The Chase

        She didn’t mean to wander off, but there were so many things she wanted to try drawing! Everything around the house was boring so she wanted to head down a street or so to see what else there was to doodle. 

         There Alicia stayed, for hours, just drawing sketch after sketch with the brand new watercolour pencils her mother had recently bought her. It was only a small pack, but to a child it meant the world. She was ecstatic when they were handed to her and wanted to use them right away. She only barely spoke a ‘thank you’ before grabbing her sketch book and running outside with the pencils in hand.

         She only started to notice that it was getting dark when she had begun to strain her eyes to see what was on her paper. She didn’t realise it was so late! Her mother would be upset for her staying out past curfew, so she quickly packed up her belongings and started walking back to home.

         The poor girl barely was able to walk a few metres before she heard a low growl coming from the garden.

         … The garden?

         She turned her attention to it and paled. There, right in front of her eyes, was a young wolf pup - ears flattened and teeth bared. How odd, there were no wolves in Australia. Maybe it was just a scared husky? Even she knew that was a stretch. You can’t get black huskies. Besides, she’d read enough animal books to know that the two looked completely different.

         The wolf took a step forward, while Alicia - one back. It was only when the dog leapt from it’s position in the bushes that she broke into a run, tripping over herself and dropping all of her things as she did so. 

         She’d never run so fast before in her life. She was convinced that she would lose her footing and that would be the end of it. A mad creature’s dinner. It was lucky for her that while the wolf was fast, it seemed awkward on it’s feet and stumbled almost as much as she did. 

         She dared allow herself to glance behind her and screamed. The wolf was hot on her trail, and was trying to nip at her ankles. She tried to run faster and faster but she physically could not. If anything, she was starting to slow. Looking was a mistake. She fell over her own foot and hit the ground hard… but she wasn’t the only one.

         The wolf had taken a tumble too, face in the dirt. The two had kicked up a fair amount of dust and once it cleared, Alicia was shocked to find a boy that couldn’t have been any older than her crumpled in a heap in exactly the same position the wolf had been in.

         Frightened, she got up and ran again before the boy could regain consciousness, not stopping until she made it home. She burst through the door, only to run directly into her mother who immediately began asking questions.

❛❛Oh my god Alicia! Where have you been, I’ve been worried sick! Where are your things, what’s happened? Are you alright?!❜❜

         Dismissing or ignoring her mother’s concern, Alicia immediately began babbling about her discovery.

❛❛You should’ve seen it, mum! There was a wolf, but it was a boy? But it was a wolf! Here! He chased me and was kinda scary but it really happened!❜❜

         Her mother paused momentarily, and the excited grin Alicia wore began to slowly fade, ❛❛you do believe me, don’t you mum? I wouldn’t make this up! There was really a wolf that turned into a b–❜❜

         Cupping her hand over the child’s mouth, her mother hushed her.  

❛❛I do believe you, but please don’t yell things like that when your father is around.❜❜

         She tried speaking again, but her mother seemed diligent in not allowing any talk of wolf-boys to be spoken aloud, so the conversation was promptly dropped and forgotten - believing that her brain had created the incident from boredom and nothing more.

         That was until, a few days later, her pencils and art pad reappeared on her doorstep with a small note with bad handwriting that simply said ‘sorry’.