VEUX

Fourteen

November 27

Unfortunately for Saoirse, she hadn't taken biology in high school. The class seemed so droning and boring that she stuck to courses with a literal Big Bang in them. The reasons why and how leaves grew which patterns and the shapes of plant cells were beyond her; unfortunately.

For the past three days Saoirse hasn't trained with Oracle, thank God, yet that also meant she hadn't seen Eye lately. Today was the morning she woke up bouncing on her toes, eager to see him for the first time longer than a second. Oracle was yanking her arm backwards with each day he deterred her path from Eye's. Do this, do that. She hadn't had a break, even at dinner.

If Saoirse weren't training with her wolf brothers, she was being taught by Osric and Osias. In just three days it felt like three years of energy had been drained from her. She missed the playfulness and relaxed atmosphere only Eye could offer her. His jokes, his smiles...

So far, the brothers had tested Saoirse ranging from strength, to endurance, to knowledge. Man, was she failing at knowledge.

"I know it's frustrating," Osias said to her.

They'd brought Saoirse out into the middle of the woods, their only trail back was slowly being covered by the snowfall. Everything was hard to find, hard to distinguish, hard to focus on. He held several twigs in his hands and her temperament grew hotter at the idea he thought she should just know wood from wood. He said names and words and again, they passed right over her head.

"It is only easy for us because we were raised this way, Saoirse. We have years of experience on you; I still catch wolves young and old making these mistakes. You will be fine, you just need to study and practice for yourself." Osias moved his handful of twigs and branches back into his satchel, sweeping off the quick layer of snow that had settled.

Saoirse's arms crossed as she felt the anger build. She didn't appreciate him pointing out her frustration, that was her problem to acknowledge. Not his. Now she was pouting. "If old wolves still do it, why's it so important for me to learn right now? Doesn't seem like that big of a priority to them either."

Osias whipped his head up sharply. "Because, Saoirse," He sighed heavily. "If you ever go out on your own, these are basic things you need to understand. The telltale signs of your surroundings will be key to your survival."

Train to survive.

Her teeth slowly ground together as something crawled up the back of her throat. "You say that like I'm ever going to be allowed off of this territory. I don't need to know any of these things if I'm just going to have one of you guys follow me around all the time."

"It is a precaution," He darkens his tone.

"From what?" Saoirse snapped back. "Aren't you guys supposed to protect me from anything and everything, anyways? What would I need to take precautions for?"

Oh, how she loved that flare of anger coursing through him. "We will protect you with our lives, Saoirse, but you never know what the future holds."

Saoirse squished her foot around in the snow until she found the frozen dirt, digging her steel toes into it. Her arms uncrossed to run her hands over her hair, smoothing down the wavy mess across her shoulders.

"Look, I get that you are frustrated—"

Oh not that again. Her thoughts groaned about in the back of her head, yet her eyes were late to match as it suddenly felt like every bone in her body had collapsed; leaving her skin to sift slowly through the air like a feather. Before her skin could meet her bones over the cold and hard ground, they rearranged so quickly she hardly heard the snapping like a series of bubble wrap echoing through the snowy forest. A familiar pain rippled over her steadily, follicles of long brown fur pushing through her pores and building thicker and thicker against the cold mountain air. Her muscles squirmed about along her insides, repositioning themselves to take on the legitimate form of a werewolf. From the knee height of a human, she looked up to the brothers in her new form.