Chapter Seven

    When I woke up in my bed, my mind went immediately to what had happened last night. Robyn. The wolf den. And the thing she was not so comfortable with sharing. With luck, I could go back to the den and pry the answer out of her. After a hunt, of course. You can't start the day with an empty stomach. What if you were being chased, but suddenly, a barrage of hunger cramps overtook you? You would be wolf chow! I grabbed my crossbow and coat and opened the door. More tracks awaited me in the snow. Wolf tracks, fresh and plentiful, were all around my cabin, forming a ring of packed snow.

    I ignored the tracks and set out into the forest to get a deer to start the day. I checked my hunting spot, but as usual, there was nothing there. I sighed. More forest hunting. Which meant more chances of running into a wolf. I set off into the brush to find my first kill for the day. When I had been walking slowly through the forest for about half an hour, I came across a clearing near a river. The snow had melted and flowed down the riverbank to join the cold flow, so grass and saplings were sticking out here and there. A deer was nibbling on a leaf, unaware of the threat he was near. He was perfect, not too big, not too small, just right. I aimed down the sights and drew breath. This kill was mine. But as I was about to fire, I heard the whistle of another arrow and the squish as the arrow met flesh. The deer fell on its side, dead. I looked on, confused, as Robyn, the girl from the wolf den, came out of the brush from the other side of the clearing and approached the deer. But as I was rising to greet her, wolves came out of the bushes from behind her. To my utter astonishment, one of the wolves, the small red-furred one, nuzzled Robyn's hand before going to go and feast on the deer. Then, I knew. This girl wasn't just affiliated with the wolves, she was in league with them. Working with them. Helping them. My brain couldn't process what was happening.

    Just as the red-furred wolf was about to dig into the deer, she lifted her head. I had seen this before. She was sniffing. Sniffing me out. I couldn't run, not at this proximity, so I froze and silently willed the wolf to go back to eating. Nevertheless, the wolf walked right up to where I was crouching and growled in my face. I yelped and scrambled backward, but when I looked behind me, I saw another red-furred wolf blocking my escape. I was surrounded.

    The red wolves herded me toward the pack and Robyn. I was quaking with fear. If I made one wrong move, these wolves would rip me apart. "W-What are you doing with wolves?" I asked Robyn. 

    She looked at the red-furred wolf. Then, she nodded, apparently satisfied. "We are Wolfwalkers. Wolves when we're asleep, humans when we're awake." 

    I was skeptical, to say the least. "I don't believe it. Not one bit."

    Robyn looked at me. "Want to go and see? We can show you if you want." 

    I stood up. "Follow a strange girl and a pack of wolves right into their place of residence? Sure, why not? Then you can show me these 'Wolfwalkers' of yours." Robyn gestured to the pack, and they all stood up from their meal and followed her.

    When we got to the den, Robyn had me take off my crossbow and knife. She said it was for "safety reasons". "After all," Robyn explained. "We can't have visitors shooting our pack, can we?"  Robyn led me and the pack to a big, hollowed-out den area, with lots of space for the pack to fit. She gestured to the center of the den, where three humans were snoozing, soundly asleep. 

    "Uh," I said. "Those are humans. Living in a wolf den?" The small red wolf walked up to the humans and placed her paw on one of the humans, also a girl. I noticed they both had the same red color. As the wolf's paw touched the girl's hand, there was a yellow glow, and the girl woke up and walked towards me. I was shocked. Now, my brain couldn't process this, and on top of this, It couldn't even function. "Oy! You! Why are you pushing around in our business, townie?" 

    Robyn walked up to us. "Calm down." She turned to me. "This is Mebh, my best friend and Wolfwalker." 

    "H-hi. I'm Sean. Sean McCarthy. I live here." 

    She looked at me suspiciously. "Why are you here, Sean? Are you gonna kill us?" 

    "Kill you? No! Like I said, I live here, in the forest."

    "Well, why are you living in the forest then?"

    I then explained my situation with the Lord Protector and how he banished me to the woods.

    "The Lord Protector, you say? Well, you don't have to worry about that slimeball anymore!"

    I was confused. "Because of my banishment?"

    Mebh grinned. "No, because we k-Oof!" Robyn elbowed Mebh in the stomach and whispered something in her ear. Mebh grumbled something about not being able to boast and walked off towards the larger red-haired wolf.

    Robyn looked at me. "As you can see now, wolfwalkers are very real. My dad and Mebh's mum are also wolfwalkers." I looked on as two more wolves pressed their paws into the humans' hands and transformed. They also questioned me about whether I was going to endanger them and the pack, then walked away to eat.

    I turned to Robyn. "What's with all the questions about killing?"

    Robyn sighed. "We've had some...bad experiences with strangers and people in general. We don't have much trust for humans as a whole."

    "Well, why did you trust me, then?"

    "You didn't practice religion, right?" I shook my head. "Then you, didn't see us as creatures of Satan or whatever. You just saw us as wolves."

    "Big, fierce, terrifying wolves, but yes, definitely not spawn of the Devil."

    "My point is, you're different. You saw us in a different way than most people. That's what made us trust you with this secret. Go on home, Sean. We'll discuss later." I walked up and out of the den, and strode home.