The night sky was shining above me. I sat on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a lake, about a 20 minute walk from the cottage we had purchased. It gave off a picturesque view. It was truly an awe inspiring sight. Still, despite all the wonder around me, I wasn’t happy to be there. To be honest, I hardly noticed the scenery; I was too busy with everything that was running through my head from what had transpired in the last 48 hours. Somehow, in the last two days, I had been attacked with my girlfriend, Katelyn, in the park, kidnapped a doctor who healed my almost dead friend, went searching for Lyle and got attacked by some guy who killed a bunch of government agents, and then run into what appear to be his long lost family, before I grabbed everyone a brought us here, wherever here was. Man, what was I even doing here. How was hanging out in the woods going to make me ready to fight these guys? I needed to be training in combat… or something of the sort. Heck, what I really needed was someone like Professor X to show up and tell me he knew what I was, and that he had all the answers I was seeking. Someone who could help me become the hero I needed to be. I mean, come on, it happens in the comics all the time. Heck, at this point I’d take future me showing up and telling me that if I “saved the prime minister, I’d save the world.”
“Okay, so here’s the deal,” I said, loudly into the night air, so that the ears of fate could hear. “I’m gonna count to five, and I expect that by the time I’m done, my teacher or whatever will have shown up. ONE! TWO!! THREE!! FOUR!! FIVE!!!” I looked around. Nothing but a rabbit. A white freaking rabbit. Seriously, for a second, I wondered if I was in the Matrix.
“Well, I guess it’s up to me,” I murmured to myself. I stood up, looking across the lake. “Guess it’s time to try this,” I said, and I stepped off the cliff. I started to fall towards the rocks and water below. “Well, I guess I can’t just hover,” I murmured, and than I willed myself up, and I started to flash upward. I concentrated on slowing myself down, but I couldn’t. I started to will myself around the open air around me.
I spent the next 2 hours flying around, getting better and better at some aerial maneuvers. I landed back on the cliff top. I felt drained from all that flying. I tried to gather some light in my hand, and a small ball gathered there, before dissipating completely. It seemed I was drained. I guess I didn’t recharge near as fast at night time as I did during the day. Oh well, I still figured out more about flying tonight then I had known before. I started to walk towards the cottage. About 15 minutes into my walk, just when I could start to see the light of the cottage shortly off, I heard a crunch of a stick behind me. I turned around, and there was the white rabbit. I’m fairly certain it was the same one, anyhow. I stood about 15 feet behind me, staring straight at me. A chill went up my spine. “It’s just a rabbit, Greg. Get a hold of yourself,” I muttered to myself. I was just about to turn back around and continue on my way, when I noticed a gleam of light right behind the rabbit. I squinted into the night. What the hell was that? Finally it clicked… it was an eye, or should I say two eyes. I couldn’t tell what they belonged to, but I knew they weren’t human eyes. I scanned around, and realized there were two more sets of eyes beside the two I initially noticed. Shit… I could just tell those weren’t friendly eyes. They were hunter’s eyes. Great. I was about a five minute walk still from the cottage, which was too far for anyone to hear me yell from. I knew I didn’t have enough in me to ‘flash’ over there. Heck, I wasn’t even sure I had enough in me to ‘flash’ half that distance. This was not good. Not taking my eyes off of the eyes in front of me, I bent down and searched the ground around me for something, anything really. My hands fell upon a broken off tree branch. I picked it up, and stood back up to my full height. Not for the first time in my life, I wished I was taller. Whatever was hunting me, I was pretty sure that it wasn’t too intimated by all 5’8” of me. And I mean, all I had going for me was a stick, and if I was lucky, a small flash of light. I had no real training, and at some point my luck in combat had to let me down. Slowly the eyes moved closer, and as they did, I could make out the shapes of what they belonged too. Wolves. They belongs to wolves. Shit. Shit! Shit!! How the hell was I supposed to stand a chance against three wolves, when all I had was a stick.
I heard a low growl start forming, and then a flash of dark, coming at me faster then anything I’d ever seen, beside me normally that is. I dove left at what seemed to be the last second, and rolled as I hit the ground, pivoting back on the balls on my feet. I swung the stick up, on instinct alone, just in time to hit the second wolf in the face as it lunged out towards me. It knocked the startled wolf back with a whelp. The third one I didn’t even have time to anticipate. It hit me in my right side. I went sprawling to the ground, dropping the stick in the process. As I hit the ground, I tried to keep rolling. I made it a couple feet before I hit a rock with my back. Goodness, that hurt. I pushed myself up, my back always to the rock that was now behind me. I could see the three outlines, just five feet from me. I could hear their growls of anticipation. I could see the glint of murder and excitement in their animal eyes. I reached to my right side, where I still felt the pain from the hit, and I felt a wetness on my shirt. I reached under it, and felt a small gash there. Man, that was lucky. I should have much worse. Not that it mattered much. In a matter of moments I would be torn apart by the three wolves inching closer to me. I could just make them out in the lightness the comes right before sunrise. Stupid, Greg, real stupid. You should have known better then to ever leave yourself that tapped dry out here. This isn’t the city where you can siphon light from nearly anywhere. I was lucky that I made it this far. If not for that rabbit, I wouldn’t have noticed them at all.
“Well, God, I really hope your listening, cause this son of yours could really use a hand right now.” The wolves growl grew as I spoke. The first one lunged, and out of pure instinct, I flashed light at him. I channeled all the light I could in me into my hand. My hand grew bright white as the wolf collided into my out stretched hand as I stood there. The impact of the wolf knocked me back into the rock behind me, keeping me up. The wolf hit the ground in front of me, whimpering. The hair on it‘s side smoked a bit, and my handprint could be seen charred into it‘s side.
“Whoa, that’s cool,” I said to myself, not so much the wolf. The wolf limped back to it’s compatriots. It growled at me, and I could see the muscles in the two others tense up. Suddenly, I could see the sunrise breaking behind them. I felt a rush of power come with it. It’s about time. I channeled that power, and extended it from me, making myself glow as bright as possible. The wolves stopped their growling immediately. They stared at me for another second, and then took off. Apparently, I wasn’t worth the effort anymore. Good, I didn’t really want to fight them anymore either. I was tired, though I felt somewhat reenergized by the light that was flowing through me now. I flashed back to the cottage. Seguin was up when I walked in the front door. A quizzical look crossed his face.
“What are you doing up? Your usually not up this early.”
“Early to you, late to me.” I said, as I stumbled past him on my way to the bathroom.
“Your aware there’s a bit of blood on your shirt there. What the heck happened to you tonight, man?”
Entering the bathroom doorway, I paused and looked back. “Oh you know, not much. Just went rabbit watching is all.”
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