Xavier and the Wolf (Legends of Pinewood 1)

10. You're probably imagining things

The tears had streamed down my mom's and my dad's face the moment they saw me walk into town with Aquila. Both had engulfed me in a hug that lasted so long I thought they'd never let me go.

As it turned out, the town had set up a massive search the moment Leona noticed I was no longer on the cliffs. Nobody had seen me fall, but the parents had correctly deduced one possibility was that I'd fallen into the overgrown valley. Volunteers had combed the area around the cliffs until the sun went down. Today, by the first light, they'd widened their search area, and planned on following the river all the way to the lake. There had been helicopters, professional search parties on the ground, drones, even a newspaper article on several websites. The whole shebang. While listening to the stories of all the fruitless effort that had been made to find me, I'd been even more amazed at my own damn luck that Aquila had spotted me in the water.

Aquila, on the other hand, had seemed wildly uncomfortable with all the attention. When we'd arrived in town, the doctors confirmed I had a concussion and insisted I needed to rest in a quiet room. Aquila had no such luck. The last thing I saw before my parents and the doctor took me away for treatment was all the other town folk swarming Aquila and bombarding him with their questions. He had suddenly gone from that weird outsider who growled at people and threw coffee away to a heroic man who'd risked his life to save me from the raging water.

Given how happy Aquila was with my questions, I was sure he was absolutely thrilled to answer them in tenfold to all the curious people from town. I couldn't see Aquila being happy with having a hero status either. I imagined him gruff when people thanked him and brushing them off. The same way he'd been with me. Hopefully, Boris could help his nephew manage the crowd and the attention a little. Boris also been among the people welcoming me and Aquila back. I had noticed he didn't really seem that concerned about the situation or his nephew. All Aquila had gotten from his uncle was a friendly pat on the back as a welcome home.

Because of the doctor's orders, I was safe from the town and curious eyes for a while longer, but that definitely didn't mean I was safe from getting attention and questions.

My parents had tucked me into my bed at home. While the doctor had assured them I wasn't likely to slip into a coma after already walking home, they were still hesitant to leave me alone. In the end, they invited Iris over to keep me company while they went to the store to get my favourites for dinner tonight.

Iris was all too happy to get an hour off from school to 'babysit.' And to ask questions about how I ended up with Aquila in the woods. So. Many. Questions.

After I finished telling Iris the story of how I fell and Aquila found me, she clutched my bedsheets in her hand and tugged on it with sparking eyes. "Come on, give me more juicy details!" she urged me. "You said Aquila was like completely naked when you woke up?"

"Yes, and I already regret mentioning it to you," I said, jokingly rolled my eyes. "Also, that's the part of my story you're focusing on? I almost died, you know."

Iris grinned. "And it's so sad that you didn't. I would've gotten your ps5 as per our agreement."

"You're saying that like you weren't crying like a baby just fifteen minutes ago when you saw me alive and well."

"Ew, we don't talk about that." Iris wrinkled her nose in distaste. She quickly patted the skin below her eyes as if checking for more mascara stains, even though I'd already assured her they were gone. "For real though," Iris then went on. "Guess we really should've taken your warning about that wolf more seriously, huh?"

I shrugged. "Well, Mr. Murray wasn't wrong that wolves don't attack people. And the one I saw on the cliff didn't exactly attack me."

"Still, it caused an accident! An accident that made you spoon with Aquila, but still an accident."