The Boy Who Cried Wolf

In My Dreams

       Teddy made his way up to his bedroom, his mind filled with thoughts of the strange new people he met. They were many things that Teddy wasn't, mysterious, worldly, frightening, tall...

         Tall, Teddy chuckled. They certainly were very tall. The girl even towered nearly a foot above his head. The group had an aura of mystique that Teddy just couldn't place no matter how hard he tried. Still, he felt drawn to them, and he wasn't sure why. Teddy decided it was just a byproduct of loneliness. Perhaps he only felt so drawn to them, because anyone else would swat him away like an annoying gadfly.  

            Daniel was very kind. Teddy thought as he entered his small bedroom. It was a small room tucked in a tower above the convent, but one Teddy loved dearly. The warm woven rug, the brightly colored quilt knitted for him by Sr. Matilda, and the small dresser with woodland creatures carved into it, all gave Teddy a warm feeling of home. He wondered what Daniel's bedroom looked like. He supposed the man had a king bed to fit him, perhaps bigger, and he thought it might be a deep shade of green, one that might compliment Daniel's amber eyes. 

          Amber eyes. Both he and Anna had such distinctive amber eyes. They must be related, Teddy decided, which for some reason came as a relief. Elijah had dark eyes, eyes that almost seemed to suggest danger. Maybe Elijah's whole being just suggested danger altogether. Teddy was not one to deal with danger. 

         Teddy changed quickly from his day clothing into his pajamas and tucked himself under the comforter. It was a warm night, and he decided he might leave the window open for a nice night breeze. He wondered if the group had found the inn alright, he was sure they had, being that the village was so small, and anyone they asked could give directions... he wondered if they were comfortable in bed just as he was. 

           Teddy fell asleep not long after his head hit the pillow; meeting new people had made him rather tired. In his dreams he saw deep black pupil-less eyes. He would have given anything to see amber eyes, but Teddy couldn't get the image from his mind. In his sleep he stared straight ahead into them, unable to see anything else. 

         The black was a pool of ink, deep and dark, with no way out. There was a thick glossy shine over them that made them seem liquid and flowing, and Teddy found himself caught in them as if he was trapped in tar... the more he struggled the deeper he sunk. They wrapped him... enveloped him in rain and washed away his fear. 

          Teddy wasn't sure why, but in his dream his head finally backed up and his sight expanded to see the eyes were attached to the fluffy head of a wolf. 

....

           The small boy woke up in a cold sweat with a start. He panted from underneath his quilt trying and failing to catch his breath. The boy clutched his chest and looked around his room. He wasn't in a forest. He wasn't by a wolf. He was still safe in the upper room of the convent. 

           Out the window Teddy could see the moon, and he realized why he was so cold. Teddy wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and walked towards the window. Outside he could see the shape of a strong crescent moon in the distance above his house. It was waxing, Teddy knew, and he frowned. Teddy knew Fr. Charles had some kind of issue with the full moon. He would often say the gravitational pulls of the earth increased on those days and people were inclined to act strange. Teddy figured that was an old wives tale. 

         Still, in the distance Teddy found his eyes transfixed on the moon. He thought it must be of some importance, though he couldn't figure out why. Teddy hadn't ever had a fixation on the moon before, but that night it beckoned to him.