by Brent Miller
“No,” Aldric jumped in. Silently, he cursed himself for speed and brevity of the response. In attempt to cover it up, he added, “That’s alright. We should get home, I think. He’s going to need a nap soon too.”
“I don’t want a nap!” Cailean whined.
“Are you sure?” Bree asked.
“Yeah,” Linda nodded, rubbing Aldric’s back to inform him that she would handle their escape. “We should do this again sometime, though.”
“Any time,” James smiled.
“Mommy,” Cailean argued. “I’m having fun!”
“I know buddy. Don’t worry, we’ll be back. It’s nap time though.”
“I’m not tired! I want to play!”
“Cailean,” Aldric scolded firmly. Instantly, Cailean fell silent and dropped his face against his father’s shirt. After an awkward exchange of goodbyes, they were finally outside and heading toward the street. The two walked across the road and up their porch steps in silence.
“You know, I’m really surprised that you aren’t better at talking our way out of these things,” Linda teased Aldric when they were behind their closed door.
“I spent my formative years in isolation,” Aldric defended.
“That was centuries ago.”
“Well, I don’t like people anyway,” Aldric groaned as he set Cailean down.
“He’s kidding,” Linda told Cailean, who looked up at his father with confusion.
“I’m not,” Aldric denied. “That’s why you have to be an especially good boy, you’ve got to make up for your old man.”
“That’s not fair,” Cailean complained.
“It never is,” Aldric laughed sadly. Although he was joking for the most part, his words still reminded himself of his own father.
“He’s just playing with you, Cailean.”
“Okay,” Cailean shrugged, clearly losing interest in the conversation. Turning, he ran off toward his room. Linda glared at Aldric, but eventually laughed. He knew it had been a long while since she’d given up hope for his social skills to match that of a normal functioning human.
A moment later, Cailean returned with a foam sword. Rushing at Aldric with a battlecry, he held the sword high in the air.
“His attention span is miniscule,” Aldric observed. As Cailean approached him, he stepped to the side, avoiding the attack. Cailean, unprepared for his target to move, pitched forward and plummeted to the floor.
“He really is your son,” Linda laughed. Aldric had convinced her long ago that it wasn’t worth making a scene if Cailean fell or hurt himself. Even if he had scraped something, the wound would be gone before she had a chance to get him a bandage anyway. “He can go from building to whining to fighting in minutes.”
“I will choose not to be offended by that,” Aldric laughed.
Cailean stood back to his feet, releasing another loud cry as he swung the sword at Aldric. Aldric moved his leg slightly, avoiding the strike completely.
“I was serious about the nap, though,” Linda sighed.
“Don’t worry,” Aldric smiled, cracking his knuckles. Cailean lurched forward again, but Aldric dove forward and grabbed the boy, lifting him into the air. “I’ll just have to tire him out a bit first.”
Present
Morning of the Full Moon
Cailean
Cailean counted down the hours, waiting for the sun to set. Every time he thought about meeting Brooke that night, a strange feeling washed over his stomach and he felt nervous – even though he’d already seen her every day at school for the past two weeks. Cailean checked his alarm clock again to find that the time hadn’t even ticked past noon yet.
Standing up, Cailean paced the room, restless. Even when his mind drifted from Brooke, there was an uneasy feeling in his gut. Anxiety was the only word Cailean could conjure as description, but that didn’t feel quite accurate. There was no reason for him to be anxious, and the feeling persisted whether he was thinking or not.
Wishing the day away, Cailean stood in the middle of his room. Despite how hard he willed the knots in his stomach to flee, there was no change. It felt almost as though he were forgetting something, but Cailean hadn’t left his house, so there was no reason to feel as though he had left something behind.
Finally, he accepted that his subconscious was attempting to tell him something, so he dropped down on his bed and ran through a mental checklist. He’d done all of his homework already. He had finished his chores within an hour of waking up just because he had needed something to do to help kill the time. He hadn’t taken the time to give his parents an excuse for where he wanted to go, but he didn’t assume that would be a problem. He was absolutely positive that it was the correct day. No obvious answer seemed to present itself to him, despite how hard he searched for a logical reason for his body’s reaction.
As one last verification attempt, Cailean checked the calendar hanging from his wall. The bottom page listed all of the days while the top page was merely a photograph of a different natural landscape each month. Fittingly, the picture in front of him was a stream running through a forest. Cailean glanced downward to the day, but his eye was caught by the lunar chart in the middle of the calendar.
“No,” he muttered under his breath. How could he have forgotten that it was the full moon?
Cailean panicked as he dropped back onto his bed. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t cancel on Brooke. If he did, he was concerned that she’d never want to speak with him again. Cailean was certain that his parents would refuse to allow him to leave the house, though. His mind raced for a solution, but his thoughts became cloudy as the trepidation set in.
For the first time in his life, Cailean was grateful that he wasn’t like his father. Regardless of what his parents claimed, Cailean hadn’t transformed into a werewolf, and he was severely doubting that would ever happen. Maybe he had inherited the healing and strength from his father and the humanity from his mother. Whatever the case, he knew that he wanted to spend time with the cute girl who was expecting him.
Cailean wondered if he’d be able to convince his mom to let him leave after he proved that he wasn’t going to transform. If he just waited for the moon to reach its place in the sky, he could manage to make it in time if he ran full speed. That was a risk, though, because if she didn’t allow it then he sacrificed his chance.
As Cailean’s mind raced through his limited options, a knock on his door resounded like an explosion. Cailean leapt from his bed and lifted his hands to cover his face. Adrenaline raced through his veins as his heart pounded from the sudden sound. Breathing slowly, Cailean dropped his hands to his sides.
“Come in,” he called.
“You alright?” His father asked as he pushed the door open.
“Yeah,” Cailean shrugged. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, you’re just standing in the middle of your room, I heard you jump, and I can hear your heart now.”
If Cailean tried, he was able to hear his father’s heartbeat as well. Cailean couldn’t remember a time when he couldn’t hear so well. Consciously, he knew that he hadn’t actually noticed the enhanced ability to hear until middle school, but just as a sick child selectively forgot the feeling of health, Cailean had trouble remembering what it felt like to not hear every minute sound.
“You just startled me,” Cailean admitted.
“Sorry, I forget how jumpy you are,” Aldric teased. Typically, Cailean would have responded to that type of comment with some type of defense, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Instead, he just feigned a laugh and then allowed silence to fill the space.
“Anyway, I have a few hours before I have to start getting ready for tonight. I thought you may want to do something.”
“You want to fight?” Cailean surmised.
“No,” Aldric laughed. “Your training is important, of course, but it isn’t our entire lives. I thought we’d play catch.”
Cailean laughed quietly as his father tossed a ball in t
he air. “Is it for my reflexes?” He asked.
“Well, fun things can still have a purpose,” Aldric shrugged. Cailean smiled and followed his father outside.
❖ ❖ ❖
For the first time in years, Cailean didn’t ask his father to allow him to accompany him to the woods. He wondered whether that was suspicious and considered asking just to maintain a sense of normalcy. However, if his father agreed for some reason, Cailean would have to cancel on Brooke last minute. It was better for him to simply appear to be accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to transform.
“Alright,” Aldric sighed heavily, standing at the door with a small bag at his side. Hesitating before exiting, he turned around to face his family. Squatting down in front of Cailean, he narrowed his eyes and investigated Cailean’s.
“Are you sure nothing has felt weird?” Aldric asked cautiously.
“No. I mean, yes, I guess,” Cailean stuttered, tripping over his words.
“Okay.” Turning his attention to Linda, he added, “Be safe.”
“We’ll be just fine,” she smiled. “You be careful out there.”
Aldric nodded solemnly as he stood and turned toward the door. Cailean wasn’t sure why it was always such a spectacle when his father left to transform. It happened monthly, so it was nothing new to them. If he was ever able to experience the transformation, Cailean couldn’t imagine himself treating it as a bad thing. His father seemed to think it was nothing more than a side-effect of the powers he had, but to Cailean, it seemed like the most interesting part. The fact that his entire body could simply become something else was baffling.
Aldric opened the door and stepped through. With a sigh, he looked back toward his family and nodded before closing the door behind him. The setting sun shone through the door for a brief moment, and Cailean suddenly realized how late it was. His stomach twisted into a pretzel as he thought about keeping Brooke waiting.
“Want to play a board game?” Linda offered.
“I’m alright, Mom,” Cailean told her. He was not answering the question she’d asked, but rather the one hidden in the subtext. For the past year, Cailean had been impatiently awaiting his first transformation. Every month, he had complained to his mom about how he wanted to be like his father. That night, though, he wouldn’t trade being himself for anything.
“Okay,” she accepted quietly. The two of them had come to an unspoken agreement to avoid pressing Cailean for information concerning his desire to be a lycanthrope. His mom knew that he would talk to her about it if he felt the need, but she was also aware that he sometimes needed to process things internally.
“I’m tired,” Cailean told her, breaking the fleeting silence. “I think I’m going to go to bed early.”
“Are you sure?” She asked, concern flooding into her voice.
“Yeah. I’m okay, Mom. Really. I love you,” Cailean hugged her tightly. He felt horrible lying to her, but he knew she wouldn’t allow him to leave. Though he’d never changed before, she always thought it important to keep him locked away in his room. Anyway, Cailean was sure that he’d feel differently if he were about to transform into a wolf. There was no logical reason for him not to meet Brooke.
“I love you too,” his mother replied sadly, hugging him. As Cailean pulled back, she held him for a second longer. Finally, she released him and Cailean retreated to his room. With the sun rapidly setting, he was sure that Brooke would be at the river soon if she wasn’t already. He didn’t have much time to spare if he didn’t want her to think he’d stood her up.
Rapidly getting to work, Cailean slipped a few pillows under his covers and changed into a swimsuit. Quickly, he put his shoes on and slid on a new shirt. Checking the mirror, he examined his hair and ran a comb through it to try to get it to keep its form. Cailean flipped his light off and quietly moved toward the window. Lifting it gently, he attempted to keep all of his motions as silent as possible. Cailean slipped through the window and lowered it behind him, just in case someone noticed it had been moved.
Looking around him, Cailean watched for any observers. When he was confident no one had noticed his exit, he snuck around the house, sticking to the darkest corners. When he reached the other side of the building, he checked one more time for any onlookers before breaking into a run for the tree line.
As he crossed into the forest, Cailean picked up the pace. He changed his direction slightly, heading toward the river which ran along the town. The further he got into the trees, the more confident he became that no one was watching and so the faster he ran. Within a few minutes, Cailean found himself barreling toward the river. Stopping suddenly, he tripped over his feet and rolled onto his shoulder, jumping back to his feet.
Brushing off the sticks and leaves, Cailean exhaled deeply and allowed himself a few seconds to catch his breath. Brooke sat on a rock not too far in front of him, mindlessly tossing pebbles into the water. From his position, Cailean could see her at an angle, so he was able to make out her stance. One leg was extended in front of her, her heel resting on the ground, while the other was firmly planted on the floor. On her bent knee, she rested her right arm and her chin rested in that open palm. With her left hand, she tossed a small rock and caught it again before sacrificing it to the lake.
In the light of the moon, her black hair seemed to glow, reflecting the shine. Her loose shirt caught in the slight breeze, flowing gently. Her shorts barely reached the middle of her thigh, so her exposed legs seemed to glow. As she breathed slowly, her chest rose and fell rhythmically.
A quiet thumping filled the world around him as Cailean listened to the calming beat of her heart. He carefully observed the sounds of her breath as it passed her slightly parted lips. The occasional splash of water was thunderous, but not entirely unpleasant.
Finally, Cailean was able to snap himself out of his trance and approach the majestic figure before him. Stumbling over his words, he was unable to formulate a proper greeting, so he froze. As he did, he dug one foot into the ground, accidentally breaking a stick beneath him. Brooke’s head turned rapidly toward him, fear painted on her gentle features. As she recognized him, though, that was washed away by an enticing smile.
“You startled me,” she greeted with a quiet laugh. Standing, she dropped the rocks from her left hand and faced him. Cailean searched through his mind, grasping for any way to break the increasingly awkward silence, but he couldn’t find words.
“I was starting to worry you weren’t coming,” she told him.
“Sorry, I had to wait for my father to leave,” Cailean shrugged.
“Oh, where was he going?”
“Long story,” Cailean laughed it off, realizing that he’d already been careless with his words. What he had said wouldn’t have been anything too incriminating, but he had no follow-up, so that was problematic. Although he was confident Brooke wasn’t a hunter, he also knew that he had to be more careful.
“Alright, then,” Brooke replied, confused. “Well, are we going to swim?”
“Yeah,” Cailean smiled.
Brooke turned from him and grabbed the bottom of her shirt with her hands. Lifting it over her head, she tossed it to the side. The thin string of her bikini was the only thing keeping her back from being completely bare. Dropping her hands, she unbuttoned her shorts and pulled them down. As she stepped out of them, she kicked them to the side. Cailean watched her hips sway until she descended into the water.
“Are you coming?” She questioned, turning back to face him. A drop of water reflected from her breast, but Cailean tried to force himself not to look. The feeling in his gut started to become painful, as if the butterflies frenzied and searched for a way out.
“Yeah,” Cailean choked out, fighting back against the emotions and hormones that raced through his brain. He pulled his shirt off and tossed it with her clothes before running and jumping in the water. The rush of cold didn’t do much to quell the tingling in his stomach. In fact, the sensation seemed to spread like a canc
er, overtaking most of his body. As the water rippled, the reflection of the full moon in the center of the sky seemed to vibrate.
“What are you looking at?” Brooke asked, approaching him slowly and following his gaze. “Is there something in the water?”
“No,” Cailean shook his head. Too many thoughts raced through Cailean’s mind for him to take action upon any of them. A large part of him wanted to look up and admire Brooke’s body as she stood in the waist-deep water with him, but he wondered if that was considered impolite. Either way, for some reason, he couldn’t tear his eyes from the pulsating reflection of the moon. Suddenly, the moon dissipated in the water beneath him and something jumped out from it. Reacting quickly, Cailean stepped to the side and caught whatever had jumped for him. Less than a second later, he realized he was gripping Brooke’s wrist and quickly let go.
“Sorry,” he quickly apologized.
“You have good reflexes,” she laughed, rubbing her wrist. Both of her arms in front of her seemed to press her breasts together and draw his attention to them even more. More mesmerizing than the moon had been a moment ago, Cailean couldn’t take his eyes from her. Before he noticed her move, Brooke had thrust her hand through the water and splashed his face.
“Hey,” he complained, wiping the water from his eyes.
“What are you looking at?” She teased.
“I… Umm…” Cailean stuttered, terrified that he’d ruined any chance he had with her.
“What?” She asked, leaning toward him.
“The moon?” Cailean tried to answer, but it came across more as a question. As she leaned forward, he found his eyes instinctively drifting back toward her. A strange feeling washed over him – as if his entire body were being stabbed by small pins.
“Oh, really?” Brooke asked, leaning backward and placing her hands on her hips, pushing her chest forward as she did. “The moon.”
“What can I say? It’s hypnotic,” Cailean shrugged.
“There’s that confidence I found so attractive,” Brooke complimented.
