Chapter Fourteen

Armand and his friends get their first real glimpse of who is responsible for the odd structure in the forest.

    I felt unsure and confused. I glanced to the structure and looked away. Some little voice in my head was warning me it was time to get us all out of here but I wasn’t listening.

    A quick glance at Mr. Thunder, Miss Feather and Quetzal saw they weren’t listening to that warning voice in their heads either.

    Quetzal, I doubted, even had a warning voice anymore in his head.

    If Wolf People could get physically ill like we all knew humans could, I’d believe he was infected with a virus or something, but Wolf People couldn’t get physically sick.

    Our minds could get messed up, a situation similar to human emotional problems, but it seemed unlikely that Quetzal’s brief exposure to the structure could cause that sort of problem for him.

     Glancing at him now, how he was tense and coiled so tight, his black eyes seemingly glazed over in his need to get back to that structure, my thoughts returned to the possibility of some sort of spell having been placed on him.

    “Look!” Miss Feather hissed.

    My eyes flew back to the structure. I gasped in shock.

    Mr. Thunder sucked in his breath.

    Quetzal let out a growl and took several steps toward the odd building.

    Someone was in the window gazing out. Their silhouette was in the shape of a human.

    I wondered if this someone knew we were out here watching them. I laughed to myself, of course they knew. Only humans wouldn’t be able to sense us out here at all.

    And this someone wasn’t a human. There was no scent of human in this area. That sweet yummy scent my Mom talked of wasn’t anywhere near here.

    I noticed we were all breathing heavily in our excitement as we stared at the someone in the window.

    I could see the someone looked female. This female had long silvery grey hair and large round blue eyes. But what was so shockingly surprising were her upswept pointed ears that were covered with the same silvery hair color as her head of hair was. Her ears were turned toward us as if she were listening.

    “Look! Those ears! What is she?” Miss Feather asked in fierce whisper.

    “I don’t know.” Much to my alarm I felt like I was having difficulty breathing.

    “We need to leave.” Mr. Thunder said. A quick glance at him and I could easily tell the fire for the hunt had fled from him.

    The female in the window suddenly turned her head as if listening now to someone talking behind her.

    I spotted movement behind her. Sure enough, someone else was there in the building with her. I was sure several some ones most likely.

    “Maybe Mr. Thunder is right. We ought to get out of here. I’m thinking reporting this to our Packs now is a very very good idea.” I was all ready to leave while we still could leave easily.

    “No!” Snarled Quetzal as he stared at the female still standing, half turned away, at the window. “I’m going over there. I’m going to talk to her and find out who and what she is.”

    “NO!” I said in my most commanding tone of voice. I wasn’t all that comfortable taking the leadership role here but someone had to, someone had to stop Quetzal making a terrible mistake.

    Quetzal didn’t at all appreciate my attitude.

    “You know what to do with your ‘no’ Armand.” He said with an ugly pulling back of his lips.

    I felt my anger rise. I tried to push it down knowing that something was wrong with Quetzal.

    “Remember what I said about the possibility of a spell, you know, someone might be controlling you.”

    “Nonsense Armand. That doesn’t even really make sense. I want to talk to her. It’s my decision. I’m not even a Member of your Pack, remember?”

    “You’re my friend Quetzal! I care about you!” I said.

    “I do too Quetzal.” said Miss Feather.

    “You know I do. We can’t let you go over there.” Mr. Thunder said.

    “You three going to turn this into a fight?” Quetzal asked, his angry grey eyes swirling with crimson.

    “If you force this, yes.” I said.

    “You’ll all really bring unwanted attention to yourselves.” Quetzal said with a mocking, triumphal smile.

    “You are sick in your mind Quetzal.” I said, fighting my growing anger and frustration with him and this whole situation.

    Suddenly the sound of voices came drifting from the house.

    All of our attention was instantly focused back to the structure and the individuals there.

    I could easily understand what the female was saying and the response from the other, a male.

    They did know we were out here and were watching them.

    “You all catch that?” I asked, my voice as grim as I could make it.

    “Yes.” replied Miss Feather.

    “I did. Time for us to leave.” Mr. Thunder said.

    I looked at Quetzal. He was staring at the house, so still and so unresponsive it chilled me. It was the same way he had behaved when he had been staring through the window of that odd structure.

    “Quetzal.” I said.

    No response.

    I shook him. His eyes blinked.

    “It’s happening to him again.” whispered Miss Feather.

    I recalled what Quetzal had said, like there was something inside him, a something that wasn’t physical. I thought of my spell theory and I growled.

    I turned my head to look back at the window. The female was gazing out again and this time in our direction. She was moving her hands and saying something really fast, too fast for me to follow.

    Quetzal gave a small plaintive cry and stumbled forward.

    “NO!” I hissed and lunged after him. I knew where he was going, to the structure and the female waiting there.

    Mr. Thunder and Miss Feather lunged forward to help stop Quetzal too.

    No way was I going to let Quetzal reach that house and the strange inhabitants within it!

Reviews

[Theresa]

Wow even more suspense. I hope they can stop Quetzal from going to the structure. I like how the people inside are completely different from what I was expecting. The ears definitely made it even more interesting. Really great story. I'm enjoying it so much.

[Black Cat Fever]

There's a very dark struggle going on here.

[Star Wolf]

Wow! This is really getting exciting. Our first glimpse of those in the house and Quetzal going wild in his desire to get over there with them. Awesome!

[trish420]

Omigosh are they going to be able to stop him?? Are we finally going to find out what this place is?? So strange... good job building up the anticipation :-)

[Jenny Nelson]

The story gets better and better as it goes along. Looking forward to reading more.

Quite bizarre... What are those things? Defiantly not people, that's for sure.
I'm looking forward to finding out...