The Hidden Watcher
The quiet of the woods before morning was
easily broken. A sharp snap sound came from
nearby, waking me up suddenly from my bad
sleep. My body got ready to fight. Elara moved
beside me, her ears twitching, her eyes
opening even though she was still sleepy. The
human shape at the edge of the open area
stayed still, looking dark against the little bit
of grey light coming through the trees. My
heart beat fast. Had they found us again? Was
this the end of us running?
We couldn't sleep well anymore;
it was too dangerous.
Then, a low, angry sound came from the dark
shadows under the trees. It was a sound I
knew, and it made me feel both relieved and
worried. Gareth. He was alive. But his angry
sound sounded tired like he had been through
a lot.
He came out slowly, his big wolf body looking
thin, his fur messy with dirt and dried blood.
His yellow eyes are usually so full of anger,
looked sad and haunted, like I felt. He had
survived fighting the armored creature, but he
was hurt.
"Gareth," Elara whispered, her voice full of
feeling, happy he was alive but also seeing his
pain. She tried to stand up, but her hurt leg
made her make a noise of pain.
He walked towards us slowly, moving stiffly.
He touched Elara gently with his nose, making
a quiet sad sound, before looking at me. His
eyes asked a silent question, understanding
the scary things we had seen.
Even in the darkest night,
hearing a friend's familiar angry sound was
like seeing a light.
"I saw them," Gareth finally said, his voice
rough, like his throat hurt. He didn't need to
say who 'them' were. The flying werewolves.
Just thinking about them made me feel sick
again. "They… they were hunting."
His words made a scary picture in my mind.
Our own people, their minds twisted and
broken, are now used as weapons against us.
The enemy could reach much further and was
much more evil than we had thought. Even the
sky wasn't safe anymore.
"Did they see you?" I asked, my voice very
quiet, fear making my throat tight.
Gareth shook his head slowly, his ears going
down. "I managed to stay hidden. But… there
were many. More than I thought possible." He
stopped, looking far away like he was
watching the scary scene again in his head.
"Their eyes… they were empty. Like they
weren't alive."
What he said made me feel very cold inside.
The bright spark, the strong smartness that
made us who we were, was gone, replaced by
just doing what they were told. They were like
puppets, with someone we couldn't see
pulling the strings.
The sky, which used to mean
being free, now had a scary new danger.
The human shape at the edge of the open
area just stood there silently while we talked
quietly. His eyes were wide and dark, looking
back and forth between Gareth and us,
showing both fear and a strange interest. His
being there was a constant, uneasy reminder
that he still didn't trust us.
"We need to move," Gareth said, his eyes
looking angry and urgent again. "They'll be
following us. They always do."
He was right. Staying here, even though the
old cabin felt a little safe, was stupid. The
crash of the flying machine had told them
where we probably were. It was only a matter
of time before they found us exactly.
"What about Jax?" Elara asked, looking at the
quiet human. "Can we trust him?"
The question felt heavy in the air. Trust. That
broken thing. Gareth looked at Jax with
suspicion, a natural distrust that had been
inside him for a long time.
"He's human," Gareth growled, the word full of
a lifetime of not liking humans. "They can't be
trusted."
Trust was a weak bridge built
over a big hole of fear and hate.
I argued with myself inside. Jax had shown
us… something. I'm not really trusting, but
maybe just being desperate together, a little
bit of understanding. He had led us, and what
he knew had been very helpful. But the bad
things that had happened to him in the past,
the terrible memory of werewolves attacking
his village, were still strong. Could he really
stop hating us, stop being afraid, to help us?
Or would his old feelings make him betray us?
"He knows the human paths," Elara said softly.
"He might be the only way we can get out."
Gareth still didn't believe her, his eyes staying
on Jax with suspicion. The air felt tense, and
the weak friendship we had started felt like it
might break because of the strong dislike
between our kinds.
Suddenly, Jax moved. He took a small step
towards us, his eyes on Gareth's worried face.
He held up his hands, with the palms open,
like he was saying he wouldn't hurt us.
"I… I saw them too," his voice was shaking a
little, his eyes full of a new fear. "The… the
flying ones. They… they used to be people
from my village."
What he said hung in the air, a shocking thing
that changed how we felt about him. The
enemy wasn't just controlling our people; they
were also twisting and using humans as
weapons. How evil they were was much
worse than we had thought.
Gareth's stiff body relaxed a little, and the
suspicion in his eyes changed to a little bit of
surprise. The shared fear of what Jax had
seen seemed to make the distrust between
them a little less strong.
Sometimes, having the same
enemy can make people who don't like each
other become friends.
"They… they took Sarah," Jax continued, his
voice sad, his eyes getting watery. "She… she
always loved to climb trees. Now…" He
couldn't finish what he was saying, the scary
thought hanging in the air.
The shared sadness and the understanding
that we were all hurt by the same terrible
enemy made a weak connection between us.
The old dislikes, even though they weren't
completely gone, seemed to get weaker,
replaced by a strong need to stay alive, a
shared wish to fight back against the things
that had taken so much from all of us.
But this small moment of connection was
broken by a new sound – the clear, steady
whump-whump-whump of helicopter blades
coming closer fast. They had found us. And
this time, they were bringing more than just
flying machines.
Panic started. We were out in the open, hurt,
and our new, weak friendship wasn't strong
enough to fight a direct attack.
"We need to go," Gareth growled, his earlier
suspicion now just urgent fear. "Now!"
He turned and ran into the thick bushes,
Elara and I hurrying after him, with Jax close
behind. The sound of the helicopter got
louder, its shadow moving over the trees.
Our desperate running had just become
even more dangerous. The hidden watcher
had become someone who might help us,
but the enemy was getting closer, and the
small hope of staying alive felt like a star that
was fading away.
The sounds of being lied to still hurt,
but now, a new, scary truth had appeared:
we were all targets in a fight much bigger
and much more terrible than we had ever
thought.