The Discovery

Silver's Pov

I was searching.

Scratch that, I was lost.

There in the forest, my eyes darting wherever, I had one goal; to skip training for as long as possible.

Training was the most useless thing ever! We could have been inventing new things, traveling the world or discovering new technologies. I read somewhere that in some other human worlds, they could communicate with others far away, but all my people ever concerned themselves with was training.

Morning, afternoon, night.

Training to defeat werewolves who didn't even exist.

No one shared my sentiment though. Each time I shared my thoughts about werewolves being something we created in our heads just so we humans could have an excuse to play with weapons against each other each day, people always shook their heads and reminded me that the only reason I hadn't been attacked by a werewolf was because my father had destroyed their forces several years ago.

It didn't help that my father who had died before I was born, was said to have been the greatest werewolf hunter who ever lived.

Lies. Lies. Lies.

I knew they were lying because I had never seen a werewolf before, and each description the older ones gave of them changed each time. The neighbor said they were hunchbacked freaks of nature, my Solstice teacher maintained they were beautiful furry creatures while my mother always said most were just like humans, but with the ability to transform occasionally into wolves.

After years of being constantly compared to my father who had unfortunately died fighting the mystical figures, and constantly embarrassing my non-athletic self during training sessions, I knew I had to try something else.

I always got in trouble skipping sessions, but no detention, community service, or time out was scary enough to make me go out there to train for something when I knew it served no purpose in real life. In a way, I actually liked detention. It gave me time away from everyone and since I was usually confined in the library, I got to read about other worlds, mysteries, and technologies that were way more interesting than the possibility of some humans suddenly becoming werewolves because of the moon.

Like, what purpose did they even serve?

That brings me to my reason for being in the forest. Since everyone else stood firm on their belief of this being they have never seen, I decided to use my training time to embark on a journey of my own, for research.

Each day, when it was still dark out, I would sneak out of the house and come here, marking my paths as I went deeper into the scary forest, hoping to find something, anything that would make that belief hold water. So far, I had found nothing, but at least I'd been temporarily excused from training and my mother believed I was finally taking it more seriously.

A win-win situation.

I sighed as I sat down on a log, regretting yet another wasted morning. So far I had seen two squirrels fighting, an antelope running away, and a snake that almost bit me. What had I been thinking? Of course I wasn't going to find anything because none of it was real.

Turning back, I started to leave, when a sudden gust of wind blew through my back as if something has just rushed past. When I turned to look, there was nothing there. The hair at the back of my neck stood as my heart began to pound. I frowned, backing away, trying to assure myself it was probably just a small animal I couldn't see, but my fears remained.

I heard a low howl from somewhere around, but I didn't see any animal. For some reason, the sound terrified me. I started to run back home. This research was no longer as exciting as it had been when I first started. When I turned towards the same path for the third time, I regrettably realized I was lost.

I heard the howl again, this time nearer, yet I could see no animal, again. This was so…unsettling.

I squatted behind a tree and squinted, hoping to find whatever could have been making that noise before it found me. If it was my younger sister, Tiffanie, I'd kill her. She knew what I was here for and she wasn't one to miss an opportunity to prank me.

My eyes settled on a figure far away. It was blurry, but it looked like a man, and it didn't look like he was wearing anything. I wanted to vomit. I turned my eyes away, but then they popped open. What was a grown man doing naked, in the middle of a forest, by that time? Maybe I'd seen wrongly.

When I looked back in his direction, my heart sank into my chest when I noticed he was looking at me, and walking…towards me, fast.

I swallowed a scream and ran, but my legs felt like jelly. I started to imagine a lot of things. What if the man was a pervert? I would be done for. This expedition wasn't worth it.

I ran as far as my shaky legs could carry me, desperately hoping I was not running deeper into the forest. I didn't dare look back, but when I heard footsteps chasing after me, I began to cry.

Because of my poor eyesight and teary vision, I didn't see the branch in front of me and I fell flat on my face. I tried to get up, but my body was simply shaking too much from fear. I shut my eyes tightly and the footsteps stopped, and started coming one step at a time. He had got me for sure.

I was crying, praying that this man wouldn't do anything to me, but imagining the worst at the same time.

I felt a wet spongy thing on my face. Like a tongue.

What the…

Opening my eyes a little, I found a dog licking my face. I smiled a little as I petted its head. I loved dogs, but this one was wild and who knew what diseases it may have been carrying. I just didn't want to scare it into biting me.

My blood ran cold when the dog moved back a little and watched me. It wasn't a dog. Its features were a little more profound.

A wolf…

I said nothing, wishing my sister or anyone would come find me. The wolf did nothing but stare at me for long moments, before sniffing my neck.

"Silvie!" I heard my mother's angry voice call from somewhere. The wolf jumped over me and disappeared into the woods. I had never been more thankful to hear my mother's voice.

"Mom!" I screamed, getting up and going to hug her, with frightened tears on my face. .

She hugged me back, not like she had a choice when I just threw myself at her.

"What are you doing here? I heard you've been skipping training to come here…" She sniffed my hair and suddenly, her angry features became alarmed instead.

"Why do you smell like that?" she asked, holding me up at arm's length. "Who did you meet here?"