Chapter 5

It was still early, especially for a Saturday morning, but she couldn’t wait to talk to her friends about what had happened last night.

Nueva used the 15 minute’s drive to Evie’s parent’s house to relax and clear her head. She was deep in thoughts when suddenly, a bright voice spoke inside her head, clear as day.

“Hello Nueva, I am Eira”

“What the hell?” she cried out in the empty car and swerved to the side of the road onto gravel, creating a large grey dust cloud.

She sat quietly in the car. Her fingers squeezed the steering wheel, and her chest rose rapidly as she tried to control her breathing by expanding her small lungs with air.

“I am so sorry, Nueva; I didn’t mean to scare you.” The voice was softer and somehow calmed her frazzled nerves.

“Who are you? Am I going mad?” she sniffled and cupping her hands over her distorted face.

“No, you are not going mad, my dear Nueva. I am your wolf.”

“My what now?”

“Your wolf form” The voice sounded brighter and had a cheerful tone.

“What’s a wolf form? And why do I have one of those?”

“It’s simple so that you can shift into a wolf” Eira spoke these words like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Shift? Holy crap, I am going insane,” she thought to herself.

“You are not insane”, Eira assured.

“Shit, you can hear my thoughts?”

“Yes, I can; I try not to eavesdrop”, Eira chuckled “, But this time it was for your own good.”

“Why do I have a wolf?” Nueva whispered into the empty car.

“Because you have started your transformation.”

Nueva could feel a headache growing in the back of her skull when thinking about the incredible scary meaning of the word; transformation.

"OK, explain it to me in the simplest possible way; what’s going on?”

"I have been with you, Nueva, waiting in your subconscious, running by your side in your dreams.” Eira’s voice was serious, but her tone was calm and soothing. “You might have noticed certain things have changed and that your senses have perhaps heightened.”

“Well, yes, I have noticed that, but not in any crazy way.” Nueva leaned her head back on the neck rest. The car was beginning to feel closed in and stuffy.

 “Except for my smell. I can smell everything,” she added in an annoyed tone.

“When you embrace me as your wolf, more amazing things will take place.”

“I am not sure I want to embrace anything; I much rather prefer you leaving me alone”, She hissed at the voice in her head.

A quiet whimper echoed through her mind before disappearing, leaving a deafening silence behind.

She sat in the car for a moment staring out of the foggy window, trying to convince herself that she didn’t just imagine a wolf speaking inside her head.

"This is ludicrous; all the strange things that have happened have just gotten to me."

She drove out on the road with a deep breath and continued her drive to Evie’s house.

She walked through the butter-yellow front door and kicked off her shoes on the other side.

“I got coffee in here”, Evie called out from the kitchen

“Sounds like heaven”, she answered, entering the kitchen with a deep sigh. Evie and Mira waited at the kitchen counter with mugs of steaming hot coffee.

The room was bright, with natural light streaming in from the French doors behind their backs, goldening the kitchen walls.

Nueva grabbed her favourite stool from the corner next to the double door fridge and sat down opposite her friends.

“I made yours with almond milk” Evie smiled and pushed a large grey and gold-speckled ceramic mug across the counter. Her face looked picture-perfect, and not a strand of her dark hair was out of place even after just gotten out of bed.

On the other hand, Mira looked like someone dragged her out of bed and used her hair as a mop.

“Thank god for Mira”, she chuckled to herself, massaging the dark bags under her eyes and sighed again.

“What’s up, buttercup?” Mira asked, concerned over her best friend’s apparent distressed state.

“Seriously, I don’t even know where to begin? Ever since my disaster date, weird things have been happening,” she grunted with her face buried in her hands.

“Oh, no, what’s happened now?” Evie reached over the counter and poured some more coffee into her mug.

She filled her nostrils with the sweet bitterness of the coffee, feeling like she could smell the floral, fruit-like, and herbaceous aromas from every single bean.

“I am not sure you would even believe me.” She fiddled with her messy airdried locks.

“Come on; we won’t laugh” Mira scrunched her freckled nose in a friendly wink.

Nueva drew a deep breath and blurted it all out in the same breath, “So, this morning, I woke up naked in the woods. I sleepwalk now.”

She watched shock cross her friend’s faces, their mouths dropping open, and their eyebrows rose as she told them about running butt naked through the neighbourhood in the early hours of this morning. She also told them about her newly heightened senses and night vision.

She left out the bit about the wolf voice in her head.

“Wow, that’s freaky”, Evie added when Nueva finally came up for air. Mira agreed with a nod.

“And that’s not even mentioning the dreams I have had about a white wolf that called me the primordial ice wolf?” Her hands waved frantically in front of her face as she talked. “I had to look it up. It said existing at or from the beginning of time. What the hell does that mean?”

Mira cleared her throat. “It sounds to me like you might have some sort of PTSD after your dog attack?” her shoulders rose ever so lightly as she spoke.

“Yes, I think maybe you should talk to someone?” Evie added quietly with a small smile.

“Yeah, I don’t know. You are probably, right?” Nueva sipped on her lukewarm coffee and sighed tiredly.

"When you say your senses have become heightened, what do you mean? Mira asked with a voice full of curiosity.

“Well, I can smell and hear things better, and I run faster too.”

“Really, what did I eat for breakfast?” Mira laughed, enjoying testing out these new skills.

Nueva eyebrows rose in a gesture for “game on”.

“Easy, I could smell that overcooked oat porridge and cinnamon on your breath as soon as I walked through the door, and I can also smell the tuna salad you had last night.

Mira’s jaw came unhinged. “What the hell?” she stuttered, staring at her friend with wide green eyes

“Wait, what, did you eat that?” Evie exclaimed in shock mixed amazement.

“Do me!” she continued and exhaled a deep breath towards Nueva, who wrinkled her nose in response.

They burst into a peal of heartfelt belly laughter that lasted several minutes.