“I’ll go with you,” Caleb said, and soon everyone else was offering to go too, including myself. I guessed for many of us this was more out of boredom than anything else—an excuse to get some fresh air and stretch our legs.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Derek said, holding up a hand and shaking his head. “There’s no point in all of us going. Six of us can go; six at a time. And no longer than fifteen minutes for each batch,” he added, looking at us sternly—especially me and the other youngest four. “Or I will come hunting you down myself.”
Grace, Heath, Arwen, Brock and I ended up being allowed out first along with Corrine, perhaps since we’d been first to rush to the exit. We donned high, thick boots, and with our durable, long uniforms, we were fairly well protected from insects. My father handed each of us a mini-flashlight.
The door to the tank opened silently and we stepped outside into the cool jungle. I stowed my hands in my pockets as we touched down in the undergrowth and began to make our way slowly, cautiously through the trees toward the direction we’d seen the hunters emerge from.
After we’d been roaming for about five minutes, coming across nothing but more trees and bushes, we split into pairs so that we could cover more ground. Being closest to Arwen, I took her hand, while, also due to proximity, Brock partnered with Corrine… leaving Grace and Heath together.
I kept a keen eye on my watch as we wandered for the next five minutes. Just as I was resigning myself to not finding anything in the short amount of time my uncle had given us, voices rang through the trees. Male voices. Hunters’ voices. Who else could they be?
Arwen and I ducked to the ground and peered out from behind a bush towards the sounds.
“They should have dropped it by now,” one said.
“Stand back,” another called.
Flashlights flickered on about twenty feet away from us. Then came the sound of crashing. Metal colliding with wood. A deep groan; someone in pain. Heavy breathing. Something heavy being dragged against the ground. Another case? Then I heard the trudging of footsteps. The hunters were moving through the undergrowth. As they came within our view, they were not carrying anything. To my relief, they sped up into a jog and raced right past us, toward the direction of headquarters.
Once they were definitely gone, Arwen and I exchanged glances in the gloom. Someone else from our group sighed nearby. I, however, did not feel relief for long. Curiosity burned in my veins as to what the hunters had just “dropped”. Dropped from where?
Catching Arwen’s hand, I pulled her toward the trees that the hunters had emerged from. As we emerged in a small clearing, we found ourselves staring down at a gaping black hole in the ground. A starry abyss. A portal to another realm.
Victoria
Arwen and I were in too much of a daze to even call to the others about what we had just found. We moved to the edge of the portal, gazing down into it.
My head spun. Where did this lead to? And the hunters, they had passed through it? And they also said they had dropped something through it from the other side. What other side? What had they dropped?
I whirled around to take in the small clearing better and that was when I spotted it. Only six feet away, partially obscured by trees, stood a cast-iron cage large enough to hold three men. At first I thought that it was empty, but then I saw the form of a man, slumped against the bars, cast in shadow.
Arwen’s breath hitched as I clutched her shoulder and spun her around. I dared shine my flashlight to get a better view of him as we neared. He had thick, wavy black hair, strands of which hung over his face. I couldn’t see his face much at all. His head lolled over his chest. But his body was tall, broad and muscled… too muscled for a human. He wore a tattered shirt, which I guessed had once been white, but was now so covered in bloodstains it was hard to tell, and ripped black pants.
Crouching down by the cage, I ventured closer and shone my light directly toward his face.
“Hello?” I breathed.
His head lifted slowly and I found myself staring into a pair of savage gray eyes framed by heavy brows… The face of a young man. I would guess no older than twenty. His jaw was chiseled, his mouth set in a thin, hard line as he grimaced.
“Who are you?” I whispered. Now that life had returned to his face, I realized just how fine a man he was. His features were noble, regal almost. He certainly didn’t look like he belonged in a cage.
He furrowed his brows and I wondered whether he might not understand me. Then he crawled closer to me, wincing as he moved. He was obviously in a lot of pain. His voice was deep and guttural as he rasped, “Please. Get me out.”
I exchanged a panicked glance with Arwen, who was looking quite lost as to what to do.
“Are you… a werewolf?” she stammered.
He nodded.
I’d known he wasn’t human, I just hadn’t been able to quite put my finger on it. But now I could see he had the characteristics of a wolf. That would certainly explain his physique and there was a wolflike quality to his ears and teeth, a subtle sharpness. But it was night time. If he was a werewolf, he should be in his beastly form now. Unlike dragons, werewolves had no control over when they shifted.
“Why haven’t you shifted?” I breathed. “It’s the dead of night. And why are you here?” What are they doing with you? Why did they trap you in here? Where did you come from? A dozen questions crowded my brain at once.
“No time,” he whispered, shaking his head. Urgency pulsed in his gray irises as he locked his gaze on me.