The Sighting

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I stood in the forest with my bow and arrow at the ready, my father was standing behind me giving me tips and adjusting my posture.

"Okay sweety when you see the wolf run past you, aim and shoot." my father said helping me with my aiming.

I could feel my palms getting sweaty and my gaze blurring a bit but I shook it off and concentrated into the darkness.

I heard a howl in the forest and my father indicated to me to get ready, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and when the wolf came running out of the forest I let go of the arrow and it hit it on the neck.

The wolf came crashing down, whimpering in pain. I adjusted my eyes and took in a big gulp.

"Well done sweetheart!" my father praised me.

He took my bow out of my hand and led me towards the wolf, it was losing too much blood to react to anything happening around it. "Now sweetheart, you are going to take your gun and shoot it in its head so that it doesn't have to suffer anymore."

I looked at my father confused, I was causing the suffering, I was the one that shot the wolf. My father placed the gun in my hand and aimed it at the wolf's head.

I closed my eyes, too scared to look at what I will be doing, I felt pressure from my father's finger and then heard a loud bang.

My heart was racing, I opened up my eyes to see a dead wolf lying in front of me. Its blood spattered all over my face and hand from the shot to its head.

I started crying and looked at my father, "Oh honey don't cry. We are hunters, it's what we do, these animals killed your mother. They do not deserve any mercy." My father said, patting my back with admiration.

He took the gun out of my hand and indicated for me to walk with him back to the house.

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I woke up in a pool of my sweat, I had that dream again. The dream of my first kill, that was nine years ago, I've learned more in that time.

I got up and made my way to my bathroom where I rinsed my face with water. Looking up at myself I could see where the wolf I was hunting scratched me.

I was out hunting a pack of wolves called the Shadow pack, a few locals have complained that their livestock have been killed the past month and a child was badly hurt when one of the wolves transitioned.

My father told me that the Crescent Hunters have been around for years protecting Clearwater against the man who sheds fur.

The scratch started burning and I could feel my heart beginning to race, I looked up to my reflection in the mirror and saw a tinge of yellow pupils appear, I backed away tripping over the carpet on the bathroom floor.

I tried gripping on the shower curtain to help prevent me from falling but one by one the clips broke and I found myself in the bath.

I could hear footsteps from across the hall, my father ran in with his gun pointing it around looking for an intruder.

"Fuck sakes dad!" I yelled, "I tripped and fell. You can put the gun away before you make things worse." I screamed getting up from the bath.

My father put his gun down on my vanity walking towards me looking to see if I was hurt, "We need to get that scratch checked out, it could get infected." my father said pointing at the scratch.

I shrugged it off as if it was not a priority of mine, "I'm okay dad you can go back to bed, I have training in the morning and I'd still like to get some sleep." I dismissed my father walking out of my bathroom and towards my bed.

My father walked out turning off the light in the bathroom and exited my room.

Things weren't always so tense between my father and me after my mother died my father became overprotective and taught me how to hunt.

He wanted me to take over, he said it was a 'tradition' in the Fallon name for the first daughter of the Crescent Hunters bloodline to be handed over the chance to take over, however, if she cannot fulfil her duties the next sibling will take over.

My father never got the chance as my Aunt Tess proved that she can run the hunters, she was successful too until one night when she was out with my mother at a meeting and a wolf tore them to shreds.

My father took over a week later taking an oath that as long as he is in power he will lead the Crescent's to glory and take back what was ours.

He gives up his title in a matter of two days to me and I am nowhere close to completing my training.

I grunted, taking my pillow and throwing it over my face, Get a grip, I kept telling myself. You have two days until your twenty-second birthday, you can do this.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling for another hour before I felt my eyes drifting off.

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"Run!" a voice kept screaming behind me, without thinking I started running towards the lake. A scream came from behind me followed by a gunshot.

I could feel my adrenaline kicking in forcing me to go faster towards the lake. I got to the water looking around me to see if anyone was following me.

The leaves were rattling behind me and my heart began to race, I turned around to see several yellow eyes watching me from a distance.

It's as if I could hear them all at once talking to me.

"What happened?"

"Where's Ariel?"

"Are you hurt?"

"What should we do now?"

I turned around cupping my hands to my ears trying to make it stop but it didn't, I looked down into the water and saw a seventeen-year-old boy, he had dark brown curly hair, green eyes and he was tanned.

There was a pain in his eyes, the sorrow, he knew something bad had happened and against his instinct, he ran away.

He let out a hurtful howl which caused a chain reaction and the yellow eyes surrounding him did the same.

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I got up in a panic feeling myself everywhere to make sure that I was okay. That dream felt so real. I couldn't put my finger on it. Must be the stress.

I got up and changed into a dark purple tank top, with black running tights. I put my long black hair into a high pony and made my way downstairs to the front door.

It was still dark out, the sun barely making its way past the dense forest around us. I made my way to my usual trail that I ran and started pacing myself through the forest. I could feel my scratch on my neck begin to burn seeing flashes of wolves running beside me.

I stopped by one of the trees with my back leaning against it to catch my breath when I saw a black figure run in front of me.

I ran towards it remembering my training, slowly creeping up towards it until I could see an outline of a tall man.

I got closer and saw a tanned, muscular, dark brown-haired man standing with his back towards me putting on a pair of shorts he had next to him. He had no shirt on which made my heart skip beats I never knew it could.

I walked closer trying to see who the man was when I accidentally stepped on a dry stick and it broke under the pressure of my foot.

I closed my eyes hoping that he did not see but when I opened up my eyes, the man was standing two meters away with yellow eyes.

Fuck.

I turned around and started running towards my house, not looking back. I had my heart racing so much it felt like it was going to explode.

Did I just see a werewolf?

I must be stressing so much my mind is beginning to play tricks on me.

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