Ice Wolf and Ink Panther

shooting arrows

I want to say the words but I can feel my throat closing as I try to speak. Reva looks at me curiously and I realise that whether I tell them all or not she’s going to respect my decision.

I notice that one of the boys is juggling a knife in his hand while he waits for me to answer the question. Another, a girl, is busy sharpening what looks like a curved knife and all of them have some sort of weapon on their belts or strapped across their shoulders.

The sight is one that fills me with confidence and the idea of telling them I’m the thing they hunt seems suicidal.

Ink growls softly in my head “they will find out, and trust me if you’re already thinking of backing down now, than you’ve already lost the game.”

Her voice and her reason jolts me from my silence and knowing I need to appear sure of myself and confident I glance at everyone before leaning against the wall behind me and stating casually “before I answer questions shouldn’t I know your names?”

I don’t want to back down from them but I’m still procrastinating about revealing to them who I am.

Everyone rattles off their names so fast I can barely keep track. They’re all curious about me and I can see that having a new person is a bit of a novelty for them.

One of them repeats the question again “so Ivy, where are you from?”

I can see that Reva’s smiling out of the corner of my eye and I realise that for someone not in my predicament this probably seems like something hilarious to watch.

I give a shrug as if it’s unimportant “nowhere now, left home and haven’t been back since.”

I can see the questions in their eyes. I know that from what I’ve said it sounds like my parents were abusive and I ran away, or something along those lines.

A girl with strawberry blond hair and about four silver piercings in her ear suddenly says “so what? A Mum who was drunk and a Dad who liked to hit things? Is that why you left?”

The girl next to the one who spoke frowns and says “Sorry Ivy, Danielle doesn’t know when to filter her thoughts.”

I look over to Danielle who says “Call me Danni, I hate Danielle.”

I give a nod before saying “no, I can understand why you would want to know why I left. I left because of werewolves.”

The girl stands next to Danni looks at me with soft eyes “I’m sorry to hear about your loss, it’s not easy to have your parents taken away from you by something like a werewolf.”

I shake my head “no my parents didn’t die because of a werewolf, in fact I have no clue who my parents are, I’m adopted and my adoptive mum is fine.”