Moonglade, Colorado

The air was cooler now. The blood pumping through my veins slowed down and my heavy breaths with intermittent gasps eventually slowed down as well. I let out my first calm exhalation. The whole morning I had used up in order to get a sense of the landscape town, or rather the landscape of the woods surrounding it, and I used up the past few hours for what I aimed to be a light nap. But then three hours turned into four hours, and four into seven. Before I knew it, I was waking up at 5 o'clock in the evening, sweat drenching my sheets, and images of my dream gently teasing at my recollection. "At least it wasn't real," I said to myself, trying to focus on the coolness of my body rather than the heat burning through my head. But I knew, deep down, that the events that transpired within that dream were, at one point, my reality.

I rose from my bed. There was no need to spend the rest of my evening staring at a random spot on my ceiling, contemplating the justification for my being. The town still had much to be explored, and I wanted to be back inside before nighttime. I changed out of my shirt, put on one that wasn't soaked in sweat, and threw on some shoes and pants before heading outside of the homestead to see the town. Preferably, I would have liked to accompany Adrian on his endeavors, but perhaps my sleep caused me to miss him on his way out. I didn't bother looking around our new homestead to find him, I was sure that wherever he was, his antics would lead the way.

"I'm heading out!" I yelled back into the homestead before closing the back door. I didn't know if anyone was inside, but wanted to make sure that if they were, they would know of my absence. Of course, by "they" I was primarily thinking about Ronnie. She was like a sister to me now, and that made me afraid of a number of things. But perhaps my greatest, though very irrational, fear was that I'd leave the house one day and that she'd wake up thinking I was no longer there for her. I paused at the door for a moment, wondering if I should just take a quick peek back inside, but then decided I was being silly. "I should just get going," I thought to myself, "Ronnie can take care of herself..."

"Ronnie!" I yelled back into the homestead after reopening the back door, "if you're in here, just know that I'm heading out! I'll be back before sunset!" With my worries brought to a minimum I closed the door again. I wasn't even sure if she was in the homestead, but now my mind was again at ease. I hurried down the steps of the homestead and began on my way to town. The sun wasn't far away from setting and I still wanted to check out a good portion of the town. "Maybe I should have checked if Adrian was in the homestead before heading out," Ronnie wasn't the only one who worried me. "Have I always been such a worrywart?" I thought in my head, "must be the town."

I then headed towards town......after yelling back inside to Adrian, then Lou, about my whereabouts in case they were still in the house.

I was drawing when I heard Randolph yell to Ronnie how late he was going to be out. I only presumed he was heading towards town, because honestly, where else would he go? I had an urge to go and join him, but I really didn't talk to him much, and I wouldn't want to make the situation awkward.

I looked down to see what I was drawing. This may seem peculiar, but sometimes I draw subconsciously and I don't even know what I'm drawing. I looked at the former blank sheet to see something that I would mostly see in my nightmares. The setting was a forest, with tall and beautiful evergreen trees on a full moon night. There way a clearing, and something seemed to be lying in the middle of it. I didn't want to think any further of what it was, because in my heart I felt as if it were lifeless, dead. But my thoughts carried on out. It was a wolf, or at least a cadaver of one. Not any wolf I recognized, however. Not me, not my pack mates. Next to it - No, cuddling it - was a wispy human-like figure. I was utterly confused. What did this mean? I decided to ignore it, and jammed it into my sock drawer, where there were more pictures than socks.

I walked into the kitchen to make a cup of hot green tea. I really didn't like that picture. What if it was someone who died? Or someone whose going to die… Or maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just my sick, twisted mind. I actually hoped it was."Dammit… No more tea bags?" I crossed my arms and started to pout. Maybe I should've told Rand to pick up some before he left.

Oh well.

I put on my shoes, grabbed some money out of my purse, wrote a note saying that I would be out for a quick grocery run, and headed out the door. If I ran into Rand, I would just give him a friendly smile and continue my way to the store. I wouldn't have wanted to bug him.

I paced for a while where the dirt and the trees stopped and the stones of the town streets began before I entered the town. In that time, I came up with my plan on how I would go about exploring the town. With only a few hours before sundown I decided I would like to visit the town square. Within the square, I figured it would be easiest to find out about many of things that went on around the town. There was a library, the town hall, various stores and restaurants, and other little shops and buildings which gathering information about could help our pack later. The other buildings around the town--including some interesting houses I spotted while I was in the woods earlier in the morning--could be explored another day. They weren't so much less important than the buildings in town square, but the information I would get from them would be very specialized: I would be learning a lot about a certain area of the town rather than a lot about the overall happenings of the town. For getting a general sense of Moonglade, it would benefit me the most to poke around the town square.

I began walking towards the square. Everything that I saw on the way there made me feel more of a fondness towards the town. From the trees whose branches swung gently side-to-side in the wind to the old style houses craftily wedged between overwhelming thickets of wildlife, the town felt like a familiar childhood home. But as the nature thinned out--the thickets of nature turning into sparse copses--I began to realize a past home wasn't a place I wanted to remember. Thankfully, by the time the nostalgic wonder of the town's rustic outskirts wore off, I was already in the town square.

"Hey! Watch out!" a woman speeding on her bike said as she swerved around me. As I had been completely lost in my own thoughts she would had hit me if she wasn't paying attention. I waved at her and smiled awkwardly as she glared at me before disappearing into the streets. I was actually quite grateful she had almost it me; without her doing so I may have wandered aimlessly into the street like a lost dog about to get hit by a car. Also, since she shocked me back into reality, I was able to regain a grasp on my senses.

In the distance, somewhere behind me, I could smell a familiar scent trailing my own. It was someone from my pack: a Blackwell. I turned around quickly. Whoever it was still was quite a way away, but I could make out by the scent that it was a girl. I gave her a wave, hopefully one big enough for her to see. She seemed to be on her way to town, and as she came closer it became easier to tell who she was. I smiled and waved again. It was Lindsey, our hunter with the penchant for hot cocoa and tea. Maybe she was, like me, on her way to explore the town. But most likely she was on her way to refill our pack's tea bag supply.

I could feel myself coming closer and closer to my pack mate. He must have stopped? Once he was in visibility range, I saw him smile and wave. I blushed a little bit but then returned the gesture. My heart started to flutter, and I started to get uncomfortable. This wasn't new, it has happened before. I've dated at least eleven boyfriends before, and I always had felt like this with them… but this time, it was more intensified. However, I ignored it.

"Hi, Randolph," I said, the first syllable a little hoarse, but I managed to make my voice stronger. "How are you this evening?"

My hands were behind my back, like always. People say it shows superiority, confidence, and power… I say it's just a relaxing stance. As he started to respond, I looked at the background behind him. It might've been rude, but… the streets seemed familiar. Like, I've seen it before, but I've never actually seen it before. I can't remember the word, but I was in awe and I was just a tad bit afraid.