After trekking through the woods for many hours late in to the night, Amber could officially say she was as lost as a bumblebee in the middle of the ocean. She was literally out of her comfort zone, stuck in a foreign dimension with no way out.
She ran into trees, even more lost than earlier, terrified of the deep, long shadows as black as night, and the blinding silver moon shining high in the sky. An eerie silence overcame the woods, causing her to shiver in fear, it was midnight in the woods, why couldn’t she escape? She wanted to, very badly and felt she’d spent way too long stuck in this horrible opposite-of-a-wonderland. She had gotten some clothes ripped, lost an accessory or two, and almost had some close calls, finding herself at places from a cliff bordering a lake, to a strange abomination of insects and creepy-crawlies living in an enclosed clearing full to the brim with spiderwebs.
She stepped through a wooden arch of trees, and somehow found herself back at the town square, which was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to find. She would be infinitely thankful if she could just find herself at the ramshackle old shack with the portal to the other dimension. She ran back into the woods before anyone could spot her and give her the stink eye, and slumped down on the side of a tree. She hadn’t been a big believer of the fireos gods, but now would be the only time she prayed for them. If only they could reach the Lunar dimension… Well based on the events that would occur next, who knew?
“O Great Fireos gods,” She prayed, pushing her hands together. It had been such a long time since she had done this. Hands together, straight back, nothing could interfere with her message to the gods, right? “Great Fireos gods,” She continued. “Please, if you can reach me all the way out here, please, send me home as soon as possible and help me stay safe and allow me to be there for my parents, representing the good side of fireoses. If you truly are the only pure and noble fireoses, well please, here my prayer and assist one of your own to become like you…” She trailed off.
She spent half an hour slumped down on that Moon Oak, and finally, after a long time, fell asleep.
“Hey! Wake up!” A hand was on her shoulder, shaking her vigorously. She opened her eyes, and saw an unfamiliar wolf. She could tell it was a wolf by it’s ears and tail, while it was dressed in a smart tuxedo and had silver choppy hair, just like Dawn. She decided it was a boy, as he didn’t seem like a girl, and looked the same age as Dawn, making him technically not a man.
She rolled away almost instinctively, though her cramped up body was complaining loudly about how it had been forced to leap to it’s feet after just being slumped uncomfortably against an old crystallised oak. “What do you think you’re doing?” She hissed angrily, and for a second a plume of fire appeared behind her. “Get away from me! Or even better, get me out of here!”
“Calm down!” The wolf boy said almost snappily, then straightened the collar of his shirt and sat down. “I’m just not in a good mood. I’m Dusk, and I assume you’re Amber, the Fireos Dawn beat earlier.”
“I… We almost tied!” Amber muttered, a little flustered. She decided from the smug look on Dusk’s face that she didn’t like Dusk, no matter what he did. Unless… No, Dawn wouldn’t Like a guy like him, right?
“Never mind,” Dusk said, trailing off. He seemed to be deep in thought, silver hair complementarily framing his face. His face suddenly lit up, and he asked, “So, are you a good friend of Dawn’s?”
“Umm,” Amber hesitated, not sure what to say. She would like to think they were closer after the fight, but alas, she had no clue. “I’d guess we are good enough friends…” her face contorted with uncertainty.
“So, will you pass on a message?” He pricked his ears, so eager he leaned towards her to hear her every word. Amber paused, thinking. Dawn would listen to a message from her pack, but would she listen to a message passed on by Amber? Well, she had to give it a shot, right? Amber nodded her head carefully, and listened for what Dusk wanted to say.
“So,” Dusk began. “Will you tell Dawn that I, I’d like to take her out sometime? I can’t ask her myself…”
Amber started, shocked that this was what the arrogant-seeming Dusk would want her to pass on to Dawn, she agreed, and said, “So, if I pass this on to Dawn, you will get me out of here, ok?”
Dusk agreed hastily and led Amber down a raggedy path, saying it wasn’t the main path as wolves don’t always go to the human world as frequently as elsewhere.
Dusk used a tiny bit of magic, the basic kind that all werewolves had after childhood to send Amber through the arch, giving her a torch and making sure she knew how to get back to the university from the forest, and mentioning obvious landmarks on the path.
Amber thanked him, and set off, making it back to the dorm, but still brooding over the message Dusk had given her, how he seemed to be mooning over Dawn.
