Teaser Time: Werewolf in the Woods

It's been a little while since I brought myself back around to edit through what I wrote in the NaNo just gone for Eleanor Price's story, and in doing so I thought I would post this fun scene. Basically, after teaming up with the sorcerer's apprentice, Henry Shay, Eleanor and Rory set out with their new companion in the direction of the Rebellion's base camp. The Rebellion, known as the House of Cards, is intent on overthrowing Rory's uncle from the White Throne and Phineas Alabaster (the Rabbit) enlists Eleanor to help her convince Rory to their cause.

There's a lot more too it, but since the story isn't finished yet - more information will come later.

Enjoy!

After four days wandering through the forest, Eleanor was starting to get really tired. They walked for hours every day and it seemed like they were still no closer to finding the House of Cards’ encampment although Henry assured her every day that they were actually honing in on the rebels.

                They stopped again to make camp, and this time Rory grudgingly offered to go in search of firewood with Henry whilst Eleanor stayed to get everything else in order.

                She was just sitting down to peel some of the remaining berries that Rory had gathered to ready them for the boil when a roar followed by a shout of alarm shocked her from her task. Jumping up and snatching her sword, Eleanor raced towards Henry’s shout just in time to see the sorcerer swiped aside by the largest Wolf she had ever seen.

                “Werewolf!” Henry cried in warning from where he’d landed hard against the trunk of a large tree. “Watch out, Elea, it’s angry!”

                “Werewolf? Of Jesus, of course they’re real here.”

                She could hardly deny it now when the truth was quite literally snarling her in the face.

                Rory was a few paces ahead of her, face to snout with the growling werewolf, and had pulled the Sword of Wonder from his mind, holding it at the ready.

                “Stay back, No!” He yelled, launching himself forward to slash at the Wolf.

                The Wolf ducked away but lunged back toward him when Rory retreated to regroup his stance. He was knocked off his feet momentarily when the Wolf snapped at his legs. Eleanor’s heart just about stopped when he landed heavily on his back at the Wolf’s feet and the animal clambered atop him, jowls dripping with fowl-smelling spit. The Sword of Wonder was thrown to the ground, inches out of reach of Rory’s arms.

                Before she could question herself, Eleanor gave a yell and leapt into the fray, swinging her sword in an arc about her head. She bashed her sword against the werewolf to distract it and it howled in pain before leaping off of Rory and coming after her. Not for the first time in her life, she thanked her lucky stars that she let Jaz drag her to the gym because her cardio was enough to keep her slightly ahead of the Wolf snapping at her heels. But after the first couple seconds of sprinting through the trees her stamina began to lag a little and she wasn’t so confident that her plan to outrun the demon was the best one ever.

                Her scream tore through the forest when a stitch ripped through her and felled her. The wolf skittered around a corner behind her and saw her, howling in pleasure at the kill it was about to make. Eleanor screamed again when the Wolf jumped up into the air to catch her, razor teeth bared.

                She snapped her eyes shut and prayed her death would be quick, only it didn’t come.

                Only a few more moments passed and it didn’t.

                Then a few more. Maybe she had died and simply didn’t notice the difference yet. She cracked one eye open, then the other.

                The sight she saw upon regaining vision caused her to let out an ear splitting scream again, because bare centimetres ahead of her were the still-bared silver-white teeth of the werewolf, poised and ready to gobble her up.

                Well, the good news was she probably wasn’t dead. The bad news was that she’d scared about twenty years off her life.

                She was working on controlling her breathing when a large, male hand thrust down towards her. It belonged to Rory, panting heavily and filled with relief to see that she wasn’t dog food by now. Well, that makes two of us.

                “God, don’t scare me like that,” Rory growled, sounding suspiciously like the wolf he’d just pulled her away from. “I’d have taken him in the end, but you nearly got yourself turned to steak!”

                “I had faith in you guys to save me?”

                Henry’s equally angry voice drifted over to her. “I’m flattered you did, but don’t ever do that again. You just scared about a century off my life!”

                Eleanor followed his voice to see Henry standing beside the Wolf with his hands held up and outwards. It took her all of a second to realise that her close call with the werewolf was helped by the timely interference of Henry, having apparently recovered enough from his slam dunk to give chase. He held his hands up to freeze the Wolf like a stop watch and froze it in place.

                “How long will that Wolf be frozen like that?”

                The spell suddenly wore off and the Wolf went nose-first straight into the ground with a squeal of pain before turning around. Eleanor screamed and clutched onto Rory when Henry threw out his hands again sent a bolt of energy shooting straight at the wolf. It squealed again in pain and with a loud pop it...miniaturised.

                Right into a teeny, tiny puppy with huge eyes.

                Eleanor’s scream of terror morphed to a squeal of delight at the complete adorability of the sudden baby animal in the forest.

                The puppy cried in surprise and despair and limped away from them into the forest.

                “Oh no, come back! Gosh you’re so adorable!”

                Henry lowered his arms and shot Rory a look over Eleanor’s head; she was clutching onto Rory still but now out of disappointment.

                Eleanor didn’t like to lie to herself, and she knew that she’d wanted to hug that damn werewolf turned puppy so, so bad.

                “You alright, pet?” Henry asked as Eleanor did her best to tamp down the disappointment of not cuddling the werewolf. She turned to see him watching her with a faint twinkle in his eye.

                “Yes – you saved me.” A wide grin of gratitude spread across her face. “You froze that werewolf like a giant icy pole!”

                Henry looked pleased. “Indeed yes, although I don’t quite know what an ‘icy pole’ is. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I have the ability, albeit for a short period of time, to freeze an object or being in its place.” He wiggled his fingers at her. “It’s a bit more taxing to do it longer though.”

                “Well, it’s a good thing you could force yourself to use your precious energy,” Rory huffed over the top of Eleanor’s head. “I hate to think what would have happened to Nor here without your interference.”

                Eleanor couldn’t help but notice his admission seemed to cost him some kernel of pride because he went a bit red in the cheeks. She tugged on his arm until he looked down and met her eyes. She smiled at him to show that his attempts to help were as equally appreciated and that she was glad he was alright, but it only succeeded in making him go redder, extricate himself from her strangely tight grip and stumble off into the trees.

                Eleanor followed his movement with her eyes, baffled.

                Henry’s expression just faded to impassivity like he knew what Rory was really doing. Stupid male pride shenanigans.

                “Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon.”

                “I know.”

Sam xox