Chapter 30
Hunger
The weather couldn’t have been more perfect for November.
The air was crisp but not frigid, and the sky was a solid sapphire blue whenever we’d step into a clearing.
The forest was thick in some places and thinning into small, grassy meadows in others.
Austin and Roscoe carried supplies for trade on their backs while Adam and I brought along all our necessities.
We each wore an enchanted stone just in case of unwanted encounters, but there hadn’t been a trace of anyone for hours.
No witches, no werewolves. Even the birds were quiet.
The only sounds were our heavy footsteps and the wind rustling through the colorful canopy.
“Maybe they only come out at night, like last time,” I said, turning to Roscoe in time to see him lick drool away from the corners of his mouth. “Don’t even think about it.”
“It’s all I can think about. Maybe a little snack cake’ll tide me over.” He gave the air a sniff and reached for Austin’s bag. The larger werewolf growled and jerked away. “C’mon, just one.”
“No. One turns into ten with you.” I patted Austin on the back. The one good thing to come of this magic was how well he obeyed the command to not allow Roscoe near his bag.
“Ugh. Blood sugar’s so low. I’m gonna pass out.”
“Oh, stop with the theatrics. You ate an hour ago. If you’re that hungry, go hunt a deer or something. You know, like a werewolf should be able to do.”
“Then I’d have to skin it, butcher it, build a fire—” Roscoe let out a sigh. “I didn’t bring my spices.”
“Can’t you just eat it the way it is?” I asked. Roscoe wrinkled his nose, pretending to gag. “You’re supposed to be a bloodthirsty monster.”
“In the bedroom,” Roscoe added. “I ain’t killing and eating a whole deer without cookin’ it. I ain’t that hungry.”
“That’s gross, Cody,” Adam said from behind.
“What the hell—”
“Yeah,” Roscoe interrupted. “You go kill a deer and eat it like an animal if that’s what gets you goin’.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Would that count as being racist?” Adam said to Roscoe, speaking over me. “Or species-ist?”
“I’m a half-turn, you idiots,” I shouted. “And this is the dumbest conversation.”
“Definitely,” Roscoe said, ignoring me. “And I bet he wants us to do all that while he gets to eat all the human snacks.”
Adam and Roscoe cracked smiles at one another, while I became more frustrated.
“One cake,” I muttered.
“Get me one too,” Adam said. “Better make that two more. I’m sure Austin’s a little hungry.”
“If we run out of things to trade, that’s on you guys.”
“We brought most of the pantry with us,” Roscoe said, reaching for the bag on Austin’s back, prompting another snarl. “Uh, you better say the magic words.”
Adam ran in front of Austin, looking him in the eye. “Let Roscoe into your bag just this once.”
The other werewolf nodded, and Roscoe reached into the backpack, snatching several cakes before slowly backing away.
“Better make it one more,” I said, holding out my hand.
“Couldn’t resist, huh?” He slapped one of them into my palm.
“Well, they are the Christmas tree-shaped ones,” I said, then tore open the package with my teeth. “They don’t make them all year, and they taste better for some reason.”
Adam popped one of the cakes into his mouth and chewed. “I haven’t celebrated the holidays in years.”
“It’s been a while for me too,” I said, thinking back on the last six years I’d spent alone, watching festive movies while eating turkey TV dinners.
“I used to get high under that big Christmas tree on Main Street until the cops would kick me out,” Roscoe said with his usual grin, though this one seemed more forced than usual. “I haven’t cooked a huge Thanksgiving dinner in years. Maybe when all this is over, I’ll cook us all a holiday meal.”
“If we can get Austin back,” Adam muttered.
A sniffle broke the chatter, and we turned toward Austin as he began crying. At first, I thought he was responding to Adam’s concern, but his expression was blank, as usual.
We all stared into the dancing flames of the campfire.
On one side of me was Roscoe who gave off so much heat I had to slip halfway out of my jacket, and on the other side was Adam, who kept dozing off and drooling on my shoulder.
Austin sat up straight, his blue eyes remaining locked onto the flames as his ears pulled back into an almost fearful position.
I wondered what was going through his mind—if anything.
We wanted to stay up, hoping the fire would attract the ferals, but the later it got, the more I doubted they were interested. After my last conversation with that elder, the prospects were grim.
Go back to the Midna.
My answers to the feral’s questions that day only seemed to annoy him.
“I think it’s time we get some shut eye,” Roscoe said, pulling me closer to him. “I got my hoodie, and it’s big enough that I can zip you up in it, too.”
“Did you wash it?”
“It’s got all my good stink in it. I told you that last time.”
“Pass,” I muttered. Roscoe laid next to me as Adam dozed off on my shoulder again. “Hey,” I said, giving the smaller werewolf a shake. “Don’t forget to tell Austin to go to sleep.”
He nodded and whispered a command. After a moment of shuffling, Adam fell asleep in Austin’s embrace, both of them starting to snore. This would have been cuter had they both done this voluntarily.
“They’re not going to come,” I whispered to Roscoe. “They probably don’t want to get involved with the Midna any more than they have to.”
“Aw shucks. Guess we’ll have to eat that barbecue then.”
I lay next to him and rubbed his stomach while kissing him on the nose. “Maybe. I know you’ll be happy.”
“Talking about the holidays got me thinkin’.”
“About the food?” I asked, giving him a slight shove.
Roscoe smiled and sniffed my head. “Nah. I’m thinkin’ about how nice it’ll be to spend it with you.”
That made me smile. “When’s the last time you spent it with anyone?”
“Sober?” he asked. “Don’t remember. What about you?”
“The last holiday I spent with anyone was when I lived with my aunt for a few months. After I graduated, I left that town and started a life by myself.” I turned all the way toward him. “Remember when we first met and you said I had a loose ass?”
Roscoe chuckled. “I just said that to get under yer skin.”
“There weren’t that many guys before—well, none that ever wanted to stick around. I didn’t even expect you to stick around, but two enchanted earrings and a bunch of amazing sex later, here we are.”
“You regret it?”
I shook my head. “That’s the weird thing. I don’t.”
“I knew it was only a matter of time before the seeds of my charming personality would grow on ya.”
“More like the spores of a particularly smelly fungus,” I added, my thoughts shifting to something else. “I wonder if Austin celebrated the holidays after everything that happened to him.”
“Sometimes I just wanna give the guy a hug and not let go,” Roscoe whispered.
“I wonder why life can be so nasty to some and so good to others. It’s like there’s only so much goodness in the world to go around, and those with everything suck the rest of it away, and they don’t even know it.
They just go about their lives ignorant, thinkin’ their petty problems are the end of the world when they don’t even know what real problems are. ”
“This year, we’re gonna take some of that goodness for ourselves,” I said, snuggling against Roscoe’s chest. “We deserve at least that much.”
The ground was unbearably cold. I shivered, struggling to open my eyes.
The others were gone and so was the campfire.
With a groan, I pushed myself upright and looked up at an unfamiliar canopy as waning moonlight streamed in through the mist. My hand grazed a small leather sack on the ground, and I picked it up, the familiar scent of psychedelic herbs stinging my nostrils.
A pair of eyes glowing amber stared at me from the shadows, waiting.
“Where am I?” I called out. No response, which was not surprising. The feral wasn’t going to emerge until I’d taken the herbs, so I reached into the bag and pinched a small amount, tucking it between my gums and cheek like last time.
In an instant, the moonlight brightened into a multitude of colors, glowing moths and neon-like lines flitting around me. Though I knew it was still dark, I could see the feral clearly as he watched from the trees.
He was gigantic and black with braids and feathers in his mane.
He wore a leather harness with about six small sacks hanging from it as well as a frayed belt with two larger sacks on both sides.
The werewolf ambled languidly on his pawed feet before sitting on a hollow log next to me, his heft causing it to creak a bit.
It wasn’t often that I saw werewolves bigger than Austin, but this one would have towered at least a foot over him.
“Hello,” I said, my voice sounding as it had while under the effects of this drug.
“Cody…” He growled my name so deeply it vibrated the ground. He reached for my chest and gently lifted the enchanted stone Roscoe had made into a necklace for me. “Come home?”
“We came here for help.”
“Help?” He looked around. “No witches.”
“A friend of mine did something he shouldn’t have done using the vironoct. He was under the influence of witches, and now another friend can’t break the magic.”
“Hmm,” the feral mumbled, scratching his head. “Under witch’s control?”
“It’s not witchcraft.”
The feral stood and waved me forward before walking toward the scent of smoke. Keeping the herbs in my mouth, I followed him as the colorful path brightened even more. I tapped the werewolf on the arm and pointed to Austin lying next to the fire.
“He needs your help.”
The elder didn’t respond as he approached, rather knelt next to the blond werewolf and placed a hand softly on Austin’s head. He stayed like that for about five minutes before looking back at me.
“What do you think?” I asked.