In His Reflection

Chapter 2: Getting Dirty

Chapter 2

Cicadas chirped outside my window waking me up to the warmth of the ending summer heat creeping through the glass and layering a thin layer of sweat over my body, though the sheets beside me were cold.

Reaching around and finding nothing I groaned and stretched my limbs, opening my eyes to look around the room for Rhyan but I was alone.

Half tempted to go back to sleep, I pulled the covers back over my head only to have them ripped off and thrown onto the floor in a mess of grey, my body retracting into a ball.

''How long are you going to sleep?'' My mother's brunette eyebrows furrowed, her soft smile playful and her eyes squinting in mock disgust.

If anyone taught me the art of the 'sleep in' it was her. My father swore up and down that not even her water breaking and labour of my brother and I could get her out of bed in the morning.

''Have you seen your brother? I couldn't find him in his room?'' Mum sighed as she picked up dirty laundry out of my basket in the corner of the room.

Not finding Rhyan in the morning wasn't extremely unusual. Sometimes he decided on going for runs super early or was doing who knows what and where.

Rhyan loved running. He said it cooled off steam and helped him deal with his hormonal wolf. The last few years had been tough on him in particular. His wolf would lash out for no reason at strange times and it was hard for him to rein it in. He wasn't particularly violent though, rougher perhaps but he was never violent with me at least.

It seemed like these days though his time running was getting longer and longer and he'd take off in the middle of the night or straight after he said his goodnights to me.

I didn't like seeing him struggle with his control and it could only get worse as we approached our adulthood.

I finally pulled myself from my sheets giving a nice long stretch to my limbs and hearing a satisfying crack as my bones woke up, my fingers running over the sensitive new skin along my neck and ribs.

Another crack sounded at my window. The familiar sound of stones falling against the glass.

I shook my head and grinned, slowly pulling myself up from the bed and walking over to the wooden frame and leaning against its sun-kissed warmth as Rhyan smiled up at me and waved me down. The gesture drew my eyes to his arm and they bugged at the glistening ink, my mouth dropping as I went to hell at him, his finger coming to his lips to shush me and then beckoning me down.

I stumbled over to my drawers, my hip taking a brutal hit on the edge of my bed as I rushed past, throwing a shirt on and grabbing a big cardigan on my way towards my door and down the stairs.

I vaguely heard Ma calling to ask where I was headed to in such a hurry and Pa hushing her and telling her to 'let him be a boy'.

''What did you-!'' Rhyan grabbed me and covered my mouth, dragging me into the forest and laughing as he led us to a small waterfall and slow-moving river we ran away to every once in a while, usually when we wanted to be left alone and forget everyone.

''Ew!'' He shook his hand as my saliva dripped off of his hand, the taste of salt coating my mouth as the sun beat down on us both.

I pushed my finger into his glistening flesh earning a nice hiss of pain from my doofus twin.

''Now why'd you have to go and do that?'' His pained expression turned into a cheeky one, his lips pulling up on one side as he stared at me.

'' They're going to kill you. Then they're going to kill me for drawing it.'' I shook my head and walked away from him and his new tattoo to sit on a rock, my feet resting in the sparkling water as it moved slowly down into the forest.

He sat loudly beside and played with the grass trying to hide his laughter as he bumped my right shoulder periodically and dropped his head to stare at my face, looming closer and closer teasingly as he tried to grab my attention.

I rolled my eyes and splashed water at him causing him to burst out into laughter and tackle me to the ground, rolling us over and down the hill, following the river until he pinned me down at the curve of the winding water flow.

I glared at him before lowering my eyes to his shirtless chest and shoulder where the dragon I drew the night before sat proudly. My hands moved on their own as I brushed the dirt softly away from the fresh cuts, my spontaneous brother not considering the consequences of getting dirt, leaves and sticks into his freshly opened skin by rolling down a hill.

My body relaxed into the grass as I was staring at the art too long it seemed, a strong hand firmly grabbing my jaw and moving my face to the side, my brows creasing in confusion as a slow rumble grew in Rhy's chest and rolled out of his mouth.

One side look into his eyes and I could see the glow of his wolf flashing in and out of them. I tried to smell the air for any danger or scent that could trigger his wolf but there were none other than the fresh smell of the river flow and the wildflowers that littered around us.

''Rhyan.'' My hands touched his waist and his face softened as he pulled a leaf out from my fringe and he got up off of me, offering me a hand up and smiling but it looked uncomfortable.

''I need to burn some energy.''

He was tense as we walked back towards camp however he smiled at me reassuringly every few minutes, each one slowly returning back to his normal smile until we reached the edge of our training pit which was really just a field where our pack trained together.

''Rhyan! Perfect timing, brother.'' One of his friends clapped him on the back and wrapped an arm around him pulling him into the active sparring of older wolves.

I dutifully walked over to a nice patch of grass and sat down loosely tying long strands together along with bright yellow dandelions while Rhyan sparred in his wolf form, the large group of girls a few metres from me cheering for him and the other young guys causing me to roll my eyes and continue braiding a crown as I waited for him to be finished so we could face our deaths at home together.