winter of orphic love | ot7 poly |

Chapter 20 The Nightwalkers

Three years after we settled into our territory, the Rainism Pack established a neutral zone named Calemari. It was a place for packs to come together for territory discussions and form alliances. The original name for the town was erased simply because the humans abandoned it. It was a ghost town when the Rainsim Pack found it so they were able to rename it. They named it Calemari for two reasons.

One, there was an amazing seafood restaurant that continued to thrive in the small area.

Two, they thought it would be funny.

The tall pine trees thin as we approach the neutral zone, already panting and gasping for breath. My sprint has turned into a pathetic dragging of paws on the needly ground. My mouth is hanging open, my tongue is lolling out, and my lungs are fighting for breath.

Namjoon struggles to catch his breath as he trots forward on heavy paws. His thick brown fur is ruffled from brushing up against trees and jumping across bushes. Mud has dried on his stomach fur in small clumps. His chest expands in shaky movements before exhaling sharply.

Hoseok sits on top of Namjoon's back as if he were a horse. He reaches down occasionally to pet the side of Namjoon's face and smooth back his ears. "Almost there," he encourages softly. "The map says that we continue down this path. It should be straight ahead."

I walk slowly to a large oak tree and lean against it. I sigh loudly as the exhaustion worsens. I'm starting to get a headache. I lift each paw in the air to bend the ankle part and shake it out.

"Do you want to rest before we arrive?"

I shake my head in response.

Hoseok nods but appears unconvinced. He runs his hand through his hair and turns his gaze to the scenery around us. "I hope we can come home soon. You're really tired, Lottie."

I frown.

Namjoon looks back at me with a knowing look like he expected me to protest. He knows me too well.

"We'll do this quickly," Hoseok adds. He pats Namjoon's side and lays a kiss atop his furry head. "Let's keep going."

We break into a light sprint and keep pace with each other. I weave around incoming trees and side-step scraggly bushes that have already lost their leaves. The gentle fluttering of snow continued throughout our journey. The delicate flakes whisk across my vision with the blowing of the cold wind. I am thankful for the thick coat of fur my wolf body gives, otherwise, I would be absolutely miserable.

"There it is!" Hobi exclaims as we come up the edge of a hill.

We stand at the top and look down at the valley below. A sprawling town lies at the bottom of the hill. From the vantage point, the town appears completely abandoned. A neighborhood of houses appears to be rotting away with gaping holes in the roofs and shattered windows. The streets have long eroded due to a lack of paving and cracked apart into puzzle pieces of asphalt.

The neutral zone, Calamari. We've arrived.

"You should detransform here," Hobi suggests, already jumping off the Namjoon's back. His feet hit the ground with a soft thud. "I doubt they'll give us the privacy to do so when we get there."

Namjoon closes his eyes. His body stiffens before shifting back into a human. It is mesmerizing to watch somebody shift from wolf to human. The strangeness of the body shrinking down and melding itself into a small shape never ceases to amaze me, despite being a wolf myself. When I was a little girl, I was fascinated by the logic of how bodies could transform. I remember pestering my teacher about it.

Namjoon turns into a human again and finds himself kneeling on the ground. The straps of the fabric have loosened and hang from his body, barely covering himself. He tries to shake his body like a wolf for a moment, then he stops himself.