A golden quarter moon had just waxed its way above the hills when I arrived at the loch. The frigid air of the night prickled my wet nose and tore at my lungs as I sat down to catch my breath. I had not run for a while and I was regretting it. I lifted an ash grey paw - ash like the tree, not the remains of a fire - to my face and licked away the dirt I had picked up along the way. Funny how as a wolf I would think nothing of cleaning my claws this way but as a human would be horrified at anyone biting their nails. But such is the discrepancies of being dual form. The moon rose steadily as I groomed myself and to my delight I spotted bats swooping around the loch elegantly, twittering in victory as they captured moths. Of course only dual forms can hear ultrasonic sound. Which is also useful for hearing approaching friends. I turned my head as I heard the definite footsteps of another wolf approaching behind me. I knew who it was: I recognised her distinctive quick, shallow breaths. She was running now, padded paws pounding the mossy ground. Finally, a dark brown, near black she-wolf leaped over me and cartwheeled before whipping round and greeting me:

"Good to see you, Beatrix!"

Helene was always one to make an entrance. I wagged my tail appreciatively.

"Always good to see you. Now let's make the most of tonight - I haven't got any money left for another train ticket before I go back to mam and dad in Cumbria." I replied.

"Aw what? Never say no to a midnight run!" Helene grinned, "But all right. Even I have to study. Just don't deprive me of our weekly coffee shop!" Helene cocked her head sternly.

"Of course not - I love meeting you guys!" I said, meaning every word. "Now where will we go tonight?" 

"Nowhere near the bothies or visitor trails." Helene quipped. I laughed.

"Of course, of course." I said. "So where else this time?"

"Touching the stars, climbing the slopes." Helene answered.

"You mean through the forest to the summit, skirting the old military road and then... where shall we transform?" I continued.

"Worry about that later! We got time." Helene smirked. And suddenly she was off!

"Wait for me!" I shrieked, speeding after her as fast as I could go.

And so the night's journey began. We left the ridge and entered the Scots pine forest, chasing each other through the wooded slopes. We veered in different directions to avoid tree stumps, leaped over fallen boulders and scrabbled over scree slopes, laughing in delight when our feet slipped, safe in the knowledge we were could do things in our wolf bodies we would never manage in our human forms. It wasn't hard to keep up with Helene because she was as out of practice as I was but it didn't matter. You can compete without being cutthroat when you're with friends. We raced for miles round the mountain, circuiting the sandy lower slopes before I detoured upwards and then down to catch up with Helene again.

"This is too easy mate! Catch me if you can!" Helene shouted, slipping off to the left to climb upwards.

"You bet!" I shouted back and followed after her.

I at once noticed the difference when I started running against the gradient of the mountain. I was making less progress and much less quickly. But I could see Helene's flanks heaving harder than mine. I leaped over fallen pines in my path as I ran, my paws scrabbling in the rain-softened ground. Soon we were neck-and-neck again. 

"Looks like we're equally matched." I breathed as I came nose to nose with Helene.

"No you never!" Shrieked Helene and she ran even faster. But not enough to escape my side.

And soon it was all over. First the trees became shorter, than more scattered until there were no trees at all. Beyond the tree line it was completely open and the harsh wind ruffled our fur. After another mile we were at the summit. I nosed the trig pillar and whooped in victory. I had won by a whisker.

"I still won overall." Helene grumbled, tail dipped. "I won twice before you!"

I grinned smugly, tongue hanging out my mouth goofily. I wasn't one for crowing about my victories but I couldn't help being pretty pleased with myself. There was just one thing missing. Helene seemed to read my mind as she said:

"You'd howl if you could, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah," I replied, a little disappointed "The last time I was in a place remote enough to howl was this summer."

"Shame we're so close to a town here. At least we get to wolf out properly." Helene added sympathetically. She nuzzled my nose.

"Cheer up love. Next term we'll go to Aviemore - No one's around Cairngorm Mountain at night - and we might see a pt... pt... what's that bird you like again?"

"Ptarmigans." I wagged my tail at the sound of my favourite bird. "The P is silent though."

Helene blew a raspberry.

"I've never been good at naming wild things. Seeing the deer was cool though." She added.

"You would've scared the life out of them! Where did you see them?" I queried.

"Oh, I ran into some kinda estate. Didn't see the hole in the deer fence so thought it was still the forest on my way here. Then I heard all these panicked bellows, saw their monstrous antlers and I was outta there, sharpish." Helene answered casually.

"How you stay calm about these things amazes me, Helene." I shook my head, eyes wide. "I should've sent you by another route." 

Helene shook her head, telling me not to worry. Whenever we ran wild in wolf form we always made sure to arrive by separate routes, among other precautions, so if one of us was discovered hopefully the other wouldn't be.

"Look! The stars are so pretty!" Helene suddenly gasped.

We both pointed our noses up to the sky. The clouds had cleared and above us were millions of stars, pulsing and glowing, flickering and shifting. The background to these stars was a rich palette of colour, blacks and navy blues and even brown and purple hues. And behind the stars we knew there were tiny pinpricks of light - stars you would never see from a normal town with street lights. It just went on an on. You could get lost looking.

"You can see the stars much better from up here." I heard a very high pitched voice above me. I looked up to my right and saw a a low flying bat speaking to me.

"Helene! That's not fair!" I complained to the bat.

I heard white noise, which was her laughing in a pitch beyond my hearing range. She fluttered back down next to me and changed back to wolf form.

"Guess that's one advantage vampires have over you, Beatrix." She chuckled.

The End

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