Alkira's POV

The Great Melbourne forest was a haunting place. Alkira looked around at the swaying gum trees. They groaned in the wind and dropped branches and leaves constantly. The wind with it's mighty roar from the fact that there could be all matter of dangerous creature lurking within.

And yes, the wind did make the forest dangerous a branch could weigh a ton and kill you instantly. However there were other reasons she knew why it was so dangerous.

Them.

She new a small part of what made the forest so dangerous to not only mortals. She foolishly hoped that because she had seen them so recently that they wouldn't be around and wouldn't bother them. She had no reason to fear them for they had never harmed her. But those eyes.

The shattered eyes.

Every time she thought of them she felt like she could throw up. They were only two "people" of the forest. What else was out there? Alkira didn't know but she agreed with Nyarai strongly. They needed to get out of there. After all. Alkira did have her dust on her. 

All of it.

Nyarai looked at all of them "So guys we need to take stock of supplies. We don't know how long we're going to be walking for."

She looked around at the group. Everyone unzipped their bags and started rummaging through them. 

Alkira peered into one of her own bags, looking at the glowing dust. She zipped that one back up. No need to draw attention to it.

Cale was first, carrying only a small flat backpack "Well in terms of food, I've got a few protein bars."

Naoko and Alkira groaned.

Nyarai was hopeful, "No that's not too bad guys, they can keep us going if we ration them," she looked at Cale again "continue."

"I do have a little first aid kit," he opened it "mostly stuff for taping up injuries."

"That's good," Nyarai encouraged, smiling nervously.

"Yeah that's it really aside from my phone and wallet which are just about useless."

Naoko went next "Well lucky for you guys I have left overs, and my asian mum always packs way too much food for me. She packed extra extra food because I was going to do spots."

Nyarai smiled "awesome."

"Only problem is it probably needs to be eaten today," Naoko rummaged through her bag "I've got a torch, a lighter, but it's not mine I swear, sewing/repairs kit, a change of clothes, a change of heels which are stiletto so they could be used as weapons and a ton of makeup."

Nyarai nodded "The torch and the lighter actually will be really good.

Naoko chuckled "who knew my smoking boyfriend would come in handy."

Their eyes turned to Alkira and her many bags. 

"Well..." Alkira started.

"Why do you have so many bags, what were you doing in the city?" Naoko asked.

Alkira's mind rushed around trying to think of an excuse "I was ... going to stay with my sister."

"That's a lot of things for a sleepover," Naoko pressed.

"Anyway," Alkira started "I haven't got any food only money, which is a lot of use out here I know. But I've got rope and a grappling hook and many other things."

"Why do you hav-" Cale started but Alkira cut him off.

"Does it really matter they're fun ok?" Alkira shot glares at Naoko and Cale before looking back down at her bag "Oh actually I do have a few snacks in here."

"Good, thank you for sharing Alkira," Nyarai looked down into her bag. Her face melted into sadness. She pulled out two sandwiches, two apples and two water bottles "I never trusted my sister to hold her own stuff," Nyarai's voice was soft. 

There was silence for a moment.

Cale's now yellow eyes sparked with curiosity "Did Zowda even see Pan?"

"No I don't think so," Nyarai almost whispered.

Naoko's hand slapped her cheek in realisation or something...  "Oh my god, my friends, they saw him but afterwards they couldn't remember him. It was so weird, I thought I was going crazy."

"So does that mean that the only ones who could see him were us four and that's why we were taken?" Cale asked.

Alkira was zipping up her bags "Seems like it. Either way we've got to go."

They all slung their bags onto their backs. Alkira had quite a few bags, they were awkward to hold. Cale approached her "Hey, I'll carry one of those."

"Thanks," Alkira smiled handing off one of her bags. Not the one with the dust, even though she knew he wouldn't try to steal it. She wanted to keep it close to her just in case. She could feel the glass jar rest against her hip and it gave her comfort despite everything.

So the journey began.

With a compass from Nyarai's phone they headed west not knowing how long it would be. But just knowing west was civilisation. It occured to Alkira that they might not even be in Victoria anymore, hell they might not have been in Australia. She looked up at the gum trees and suppressed that thought. Everyone else was already on edge. 

The terrain was difficult with branches and bark littering the ground, still Alkira stomped through it. The only other signs of life were birds that seemed to be mocking  them with their songs for being so hopelessly lost in the forest. Those birds despite having their wings and ability to fly were selfish and wouldn't tell them the direction of civilisation no matter how nicely they asked. Alkira wondered if they were actually birds at all or if they were some kind of small demon who only existed to irritate humans. Like a flees with feathers.

Alkira giggled at her own irritated insanity, gaining a strange look from Cale, whom she shot a glare. 

She had wanted freedom from her mother for so long and here she was, about as free as she could be. It didn't feel so good but how could it? She knew her mother's life would fall apart completely without her. And in many ways it would be her fault completely. The one thing that plagued Alkira's mind was that it shouldn't be her fault. Her leaving shouldn't affect her mother so dramatically. But it would. Alkira at 17 was supporting her mother, paying bills and rent with money she got from the dust. Her mother would soon be homeless without her because she had cut off just about every person in her life in drunken rage. 

Now even if she wanted to Alkira couldn't go back. She was free of her mother whether she liked it or not. 

Pan had done her a favour making the decision for her, now she could just blame him and have it be done with. 

Alkira thought that once she got out of this cursed forest, she'd walk out of her beautiful city apartment which had views of the Yarra. She'd walk down Swanston or possibly Burke and she'd see a homeless woman on the street with a sign claiming to have a mental disability and that the government is the enemy or something like that. Alkira would be generous with pity and rummage around her purse for some coins. And the woman would grab her arm and stare deeply into her eyes and Alkira would have found her mother. Alkira couldn't guess how she would react to the situation despite being able to picture it so perfectly.

Her concern caught Cale's attention "Are you ok?"

He paused trying to let the others walk on, but his concern caught and all eyes were on her. Nerves grated their icy claws against the edge of her consciousness. She froze. 

"Yeah I'm fine, just..." Alkira struggled to think of a lie "you know... worried about the forest, it is going to be... dark soon so..." 

The eyes were off her and everyone continued walking. The claws retracted and she could breathe.

"Yeah me too, it's very unsettling," Naoko looked up, the sun was starting to set. 

"I have an awful feeling that we aren't going to make it out tonight," Nyarai said under her breath but they all heard it. 

Cale looked back at Alkira, "don't suppose you have a tent in any of these?"

Alkira bit her lip thinking "I have a blanket."

"We should keep walking until it's too dark," Nyarai said and they all obeyed.

The forest looked different in the sunset, pink an orange hues made it almost too pretty. Alkira didn't trust it. It was a little bit of beauty before it trapped them into a blacken night. Finally the birds had started to die down, Alkira was thankful for that. However she would almost prefer their mocking songs to whatever lurked in the darkness. 

The light faded into purple then everything lost all it's colour yet they were all still able to see. They trudged on not thinking much of it until Alkira's shoulder got sore and she adjusted her bag and got a glimpse of the moon. 

It was high into the sky. Alkira blinked not believing her eyes. She looked around, everything was still clear just with a lack of colour, was she so caught up in the walk that she hadn't noticed that it had become night. Darkness had fallen around them and wrapped them into itself and they had failed to notice it.

"Guys."

They all turned to her snapping out of their walking trances.

"It's night," she pointed up at the moon.

They all looked up.

"What the hell, I can see perfectly fine," exclaimed Naoko.

"What is going on?" Nyarai looked around, she seemed so lost.

"So wait, we can all see in the dark now?" Cale looked from person to person. They were all nodding. 

Suddenly there was a presence. Alkira could feel their eyes burning toward them, curious. She whipped around to see a small figure dart into the trees.

And without thought, without reason; Alkira found herself dropping her bags and chasing.

By her side she found that the others had done the same. 

They were fast, inhumanly fast and it wasn't long before they caught up to this small figure. Alkira reached out and grabbed him. He was about chest height on her, with large pointed ears, a big spotted nose and a shiny head that reflected the moonlight. He looked up at them with anger, then with fear.

"Werewolves are you?"

Meow Myths,

Writing while sneezing, you should try it some time. It makes you more eager to get the words down. It's Spring here in Australia.... officially.  I really enjoyed writing this chapter, this book is getting a lot more fun now that they characters are together.

First published - 20/9/18

Meow for Now