Pickaxe

Prologue

"Goodnight, darling." Lyell's mother said, kissing her little boy on the head."May God watch over you."

"Goodnight, mommy." Lyell said cuddling under his bed covers. However when his mom blew out the candle and left his room, he did not roll over and close his eyes as usual.

Not tonight. The moon was a waxing gibbous tonight, that meant Lyell's secret friends will be waiting for him.

His parents didn't know about his secret friends, he was scared they wouldn't like his secret friends and would scare them away. Lyell laid in bed patiently, waiting to hear his parents finish their chores and retire to bed. He pulled out his little hands and began to count to ten, that was as far as he could count, over and over again until he heard the

sound of his parent's bedroom door closing.

He counted to ten a few more times before slowly getting out of bed. He creeped over to the door to his room and began to lift the latch. He had to stand on his tippy-toes to do so. but when he had his door open, he quickly creeped down the stairs into the dining room. He kept his arms in front off as he walked towards the door that lead outside. Despite having done this several times already, he still couldn't risk hitting something and awaken his parents.

When he reached the door, he went on his toes and just like his bedroom door lifted the latch. He smiled to himself as he closed the door behind him. Now that the hard part was over, he could get on with the easy part. Holding up his little night gown, he began to run across his father's fields towards the woods.

Now it he had been older he might have decided to put some shoes on but being only a toddler, shoes were a small priority. So a little bare-footed Lyell hurried off, by himself into the woods.

Unlike some children Lyell loved the sounds of the woods at night. The sound of the wind in the treetops, the crickets, the distant sound of leaves crunching, the crows cawing; all of it sounded like a little song to him.

After walking to a little bit, Lyell stopped at a tree stump. He crawled onto the stump and when he was able to stand on it, he began his little ritual. Looking up at the moon, he brought his hands up to his mouth and let out a "Owwlll " He did this two more time before stopping to wait. Then as he looked around he saw them.

The green eyes, slowly coming towards him but he wasn't scared. Soon Came closer, the moonlight revealed a face along with ears, black nose and then a large, furry body. A wolf.