Chương 6: Shelly and Pierre's Thoughts

Shelly Abe curled up on the recliner and passed out immediately. One moment, he was glowing with mana like a caffeine-fueled forest god. The next thing I knew, he was sawing logs and mumbling about squirrels. I stood there gawking at him. The blessing had been real, all right. He touched me and this warmth shot through me like I'd chugged hot chocolate after being out in the cold. The ground under my feet felt alive. I could feel energy humming everywhere. I'd never felt anything like it before.

I didn't even need to use my druidic focus to see his aura any longer. Abe's tail twitched like he was swatting dream mice.

"No… not the Honey Smacks…" he mumbled. I had to bite back a laugh. Something about that made my chest feel strange in a way I wasn't ready to examine. Instead of doing so, I found the throw blanket and covered him up. Great. Now I'm getting flustered over a raccoon. Abe didn't even notice. He just kept snoring like a tiny chainsaw. Alder and Pierre were still standing by the door looking uncomfortable as hell. It made me blush even worse. Pierre kept glancing at Abe, then looking away.

He's pissed about missing out on the blessings, no doubt about it.

"We should go outside," I whispered and nodded toward the door.

"He needs to sleep." Then we all went onto the porch. The sunlight felt different now. I could actually feel the life in it. Everything seemed more alive. Before, if I concentrated enough, I could sense mana. Now, I sensed it without even trying. I walked us past the garden, trying not to look at that rock pile. I needed some space from all that thick mana to think straight about what Abe might have become.

"So," I said when we stopped by the firewood stack, "you both think he's Azeban." Alder looked back at the cabin. His face gave nothing away.

"He calls himself Abe. But names don't mean much to spirits. Especially the tricky ones."

"He's not a spirit," I snapped. It came out harsher than I meant.

"He's a cranky prepper who died and got stuck in a raccoon body. That's it."

"Are you sure about that?" Alder kept his voice level.

"Normal folks don't hand out blessings." He stared at his hand.

"Watch this." He flexed his fingers and they just... changed. They got longer and sprouted claws. Not human, not wolf, but something in between that reminded me of the horror movies I'd seen. Then they snapped back to normal. My mouth went dry. I knew werewolves were real, but seeing it happen really drove home how deep in the shit I was.

"I've never been able to do that before," Alder seemed to be impressed despite not wanting to show it.

"It's always been all or nothing. Wolf or human." Pierre looked like someone had stolen his lunch money.

"What about you? What'd you get?" He probably thought I needed to prove myself, being the outsider. Or maybe he was just mad about getting left out of the blessing party. Either way, I tried to look confident even though I felt like throwing up. I was barely trained for normal druid stuff, and here I was dealing with werewolves. I knelt down by some wild clover and touched the leaves. They shivered and curled toward me like they knew me. I nudged them with my will. I didn't use a spell. I just wanted them to bloom.

A white flower opened up, petals spreading like it was spring. Pierre raised an eyebrow. Then he just stood there, as if waiting for the rest of my demonstration before realizing that was actually it.

"Huh. Nice," he mumbled. His voice told me he wasn't exactly blown away so I tried to defend myself, "I know it's not much, but before the blessing, I could barely even sense the plant's energy, let alone make it respond." Realizing that my explanation might only have made me go from pitiful to weak in his eyes made my face get hot.

"Give me time and I could do a lot more." He looked at me, clearly not believing me. But, he was right. I had no idea if I'd be able to do more. But I wasn't about to let Pierre know that, though. I got up and brushed dirt off my knees.

"We need to keep this quiet. At least until we figure out what's going on. We can't have every jealous Tom, Dick, or Harry coming along asking for blessings," I said, clearly looking at Pierre. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"And if he is Azeban?" Alder asked quietly. I looked back at the cabin.

"Then he's still my friend." I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having some doubts, though. How well do I really know Abe anyway? Sure, he was weird, a loner with a bunker full of ammunition and food. What if the mana thing didn't just bring him back? What if it woke something up that had always been there?

"I should call my mentor," I said reluctantly. I hated the idea of asking for help, especially since it might be sharing Abe's secret. It felt like I'd be betraying him. However, I also realized that I was out of my depths. Kathy knew all the old stories and probably wouldn't betray my trust, at least I hoped.

"That's probably a good idea," Alder said.

"Let's be careful who we tell, and how much we tell." Then he looked at Pierre with a meaningful look. Pierre seemed oblivious to the obvious meaning of the look and said, "What?" I couldn't help but smile, seeing the confused look on Pierre's face. Now that he wasn't acting so cocky, he was kind of cute.

"We'll keep watch," Alder said, apparently giving up on Pierre.

"Now then, Pierre, go patrol the ridge. I'll talk to the elders." Pierre sighed but nodded. Then he walked toward the woods while at the same time taking off his shirt. I stared at his broad backside until he turned around and smirked at me. That was when he started unbuttoning his pants. Blushing, I turned away and resisted the temptation to see him turn into a wolf. My face felt hot as I turned to look at Alder. We then shared our phone numbers before he got back into his truck and drove off.

I walked back toward the cabin, thinking about what had just happened. My hand brushed a fern and it curled toward me. When I got inside, I saw that Abe was still snoring, one paw twitching like he was fighting dream squirrels. I sat down across from him. The YouTube video was still going, showing more weird animals. I shivered. Before, I'd been someone safe at home, not hearing the sounds of intruders.

Now that I could sense mana so easily, I was starting to notice that everything wasn't as safe as I used to think. I pulled out my phone and found Kathy's number. My mentor might have some answers for me. Was Abe really Azeban? Was I babysitting a trickster god who thought he was just a prepper? The worst part was that I wasn't sure which answer scared me more, that he was Azeban, or that he wasn't.

✦ ✦ ✦ Pierre I ran through the forest, pushing hard, needing to burn off the jealousy before it turned into something ugly. The ridge was up ahead. Everything looked peaceful, but something had my hackles up. Alder's orders kept running through my head. Patrol the ridge, keep watch. Simple enough. But I couldn't stop thinking about that furry little bastard back at the cabin. Abe. Azeban. Or whatever the hell he was. Jealousy was eating at me. One touch and he handed out blessings like candy.

Alder and Shelly hit the jackpot. Me? I just stood there like a jackass, watching everyone else win. Merde. Just thinking about it made me want to bite something. My nose picked up a scent that made my fur stand up. It smelled like the woods but was also wrong somehow. Moonbound could smell supernatural crap from a mile away. This definitely qualified. Someone was watching me so I slowed down and tried to figure out where they were hiding.

I'd caught whiffs of something last night when I was snooping around the cabin, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. As for the raccoon, he might look harmless, but he was putting out mana like a broken fire hydrant. Whatever was lurking out here seemed even stronger, but was better at hiding it. I should probably be worried about why it was stalking Abe. All I could think about was Shelly, though. She's cute as hell when she gets all flustered. Trouble, sure, but the good kind.

The best women always are. The way she stood up to us, offering druid protection like she had the muscle to back it up... There was steel under all that red hair and nervous energy. And that raccoon, sitting on his recliner like some tiny king, digging his claws into the armrests, marking his territory. The way he watched me look at Shelly was clear as day. Good luck, furball. She's way out of your league. But something in my gut twisted.

If that sarcastic little trash panda really was some ancient trickster spirit, what chance did any of us have? Not only that, but there was something even more powerful moving through the woods. It made me feel like prey, which sucked. That thought got cut short when this presence hit me like a freight train. It was heavy, oppressive, like right before a tornado touches down. My ears flattened and I dropped low, scanning the trees. But no matter how hard I looked, it kept slipping through my senses like smoke.

The earlier sensation of feeling like prey intensified. Shit. Whatever is out here can eat me for breakfast. Why the fuck am I doing this? Still, I knew the answer. I didn't care about the furball, but Shelly was worth protecting. Anyway, it was an order from the pack leader. My instincts were screaming at me to run away, but that made me want to attack something instead. However, there was nothing to fight though. Alder's voice echoed in my head, Protect him. He's drawn attention, and not all will be friendly.

Then it was just... gone. It was like it had sized me up and found me wanting. This was bigger than some blessed raccoon. Something ancient had noticed Abe, and whatever it wanted, I doubted it involved protecting a talking trash panda with a Netflix habit. And I doubted it would stop with just the raccoon. Shelly was in danger. Even the pack might be in danger. As one of the pack protectors, I wasn't about to let that happen on my watch. I circled back toward my clothes and phone.

Alder needed to know what I'd sensed. If things like this were circling the cabin, Shelly was going to need a hell of a lot more backup than one druid mentor and a few werewolves.