Brennan

THE PACK IS RISING

By: Lauren Schmeltzer

A boy named Brennan who was twelve years old with blue eyes, and jet-black hair was out hunting in the forest by his house where he and his father used to go hunt for beavers and chipmunks and other small animals. One day his father went out hunting when Brennan was seven and he never returned.

All that he and his mom found was his gun and his hat which was torn. He slowly walked towards a stream and waited behind a bush until he saw a flicker of movement in the bracken ahead. A rabbit jumped out and Brennan took aim right at its head and right as he pulled the trigger the rabbit hopped forward and the bullet just missed it and it bounded through the trees.

Brennan walked on and noticed a scrape on the tree he had passed not to long ago. He looked down and saw deer tracks on the ground. He followed the tracks to a meadow that had grass almost up to Brennan’s shoulders.

He bent his knees so he could hide in the tall grass until he spotted the deer he was after. He waited for what seemed like hours until he heard the noise of antlers banging together. He slowly rose up until he could just barely see a herd of deer resting in the clearing. He saw a doe and two fawns sleeping together and two bucks charging and fighting with each other.

Brennan aimed at the bigger of the two and shot it strait in the heart. The other deer ran off and Brennan dragged the deer a long ways away to his cabin. He left it outside to go tell his mom and came back outside to get it and noticed it was already dark and when he got to the back of the house where he left the deer, all that he found was bones. He went back inside disappointedly, and went to the dinner table where his sister Lindsey who was seventeen and his mom were eating dinner and talking about Brennan’s dad. Brennan still had no idea what happened to his dad the night he disappeared. “I wish he were still here now” said Lindsey with a sigh. “I know sweetie” said his mom as she looked down at her potatoes and started crying a little bit.

Brennan decided to take a walk through the woods so he left the cabin and started walking by the stream with his shotgun ready in case a bear or lion jumped out at him. When he got to the stream he put his shotgun down on a rock and sat down on a rock facing the slowly rising Moon only a few feet away. The moon was full and it kind of scared Brennan so he turned to grab his gun and go home.

He couldn’t see his gun anywhere! He got up and slowly left the stream he started to walk faster until he saw tracks in the dirt where he walked only a few minutes before on the way to the stream.

They were wolf tracks! Brennan was suddenly pushed to the dirt and he felt claws and teeth striking at him and then everything went dark.

Brennan woke up and thought he was dead but he wasn’t somehow. He saw a tail disappearing in the shadows in front of him and was about to head home when he noticed that he could see something weird on his face.

It looked like a dog’s muzzle! Brennan looked down and saw a lot of smoky black fur on his legs and arms. His knees bent the other way and when he pulled his feet out of his shoes they had claws on them.

He suddenly forgot where he was going and began to feel hungry. He smelled a rabbit in the bushes behind him and raced after it. The rabbit slipped into a hole in the ground the same moment Brennan heard a voice.

It was a loud voice that said “Helloooooooooo” Brennan was curious where it was coming from. He ran towards the forest for awhile until he came across a clearing with odd looking creatures in it.

They all looked like him except he was the only black one. The skin of every creature was gray like his. They all looked kind of like wolves but most of them were on hind legs and had longer muzzles and legs.

Brennan slowly walked into the clearing and hoped none of the creatures would think he’s different and attack him. He watched a huge red furred creature walk up to him. He froze and waited for it to attack him.

He closed his eyes and was relieved to hear it speak “are you new?” it asked and Brennan realized it was a girl. He was confused what she meant by new. “What do you mean?” he said trembling still afraid of her.

“Is this your first time being like this?” she asked. “Yes” Brennan replied. She backed up and spoke again “Well don’t be scared, my name is Flame” she said. “Flame?” Brennan asked, wondering why her name might be flame and not something normal like Kate or Alexandria.

“All werewolves are given a name that suits their personality or looks” Flame said. “Werewolves?” Brennan asked her. He had only heard of werewolves in horror movies and they always killed people that they saw.

“All the creatures in this clearing are werewolves” Flame explained. Brennan looked at the creatures again and noticed that they looked nothing like the werewolves in the movies he’d seen. Just then a howl split through the clearing and Brennan turned to see a werewolf even bigger than Flame standing on two legs on a huge rock at the edge of the clearing.

You couldn’t even see his fur because it was a blonde color almost the same color as its skin. “That’s Frostbite, the werewolf leader” whispered Flame. “Are there any new werewolves         tonight?” Frostbite howled. “Here” yelled Flame and she shoved him forward through all the staring eyes onto the rock. “What is your human name?” asked Frostbite.

 And his eyes looked like moons themselves in the light. “Brennan” he said starting to feel scared again. “Brennan is what you are known to humans but from now on you will be a werewolf by the name of Shadow” Frostbite said and all the werewolves cheered “Shadow! Shadow!” Brennan jumped off the rock and walked back over to Flame.

The cheers died down as Frostbite began to speak “Next full moon we will go into a town where me and Grayback have seen people move in for a long while.

But for tonight I want you all to go hunt” he said. Brennan and Flame left the clearing and headed in a random direction. “So what’s your human name?” asked Brennan. “Lexi” She replied. “Hey Flame, mind if I hunt with you?” a male werewolf with orange fur walked up to them.

 “Sure Bronze” Flame replied. Flame turned to Brennan as they started walking forward again. “He’s my brother. His human name is Clay” Flame said. Together the three were wolves walked through the forest until they came to a wide meadow. “Stop” said Flame. She stuck her nose in the air and stood up. She suddenly flopped down on all fours and started walking forward slowly followed by Bronze.

Brennan followed them not knowing what they were doing. Suddenly Brennan smelled something. It was a deer. “Shadow I want you to go after this one” Flame whispered. Brennan looked through the tall grass and saw a doe walking through the meadow with caution.

Luckily the werewolves were downwind so the doe could not smell them. Brennan jumped at it and knocked it down. The doe smacked Brennan in the face and ran off. Brennan remained in that spot holding his injured muzzle with his paws. Flame and Bronze leaped to his side from the tall grass.

“Hold on” Bronze said as he pounded through the grass into the forest. Brennan lay down on his back the pain in his muzzle increasing gradually. Finally Bronze came back clutching a pile of leaves in his mouth.

He started chewing them and spit the mushy globs onto Brennan’s muzzle. “What are you doing” Brennan howled in disgust. “It will help numb the pain” Flame said. Sure enough within minutes the pain was nearly gone.

When Brennan got up he saw a light in the distance. “Almost morning. See you later Shadow” said Flame. She and her brother ran away. Brennan stayed in the grass for a while until the sun was nearly visible. He got up and started walking towards the forest. When Brennan got to a small stream he leaped onto a rock and fell asleep.

The next morning Brennan woke up, his lip hurt and he thought that he must have hit his head on the rock and somehow that had an effect on his dream. He walked through the forest until he got to the cabin.

He walked into the kitchen and saw his sister Lindsey, his brother Kyle who was twenty, and his mom sitting at the table. As soon as he walked in, his mom leaped out of her chair looking as if she would explode.

“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!?” She screamed. Brennan was about to make up an excuse when he heard another question “What happened to your face?” asked Lindsey. Brennan ran upstairs and into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Brennan saw a huge bruise the size of a baseball on the side of his mouth with a scar by one side.

Worst of all Brennan saw green all over the wound. Brennan was surprised to hear Kyle in the doorway. “Get hit with a rock?” he asked. “Wait what’s that green stuff on it?” Kyle asked looking closer.

“Leaves. Why would you put leaves on it?” he asked.

Brennan just barged past him and went into his room and locked the door. Brennan opened the curtains and looked at the wind blowing through the trees. He saw a bush move against the wind and was curious.

He ran down the stairs trying to avoid the questions being flown at him. He grabbed a bow-and-arrow and ran to the forest. “Who’s there?” he asked. “Shadow?” Brennan heard a familiar voice whisper.

“Flame?” he called out. Suddenly a girl came out of the bushes. She was about three inches shorter than Brennan and had fiery-red hair about a foot and a half long. She had Hazel eyes that were as soft as she looked.

This girl looked nothing like the high experienced werewolf he knew. “Bronze, come out” She said. A small boy that looked like his sister came out of the bushes.

He looked like he was fourteen and was almost a foot taller than Brennan.

“What are you two doing here?” Brennan asked. “We might ask you the same question” Said Bronze. “Well I live here” said Brennan. Bronze and Flame went silent after that. “Well we were going to look for good places to hunt” said Flame. “Where do you two live?” asked Brennan.

“About seventy-three miles from here” said Bronze. “Ah” said Brennan. “You want to hunt with us?” asked Flame. “I guess” replied Brennan.

So together they walked through the forest for what seemed like hours until they got to a shed. The shed looked like it had been there for centuries.

It had holes in the roof and the sides were peeling off so you could see the insides and when Brennan looked in he saw seven guns, four bows, and an old rusty sword.

Flame opened a door on the side of it and it fell off the hinges. “Well, it may not be the best place to store weapons but it will work” Bronze said.

Brennan watched Flame come out with two shotguns and a pistol. She gave one of the shotguns to Brennan and the other she gave to Bronze. Flame walked over to Bronze and started whispering to him.

Brennan tried to act like he didn’t care and sat on a rock next to the shed. Brennan caught a few words of the conversation “tigron…Tough how… eagon… too…” he heard them whisper. Then they started walking so Brennan followed. After a while they came too a huge clearing.

Brennan saw them stop and waited behind. Suddenly, an earsplitting screech interrupted the silence Brennan turned around and saw a griffin fly towards them. It was completely different from the creatures he heard in stories though.

It had the head of an eagle that was completely black, front legs like a black horse, and the body of a black tiger with red stripes. Brennan stared at the creature with wide eyes and heard it screech again.

Suddenly, sixteen others flew into the clearing. “These are called Devillegriffs” Whispered Flame. Brennan stared at them and then looked at Bronze who was aiming at them. Bronze fired at the biggest and it fell.

Flame started firing her pistol at the others who only twitched when they were shot and flew away after being shot countless times.

The one that Bronze shot however, Got up but when it unfolded its wings to fly away, Brennan saw a hole bigger than the bruise on his cheek on its left wing.

It started flapping but the extra push from the right wing tipped it over and Bronze shot it in the head till it died. “Well, now you know how to kill them Shadow” Said Flame. Brennan was amazed. Flame was only eleven but she took down that creature when it was over twice her size.

“It’s so much easier to kill them when your werewolf” said Bronze.

“It doesn’t look like it, but it is” said Flame. Bronze put his hands under the creatures shoulder and Flame put her hands under the stomach. “Shadow, grab the legs” said bronze. So Brennan walked over to it and grabbed the legs tightly and pulled up. He looked at Bronze and he started to walk towards where the west. They pulled it about fifty feet and let go.

Bronze, Flame, and Brennan were all breathing heavily. They sat there for a few minutes then started carrying the devillegriff again. This time they made it a little further but stopped after another fifty or so feet.

“We have to continue in the morning” said Flame. Bronze grabbed three small shovels from behind a rock a few feet away. He gave one to Brennan and one to Flame and they started digging. The moon was high in the sky by the time they had made a whole big enough for the large creature.

They got out and pushed the devillegriff into the pit and started burying it. When they had finished, Brennan started walking toward the east and Bronze and Flame headed further west. Brennan walked for a long time until he came to the stream. He was so excited that he ran the rest of the way home and bolted inside.

Then he walked up the stairs suddenly realizing how tired he was. He opened the door to his room and flopped down. He was so tired that he fell asleep almost as soon as he shut his eyes.

Brennan awoke the next morning to see Bronze poking his cheek. “Morning Shadow” he said. “We have to move that devillegriff” he said trying to get him to stay awake and get out of bed. “YOU MEAN THAT WASN’T A DREAM?!?” Brennan screamed. He pulled his covers over his face with a moan. “Nope” said Bronze pulling the covers off his face.

Bronze leaned over the bed and pulled the blinds open. “I said… RISE AND SHINE” he said.

The light went straight through Brennan’s eyelids. “Why did you do that?” Brennan asked. His voice was muffled by the blankets. Bronze pulled the blankets out of his face. “I guess we’ll do this the hard way” he said. Bronze put his arms under Brennan’s back and knees and lifted him into the air as easy as if he were a little tiny kitten.

Brennan started fighting him but couldn’t do anything. Bronze launched Brennan through the glass window and the screen (when he said the hard way he meant it).

Brennan started falling. Blind to what was on the ground; he thought for sure he would die this way: falling from probably 25 feet, about to smack his head on the hard earth below. Suddenly, Brennan fell onto something soft.

He flipped around to see he was lying on a bunch of layers of animal pelts that he didn’t recognize: on the bottom was a layer of reptile pelts with scales that must have been three feet long. They were in many different colors like, blue, red, green, black, white, purple, gray, yellow, brown, and even silver and gold! The second layer was made of red, blue, and, green cow skin. The third was a layer of foot-long fur that changed to colors like aqua, ecru, antique brass, almond, maroon etc. colors he thought were only crayon colors.

The layer that he was laying on was a layer of feathers almost as long as his arm that were an unexplained color; kind of like a mixture of red, gray, sea blue, and maybe even a little gold. Brennan looked up and saw Flame sitting on a chair made of golden scales like the ones he was laying on. “I was wondering how long it would be till he awoke you” she said looking up from the chair.

“Well actually” Brennan stopped. He thought he saw Flame’s chair move. Brennan then noticed that it wasn’t a chair, it was a body! He suddenly saw a head rise with a neck about five feet long under it. Flame got up off of it and the creature seemed to barely notice us.

“Finally wake up Star?” she asked. Star saw her and made a weird noise like purring but kind of a scratchy quiet howl. She got up on four very scaly legs with claws that were about a foot long and a tail almost as long as the neck that ended in a point like a whip. Star was nearly ten yards long!

She sprouted out wings nearly twice the size of her with one four-foot claw at the end of each one. Flame didn’t seem in the least bit surprised about it. Star started rubbing her head against Flame’s shoulder and continued the purring. “Pet dragon” Flame said. “Long story” she told me.

Just then, Brennan saw Bronze jump out the window and land on the exotic animal pelts right next to me. “Good riddance!” I heard the familiar voice of Kyle yell. Brennan could tell that he had no idea that Bronze was still alive.

He and bronze got off of the pelts and he watched as Bronze and flame put them on Star. They climbed on and told Brennan did the same. The scales were as hard as a rock when he sat down which made it very uncomfortable. “Hold on tight” Bronze said in front of me.

Brennan grabbed the only thing he could find which happened to be the scales. Star launched into the air and Brennan’s fingers slipped on the scale and it cut him but he stayed on. He looked down and amazingly in three seconds they must have gone up a hundred feet!

He clutched the scale as tight as he could when they went up to speeds greater than any possible car. The wind burned as it hit his skin and it felt fifty times as bad as the scale. After what seemed like hours, they came to the clearing where they killed the devillegriff.

As soon as they all got off, Star flew away pelts and all. Brennan started to realize that they had no shovels. Then he remembered the shovels that they had used last time were behind the huge rock. Flame walked behind it and pulled out the three shovels they used last time.

“One for me. One for Bronze. And one for Shadow.” She gave one to Brennan and Bronze, and then she took one for herself. As soon as Brennan touched his, the rust and dirt that was on it from before vanished completely.

“What happened?” he asked. “Oh the shovels rust easier than regular shovels but as soon as they are touched by the person who used them last, they become as shiny as the day they were first used” Flame replied. “Oh okay” Brennan said, although the thought scared him a little bit. Together they all dug through the dirt for what must have been only five minutes until they got to the devillegriff.

But what Brennan saw took him by surprise. Instead of a bloody, muddy body was a beautiful red griffin with blue stripes. Flame and Bronze started pulling the body out of the pit and they put it on the dirt.

“So how are we going to carry it more than a hundred yards away?” asked Brennan. “Relax Shadow” Flame said. She pulled a miniature pure gold clarinet out of her pocket and began to play a slow devilish tune that reminded Brennan of his worst nightmares: being attacked by werewolves, finding his father’s hat, Kyle locking him in the attic when he was only eight (he thought there were vampire bats hidden in there) , and thousands of other terrifying things.

He looked out over the trees and saw a rainbow of dragons flying through the sky as if they were mere pigeons and not million pound lizards. The wide variety of colors glistened in the morning light.

There were black ones, red ones, blue ones, green ones, there were also white, pink, brown, silver, gold, gray, orange, purple, aqua, cerulean, and so many more. The closer they came the smaller they got and as soon as they landed they looked like scaly winged cats. “We need you to fly this to our home” Bronze said as he pointed to the devillegriff that looked as if it could crush them all in one small step.

Brennan was about to turn around to tell Bronze the fact that they were only flying cats when he saw the dragons grow to the size of a rhino. He watched as seventeen of them picked up the devillegriff as if it were a paper clip and lift it off the ground and into the sky.

A pink dragon landed in front of Flame and she pulled herself on. A green one went to Bronze and he climbed on. Then a weird dragon landed next to Brennan. It was white but had wavy navy blue lines outlined with baby blue all around its body. Brennan slowly walked towards it and touched its sharp, smooth, and long scales.

He was about to climb up but was interrupted by a deep female voice. “Hi!” it said. Brennan fell backwards at the sudden voice. “Sorry to startle you” she said. Brennan looked at the dragon and realized that the voice came from it.

“Don’t worry…I’ll protect you” she said. He saw that the dragon’s lips didn’t move at all when she spoke. “Hi” he said nervously in his mind wondering if he should say it. “Ah an answer” she said. “How did you hear me?” Brennan asked aloud. “I can read your mind and you can read mine” she said. “Ok” Brennan said in his mind.

“Which means you have to name me” she said. “What!?” Brennan screamed in his mind. “When a dragon can speak to someone, they have to be named by them” she said. “I’ll have to think about it” Brennan said. He looked at the sky and saw nineteen dragons waiting for him.

He cautiously walked towards the dragon and clambered on her back. As soon as he got on her back, she took of with the other dragons. Brennan was searching for a good name when one popped into his mind Icefire. She looked like ice but she also looked like fire.

“I like that name” she told him. “Okay. Icefire it is” he thought to her. They flew through the sky next to Flame and Bronze. The dragons pulling the devillegriff were flying in front of  

They were flying in the same exact direction as Flame and Bronze had gone the night before. At around midday, they came to a fifty-foot waterfall glistening in the sun. All of the dragons landed on a ledge at the top.

The dragons that were carrying the devillegriff flew away and the ones that flew with Brennan helped carry the creature now. All six were carrying it upstream. Brennan stared at the stream, glistening yellow in the sunlight.

Salmon leaped over the rocks as they traveled through the river. The surrounding forests were booming with the voices of birds of all shapes and sizes. Brennan watched a chickadee glide from branch to branch whistling in beautiful song with a woodpecker’s steady chopping.

The weight of the devillegriff was the only thing keeping Brennan from sitting by the river and staring at its beauty. They walked by all the wildlife. It seemed as if there was nothing bad that could happen here. After about ten minutes, Brennan heard all the noise cease.

Flame let go of the carcass and walked a ways forward. All Brennan could hear was the steady rushing of the river and his heart beating faster by the minute. Bronze let go and Brennan followed, leaving the dragons to lift it themselves. Flame reached slowly towards a sheath that Brennan hadn’t noticed before. She pulled out a pink blade, the exact same color as the one she rode to that place.

It shined as if there was a light bulb inside of it. The hilt had a pink serpent exactly the same color as the blade, circling around in a solid circle as if it was drawn with a template. The handle was the sun in a smaller stick version because of its glowing gold light that pierced your eyes.

Bronze pulled another sword out of a sheath hanging around his own waist. It was like the leaves on the trees glistening in the beautiful sunlight. It was the same green as the other dragon that when Brennan looked, he saw it glittering in the light.

The hilt had a serpent also the same as the blade. The handle was the ocean in a tiny orb of blue. Together, Bronze and Flame looked like they could slice you to pieces. They stood back-to-back facing the silent forest.

“AAAAAAXXXXXIIIIINNNTTH!!!” a creature the size of a Pick-up truck pounced out and ran towards Flame. “Hoshiseth” she said to it and it slowed to a stop in front of her. Brennan looked up at it and realized that what stood in front of him was a black wolf with a red lion’s mane with shades of blue all over the red in a weird snake-like pattern.

“Shadeflame, keoth manosith ciyan” Flame said. “Don’t worry mere werewolf I know your language. I was merely seeing if you were worthy to be in my presence” the wolf said in a male voice. Flame and Bronze bowed toward him and he looked at Brennan in surprise.

“I am Shadeflame. King of wolves, though not werewolves. Frostbite helps with the filthy types” he said in a low growl. “Wolves are the filthy types, they are mere scavengers and need to hunt in large groups” Flame said, still bowing. “We’ll have to see about that” Shadeflame said. He tipped his head back and howled so loudly that Brennan had to cover his ears. Hundreds of wolves came up to him from the silent forest that used to be filled with wonderful song.

“Now you little wolf, we were just passing through here” Flame said in a panicked voice. “To question my wolves is to say you could do better now prove it” Shadeflame replied in a harsh tone. “ANCIRTHWIN!” He shouted. All the wolves charged and Flame bounced off her feet followed by Bronze. The dragons flew towards them and killed them by the dozens but more took their place.

Brennan hid behind the carcass, hoping that if they were all killed, the large pack might have forgotten him and moved on. He suddenly saw Shadeflame walk towards him from behind. “I think…I should kill you myself!”

He lunged at Brennan who was lucky enough to roll out of the way in time. Shadeflame snarled and scratched empty air. Brennan tried to yell for help but the words got stuck in his throat. Shadeflame lunged again but slipped and landed on the Devillegriff. While he was recovering, Brennan saw a shadow speed overhead so fast that it must have been his imagination. He looked up and saw a shape flying through the sky.

Brennan reached out and caught a sheath with a red handle sticking out. He fastened the sheath on his belt and pulled out the handle and a white sword with a blue stripe down the middle and a serpent hilt with the same design but wavy blue stripes instead of just lines on it came out.

He ran towards Shadeflame at top speed but Shadeflame was quicker. He simply jumped out of the way and Brennan slashed empty air and turned to face Shadeflame. “Very good. FOR A WEREWOLF!” Shadeflame shouted. He pounced toward Brennan but Brennan sliced his shoulder.

Shadeflame turned to flee but Brennan put the sword in its sheath and climbed onto his back. Shadeflame pounced around like an angry bronco. Brennan grabbed his mane and held on for dear life. Several times he almost fell off but regained his grip. Gradually after a long time, Shadeflame started to slow and collapsed on the ground.

“I…give…up…filthy…werewolf” he said. Brennan slipped onto the grass and collapsed next to Shadeflame and massaged his sore hands. “You are…my rider” Shadeflame said. “I’m your what?” Brennan asked. “My rider….If any creature…rides a wolf…until it gets tired…then the wolf… serves that creature…and the creature…owns the wolf” Shadeflame replied still panting. “But in this case…you are now…the king of…wolves….Though Frostbite… still controls…werewolves” he replied in a harsh panting tone.

“No!” Brennan screamed. “I mean I can’t be the king of wolves…I’m only twelve years old!” he said.

“I myself am only twenty-three” Shadeflame said. He got up and loomed over Brennan. Then he bowed and all the wolves bowed too. But what really surprised Brennan, was that Bronze and flame were bowing too! Then a young she-wolf walked up and dropped a bone in Brennan’s hand.

The bone had five different sized holes in it and on the side were very detailed carvings of wolves on the side. All of the wolves had manes like Shadeflame and were running towards what looked like tigers. The tigers were only the size of rabbits compared to the wolves.

“Carvings of all the kings in a battle against the tigron” Shadeflame said. “Look closer” Shadeflame said. Brennan stared practically touching the bone with his eye. All of a sudden, the tigers jumped out onto the ground. But they weren’t tigers quite. They were the color of blood and had stripes the color of the blue sea.

The tigron and wolf kings were pouncing around in the grass and were life sized. The tigron were about the size of a grizzly bear and the wolf kings were all a little bigger than Shadeflame. The wolves, Bronze, and Flame were all still bowing, not seeing the battle even though they were staring straight at it. Suddenly the images went back onto the bone and were once again just tiny carvings.

“Whenever you need the wolves, all you have to do is play a song. Try it now” Shadeflame said. Brennan lifted the bone to his lips (and surprisingly, the bone didn’t smell bad) and started blowing into it.

It made no sound, though the wolves heard and started howling out notes and whenever Brennan went from note-to-note they seemed to change notes. What Brennan herd was a sad song with only low notes. Shadeflame started howling and together, it was all just one song.

The howls rang in his mind and words began to show up in a weird song-like poem.

 We are coming,

We hear your words,

King oh king your

Song is like birds.

The battle remembered,

We come to your aid

Blood shall be numbered,

We’ll help with your raid.

If there are deaths,

The wolves that will die,

We hear your last breaths,

We honor your sigh.

King oh king,

We are your servants,

We shall be true

When you call we’ll follow you.

The song ended with the lowest note but the song was reassuring to Brennan. “We sing that every time we hear that song” said Shadeflame. Suddenly, it hit Brennan that he just knew the song. “Ok” Brennan said. “Now you should name it” Shadeflame said. “warwind” Brennan said almost immediately. “And so…the koshtl will be named ‘warwind’” Shadeflame announced. “We’ll be leaving now” said Bronze.

Him and Flame got off the ground and walked toward the Devillegriff. “Oh let us help” Shadeflame said. He walked closer to the carcass and started calling off names: “Tigerclaw, Blackstripe, Stubtail, Leopardheart, and Stalactitefang. Come help with the carrying” Five wolves ran up from the crowd and started dragging the carcass.

The green and pink dragons came out from the crowd and Flame, and bronze got on and Brennan climbed onto Shadeflame’s back. “Icefire we’re leaving” Brennan called through his mind.

          Icefire flew over to them and landed. They all started walking forward and the devillegriff didn’t seem to slow down the wolves. They walked along but there still were no birds singing. Shadeflame seemed to notice that Brennan was sad and began to howl.

All at once the birds returned, the salmon continued to jump around in the stream, squirrels returned to gathering acorns, and once again, it was peaceful. Brennan lay down in Shadeflame’s mane and fell asleep.

Brennan woke up next to a house made of solid gold in the middle of the night. He got up and peered inside. There were two beds on the golden floor that Bronze and Flame were sleeping on. Brennan walked into the forest and was happy to find Icefire, Shadeflame, Tigerclaw, Blackstripe, Stubtail, Leopardheart, Stalactitefang, the devillegriff carcass, the pink dragon, and the green dragon, were lying in the grass.

“Icefire” Brennan said in his mind. Icefire lifted her head and looked at him. “Where are we?” Brennan asked. “We are in

Toc-tel” she replied. “The land of gold. Nicknamed Goldvein country.

“Why?” Brennan asked. Icefire ran a long claw through the dirt and there was gold in the whole she dug. “Gold is plentiful here” she said. Shadeflame lifted his head and stared at Brennan. “Don’t just stand there…lay down and fall asleep!” he said. Brennan lay up against Icefire’s scales.

He kept tossing and turning all through the night and scratched his back on Icefire’s scales a few times. By the time it was dawn, Brennan felt like he just ran hundreds of miles through a foot of snow.

He forced himself to get up when he saw Shadeflame open his eyes. Brennan walked over to him. “Still tired?” Shadeflame asked yawning. “Yah” Brennan replied. He was just about to fall when Shadeflame’s tail caught him.

“You should go back to sleep” Shadeflame said. “You’ll be fine” he said as he picked Brennan up with his mouth and put him on his mane. Almost instantly, Brennan fell asleep.

He dreamed that he was in a building. Frostbite and Grayback stood in front of a human. “Nico” Frostbite said. “Get me more recruits! The last animal that came got kicked in the face by a deer! A DEER!” he howled.

“Yes Frostbite” Nico mumbled, terrified. “GO!” Grayback yelled. Nico got up and scrambled out the door. “Frostbite?” Grayback asked. “Yes?” Frostbite replied. “What’s gonna happen to the Hakkiey?” He asked.

“I already told you that they are going to be killed if we don’t get control” Frostbite replied. “Oh yah” said Grayback. Then the image faded.

Brennan woke up inside the golden cabin. The evening sun was shining through a window in little beams of light. The light reflected off of the wall and straight into Brennan’s eyes which must have woken him up.

He got up and walked towards the window. He shielded his eyes and caught a glimpse of a shadow in the forest. Brennan walked to the door and froze. “Frostbite. Please don’t threaten Nico” “Shut it you fool” Brennan recognized two voices that belonged to Frostbite and Grayback.

“Now if we want to take over the world…The Hakkiey are growing stronger every minute and if we don’t get recruits that are strong enough…then we won’t be in control” Frostbite said. “Well I just find that if we don’t disturb Nico, then we will have less favors to pay in the future” Grayback said worriedly as if he would get smacked for this.

“Ah but if you are not BLIND! Than you will discover that when we rule the world…NO ONE CAN DISSOBEY US! So we

don’t have any dept” Frostbite said.

With that they walked away and Brennan slid the door open. He walked outside and went into the woods. He was attacked with a bear hug from Flame. “I thought Frostbite found you!” she said, amazed.

“Okay” Brennan said. Bronze walked out of a bush next to them. He was covered in spikes and needles from the plants. Brennan and Flame started laughing. “It’s not funny” he yelled at them as he tried to pull all the needles out.

When Brennan and Flame stopped laughing, they started to help Bronze. When all of the needles and spikes were out, Bronze stretched and looked towards the west. The sun was nearly touching the hills when he walked away. “I can’t believe it took us this long to get all the needles out” Brennan said. “Shadow, why don’t you ride Shadeflame home” Flame said. “Okay” said Brennan.

He was just about to call for him when Flame ran up and hugged him good-bye. When she let go, Brennan called for Shadeflame and climbed on his back. Brennan waved to Bronze and Flame, then, set off for home.

It was about midnight when they got to Brennan’s house and he was fast asleep on Shadeflame’s back. Shadeflame turned his head like an owl and grabbed Brennan’s shirt. He set Brennan down on a pile of hay and started to howl. It seemed to melt into Brennan’s dreams as he slept and was a very good lullaby he thought.

Sleep o’ king

Sleep in peace

Your bed so soft

It feels like fleece.

Sleep o’ king

Let your mind stay at rest

You sleep on

That would be best.

King o’ king sleep sleep sleep

Sleep o’ king

Sleep so deep.

Shadeflame continued to howl all through the night until dawn. Brennan woke up and Shadeflame stopped howling. “Finally awake?” he asked. “Yup” Brennan said with a yawn. Suddenly, Shadeflame looked up and charged towards the forest. “Bye I guess” Brennan said. He noticed that some of leaves started to turn golden-brown, the signal that it was fall.

“Brennan!” Brennan’s mom charged out of the cabin. She was followed by Kyle and Lindsey who looked relieved instead of worried like their mom. Brennan’s mom ran up and hugged him tighter than she ever had.

“Go inside and wash up” she said. “You start school in a week” Kyle told him. Brennan had forgotten all about school. He had been too occupied with the whole werewolf thing that it had just slipped his mind.

The family started walking towards the cabin. Brennan thought that he was just imagining something…Kyle and Lindsey weren’t fighting, his mom wasn’t complaining about seeing her two youngest children grow up in front of her eyes, she wasn’t asking Brennan anything…are they mad at me? Brennan thought. They walked inside and Brennan saw that school supplies were sitting on the table.

He walked upstairs and went to his bedroom. He flopped on the bed and stared at the fan. Thoughts started racing through his mind: am I really a werewolf? Is it just a coincidence that I dreamed it and saw the people in it not to long after? Is this just a children’s story that took over my mind? Brennan kept pondering these thoughts until he fell asleep.

Brennan awoke on the floor. He got up, shook his head, and walked to the window. Outside was a beautiful full moon. Then it hit him: If this isn’t a dream then…Brennan looked down. His whole body was a black furry mass with a tail like silk. On his face there was a muzzle that stretched longer than the first time he was like this.

He walked towards the door and stopped. He turned around and ran towards the window. Out he flew, soaring like an eagle. He landed on top of a big oak tree. He felt so much power yet to his surprise, he felt the wind, the tree, and his fur…This was not a dream. He leaped out of the tree and landed on smooth soil. He ran towards the stream and stopped by the rock that he loved the most of all.

It was a very smooth, flat, tall, and long rock. Brennan leaped to the top (which must have been twenty feet tall) and began to howl:

Bronze and Flame

Bone and fame

Here my howls so deep…

Here my howls

Come to me

Your company thus

It makes me plea.

Follow my song

I don’ like the loneliness

That shatters this beautiful night.

Please you here come to me

I don’ like this horrible fright.

Brennan lay down on the rock and whined when he finished. He sat and stared at the moon. It seemed as lonely as him. The only difference though, It had the stars which their dim light made it

So peaceful that he whined even more. Soon he smelled something. He could not tell what it was but could recall smelling it before. He suddenly saw a fiery red werewolf step out of the woods, followed by another orange wolf.

“Bronze! Flame! You’re here!” Brennan pounced from the rock and landed in the stream. “How did you get up there?” asked Bronze, amazed and staring at the rock. “It’s easy!” Brennan said. He launched himself onto the rock. Bronze leaped into the air and caught a tiny paw hold half way up.

His paw slipped and inch-by-inch he slid down the ten feet of rock. Flame then leaped up and got a few feet higher than him but still was quite a few feet away from the top. Brennan jumped down and once again landed in the creak.

“So maybe it isn’t so easy” he said. “Yah well it’s no big deal” Flame said, sounding amazed. “Well let us go hunting” Bronze said. He walked away and Brennan and Flame followed. They walked on for what would normally feel like hours to Brennan, but instead, he loved every minute that just seemed to whiz right past his nose.

When they got to a field, Bronze stopped. “Do you smell something?” he asked. “Yes! But what is it?” Flame answered. Brennan smelled it and knew what it was. “A bear” he said. Flame and Bronze slowly walked forward towards the smell of the bear. “Stop!” Brennan said. “It’s more than one bear.” Brennan sniffed the air.

“It’s several” he said as he stared through the long grass. Finally they came into view: three large brown grizzlies and four black grizzlies.

Flame, Bronze, and Brennan, all tried to run into the forest. The biggest grizzly, a light chestnut brown bear, swatted them aside. “What are we going to do” Flame said, whining. Immediately, Brennan jumped onto the grizzly’s back. He bit the grizzly’s spine and the power of his jaws snapped it in two. Flame and Bronze jumped for the two smallest grizzlies.

The first was a golden-brown grizzly which was the one Flame was after. The second was a larger Black grizzly which Bronze fought. The brown grizzly stood on its hind legs just as Flame leaped and she crashed into its stomach.

Flame landed on the ground and wouldn’t get up. Brennan jumped up onto the bears head and the bear fell in amazement how Brennan reached that height. He lunged at the bear’s throat but the bear quickly recovered and swatted him aside. Brennan jumped and just as the bear was turning and about to slam Flame, Brennan reached its throat.

The bear slowed its swatting and pawing until it stopped and fell face first into the grass. Brennan was being squished to death! He pushed up with all his might and pushed the bear inch by inch off of him.

He lay on the ground and panted. Once he recovered, he padded over to Flame. “Flame, please get up” he pleaded. He pushed her on her back and watched her eyes slowly open. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“I think so” Flame said. She slowly lifted herself up into the air. As soon as she got on her right back leg she collapsed. “I can’t get up” she said. “Well you stay here and I’ll be back” Brennan said. He turned around and saw Bronze fighting the remaining five bears. Brennan leaped onto the head of one and the other bears tackled it, trying to get to him.

The impact of four bears was apparently enough to kill. Brennan jumped onto another small bear and bit its neck. That left three bears. The bears saw that the other bears were dead and they ran off in freight.

Brennan once again walked over to Flame. Bronze ran into the forest and came back with five sticks, three vines, and a blue leaf. He chewed the leaf and spit it onto Flame’s leg. He then took the five sticks, and tied them to her leg with the vines. “That should do for now” he said. Flame slowly got onto her paws and started walking towards the forest.

“Where are you going?” Brennan asked. “Don’t you see the sun?” Flame replied. Brennan looked towards the east and saw a drop of orange floating above the trees. Flame continued to walk away with Bronze until they disappeared into the trees. Brennan started walking home, dreading the thought of only a week until his second year of middle school.

Over the next week, Brennan sat in the house and watched T.V. the whole time. He often times asked his mom to rent movies on werewolves for him. The movies were all so different from real life.

On the last day, Brennan sat in his room. He just sat and watched the sun rise and fall. Finally his mom came in. “You have school in the morning and I don’t want you to be to tired for it” she said. “Okay” Brennan replied. He lay down in his bed and watched the moon.

 Once his mom left, he turned and looked at his alarm clock. It was only eight O’clock! Brennan turned back around and faced the moon again. He was too used to being awake late to go bed now. He watched the moon slowly climb into the black sky until finally, he fell asleep.

Brennan’s alarm clock buzzed and beeped. He blindly hit the top of it. He accidently hit the button that turned it to the radio. Being that he always had his alarm on full volume, the radio blared in his ears.

Brennan launched out of his bed and turned it off. He stood there for several moments before heading towards the bathroom. He walked in and brushed his teeth, combed his hair, and took a shower.

Then, Brennan got dressed and headed downstairs. His mom was in the kitchen cooking bacon, eggs, toast, and pancakes. Kyle and Lindsey were sitting in the living room watching a weird show that Brennan didn’t recognize.

He walked into the kitchen and sat at the table. “Good morning dear” his mom said. “Your bus will be here at six forty. You better find your school supplies” she said. Brennan got up and put his school supplies into his backpack.

“BREAKFAST IS READY” Brennan heard his mom shout towards the living room. Kyle and Lindsey pounced off of the couch and raced towards the kitchen. Brennan walked there and sat down next to them.

His mom put three pancakes, five pieces of bacon, and two eggs onto his plate, Kyle’s plate, and then finally Lindsey’s plate. They ate for a while until their plates were completely cleaned. Then their mom handed them each a piece of toast. Brennan took four bites and was full, Lindsey ate half, and Kyle finished it. They sat there for a while, waiting until their stomachs stopped hurting so much.

Kyle was the first to get up. He looked at the clock, grabbed his backpack and headed outside. Brennan and Lindsey got up and grabbed their backpacks and left. They walked a little ways out of the woods until they were at the road.

They waited for a few minutes until the high school bus came. Lindsey and Kyle got on and then the bus left. Brennan sat underneath an oak tree. He waited for about ten minutes for the bus.

When it came, he got on and was surprised to find, he was the first one on. Brennan looked at the bus driver and saw that he was a beefy man who he guessed was fifty years old. “Hi. I’m Sam” he said.

“I’m Brennan” Brennan said. They shook hands and Brennan walked to the back of the bus. He sat in the bigger seat in the far back and stared out the window. The next stop was one with thirteen people, who all looked like they were in eighth grade. He ducked and hoped they wouldn’t see him.

Luckily, they sat in the first seven seats. He continued to watch the outdoors.

The next stop was two seventh graders. They got on and Brennan recognized them as his friends: Pedro and Luke. They sat in the seat in front of Brennan and the three friends talked to each other for awhile.

They talked and talked for so long that soon, every seat was filled. “Last stop!” the bus driver said. Brennan ignored him and kept talking. He was soon cut off by a very big surprise: it was Flame! She walked down the isle asking person after person if she could sit with them.

Five seats away, she saw Brennan. She immediately walked toward his seat. Pedro and Luke saw and started teasing Brennan about her. “Is she your girlfriend?” Pedro asked mockingly. Brennan felt embarrassed at that comment. “NO!” he screamed back.

“J. k. Brennan” Luke said. They turned around and started talking to each other. Flame sat in his seat and immediately started talking to him: “You address me by my human name: Lexi, as long as we are around regular humans” she said. “Okay” Brennan said. “And I will call you ‘Brennan’” she said. “Okay” Brennan said. He was confused how she remembered his name. They sat there and talked to each other for a while.

 Something caught Brennan’s attention. He saw a shadow quickly pass through the forest. “Wow” Flame said. “I didn’t think Shadeflame would be that protective of you” she said. “Normally he would probably not care about you” she said in amazement. Brennan wasn’t even paying attention to her after that. “Brennan” she said to him.

He turned and looked at her. “I just remembered that I know how you can become a werewolf anytime you want” she said. “How?” Brennan was suddenly interested. “It takes allot of practice and only the most powerful werewolves can accomplish it” she said. “Okay…how” he repeated. “All you do is summon your inner strength, and force your body to transform” she said. Just then, they got to the school.

They got off of the bus and entered the school. Flame went down the sixth grade hallway, Brennan the seventh. He headed towards the bathrooms. He went into the handicapped cell which was the only one with a mirror.

He locked the door and remembered the full moon. He remembered jumping up twenty feet easily. He opened his eyes and looked in the mirror: nothing. He was still just a human. He turned around and reached for the lock. It was several inches shorter than before!

He turned around and saw himself growing! He was getting taller! His mouth was getting longer. He was growing fur. Brennan was becoming a werewolf! After about a minute, Brennan was completely black!

He did it on his first try! Now to transform back. He thought of being a human, then after a minute or so, he walked out of the stall. He walked past a mirror and saw that he was still a werewolf! He ran back to a stall but was caught by Luke.

“Nice costume Brennan” he said as he looked Brennan over. Maybe I can make people believe that it is really a costume. He thought. “Thanks….I made it myself” he said. “Wow!” Luke said, amazed. “Wear it in class” he said. “Okay” Brennan said. As if I had a choice. He thought.

Together they walked out of the bathroom. When they got out, Brennan’s legs started to get sore. He flopped down on all fours and was still taller than Luke. They heard the bell ring and headed for class.

They entered their homeroom class and the teacher started clapping at Brennan. “Well done” she said. She ran up to Brennan who was about as tall as her even though she was about nine feet tall.

She held her hand “Mrs. Pucklesmudge” she said. Brennan stood up and was twice her size but still shook her hand with his paw. “Wow. I have a dog and her paws feels exactly like that”

She said. “Quality workmanship” Brennan said. He walked to the nearest table and sat on the ground. Mrs. Pucklesmudge started explaining what would happen throughout the year. The same with other classes; they would admire Brennan and then explain the year.

At the end of the day, they walked out to the buses and talked. “You should wear that every day” Luke said. “Okay” Brennan replied. They got on the bus and Brennan leaped from the front of the bus to the back in one leap.

“How did you do that?” Luke said. “I don’t know” Brennan lied. Luke walked down the isle and sat in the seat across from him. Brennan sat and watched the kids pile onto the bus. When he saw Flame, he waved to her.

She saw him and nervously walked over. She sat down in the seat and stared at him for a few moments. “What are you doing?” Flame somehow yelled while whispering. “I don’t know” Brennan replied.

“I just thought of being a werewolf and I became one” he said. “Of course!” Flame exclaimed. “What?” Brennan asked. “When you took over the wolves, their power went into you. That’s how you can leap so high, run so fast, etcetera” she replied. “And?” said Brennan.

“And that makes it so much easier for you to transform!” she said. “Well that’s cool” Brennan said. Suddenly, the bus stopped. Flame got up and walked off of the bus without saying good-bye. Brennan turned to the window and watched her until she was out of sight.

Then Brennan watched the flickering shadow of Shadeflame. The shadow soon disappeared. Brennan flipped back on the seat and sighed. Suddenly, Shadeflame pounced on top of the bus. The impact pushed dents toward the kids, each the size of four and a half seats.

Every one started screaming and jumped out of the seats. They all ran around the bus in horror.

Brennan leaped through the window, latched his tail on the window, and swung to the top. He landed directly on Shadeflame’s back. Immediately, he found out what had happened: several huge devillegriffs were flying towards the bus.

They kept a steady pace with the bus until Brennan saw that people were riding on them. One of the animals landed on the bus in front of Shadeflame.

“I am Ian” the rider said, still on the creature. “I bring a message from Frostbite” Ian said. “Go on then” said Shadeflame. “All non humanly animals are to join us or die!” Ian said. “I choose C.” Shadeflame said.

“None of the above!” he said. The devillegriffs lunged at him from the sides. Brennan launched himself at the first at easily killed it with one slice of the claw.

He fell toward the window and caught it with his paws. He pulled himself up and saw that Shadeflame had already killed the rest and just barely caught sight of him as he jumped off. Brennan slid back through the window and acted as if he was there the whole entire time.

 “What was that!?” asked Luke in astonishment. “I don’t know” Brennan lied. Pedro started to look confused. “I thought you moved to another seat” he said, looking him over. “What are you talking about…?” Brennan said nervously. “…I was here the whole time.”

Pedro turned around suspiciously and started saying something to Luke. Brennan ignored them and turned to face the shadowy trees once again, watching the quick movements of the bushes as Shadeflame passed bye.

Soon, Brennan was the last person on the bus, though he did not notice it for he was content with worries from the werewolf world. Is what Flame said actually true? Am I really as powerful as she thinks I am? Those and many more questions obscured his mind from paying attention to anything but the werewolf world.

Hey kid? Brennan heard in his mind. Dude? Wake Up! Time to get movin’! “KID!” Brennan jerked out of his thoughts to see the bus-driver towering over him. “Yer at yer stop” he said. Brennan looked down to find that he was human again: no fur, no paws, no tail, and no claws.

He was perfectly normal. “Y-y-yes sir” he stammered. Brennan climbed off the bus and watched it drive away into the forest. Brennan walked the path that led to his house, anxious to get home and take a nap. Soon he came across Shadeflame, however, and he would not let him by.

“SHADEFLAME!” Brennan screeched, scaring off a few robins that were sitting in a nearby tree. Shadeflame lifted him by his backpack and started running towards a tree. They were growing closer…fifty feet…forty feet…thirty feet…twenty feet…Brennan clenched his fists and slammed his eyes shut…ten feet…five feet…four feet…it was coming faster and faster…three feet…two feet…one foot...everything stopped. He felt no crushing, breaking, or squishing.

He opened his eyes to find himself at a very large, mansion-like log cabin. Flame was sitting on a stool outside, Bronze pacing the deck in front of the cabin. Shadeflame dropped Brennan over thirteen feet, making his knees dig into hard soil and sending pain throughout his thigh.

“Sorry master shadow” Shadeflame said. “What is with the master shadow?” Brennan asked. “Dunno. Just got bored I guess” the bigfoot-of-a-wolf said. Brennan got up and rubbed the dirt off his knees and turned to Flame.

 “What do you want?” he said. Flame sighed and began to speak; “Frostbite is trying to take over the world and it’s our responsibility to stop him.” She bit her lip a few seconds later as if she were going to be touched with a burning chunk of iron. “I see…and…how?” Brennan asked.

“I don’t know” Flame replied. She bent over and starting crying into her hands.

“It’s just” she managed to say before coughing from crying so hard. Then she made another attempt; “It’s just that…on my way home…my brother found me and started talking about the Hakkiey…and I realized that Frostbite had…the power…to overcome them and…” Flame said, unable to continue. “Well I’m still clueless as to what the Hakkiey are” Brennan said. Shadeflame started explaining it; “The Hakkiey are the rulers of the world. It is said that they were stone at the beginning of time” he said. “They were the sculptures of weird creatures.

There were exactly five of them named: Warcun, sallint, Draco, Fowntin, and Zar’neet. Warcun controls the sea. He was sculpted to look like a mixture of a shark and an alligator but the carving went awry and he took the shape of a scaled wolf with the pads of a frog.

Sallint controls the forests and protects the trees. She is the one you call Mother Nature. She was sculpted to look like a tiger and a unicorn but instead turned out to be a yellow striped black anaconda.

Draco was supposed to be an eagle and a cheetah but instead, he was obviously a dragon and yes ruler of the sky. Fowntin controls all dark things on earth. Every shadow, every panther, belonged to him.

He was supposed to be a viper and a lion but instead grew the shape of a hellhound. Now Zar’neet is the odd one out. She controls all light things. But she was not supposed to be any one shape.

She had wings, four legs, feathers, and was basically a feathered dragon but the weirdest thing is that she had five tails. One white, one black, one blue, one green, and one gray. The colors of her brothers, sister, and herself.

She was entrusted…with the very fate of her family. If she dies, they die. If one of them dies, she dies. She is the protector of her family but not only that. She is in the very existence we are. If she died….We would all die” Shadeflame finished.

“That’s why we have to stop Frostbite” Brennan realized that Flame was a lot better when she spoke. “If he defeats the Hakkiey…we bend at his command” she said as she turned toward Shadeflame.

“What’s so bad about that?” Brennan asked. Flame looked at him with a concerned look and replied; “because no one could run the world by themselves. He thinks he can but all the power would eventually drive him insane and might even command us to destroy everything.”

“Oh…okay then” Brennan said. “But we still have no way in killing him!” he yelled at her. “Well we have to try” she replied calmly. Brennan closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down. When he opened his eyes, Flame seemed a lot shorter. Brennan was about to ask why when, he realized that he was in wolf form. “Hmmm” Flame said.

          She snapped her fingers and began to speak; “You can so easily connect to your werewolf form that if an emotion gets strong enough you transform!” Brennan stared down at his feet and tried to make sense of her words.

“How?” he asked after a long while. Flame bent to the ground till she was on her knees and shook her head. “I don’t know” she said. She suddenly bounced up and pointed a finger at him. “But it must be for a reason” she said.

Brennan stared at her eyes and saw that they were a light greenish color, just like the leaves. Brennan suddenly glanced at the trees to compare, but came to find that most of the leaves were starting to turn brown.

He looked back to see that Flame was walking away toward her house. She turned around, muttered a quick “bye!” then left. “Let’s go!” Shadeflame said.

He ran to Brennan and picked him up by the shirt with his teeth. Brennan tried to get loose but failed after several moments, and then just crossed his arms and waited. After only a few short moments, Shadeflame dropped him by his house and ran away.

Brennan got up and wiped the dust from his knees, picked up his backpack, and headed for the door.

Before he could get it open, his mom plowed through. “Oh Brennan!” she screamed. “Where were you!?” his mom asked. “Oh never mind….Just get inside” she said. Brennan followed his mom inside but right before he could, he saw a streak of white, speed across the sky. Then he entered the house. Betting it was just Icefire.

          The next few weeks went the near exact same: in the morning he would be a werewolf, he would be the class pet (something Luke made up where he’d do tricks for the class like a dog), and he would sit next to Flame.

          Finally it was the morning of the full moon; being a werewolf. Brennan excitedly got on the bus and transformed in the back-seat. A few minutes later they stopped. But the next stop should have taken over fifteen minutes. He looked outside and saw what he expected: nothing but forest for miles.

           “Uh mister”—he didn’t get to finish. The bus driver flew out of his seat. Literally flew because Brennan saw to his horror, that the bus-driver became a dragon with massive leathery red wings that spread so far that they ripped the bus, and Brennan was thrown backwards.

          He looked up at the dragon and started to speak; “the kids were right. You are a hot-head.” The dragon didn’t look offended though. My name is Thorn! He shouted with his mind. Named after the red dragon in ‘Eragon’. He spoke with pride. And I understand you’re planning on stopping Frostbite from taking over the world. “Well you may or may not have heard correctly. Now do you mind? I kinda want to get to school on time so if you could repair the bus now… That would be great” Brennan said.

YOU THINK I’M GOING TO JUST FORGET ABOUT IT AND TAKE

YOU TO SCHOOL!?! Thorn thundered. “Yah that would be nice” Brennan replied. I can’t let you do that mate. Thorn said in a perfectly calm voice. “What will you do Flame Brain?” Brennan taunted. He stopped laughing soon enough though. Thorn grew a head on his right shoulder that was a beautiful snowy-white.

          Brennan saw him grow a purple one on his left that was a very shocking purple that literally sputtered out sparks of electricity. “Holy Hydra” Brennan said, staring up at the fifty foot tall Hydra standing in front of him. All at once the dragons blew their element into the sky: Ice, Fire, and Lightning.

          This is what I’ll do. Said all of the voices at once and what surprised Brennan the most; a female voice came from the white head. He froze in place. He thought frantically. The whistle! The one that he’d gotten from the wolves appeared in his hand, and he began to play. The words were thus:

Wolves oh wolves

Please answer my call.

It is from you I need

The most help of all.

A Hydra draws near

His name is Thorn

He fills me with fear.

His fiery tongue

Her icy breath

His lightning shock is just

As bad as death.

When the song ended, Thorn faced him with the fire head tilted in confusion. Then the storm head and ice head roared in fear. The fire head tuned to the ice side with a questioning look and asked; What’s wrong Snow? Then he looked at the storm one and asked; Zeus? Then Brennan realized that all of the heads had different

Names. They all roared as at least a thousand wolves pounced from either side. Snow froze several wolves before they were upon her, Thorn burned twelve, and Zeus electrocuted five. But then the wolves were leaping at Their scaled hide.

          The highest the wolves got was about to the Hydra’s thighs and at that point all it had to do was just flick them off with just a tiny scar to take its place. Brennan leaped up with all of his strength and got about a-hundred-and-thirty-two feet and plummeted fifty feet down onto Zeus’s head. Thorn blew fire onto Brennan but he pounce onto Snow and Zeus roared and the head burned clean off, leaving an open wound with a diameter of five feet.

          Brennan leaped onto Thorn’s head and Snow blew ice right as Brennan jumped off. Brennan turned around and nearly fell over with glee; the ice froze Thorn’s head and was slowly forming all the way down his neck and continued on. What have you done! Snow roared with fear. “actually you did it” Brennan replied.

          Snow looked at him with angry eyes that seemed to pierce his soul. The ice slowly crept around her forehead and her open muzzle. Then two purple heads covered in ice sprouted out and Thorn’s head started melting quickly.

“We have about two minutes until he unfreezes” said one of the wolves. “Well let’s get moving then” Brennan replied. Shadeflame emerged. “Hop on” Brennan hopped atop the giant wolf and he thundered forward.

          He stopped when he saw a kid waiting impatiently for bus number forty-two that was split to pieces a few miles back and that is normally driven by a certain four-headed Hydra lunatic. He froze when he saw Shadeflame and ran into the woods screaming “MOMMY! THERE’S A GIANT BLACK LION TRYING TO EAT ME!” “That was a good first impression” Brennan said. Shadeflame just stared after him. Then he started running again for probably three miles before the next stop. Three girls that Brennan despised.

Brennan wondered why they were out of order, but then decided that Shadeflame was just going a different way. This time Brennan got off before they saw Shadeflame and freaked out. “Climb aboard” he said halfheartedly. Shadeflame came out and they reluctantly climbed.

          This time Brennan ran alongside Shadeflame. Next were Luke and Pedro. They were really excited about a giant wolf bringing them to school and immediately climbed onto his mane. The next stop was Flame who was so shocked what Brennan had done and he briefly told her about old Thorn/Sam the bus-driver with four heads that is now probably flying towards them.

          She climbed on and they all went to the next stops. Shadeflame dropped them off at school and everything went ordinary. Until Brennan got to homeroom.

“I am the substitute, Ms. Lycan” the teacher said. She was about four feet tall and had silver hair. “but that is my maiden name so you can actually call me Mrs. Grayback” she said. Brennan’s heart stopped. Grayback! He thought. Frostbite’s helper…Brennan recalled Grayback’s voice. Grayback was actually a girl?!

          “Is there a problem Shadow?” Grayback said with a slight sneer that was barely noticeable. “No ma’am” Brennan replied. “Let’s talk” she said. She pulled him out of the room and into the hallway. “You can’t stop Frostbite” Grayback said. She turned into a beautiful silver werewolf almost a foot taller than Brennan.

          She growled; “Let’s go for a walk.” “Okay” Brennan replied fearfully. She pulled him away.

They went outside. They entered the forest. Brennan grew ready to fight for his life. He closed his eyes waiting to be attacked. “Save me” Grayback said. Brennan opened his eyes. “What?” he asked. “Frostbite is cruel and abusive. I can’t let him rule the world, and you are the king of wolves. You can stop him if anyone can Shadow” she said.

“Besides. Without you, Frostbite could fight every one of your allies. Because…” she hesitated. “Because he has Giants on his side” she finished.

          Brennan was about to reply when he saw a shadow loom overhead. He looked up to find a horrific sight: Thorn, Snow, Zeus, and the fourth head that was so far nameless to him. Brennan also saw a fifth and sixth head. They were both blue as the seas though.

          The six heads suddenly flipped down and the Hydra started at a nose dive, Or rather, a noses dive. They landed on top of the school and stared strait at Brennan and ignored Grayback. Hello Shadow. They said. Brennan realized the second purple, and one of the blue heads were females.

          We shall get revenge on you! They roared in triumph. “Nice try” replied Brennan. He walked out of the woods and Shadeflame leaped out as well. All six heads just smirked. Thorn introduced the newest three heads; this is Thunder, Poseidon, and Neptune. “Okay I have one question” Brennan said, “Why are half of the heads named after Greek gods?” Because it’s fun.

          Came their reply. Shadeflame pounced on top of the school and that was just enough to make it cave in. Kids poured out of the wreckage, all screaming at the top of their lungs.

          Brennan saw thirteen heads pull out one at a time: two whites, four blue, two red, and four purple Hydra heads, followed by Shadeflame’s black head. Something must have crushed the heads! Brennan leaped at the nearest head, which was unfortunately Thorn’s.

          He tossed ferociously and knocked him off. Brennan landed right next to the sword he’d gotten! It had no sheathe, so he could see the gleaming red handle, the amazing snowy-white blade with navy blue and baby blue stripes, and the replica of Icefire for a hilt.

          Brennan grabbed it and flung himself back into the fight. He seemed to grow wings the way he glided in on the Hydra and

Shadeflame. Only the two ice heads noticed him and they tried to freeze him. Brennan dodged and landed on one of the heads and started sliding down as if he were surfing.

          He rolled the last few feet and drove the sword into their back. All twelve heads flung upward and howled in pain. Several of them then turned on him. The only ones still facing Shadeflame were Thunder, the new red head, Poseidon, Neptune, and a new purple head.

          Snow, Thorn, and Zeus were the closest ones to him. Brennan dove to the side to miss blasts of fire, ice, lightning, and boiled water.

           He landed on three paws and leaped up into the Hydra’s ribcage and the sword went in up to the hilt. Brennan slipped off easily and bounded out of the way. The twelve heads all roared at once and started whipping around in every direction Brennan could remember.

          The heads flew forward and landed with a huge thud and then the body was still. Brennan heard a few cheers and lots of half-hearted hoorays.

          He’d completely forgotten about the entire school standing there. The principal came to the front and announced that school would now take place at the high school.

          Brennan jumped onto Shadeflame’s back and rode to the crowd. Flame ran out and climbed onto Shadeflame’s back behind Brennan. Then they thundered off into the woods.

          Shadeflame traveled for probably an hour at full speed before announcing that they had arrived. Brennan realized that Flame had somehow communicated with him and asked that they come here. She nodded him off and walked up to Brennan.

          “I thought we should explore the land for allies” she said. “That might be a good idea” came Brennan’s reply. They walked in silence for about ten minutes when Brennan suddenly paused. “What is it?” Flame asked.

“I smell something different” he replied. Flame grew into her werewolf form and got ready for a fight. It took a few minutes but she did it. “My first successful try and exactly twenty-seven failures” she said. Brennan was shocked, but he hid that expression so not to offend her.

          Brennan saw two shapes fling out of the forest and a split-second later found himself flat on his back, facing an arrowhead. He looked over at Flame and saw a very large brown horse. No not a horse. It was a human from the torso up.

          From the torso down, the full body of a horse. Brennan recognized it as a centaur, but the centaur had wings! In the middle of its horse back rested two feathered brown wings, the color of the horse part, that were stretched out like it was about to take off for flight.

          The wings were at least three times the length of it and in its human hands it held a bow notched with an arrow that was pointed at Flame’s neck. Brennan looked at the one facing him which was the same but was very white and beautiful.

          Both centaurs had long black hair and a shirt made of leaves. The one by Flame was a male and the one at Brennan was a female. Go figure.

          The female spoke first; “State your bisiness.” Brennan looked at Flame for an answer. She replied; “We are looking for allies to help us defeat Frostbite.” The centaurs lifted their bows reluctantly.

“I om Narna and thees is Bare” said the female. “We are Pegotaurs” she finished. Brennan saw two three-inch deer horns sprouting out of both of their heads. Narna handed him his sword which he’d forgotten he had it, and decided to name it Blizzard.

          “Thank you” he said. He and Flame slowly stood up. “Climb on our backs and you shall consult with our leader, Narmon” Bear said. Brennan glanced at Flame who was now climbing onto Narna’s back. Brennan walked over to Bear and hopped on. Together the two Pegataurs blasted into the air.

Brennan held onto Bear’s flanks as he went almost straight up and down. He looked to his right and saw Flame and Narna flying likewise. Then they steadied out and Brennan looked down at the trees and the mountains.

          Mountains!? They were higher than the mountains! He saw Narna slope toward the highest mountain and then Bear followed. They soon landed on a large cliff next to a huge cave.

          They got off of the Pegataurs and entered. The way was lit by large silver braziers and golden torches. They walked for probably a half-hour before reaching two silver doors with spiraling gold trim and black letters that read:

                The Pegataurs of Rome

The descendants of Draco and the centaurs                                                   of Greece

Bear stomped his hoof three times on the stone floor and the doors creaked open. A long green carpet lay before them that led to a giant dining area, what looked to be an archery practice area, and a throne room.

          A very large grey Pegataur with white spots rested on a long throne with a large golden crown with silver trim. It must have been Narmon. He had his legs folded under him. His wings folded against his flanks and he had horns that were nearly a foot long sprouting up into the air.

          He watched them pass through the three rooms filled with the flying centaurs. They reached the end and bowed. Narna spoke; “Father, they have offered us to be their allies and destroy Frostbite.” Narmon seemed in a better mood but he still stared at

Them with distaste as if they were rats in his kitchen.

“Why would werewolves turn against their leader?” he asked. Brennan again turned to Flame and relied on her to answer. Unlike Brennan, she stood proud and tall. “Because we know that he will destroy everything if we don’t” Flame said.

          Narmon seemed nearly convinced. “If you swear upon Zar’neet” he said, “then I will join your rebellion” he said. Both Brennan and Flame swore to it at the same time. “Okay” Narmon said.

          “I also have some allies” he said. He snapped and a black Pegataur flew in with a small list and handed it to Brennan. He began to read aloud:

       “1. The Mermaids

        2. The Hellhounds

        3. The Banshees

        4. The Helephants

        5. The Nymphs”

          He finished. “We are allies of the wolves and dragons” Flame said. “All right….Maybe we have a chance” Narmon said. “Narna, Bear, can you help these young wolves to their home?” He asked. “Yes sir” answered Bear. Brennan climbed onto Bear, Flame to Narna, and they flew through the tunnels this time.

          It took about three minutes and then they were out of the cave. They flew for probably three hours in silence until Bear landed near Brennan’s house and took off without another word. Brennan watched Narna fly to Flame’s house before he entered his own house.

          Brennan told his mom about the school being crushed and destroyed while Lindsey and Kyle sat and moaned about having sixth graders on their bus.

          His mom paid very little attention to his words and just

Agreed half-heartedly. Brennan wondered why she barely cared. He looked at the clock. 4:32. He sighed and walked over to the television and watched as Kyle put a game into one of the three gaming devices next to the screen.

          He watched Call of Duty come onto the screen. He got up and walked up the stairs to his bedroom. He watched the golden leaves on the trees flutter down to the ground. Then he saw huge snowflakes fall with them.

          It seemed too early for winter. The month somehow flew by. Brennan sat there for probably an hour until he saw the sky get darker. He walked into the bathroom and watched the sun set through the window.

           When Brennan easily saw the stars with small clouds floating around. He walked back over to his bedroom and looked at a heap of clouds that most likely hid the moon. He set his head on the windowsill.

          Brennan watched as the clouds started to separate, and reveal the full moon.

Brennan woke up from a short fifteen second sleep as a werewolf. He got his head off of the windowsill and slowly crept, inch-by-inch down the hallway.

           When he got to the stairs he looked at the clock again: 6:53. Shoot. That meant that everyone was still up. He took a few silent steps down the stairs. He saw his mom, Lindsey, and Kyle, now were watching a movie.

          He took a flying leap off of the stairs and landed with a near silent thud. No one seemed to notice. Brennan took a few steps toward the door. He got several feet away before he heard Kyle; “I’m gonna get a snack” he said. Brennan’s heart beat faster.

          He thought frantically for a place to hide. Time seemed to slow. He saw nothing. He stood there and faced Kyle as he got up. “MOM!” he screamed. Kyle practically picked up their mom while trying to get her attention.

Lindsey screamed and ran at the television trying to get as much distance between her and Brennan. “WOLF!” Brennan’s mom shrieked. Brennan didn’t stick around to hear more. He threw open the door and plowed his way through two feet off thick, fluffy, and cold snow.

          He didn’t stop until he got to the stream, when he slipped on the ice and landed face-first into the snow on the other side. He got up and realized that his thick bushy-black fur was as warm as what he guessed to be three jackets made for Antarctica.

          He flopped around and rolled in the snow. After he looked more white than black, he stood up and looked at the twenty-foot rock. Brennan had grown a foot and a half since earlier that day. Weird.

          He easily leaped to the top of the rock and dug his claws into the slippery ice. He stood perfectly still, waiting for something to come out of the bushes.

           Something did appear about an hour later; Frostbite, three brown furred werewolves, and The Pegataurs Narna and Bear.

Brennan crouched down, ever so still, and watched as the three werewolves pulled the Pegataurs in see-through leather bags. He was about to pounce when he saw Flame and Bronze slowly creep behind him.

          They looked exactly the same as before. Brennan watched them come level with the rock and glance up at him. They all pounced at once. Each landing on what they guessed were Frostbite’s bodyguards.

          Frostbite charged off into the woods. The werewolves swore that they would go against Frostbite, then also charged into the woods. Brennan ripped through the leather bags with teeth and claw to free the Pegataurs.

          “Thank you ware wolfs” said Narna, “Till we meet again.” And with that, they flew off in a large burst of wind. Brennan watched them until they were no longer visible.

He wondered why there were no words being spoken. “Why are you so quiet?” Brennan asked. Flame hesitated before replying, “Nothing needs to be said.” Brennan nodded his understanding towards the other two.

          Brennan plopped into the snow and started rolling around, trying to have more camouflage in the snow. Then he padded silently away, hoping the others didn’t see him. Then he pounced in front of Bronze, who leaped into the air in fright.

          He just got up and pretended it never happened. Brennan smelled something. “Hold up” he said. He took a sniff at the air and heard tiny wolf paws running their direction.

          Before Brennan could get another sniff, a three-foot-tall blondish werewolf flew in their direction from the woods. He clumsily ran into Bronze.

          “Why do werewolves attack me?” Bronze said, shaking the wolf off of him. He grabbed the werewolf by the tail and held him in the air. “Who are you?” Brennan asked. The wolf responded shyly, “I’m nine years old and my name is Nick Draco.” He curled into a little ball somehow and pretended not to exist. He started to cry.

          “What’s wrong Nick?” Flame said in a soft voice. Bronze cleared a spot of snow and set Nick down in the grass. The little pup sniffled a little and spoke; “Me and my mom were walking through the forest. It was a pretty night with the full moon and the snow. I never knew my dad by the way.”

          He sniffled some more and fresh tears came. “And so we walked, and and all of a subben, I saws a white woof come out of the forest and bit me and I fell asweep. I woke up and my mom, my mom, my mom was dead” choked Nick.

           He sobbed a lot harder and Flame picked him up. She held him in her arms and tried to calm him down. “What should we do?” asked Bronze.

          “We can’t just send him to an orphanage…one of us has to take care of him” he said.

“Not us” said Flame, “Our mom would kill us.” She looked at Bronze sadly. “I could” said Brennan. Flame set nick on the ground. He uncurled and just lay there and sobbed for the rest of the night until sunrise.

          Brennan and Nick were sneaking towards the door. They looked inside. Brennan could easily see that Nick was nine. He seemed near Brennan’s age (at least he acted a lot like it) but he still seemed to be into kid shows like ‘SpongeBob Squarepants.’

          Brennan saw his mom on the couch, sipping on a coffee mug. Brennan walked in and told Nick to wait by the door. Brennan walked over to his mom and she turned and only saw Brennan. He rubbed his neck and slowly told his mom about Nick.

          “Well if he needs help, we’ll help him” she said, “Bring him over.” Nick slowly stepped forward until he got to the couch. Brennan’s mom patted his head and gave him a hug. “Welcome to the family!” She said. Then her head flopped onto the back of the couch and started snoring.

          Odd time to go to sleep. Nick yawned. Brennan led him upstairs and told him that he could use his bed until they made a spot for Nick to sleep.

          Nick slowly got into the bed and started talking in his sleep already. Brennan grabbed two air mattresses, and several blankets. He set up a bed for Nick, but he wanted to make sure that it would work.

          He climbed under three thick winter blankets, and fell asleep in no time.

Brennan dreamed he was at a weird place. A battlefield. He couldn’t see any of his surroundings, except many creatures fighting. He heard a voice, female, in his mind which said; “I am Lycan, the first werewolf.” It said, “Though legend says I am male. I am here to help you kill Frostbite.” Then the voice turned into a poem.

It went somewhat like this:

Although Frostbite has Giants to behold,

Their only talent,

Is their strong hold.

The time draws near

For a horrible strive

And there may be cheer

To those who survive.

For this you need,

Strong heroes for help,

And good friends,

For the enemy to yelp.

Do not lose hope,

Oh king of us,

Your strength is known,

To people thus,

Dear friends and family

Who never part,

That will send strength,

Crumbling from heart.

And with that, Lycan’s voice was gone and Brennan awoke.

          Brennan got out of his bed and saw Nick still sleeping in his bed. Judging from the sun, it must have been Sunday. Brennan went down the stairs and looked around and found no one awake yet.

He walked over to the T.V. and clicked it on.

He went to the couch and grabbed the remote. He stopped flipping channels when it got to ‘Cops’ because something was odd. “According to the neighbor” said the policeman on the screen, “There was screaming in this house and he came over and found a very bloody body, possibly just a dog attack, because of the bite marks on the arms, legs, neck, and face.” Brennan looked closely at the bites.

          The teeth of the attacker were somewhat like a human’s, close together. They were a werewolves’! Brennan heard a growling sound from the speakers.

          He could faintly see Frostbite’s outline in the shadows. The cop pulled out a gun and aimed it at the vicious werewolf. Frostbite came out of the shadows completely and got within five feet of the cop before he shot.

          Beautiful bronze bullets flew out of the gun, five. They glided straight through Frostbite’s silver-white pelt. Then Frostbite spoke to the terrified policeman; “I can only be killed by silver bullets.” Then the camera was shut off and it came to the theme song.

          Brennan heard a nock at the door. Who would be coming over on a Sunday? Brennan turned off the T.V. and went to the door. Bronze and Flame stood there with many books in their hands.

          Some held titles along the spine that had to do with school, but most of them had titles like ‘Where Are the Werewolves?’ and ‘Furry Beasts Are Found the Least.’ Brennan opened the door and told them to come in.

          Flame set down all the books on top of the table in the living room and opened one called ‘As Real as Sasquatch and fake as fairies’ and spoke: “we’ve searched everything about werewolves, hoping to find something to use against Frostbite. Soon we’ll check the library for giants.”

          Flame opened the book to the first page and handed it to Brennan to read.

He sighed and plopped into a chair and started to read:

       Werewolves are the mythical animal that is half man, and half wolf. It is said in fairytales that these furry fiends can only be killed by a silver bullet. Such horrors only exist in films meant to terrify you to your peak.

       Most think that to become a werewolf, you need to be bitten by these creatures and then on every full moon, assume the shape of a werewolf.

       Now in my opinion, if I made up such a tail, it would say that a werewolf could kill its own kind, due to the silvery, shiny claws. Although myths also say that a werewolf needed to be killed only by silver, not by a bullet exploding out of a gun.

       Perhaps, a silver sword could kill it? No one knows and will probably never know.

          Brennan shouted to Bronze and Flame to come over and read the page. “A silver sword!” Flame bounced over to a school math book and saw a different book hidden inside of it. She plucked up the first phone she saw and dialed a number.

          It rang for a few moments before a gruff male voice answered: “Who is this!?” Flame spoke in a quick voice: “Cal, its Lexi and Clay now we need to place an order.” “Ah. I see” said Cal. “We need thirty silver swords and fifty dozen arrows with silver tips. Less than a week for ten pounds of pure gold” Flame said. “Easy. See you tomorrow for twenty” said Cal.

“Deal” Flame quickly hung up and turned her attention to Brennan. “Good job!” she said, “It’s not enough though. Keep searching.” She pounced back to her chair and continued looking through the books. Bronze and Brennan did the same, for two hours, until Brennan heard feet on the steps.

          Eight feet pounding on the steps. Soon, Kyle, Lindsey, Nick, and Brennan’s mom came down the stairs, sleepy enough to look zombified. Flame and Bronze snuck outside without a sound before anyone could notice.

          Brennan pretended to just be dozing on the sofa the whole time. Brennan’s mom looked at the clock and muttered something under her breath, and then spoke loud enough for everyone to hear: “Get ready, we still have a few minutes till church starts.”

          Brennan couldn’t believe it, their family hasn’t gone to church for the past two years. Granted they never could go in the first place. They always slept too late.

          He got up and pretended to stretch and then dashed for the bathroom. Lindsey beat Brennan to the downstairs bathroom and Kyle was directly on his tail to the upstairs bathroom. When they reached the stars, Brennan went up three at a time; Kyle went up four at a time.

          By the time they reached the top, Kyle was ahead of Brennan by two feet…then three…four…five, Brennan took a flying leap towards the bathroom, only to get a mouthful of door.

          He landed on his back and sat there, dazed. After a minute or two he got up and shook himself. It would take about a half-an-hour before there was an open bathroom again. Kyle and Lindsey were both going to have showers.

          Brennan slowly stepped down the stairs. He walked over to the sink, slipped his head under the faucet, and turned it on. His head was enveloped in hot water soon enough. Brennan blindly reached for dishwasher soap and poured some of it on top of his head.

          His black hair was soon as green as a lizard’s scales.

          Brennan washed off all of the green and grabbed at a paper-towel from up above his head, and fit it around a small portion of his hair. He then grabbed two more, and fit them atop his head. He went upstairs to his room and changed into a red shirt and navy-blue jeans.

          Brennan went back down the stairs and sat on the couch with his mom and Nick. Nick hadn’t even been there a day and somehow was already blending into the scenery of the cabin. Somehow, even though everyone had black hair and blue eyes, he seemed to fit in, even with blond hair and hazel eyes.

          Nick and Brennan’s mom were watching ‘cops.’ The screen showed a dead dog about five feet tall to the shoulders. The huge dog also seemed very muscular and yet, when the camera zoomed in on the back of its neck, there were several spots with tooth marks.

           “Poor thing” said Brennan’s mom. Then the cops moved to a different part of the house. A bedroom with a large four-poster bed. Brennan noticed two tiny shining orbs in the corner of the room.

          Blood was splattered all along the room. A second pair of glowing orbs appeared on the bed. A brown shape followed a pair of orbs into the moonlight. It was a werewolf! The large brown wolf very closely resembled Frostbite.

          The wolf growled at the policeman, who shot at the werewolf with bronze bullets. They glided straight through him with ease. Then the second pair of eyes came out as part of a dark gray female werewolf.

          She came within two feet of one of the three cops and stopped. Then, once again the camera shut off and the theme song played. Lindsey walked to the T.V. and shut it off. “Time to go I guess” said Brennan’s mom despairingly.

          She got up and walked out the door. Brennan followed Nick, Lindsey, and Kyle out into the driveway. Brennan looked at the blue minivan that waited for them there.

          Brennan went in and went to the back with Nick and Kyle. Kyle had a small laptop rested upon his knees and black headphones that made him unable to hear a word of conversations. Obviously, being that there are three seats in the back, Brennan was stuck in between Kyle and Nick.

          Brennan squished himself into a small space that only fraction of a foot of room. Nick kept looking down, probably still sad about his mom. Brennan couldn’t blame him though. He remembered when his dad went hunting and never came back. He would never see his dad again.

          Brennan found himself crying. Only Nick and Lindsey seemed to notice. He tried to stop but couldn’t. He cried for ten minutes until they got to church. He then just closed his eyes and focused on Flame, Bronze, Frostbite, et cetera.

          They got inside and saw two partially surprising things; one, there was a trail of snow leading through the hallway, and two, the same preacher was there from when Brennan was five.

          His sea-blue eyes seemed to stare at Brennan with a delightedly crazed look. His hair was completely silver with age. His muscles were larger than you’d probably expect. All-in-all, he seemed like the human version of Frostbite. Wait a second…It was Frostbite!

          Brennan froze. His legs were the only thing moving. “Well if it isn’t my favorite family!” said Frostbite. He shook hands with everyone except Nick, who hid behind Brennan. When Frostbite got to Brennan, he pulled him close to his chest and whispered in his ear: “You can’t stop me Shadow.”

          Brennan shook his hand and said quite loudly: “Why it’s good to see you again, Mr. Frost.” Of course! His name was Mr. Frost! How stupid Brennan felt. He let go of the werewolf’s firm hand and slipped away with his family.

          They took seats in the very front, where Frostbite could easily snatch up Brennan, if he was willing to reveal that he was a werewolf.

          Frostbite entered and Brennan almost immediately fell asleep.

          Brennan dreamed of being in a cave. A cage stood in front of him with the skeletons of three people and a man sat in the corner with his eyes closed. His chest heaved, his hair was two feet long and black as midnight.

          Brennan saw that he had no beard so he couldn’t have been there for long. He was very skinny and Brennan could see his ribs. Five gashes on his back and chest told Brennan that he was likely whipped.

          Brennan walked to the cage and found that it was made from stainless steal. There was no door or lock all the way around. “Brennan” Brennan whipped his head to the side and saw the man watching him with piercing blue eyes.

          “Save me” he said. “Frostbite has taken me. Save me!” And then Brennan saw him instantly fall asleep. While he slept, he transformed into a handsomely strong werewolf with silky black fur.

          Brennan stared at him in awe. Then he remembered that he looked even better as a werewolf somehow. That werewolf looked like he never even walked compared to Brennan. Brennan took his werewolf shape and stared at his long, muscular, flawless pelt.

          The man awoke again and lifted his muzzle off of his paws, but only by inches and muttered: “I’m proud of you Shadow.” And then his head fell again and Brennan awoke.

          Music played and Kyle pulled at Brennan’s arm with little effort. “Get up” he said. Brennan stretched, yawned, and then stood up. Nick and Lindsey were walking out the door and Brennan’s mom was waiting in the minivan.

          She honked at them and yelled for them to move faster. Brennan ran past Nick and slipped into the spot in the car that his whole family liked the most.

          He reclined and put his hands behind his head. Nick went into the spot he had last time and Kyle sat next to Lindsey. The whole ride home, Brennan thought about the imprisoned man. He looked on the edge of dying.

      THUNK! Brennan heard a noise. His mom got out and screamed. Everyone got out and looked next to the tire and Brennan saw the trick: Frostbite pretended to be dead next to the tire. His fur was filled with dust, blood caked it.

          He was whimpering. “We’ve got to help the poor thing!” Said Lindsey. Frostbite seemed to wink at Brennan and he read Frostbite’s expression: You’re gonna come to the same sticky, bloody, and revolting end! He continued to whimper, weaker and weaker, Brennan’s family seemed to buy it.

          “Watch me!” He said. He slowly transformed into a werewolf. Everyone gasped. Frostbite glared at Brennan with pure hatred. He pounced on Brennan. Brennan snapped at Frostbite’s bloody neck.

          If only I had fries! Thought Brennan. A simple trick, ketchup blood. This time Brennan saw real blood pour from Frostbite’s neck. Frostbite lunged at Brennan and made a gash upon his arm. Frostbite’s expression was clear: Save your energy for the final battle.

          And with that he ran away.

          First day of high school for Brennan. His whole family now depended on him and he was ALWAYS in werewolf form. Yes it does eventually get annoying.

          Brennan kept his sword, Blizzard, at his waist at all times now. After the many incidents, it might be best. He leaped onto the bus and slowly padded by the many open seats.

          There was no one on the entire bus yet. Brennan decided to sit in the first seat, where there would most likely be fewer kids that were six years older than Brennan.

          Kyle went to the far back of the bus where there is the one-person seat. Lindsey sat at a random spot on the bus. Brennan stretched his legs across the seat and let his head rest upon his head like a dog.

          Nick breathlessly ran from the woods and launched himself into the bus. He hid behind a seat and tried to get into his werewolf form. Brennan watched his many failed attempts with amusement. Then Nick started crying, probably about his mom, and started turning into a werewolf.

          Fur sprouted throughout his body until he was a werewolf. He stopped crying and started beaming a huge smile. Of course for a werewolf smiling looked the same as growling. Brennan laughed to himself and rested his head against his huge paws once again, as he waited for the next stop.

          The next stop was Luke and Pedro. They sat in the seat next to Brennan. He flipped his tail in greeting, Nick bounced up and down like a little puppy (though he kind of was one).

          Pedro watched him and started laughing. “Cute little puppy Brennan!” he said. Brennan watched and started laughing too. “We should go to the back of the bus” said Luke. Brennan agreed to race with the two.

          “Ready” started Luke, “steady…Gogert!” Brennan launched himself over Nick and Lindsey, before he landed on the backseat. Luke and Pedro ran behind him and caught there breath when they got to the second-to-last seat, and climbed in the seat breathlessly like Nick was.

          “Good leapin’” said Pedro. “Thanks!” said Brennan. Brennan didn’t notice that they already got to four stops by then, and the bus was just arriving at Flame and Bronze’s house.

          Bronze came on the bus and immediately noticed Brennan and Nick. “Clay!” shouted Brennan. Bronze leaned over and whispered to Flame before sitting down. Flame walked over to where they were. She was about to speak when her face suddenly seemed to be clouded with fear.

          “What’s wrong Lexi?” asked Brennan. Flame pointed out the back window. Brennan followed her fingertip until his eyes rested upon something. A giant bull ran at them, its two legs pounding against the asphalt.

          Wait, two legs? “Minotaur!” Bronze shouted. When no one was looking, he and Flame took their werewolf forms. Each had their sword sheathed and at their sides.

          The Minotaur was easily catching up to the bus. Now he was on all fours. He must have been going forty-eight miles per hour! The bus driver didn’t seem to notice, and kept driving at about thirty miles per hour.

          The Minotaur was now about ten yards from the bus…eight…six…four, it leaped to the bus and stopped its speed entirely. The Minotaur gripped the sides of the bus and lifted it probably fifty feet into the air.

          He threw it at least five hundred feet. Everyone went flying around. The bus rolled and turned in the air. The bus driver apparently found that big enough to pay attention to. She screamed in terror as she tightly held onto the seatbelt as hard as she possibly could.

          “Throwing up now!” said Luke jokingly. They landed on the ground upside-down. Everyone landed face-first into the hard roof. Pedro looked like he’d been knocked out.

          Brennan saw blood coming out of his head quickly. Bronze pounced over and started licking the top of Pedro’s head. He reached into his backpack and grabbed a bag full of golden leaves. He placed one on the pool of blood and three on his head. The blood started fleeing into Pedro’s head.

          Once all the blood was inside his head, Bronze focused on the golden leaves. He grabbed another one, put it in his mouth, chewed it, and spit it onto the cut in Pedro’s head. As soon as it was newly healed, Pedro jerked himself up.

          Flame, Bronze, and Brennan crashed through the windows. Brennan drew Blizzard and saw that it was now silver.

          Bronze and Flame drew their swords but they were the regular color. Brennan didn’t care right now though. He focused on the fifty-foot mutant bull charging at them full-speed. The Minotaur’s eyes glowed a fearsome fiery red that peered through Brennan’s soul.

          Wait. that was the bronze bullets from a nearby police-car. Oh good, now they have the police trying to kill them. The Minotaur picked up the police-car. The policemen jumped out of the way as the Minotaur threw the car.

          It landed just inches behind Brennan. He ran up to the Minotaur, which might have been on Brennan’s top ten not-to-do list if he had time to think. The Minotaur grabbed Brennan with a huge meaty fist.

          Brennan was being held like he was just a little doll that a five-year-old girl got for Christmas. He could smell the Minotaur’s rotting breath. “Have you ever even seen a toothbrush or toothpaste?” Brennan said while he gagged.

          Flame leaped up to the Minotaur’s knee and dug her claws into his thick hide. He dropped Brennan, who landed on the Minotaur’s chest. He started climbing up, finding really disgusting things along the way. At some point he passed a yellow splotch that smelled suspiciously close to puke.

          He got to the top of the Minotaur’s head and clutched the right horn that was thicker than a fifty-year-old maple tree. Several times he nearly slipped off. The Minotaur snatched Flame off of his knee and opened his mouth to eat her.

          Brennan slipped off the horn and started falling. He jabbed Blizzard into the Minotaur and heard a scream, and an extremely loud roar. Imagine turning a speaker to full volume, put a microphone next to it and have that at full volume, you might have a fourth of how loud the roar was.

          The Minotaur continued roaring as he fell to the ground. It was like the Empire State Building fall to the ground. Only it wouldn’t have made nearly as much noise.

          Brennan watched Flame fall so many feet to the ground. He pounced off of the Minotaur’s bloody chest and seemed to grow wings, once again, as he flew towards Flame with tremendous speed.

          He reached her and held on as they fell over thirty feet. Brennan landed on the ground so hard that he felt his left ankle shatter. He howled in pain. Bronze ran over to him and put on a splint.

          Brennan still felt a very large amount of pain in his leg. He sat moaning for at least ten minutes before saying they had better go. Bronze told Brennan to eat a silver leaf. He did, and felt the pain almost instantly disappear.

          The entire group of kids started walking with them on a short mile-long journey to the school.

          They stopped for kids at their bus-stops and had to give a short explanation. Once again, Shadeflame was the black and red bus that everyone seemed to be terrified of. Other than that, the ride was spectacular.

          They got to the doors of the school in no time at all. The kids that were in the high school had a normal day. The middle school kids got to join them. Brennan ended up in the same class as Kyle, Bronze, and Flame.

          Brennan sat next to Flame, she next to Bronze, and Bronze was apparently good friends Kyle so they sat together. As you can probably imagine, three werewolves in a classroom at a time was not what the teachers put as a highlight of their day. Hey! Guess what! I had a bunch of blood-thirsty dogs in my classroom that have real swords and can’t be killed by anything but themselves and silver!

      Very lovely and relaxing day. The day went by normally otherwise. They all had classes together and decided to walk home at the end of the day. It was a five mile walk but it was still going to be at least a little fun.

          They passed many big trees, oaks, pines, redwood, even a few birch trees. That is, until a huge, beefy man lumbered out of a bush carrying a huge bag. Brennan might have actually mistaken him for Santa Claus if not for the overpowering smell and the fact that he wore only gray.

          He dropped the bag in front of Flame with a huge heave. Brennan could hear lots of metal clinking around as it hit the road. “’Ello Lexi!” he said cheerfully. Brennan saw him bare his three teeth in what he thought was maybe a smile.

          “Hello Cal” said Flame back. “Got yer order yah asked fer yeserday” Cal said. He reached into the bag and took out a light short-sword. He handed it to her and she took it and waved it a little before muttering “Thank you” to Cal. He shot off into the woods without another word.

          “I’ll carry it” said Brennan. He easily lifted the bag which must have been over eight hundred pounds. They continued to walk a little longer, probably a mile, before anyone spoke a word. It wasn’t any of them that spoke though, it was Narmon. He flew straight down from the heavens and alighted upon the road with much grace.

          Narna soon floated down next to him. “Werewolves” they said as they bowed. Their horns nearly touched the road; Narmon’s actually scraped against Brennan’s face.

          “We have important matters to discuss” Narmon said. Brennan reluctantly clambered onto Narmon’s back. Flame climbed onto Narmon’s back behind Brennan and Bronze went onto Narna’s back.

          They leaped into the air and glided into the clouds. The two Pegataurs easily flew, almost as swiftly as they landed. Brennan felt the wind whip at his face. It was really hard to resist the urge to yell woo ho.

          The Pegataurs were going a minimum of seventy miles per hour. The only thing Brennan could do to stay on was to hang on to Narmon’s horns. He obviously wasn’t too pleased.

          They flew through the air at amazingly high speeds; sometimes the Pegataurs even did tricks in the air. Brennan came way too close to barfing at several points in the ride. Finally, Brennan saw the amazing mountain at which the Pegataurs lived in somewhat peace.

          It was beautiful. The snow at the top was whiter than that at the bottom. It actually started snowing when they reached the mountain’s entrance. They entered the mountain and stared at the amazing braziers that were blazing at the edge of the hall.

          After no time at all, they reached the beautiful golden and silver door. Brennan remembered every detail of the inside. Narmon opened the huge doors with an extremely disappointed and longing face, and for good reason; the entire area was destroyed.

          Ash coated the walls and turned the lovely sky-blue decorations to a very sad blackened whole in the ground. The whole area was worth nothing more than the fires that burned in hearths all around the perimeter.

          Even the gold and silver hallway couldn’t make it look at all pretty. Narmon spoke with an ever more grieved expression than before: “Frostbite sent Giants to come and destroy our beautiful mountain city. They burned it to rubble. We all made it out all right but we still would much rather be dead than live here in a once good home that is now just a pile of rubble.” Brennan thought he saw Narmon and Narna’s eyes start to get wet with tears of sorrow.

          Flame put her arms around they’re torsos, being that that’s the only spot she could comfortably reach. She got hugs back from them. They stretched down and embraced her. Brennan saw them lift her up a few inches even.

          They remained that way for so long; Brennan thought he might collapse from standing in that spot for too long. When they finally let go of Flame, they charged out of the hall without a single sound.

          Brennan, Bronze, and Flame charged after them, even though Brennan’s legs felt like jell-O. They ran for at least a mile before they reached the end of the cave. A giant man stood in front of them. He was probably eight feet tall and Brennan saw six-inch fangs curving around his bottom lip.

          The giant man bowed down before the Pegataur king and then amazingly to Brennan. “I am Warron, king of the Vampires” said the giant man to Narmon and Narna. Then he turned to Brennan and said: “You are perhaps the second most famous being in the entire world of half-bloods, Shadow. And by half-bloods I am referring to the near-human beings of earth.”

          Brennan’s jaw dropped. “You know me?” he stuttered. “Did you not hear me!” shouted Warron, “You are perhaps the near most famous half-blood!” Then he turned to Narmon: “The Vampires want to help defeat that evil werewolf....What is his name? Frostbite!”

          Narmon bowed to him and said: “It would be an honor to have another ally.” Warron bowed to him, then Brennan, unfolded immensely large, black wings, and flew off to the ground below.

          “Times must be truly hard for the Vampires” said Narna. “Why?” asked Flame. “Because the Vampires were our number one enemy until now” Narmon replied.

          Brennan thought about Warron’s appearance right before he flew off. He had a beautiful white cape that billowed by his ankles in the breeze. He had black hair that smoothed backwards against his scalp as if he used three tubes of hair-jell.

          His appearance wasn’t at all like a normal Vampire’s like you’d expect. You might think that he had really pale skin, but he looked like he sat in the sun for hours with a massively dark tan that covered his stretched-out face.

          Brennan thought he looked really cool. Narmon and Narna gestured for them to get onto their backs. Brennan sat behind Bronze on Narmon’s back, Flame seated herself upon Narna’s back.

          The Pegataurs launched into the air with amazing speed. Their wings twisted and flapped all along the way to Brennan, Bronze, and Flame’s houses.

          Narmon grabbed Brennan off his back and dropped him twelve feet off the ground. Brennan stumbled a little bit and did a face-plant in the snow. He got up and shook the snow off his fur and looked up just in time to see Narmon and Narna float out of sight on their huge wings.

          Brennan smiled and walked back to his house. Suddenly he remembered; his birthday was just under a month away.

          Having a birthday on a full moon would have been exciting for Brennan normally, but now he was a werewolf. Flame had found an instruction booklet on potions. She found one that made someone forget about something that happened in the past week and fed it to all of Brennan’s family so they’d forget he was a werewolf.

          Now Brennan looked forward to the full moons because that was pretty much the only time he could transform without suspicion from Kyle and Lindsey. Now it was only a week until his birthday, a week from being a teenager.

          The funny thing was that it was on Christmas too. Three important things, one night for them all. No one could forget it. Everyone was having trouble deciding which party to go to: Brennan’s birthday party, or someone’s Christmas party. Naturally Brennan decided and hoped everyone would pick a Christmas party.

          Luke and Pedro shortly decided Brennan’s birthday party. Brennan was walking along the road with Flame and Bronze from school. It was a beautiful day with snow reflecting the warm sun. They were talking about a history problem that seemed impossible to them.

          Flame was positive she had the right answer. Well, so were Brennan and Bronze but they all had different answers.

          They just decided to stick with their own answers. About ten minutes later they split into different parts of the forest to go to their houses. Brennan walked through the trees. Watching two eagles swoop around the forest…above his head?

          The eagles glanced down and noticed Brennan. They started spiraling downward towards Brennan right as he drew Blizzard. The scabbard sounded oddly loud compared to other times, the sword glinted silver in the sunlight.

          The eagles were now fifty feet above Brennan. He realized that they were griffons. Twenty-foot-long furry lions with an eagle head and there were long chicken legs with razor sharp talons on each toe.

          The smaller one was carrying a glowing red orb the size of a bowling ball. They softly alighted upon the grass in front of Brennan, making know signs of wanting to attack.

          The smaller one gazed into its glowing orb, as if examining some important detail. He was lying on the ground, not even noticing the larger one that was bowing to Brennan.

          The larger one stood on two legs! His large muscled hind legs were holding him up. His tail whipped back and forth as if he were really anxious.

          He glanced over to the smaller one. He got up and held the orb in a single scaled arm and pointed from the orb to Brennan. “Hello Shadow!” said the largest griffon, “I am Xarcon and this is my son Icksazro.” “What’s with the crystal ball?” asked Brennan. Icksazro glared at Brennan as if he had just pranked him.

          “CRYSTAL BALL!?” Icksazro shouted in outrage. His chest was heaving very heavily. Xarcon tried to calm him down. “It is a Krockinomicon. Or Krockiton for short.” Icksazro said coolly, “Although it has the same idea. I can see into it and see the past, present, and future.” He continued to gaze into the Krockinomicon.

          “We would like to be part of the rebels… against Frostbite in other words” said Xarcon. “Ah” said Icksazro “The battle will be in less than a week’s time on the full moon, Christmas, and from

What I understand, your birthday.

          “How did you know it was my birthday?” Brennan asked. Icksazro tapped the Krockinomicon with a single talon and said: “I see your friends and family speaking of it.”

          “Cool” said Brennan. Icksazro stuck out his right claw and tapped the ball in a steady rhythm for a few heartbeats and gazed into it once more.

          Xarcon reached out a paw, gesturing for Brennan to shake hands with him. Brennan slowly reached out and gripped Xarcon’s paw. It felt warm and sort of reptilian. Brennan remembered petting a long scaled king cobra at the zoo when a zookeeper had the snake out of its cage. Xarcon’s paw felt just like the king cobra, tiny scales dotted all around it.

          “Good” Xarcon said. Brennan nodded slightly. “Well, I best be off” said Xarcon, “Icksazro will remain with you and become your fortune-teller.” He turned to Icksazro and nodded before launching skyward.

          “Ah” said Icksazro, still gazing into his Krockinomicon, “Interesting. Very interesting indeed.” “What’s interesting?” Brennan asked. “Ah well….” Icksazro started to answer but somehow must have forgotten.

          “Icksazro?” Brennan called, “Icksazro?” Yes yes, most indeed interesting” Icksazro said. “ICKSAZRO!” Brennan shouted. “Oh right well…. Not important, moving on” he replied unsteadily.

          Icksazro froze. He looked as stiff as a rock statue and spoke in a different voice: “The trio will proceed to fight off the white wolf, Mother and daughter will be reunited, father and son will be reunited, mother and son will be reunited, but only at a terrible price.”

          “What was that?” Brennan asked. “Prophecy” Icksazro replied, suddenly back to normal, “they happen to me right before something big happens.” Icksazro plopped onto the ground and covered his face with huge black-silver wings.

          He still firmly grasped the Krockinomicon in one paw but paid no attention to it. Brennan saw silver tears pour from his left eye. Gold tears leaked out of the right.

          “Why do you cry such colorful tears?” he asked. Icksazro lifted his right wing and said that his race cried poisonous silver tears and healing gold tears. Brennan decided to never ask Icksazro another question as long as he lived.

          He slowly started walking toward his house, followed by Icksazro. “You don’t have to follow me you know” Brennan said behind his shoulder. “oh but I do” replied the giant four-legged eagle.

          Brennan confusedly turned around and asked why. “Because I am your fortune-teller!” Icksazro replied as if it were obvious. When Brennan didn’t change his expression, Icksazro continued; “I stay with you and warn you of dangers to come. I will stay out of sight, but I will always be near.”

          Icksazro took off and flew away. Brennan had officially seen too many weird things after becoming a werewolf but decided that, by the end of the week, he would see much crazier things.

          It was Christmas eve and Brennan was chatting with Bronze and Flame. It was about five in the afternoon and there was no evidence of anything unusual.

          Every one of their allies were gathered in a large ravine, practice-fighting with each other. Flame seemed worried about Frostbite. It was a fairly cloudy day, topped off with some snow. Everyone was not very eager to fight. Even the Hellhounds looked kind of sick and they were known for being blood-thirsty dogs.

          The snow kept getting thicker and thicker by the minute, the noise got less and less by the minute. Flame said that by midnight Frostbite would be coming through. The hours sped by, not what Brennan wanted at all. Soon it was already eight in the afternoon.

          It was so dark that no one dared speak in case Frostbite came early without them noticing.

          That was when the minutes became slow. Every snowflake that fell upon the ground hurt Brennan’s ears because they seemed so loud. So many things were pressuring Brennan. He wanted to be with his family for Christmas and his birthday. So many thoughts stirred in Brennan’s mind that he soon fell asleep.

          Brennan saw the cage that held the black werewolf like before, but this time he saw two more. One held a white she-wolf and the other, a blazing red she-wolf. Both seemed oddly familiar. They whined in the corners of their cages, deep sorrow in their eyes.

          Before Brennan could do anything, he was pulled out of the dream.

          Some of the animals rose when they heard a faint pounding on the ground. Brennan could even feel the vibrations. The noise sounded somewhat like a drum, but a far away drum.

          With every minute the noise grew louder and the ground shook harder. Brennan started to see a giant mass of black in the sky. Birds? No, bigger. Clouds? No, louder. It must have been thousands of huge dragons, but hundreds of them were at his side, willing to fight Frostbite.

          Brennan realized that they were devillegriffs. Black with scarlet stripes along their sides like blood. Seven tall figures soon became visible among the flock of black and red. They were probably three stories high on average.

          They were probably the giants. Before long, the giants were close enough so that Brennan could see their facial features. They all had ten-foot long black hair dangling by their large faces, orangey-blue eyes that burned with hatred.

          Brennan was so focused on the hardships ahead, that he didn’t notice five large shapes float into a large group of Pegataurs. Brennan started to hear horns blowing in the distance, drums pounding, Devillegriffs roaring, it sounded like chaos.

          Before long the army emerged from the trees forty yards away. The five figures pounced out of the crowd of Pegataurs and flew towards the first row of attackers: twenty-two werewolves, all the color gray.

          They easily killed off the werewolves with nary a scratch on their pelts. Flame seemed outraged that they would attack without orders and apparently didn’t realize what Brennan easily guessed; they were the Hakkiey! The five rulers of the world that Brennan couldn’t remember anything else about.

          Flame suddenly realized it and shouted towards their side; “ATTACK!” Suddenly, hundreds of angry roars floated from all sides of the clearing, echoing off the trees and becoming a chorus of cries until they turned into painful screeches.

          The din made Brennan’s ears ring as if someone shot a shotgun right next to him. He fell backwards on his furry tail and tripped several Nymphs. They quickly glanced back at him angrily and then continued charging forward.

          Pounding sounded from the feet of the giants and Helephants. The Hakkiey continued to lash at the forces of Frostbite. Then it hit Brennan, where was Frostbite?

          Suddenly the chaos became silent. Brennan heard Frostbite say: “hello Brennan. You are the only one who can hear me. Meet me in the cave by your feet.” Outraged, Brennan looked down at a whole that was suddenly beneath his feet and fell into darkness.

          A couple of torches and braziers lit a large underground cave. Obelisks stood in ten different positions on the wall. Three cages were laid out in front of Brennan. In the cages, three starved people and in front of the cages, stood Frostbite.

          Brennan could barely see the werewolf’s pelt in the dim shimmering glow of the braziers. “Glad you could stop by” Frostbite said with a weasel-like grin. His teeth shone in the light.

          “The pleasure is all mine” Brennan replied through his own gritted teeth.

          “I’ll bet it is,” said Frostbite, “after all, it’s not every day you come across the new ruler of the world. Which title is best? Pharaoh? Emperor? King?” Brennan thought he couldn’t get angrier but, he proved himself wrong.

          “Oh I almost forgot” Frostbite said, acting calm as ever when it was clear that Brennan was very near his peak of anger, “Let me introduce you to our guests.” He gestured toward the first cage that held a young woman in it. “This is Miranda, Nick’s mother,” Frostbite said, his grin growing as he moved to the second cage that also held a young woman, “this is Anna, mother of Bronze and Flame.”

           Brennan had finally reached his boiling point. He was ready to pounce but a voice from the last cage stopped him. It was a scrawny man with black, shaggy hair.

          “Ooh almost forgot, Jaden. He’s in fact your father” Frostbite said with fake sadness in his eyes. This time nothing stopped Brennan. He pounced at Frostbite and raked his razor-sharp claws across the old wolves snow-white pelt.

          Brennan slipped around to see four red streaks across Frostbite’s side. Frostbite didn’t wait to counter the attack, but Brennan was ready. He slipped under Frostbite as he pounced overhead, only to feel a single claw run across his back.

          Brennan hesitated to get up, but when he did, his black pelt was now stained red at the top. Frostbite launched in for another attack, only to get a face full of claw. Brennan felt victorious. That is, until Frostbite clawed at Brennan.

          Brennan’s right eye was suddenly coated in blood. A scratch through the eye, no doubt. Not actually damaging the tissue but blinding him temporarily.

          The battle continued for what seemed like decades, Frostbite landing several scars, Brennan countless. Suddenly, Frostbite slowed and slumped to the floor. He lost too much blood! But suddenly, Brennan’s world went black and he too, slumped to the floor.

          Brennan lay there for a long while, unconscious from the loss of blood. But for hours he heard soothing voices from five different voices, not caring about what they were saying.

          Brennan tried to move but every one of his muscles refused to budge. His mind felt fuzzy. His legs and arms felt sore. Finally he managed to open his eyes. He was looking around a hospital room.

          Brennan started to move his body but winced at the pain. He looked under the blankets and saw several scars on his stomach alone.

          A nurse came in and started speaking to Brennan, “That was a nasty fall!”

          “Excuse me?” Brennan asked.

          “Your friends told me about how you fell down a flight of rust metal stairs.” She said. Brennan was completely clueless. Before he could reply the nurse walked out of the room. It wasn’t long before several people came into the room.

          Those people were Bronze, Flame, Brennan’s mom, Lindsey, Kyle, Anna (Bronze and Flames mom), and Brennan’s father, Jaden. Brennan bounced up and hugged everyone there, despite his every muscle screeching in protest. He was speechless.

          “Brennan,” Jaden said, “You need some rest.” Brennan wanted to protest, but he knew that he was really tired. So he put his head down and went to sleep.

          Brennan woke up to his dad poking him in the chest. A feeling he thought he would never feel again. Together they raced down the stairs, only to be greeted by everyone he knew and they cheered, “Happy Birthday!” At that precise moment, everything was perfect.