appreciated.'What a weird way to welcome tourists', she thought. But then again not everyone was as open and respectful towards new cultures. Something she very much considered herself to be. 'Maybe they've had some very disrespectful and insensible tourists in the past', she guessed and continued with reading the brochures. After finishing them, she concluded that none of the touristy locations would be worth a visit for the next few days and continued with unboxing and arranging her books, records, and clothes.
She was very proud, that she only owned very few personal items, except for the kitchenware. How anyone could cook without at least a full set of cutlery, dishes and wine glasses was beyond her understanding, as she loved cooking and everything that came with it. Her small possessions made life a lot easier, as she never missed a lot while traveling and she could fit all of her things into her new little house and its already included furniture, without having to put up any new shelves.
Around afternoon she realized, there was no food in the fridge or anywhere else left in the house and decided to grab some things for an early dinner. Besides, she needed to get out and have some fresh air after having worked in the house all day. She took her keys and scarf and closed the door behind her, breathing in the refreshingly cool air. It smelled of wet wood, moss, scruffy old leaves and weirdly a bit like fresh, musky sweat, which left her wondering.
Her house was located off the road and she had not seen or heard any nearby neighbors yet. So she just assumed an ambitious jogger had been passing by somewhere in the woods close to her house. While she walked towards her car, the smell grew a little stronger, but she just assumed it was the wind that had turned, carrying the smell with it. That was until she walked around to the driver's side where she almost tripped over a leg that blocked her way.
She quickly regained her balance, but not her expression, as she stared at the person in front of her with eyes widened in shock.
He was leaning with his back against the driver's door, his legs stretched out in front of him. "Uh, crap", the young boy said looking at her, while he clutched his upper arm with one hand. He looked no older than sixteen, but she could barely notice his face, as she saw blood seeping through in between his fingers. Unflinchingly she took off her scarf, removed his hand paralyzed from shock and tied her scarf around his shoulder to stop the blood from flowing.
The young boy watched her with a mask of shock and fear etched into his face, which grew even wider as the fleshy wound suddenly started to mysteriously close up again. He looked between her and his upper arm but seemed to be frozen with shock.
As did she, but more by the questions running through her head, than by the unnatural thing happening in front of her. What had happened to him? Why was he shirtless? How did he get here? Where did the wound come from? Who or what had hurt him? She pushed down the shock and confusion that were taking over her and decided to take care of him first.
"Are you okay?", she asked while slowly touching his almost closed up wound. He flinched away from her touch and carefully started to stand up. "Yeah, I'm fine.", he answered. Because of the blood loss, his legs didn't support him yet, and he had to kneel back down, facing slightly away from her while his eyes started to dart to the tree line closest to her car. "You really scared me", she stated. "What happened to you? Do you need anything?" "I'm fine, just ignore me. I'll be leaving in a few minutes anyways.", he said while his head moved from her to the forest and back. "What? Where would you go? You're still hurt!"
Although she was trying very hard, she still felt very unable to get a hold of herself and the situation. Almost like her mind was working on an autopilot that had never been there before. She followed his glance into the wood and saw a slight movement out the corner of her eye. It looked like the outlines of three frighteningly large shadows that were lurking between the trees. For some reason, she knew that these three people were not the ones that harmed the young boy next to her but rather wanted to help him. And for some reason, she knew, that she was in their way.
His shoulder was now marked with nothing more than a small scratch and with a short look at him, she untied her scarf. He carefully stood up and turned away from her towards the tress. He seemed a little hesitant to leave without saying something. She just assumed he wanted to thank her and tried to reassure him. "No need to thank me", she said "just go, your pack is waiting for you." He had already started walking back to the woods, but as he heard her words he slightly stumbled and then started to run towards the three shadows, as if she had said something very very wrong.
...
So this is the first chapter of the story. I hope you liked it. I'd appreciate any feedback about my writing style, the storyline or anything else. Just let me know, what you think. I hope I can the next chapter up in the next few days.
Thanks for reading!
