AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We camped near an overlook, a jutting flat rock from which we could see the ocean below and in the distance. Just a sparkle, really, with the sun settling into it like a plump golden apricot. We cooked up some of the dehydrated meals over a small fire while planning our descent in the morning. “We’ll be at the beach before noon,” Sandra said, her spoon scraping the last of the chili mac from her tin plate. Or maybe it wasn’t tin but some kind of metal camping plate anyway. “If we check into the motel right away, we can change and go for a swim.”
“Or lunch.” Bunny wrinkled her nose, looking much like the animal she was named after. I’d wondered whether she’d done that as a baby right away, leading her mother to pick her name. “I would like something not raw and furry or barely rehydrated please. Maybe a shrimp salad or shrimp scampi or a shrimp cocktail.”
“I’m sensing a theme here,” Wendy said, rummaging through her pack. “I don’t have any shrimp, but I did bring this.” She held a bottle of tequila aloft. And not a little bottle. I didn’t even know how she fit it in her pack. “Shots all around!”
I wiped out my dish and spoon with some leaves and packed up my eating gear. “You guys can, but I think I’ll abstain.”
“You can’t abstain,” she protested. “You’re the bride. You have to have a shot.” Unscrewing the cap, she poured some of the golden fluid into a shot glass she’d also managed to pack and passed it to me. “It’s the rules.”
Shifters don’t get drunk easily, but that doesn’t mean we can’t if we try hard enough. After about the third shot, I was starting to relax, we were all giggling, and everything felt a little better. Whatever worries we had, we’d deal with them when we got home.
For now, we had each other and the beautiful woods around us and the bottle of magical liquid that was making everything better. After the fourth round, we stopped filling the shot glass and just passed the bottle.
My friends dropped one by one, shifting into their fur and curling up by the fire, but I still had control of the bottle and, worse, I needed to pee. Badly. So I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled away from the glow of the flames. I didn’t plan to go far, but after I emptied my bladder, I remembered the overlook and went in search of it. The moon hung in the sky, and I wondered if I could see its reflection in the ocean. It was a still night, and as I perched on the flat rock, I could indeed see the shimmer on the darkness of what I was pretty sure was the ocean and in the far distance, a fog bank coming in.
I’d need my furry sisters once it arrived.
But the ocean looked so close. Maybe I could get a better look if I went a little closer. If I climbed down the rock face a ways? The sea was calling to me, and I needed to get there before the fog came in.
Scrambling over the edge, I found myself on a scree-covered slope, and my feet slid out from under me. I flailed and stumbled and tried to get stable, but then I was tumbling and rolling, and a sharp pain in my forehead made everything go dark.
