He stood and I followed. “I’ll meet you at the pier,” Orson muttered, with an apologetic lookfor me. He tucked his phone away with another frown.
“Sully!” Mom called over. “Everything okay?”
“We’re going to go for a walk,” I lied hastily, earning myself a look of gratitude from Orson.
“I’ve paid for dinner,” my date said, leaving a pile of money on the table. He was generous at least.
Rounding the table, I tucked my arm in his. “Go with it,” I whispered when he stiffened.
We got outside into the cooler summer night, still arm in arm. Together we walked away from the restaurant and rounded the corner before Orson spoke once more, pulling away from me gently.
“I’m so sorry. This is incredibly rude.”
“Don’t worry about it. Maybe we can try again another time?”
He looked conflicted, adding to my suspicions. “Alright,” he eventually said. He leaned down to kiss my cheek. “Goodnight, Sully.”
With those words, he walked away. Didn’t make sure I could get home okay, or anything. Points deducted from him for sure. While he was attractive, I was certain Orson had another side to him, maybe someone his parents didn’tapprove of. That call sounded more like a lover than a business dealing, but I could be wrong.
Unable to return to the restaurant without Orson, I wandered the streets, enjoying the night air and quieter atmosphere. I could have called Trisha, or any of my friends, except I wasn’t up for company. I needed to be by myself for a bit.
Eventually, the pull of the woods became too much. I returned to my recent haunting ground, stripped, and shifted. Once in my quokka form, I went even deeper than ever before, desperate to find the reason I kept coming back to the forgotten woods.
Further in than I’d ever dared, I found myself turned around. My sense of direction wasn’t the greatest at the best of times. Here, in unfamiliar territory in the growing dusk, I had no chance of figuring things out.
I thought I recognized the shape of a tree and hopped over to it. A mistake. It was a completely different tree, the scents all wrong. I could smell magic in the air. Was that why we weren’t allowed in the woods? Was there wild magic in there?
There were no recent dingo scents. Whatever had been there was washed away by time. Iwasn’t sure I was even in the same part of the woods where I’d encountered the dingo.
Completely lost hours later, it was too dark for me to continue. I was exhausted, sweaty, thirsty and more than a little scared. I would just have to wait until morning then trace my way back home. Who knew, maybe someone would be looking for me when they noticed I didn’t come home.
Except, my parents thought I’d gone for a walk with Orson. They probably thought we’d hit it off and I’d gone back to his place. He lived alone as far as I knew.
Shit.
I was lost in the woods, a place I wasn’t supposed to be, with no one expecting me home until maybe afternoon!
A scent pulled me closer to a thicker patch of trees. There was a loud snap of a branch, my foot twisted and I stumbled, my back foot stuck on roots. I pulled, wrenching a cry from my little quokka mouth as agony flared through my leg. I scrambled with my paws to free myself, then hopped unsteadily away from the nasty tree.
There, under the relative safety of a bush, I laid down. Everything would feel better once Igot some sleep. My foot would heal, it would be light, and I could get myself out of this mess.
I hoped.
Six
Imri
“Thisroomlooksgood.You sure you want Sandy and Berry to share it? There’s room to give them one each.”
Uncle Malik’s old house was… surprising. What appeared to be a ramshackle home was actually one under expansion. I think he’d begun making space for Rowan and his family long before his symptoms worsened. It’s what I would have done.
Unfortunately, while the shell, electrics and plumbing were mostly okay, the weather had caused a leak in the roof, which in turn, had damaged some of the interior walls, meaning we had to replace them. Rowan had already patched the roof, so the place was watertight.
With Rowan, and even Sandy and Berry pitching in, we’d gotten two bedrooms and a bathroom done. The kitchen was nearly there.It needed redecorating, but it was serviceable for the time being.
“We will all share until another bedroom is ready for me. They don’t want to be separated.” It had taken a lot for Rowan to tell me no. He often went along with what I thought best instead of voicing an opinion, so I had to respect him for speaking up for his siblings.
“Alright. The beds should be here in a day or two. Will you be okay until then?”
