#would it be aspen if they weren't dramatic

[limen-lime]

what happens when they get there?

Broceliande ran the southern border of the Amory Nature Preserve like a winding concrete line in the sand. Jack knew from experience that just a few yards into the rows of ancient, white aspen trees that lined most of the neighborhood, there was a tall, chain-link fence with barbed wire around the top. The only way to get in - if you weren't supposed to be there - was a remote spot along the fence and a pair of wire-cutters. He knew that from experience, too.

Lost in thought, he stared deep into those trees as Tristan hummed to himself and stood to pedal over the next hill.

"Where are we going anyway?" Jack asked, jostled into wakefulness once more by Tristan's struggle against gravity. "I mean, not that I don't appreciate what you did back there, but-"

"But you think I'm taking you out here to murder you and dump your body?" Tristan glanced over his shoulder and regretted it.

Jack was pointedly avoiding eye contact.

Wrong thing to say. Obviously.

Tristan's cheeks burned, and he shook his head, the word "stupid" bouncing around the apparently empty interior of his skull. "Um, well, we're actually going to go see a friend of mine?"

Jack nodded but said nothing.

Then Tristan hung his head forward and focused on getting them both up the hill.

After a moment, he felt the load on the bike lessen significantly and looked back to realize Jack had gotten off and was jogging alongside. "Is everyone your friend?" he asked, keeping pace easily.

Tristan wasn't one to ever struggle for words, but he felt like he was suffocating as he said, "Look, if this is about," he gasped, "what happened back there-"

More gasping.

"I just happened to be riding by and thought you might need some help. Okay?" He took another big gulp of air and shivered dramatically. "The Amory's give me the creeps."

As they reached the top of the hill, Jack slowed to a stop, and Tristan practically fell off his bike. "Oh, thank you!" Letting the bike fall to its side, he flopped down on the side of the road and rolled over on his back.

"You weren't kidding when you said that you were out of shape," Jack snorted and paused to roll up his sleeves.

Autumn was well on its way, but the summer heat had yet to break its iron grip on the Meadows. As he tugged up the sleeve of his ruined button-down, Jack studied the bite mark on his arm. He could remember the terror of the chase, twisting his ankle on a root, falling and raising his arm to stop the teeth rushing to close around his throat.

His doctors, along with a specialist they called in for the investigation, confirmed what everyone had assumed. It was a canine's bite, either a rabid stray or perhaps a wolf, but that hadn't changed what Jack saw.

Shielding his eyes from the white-hot midday sun, Tristan peered up at Jack, awash with sepia tones and the fading green of late summer. The blood on his arm looked fresh, and Tristan felt a pang in his chest. "That looks gnarly. And it's still bleeding?"

"Yeah, sometimes," Jack muttered.

Whether they believed him about another person being there at the scene of the attack or not, the very real matter was, his wound from the bite had hardly healed in the time since the attack. Jack was pretty sure that, at least, was not normal. Eventually, they would have to admit that it might not be the only thing strange about this case.

But Jack didn't think that even he was ready for that.

Tristan sat up, blue hair falling in a sweaty, chaotic cloud around his head. "Look, man, I know we don't know each other that well-"

"Oh, you mean how we were lab partners in chemistry once, and then you decided we were best friends?" Jack offered, one bushy black eyebrow raised, skeptical with maybe the barest scraps of amusement.

Grinning, Tristan shrugged. "What can I say? I bond quickly!" Then he got his feet underneath him, a marvel of engineering with legs as long as his, and stood. "But seriously, I think this other friend of mine might be able to help you with your-"

Tristan freed himself from his jacket and gestured at Jack's arm first, then, slowly, the rest of him.

"-problem!"

Jack glared at him, mouth drawn into a slant. "Somehow I doubt that." Then something behind Tristan caught his eye.

"Trust me, Mrs. E is going to know exactly what to do about this," Tristan told him as he tied the sleeves of his jacket around his waist. "She's amazing. My sister told me all about how she..."

Tristan's eyebrows shot up in surprise as Jack lunged forward and clamped a hand over the other boy's mouth. "Sshh!"

Frowning, Tristan searched Jack's suddenly frightened face. He made a vaguely quizzical noise as Jack searched the trees somewhere behind him and continued to not explain himself.

Finally, Jack whispered, "No sudden moves. Don't turn around. Don't argue. Just get back on your bike, slowly, and I'll push. Got it?"

Tristan just stared for a moment before Jack's expression changed from fear to annoyance. Then nodding frantically, Tristan took Jack's hand from his mouth. Jack took a step back and kept his eyes trained on whatever Tristan wasn't meant to see.

He stooped to pick up the bike and swung one long leg over the back. He kept his eyes on the road beneath his feet, but his ears were trained for even the smallest disturbance in the sunny forest around them. Whatever it was, it wasn't making a sound.

Jack waited until Tristan was sitting before he gave the other boy a shove from behind and pushed for a few breathless, weightless strides. With his bandaged hand, he caught the shoulder of Tristan's t-shirt and hauled himself back onto the bike behind him.

The added push along with gravity helped them pick up momentum quickly, and they raced down the hill at break-neck speed. Tristan leaned forward over the handlebars of the bike, and Jack followed suit. The wind rushed past his ears as he dared a glance to the side of the road.

Something was following them through the trees. Big and brown and moving just a fast as they were. Jack watched it weave through the aspen trees like threading a needle, each turn quick and precise. Certain, effortless. It wasn't struggling to keep up with them at all. It was simply keeping pace.

Toying with them.

"Gunna need you to really lean into this coming curve!" Tristan shouted over the sound of the air whistling around them and the wheels spinning on the pavement. "When I say so- Now!"

They leaned to the side and the bike whipped around the turn in the road. The force caused the back wheel to skid just an inch before they balanced themselves again and snapped upright. Jack scanned the trees once more and let out a strangled gasp. The thing in the trees had angled itself closer to the road.

It was coming for them.

"How much further?" Jack shouted into Tristan's left ear.

The other boy's head jerked to the side as he trained his eyes on a passing mailbox, and shouted back, "Should be just around the next bend! Get ready!"

They leaned into the next turn together. The world swirled around them, but this time, Jack's focus was on the creature getting nearer and nearer through the trees. One good leap and it would be on them. Teeth and claws and glowing eyes. He gasped as the bike skidded out from under them and both boys went rolling. First across pavement, then gravel, then grass.

When they finally came to a stop, Jack expected the beast to be on them at any moment. He heard the sound of feet approaching through grass and leaves, the heavy panting of breath, and he rolled onto his back to throw a handful of gravel up at the first thing he saw.

Hazel Espinosa flung her arms up to deflect most of the gravel from going into her eyes and stumbled back, spitting dust and shouting, “Hey, hey!”

Iris ran to Tristan and helped him to sit up. "Honey, what happened?"

Jack whipped around to look behind them, convinced the wolf he saw was just beyond the edge of the yard. Tristan's bike lay in the ditch in front of the house, the back wheel still spinning wildly. The road where they'd come from was empty. Staggering to his feet, he searched the trees, this way and that. Still nothing. Just rows and rows of aspen and pine, sun beams filtering down to green grass and brown needles.

"It was there!" Jack twisted his hair in his fingers, jaw hanging open in shock. He swung back around to look at the three people watching him like he was the wild animal about to pounce. "I swear!"

Tristan studied Jack for a moment and nodded. "I believe you." He cocked his head toward Iris. "Jack Halley, meet Mrs. Iris Espinosa, and her daughter, Hazel. They just moved here."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Hazel regarded Jack. "And you just crash-landed in our yard."

"Wait," Jack squinted against the light of the sun and the heat of Hazel's vitriol, "you're the two that were at the motel!"

Tristan's eyebrows shot up, though one was currently bleeding from a cut that had only just missed his eye. "Oh, you've met?"

Iris bobbled her head from side to side. "More or less." She brushed grass and gravel from Tristan's mop of blue hair and tugged him to his feet. "Let's get you boys inside. Pretty sure I remember unpacking the first-aid kit already."

Hazel scoffed, "Mom!" and Iris ignored her.

She turned her gaze in Jack's direction and sighed. "And we can discuss your monster once I get you both cleaned up. How does that sound?"

Without waiting for an answer, Iris helped Tristan hobble towards the house, and after a moment, Hazel and Jack begrudgingly followed.

While in the forest behind them, a woman slipped out from the shadow of one of the older pine trees. Smiling to herself, she pulled a coat of thick brown and red fur from her shoulders. Her heart still raced from the thrill of the chase, blood pounding in her veins. She watched the four figures retreat into the last house at the end of Broceliande, then turned and sprinted for the fence.

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#chapter two #15