As the Wolf Howles

Alex undid his tie, to a deep breath from the cool night air, he and his sister just got out of a rather stuffy politacal party there parents were at. It basicaly turned into business chatter, so since there house was only an 30 minute walk away, and one they had walked though a million times he suggested they head home since there appearence at the party was done. His father hadn't been please, but allowed there leave anyway so not to aruge with his son in public.

"Jees it was sufficating in there" Alex muttered to Kate, his younger sister, he assumed wanted out of the party as much as he or more being younger.

"This might sound odd but almost can't wait to go back to school, these british polical Parties are worse then in the State" he said with amusment still ajusting his dressrobes to be more comfortable.

They were walking through a bit of a suburban Clearing there naigborhood was on the other end, normally it was only home to bunnies or the occasional pixy, However this night there was something more ominous wandering along the boreder of the clearing.

Much like her older brother, Kate was glad to be done with the party. Little as she liked to admit it, it was way past her bedtime and her drowsiness gave her a very low tolerance for listening to political babble any longer than she needed. As usual, Alex was the only one even remotely close to her age at the so-called "party," and their amusement was very poorly supplied for. They had little else to do other than stifle yawns behind their hands, as even their most basic fall-back form of entertainment -- doodles and tic tac toe -- was thwarted by the presence of cloth napkins.

"Ugh, you're right!" Kate agreed, skipping along happily as the crisp night air revived her a bit. She felt much livelier now, and, looking around to make sure no one else but Alex was watching, hiked her dress robes up to her knees and, giggling mischievously, did a somersault with one hand -- just the way he'd taught her. On the plus side, she was free to use her other hand to keep the stupid, fussy little dress her mum had picked out from falling over her head.

"Hooooome sweet home!" she sighed, imagining that she could see it in the distance, though it was not that close. "Think they'll probably be stuck at that awful party all night?"

Alex clapped at Kate one handed summersult, " Bravo, now if only they let you do that at the party... then it might actually be a party" he said with a smirk.

He scoffed for a moment, "Knowing father.. most likely, yet mother might convince him sleep might be benifcial as well" he said amusement light on his voice. Fustration was the main feelings between he and his father, but it was all good by the end of the day, in a matter of speaking anyway.

He fiddled with his wand, technially he was not allowed to do magic.. but hey his parents were not around and there were no muggles around so...

He mutter a light spell to add to the full moon light.

What happened next was earie, a howle that didn't seem that far away.

Alex stopped and looked around merely curious for the moment. "hmm Not sure what it is with dogs and full moons.." he muttered turning off his spell and hinting they should continue out of the clearing.

The answering howl didn't sound far enough away to reassure Kate at all; she shivered, and not just from cold.

"Let's get outta here," she suggested, her voice uneasy. "I'm getting cold in this stupid dress and there's hot cocoa at home! Shall we race?" she asked, not because she thought she'd win, but because she was spooked and wanted to get out of there fast without letting that fact come to Alex's attention. He probably wouldn't have teased her about it or anything, but she wanted to be strong and brave like her brother. Unfortunately, the quickest way home as through the clearing, and the area they were walking towards had a bit too many shadows and places to hide for her comfort.

Alex tried to looking to the tree line before nodding in agreement with Kate, the night suddenly became very earie and with Kate with him.. he couldn't go looking for it. Something was out there and it was near them even if they couldn't see it yet, but could very well be a stray dog that were common to roam through here.

"Yeah sounds good, right behind you" he said even though it was supposed to be a race, they both knew it wasn't he would keep pace with her until they were home.

Another howel sounded this time alot closer sounding and louder as well..

Kate cringed as the howling continued, her heart racing in fear as she willed her legs to carry her faster.

"Alex, what is that?" she cried out, stopping and whirling around after a few moments. "It sounds like it's following us!" Stray dog or not, the thought of something following them around in the darkness was less than appealing at best, and terrifying at best. She tried not to panic but there was a rustling in the bushes nearby -- and they had no other option but to pass by them, as they were right beside the path that led to their house.

Alex took out his wand, whatever was out there was big, to make that loud of a howel.. it better be a big dog..

" I am not sure Kat, did you bring your wand with you?" he asked even though Kate had only just finished one your of school he was willing to bet it would help.

However the thing that was following them, or hunting them morely likely finally showed it self through the bushes. It was a young werewolf, black as the night and its amber eyes were farel and wild. it snared at them both showing its famous cursed teeth.

Alex's eye wided, "Oh shit!" he cursed, quickly grabing Kates arm to pull her away from it and pointing his wand at the animal.

"Kate whatever you do don't run, not yet, you do, it will chase you" he warned hoping they could keep the animal in a stare down until they found away out of it.

Kate didn't tear her eyes away from the werewolf once it showed itself, too scared that if she so much as blinked, it would pounce.

"Y-yes...I snuck it in my p-pocket..." she stuttered, fumbling with her flimsy knit cardigan for her wand. "We can't outrun that, Alex," she said fearfully, eyes watering as she fought to keep the creature in sight. It was taking far too long for her to find her wand, and now the wolf was circling them, drawing nearer. It knew it had them cornered. Without consciously doing it, Kate took a step back and slipped on a rock, losing her balance and making a whole lot of noise. Before she even had time to properly look up again, the wolf had sprung for them.

"ALEX!"

In a split second two choice appeared in Alex's mind, grab Kate and run or charge at the wild animal as well and tell Kate to run. The second option apealed to him more, so that is what he did.

Teenager and the black wolf colided with eachother and rolled each trying desperately to get the upper hand.

"Kate Now! Run!" Alex shouted above the wolves growels at the moment he managed to get on top. However it didn't last long, as the werewolf got angry and used its claws to wound the boy on top of it.

Alex gasped as the burning sting went through his side and he was flung off the animal and into a tree. Which dazed him for a moment..

"Alex, NO!" Kate screamed, ignoring every desperate impulse of her body and running towards where Alex was grappling with the wolf. She tried to pry them apart, to no effect -- she doubted either boy or wolf noticed her presence. Until the wolf flung Alex directly into a tree, that is; suddenly Kate was left with the werewolf at her feet, and she scrambled backwards, towards Alex, never turning her back to the wolf. She'd finally found her wand and held it aloft, a weapon she scarcely knew how to use.

As it turned out, the werewolf was no longer interested in Kate, now that it had a bone to pick with Alex, and Kate was a scrawny little slip of a girl anyway, not fit for a meal. The beast began to back away, and Kate was almost hopeful that kept would flee, until it took a running leap and bounded past her, towards Alex, where it landed, snarling viciously and snapping its jaws.

Alex barely had time to duck before norrowly missed the wolfs jaws. "My what big teeth you have" he muttered kicking the wolf in the middle. and managing to move away from it. he was conciderably slower this time. Blood was seen going down his side, it was a deep cut but fortunately not a bite. Now to see if he could keep it that way.

He was out of breath, "Kate, Run now... Get Mom and Dad, hell any one" he said before a growl made him whirl around. "Ah Smiley, back for round 3?" he taunted if he had to fight this thing.. no need in holding back.

The wolf was livid, and seemed to want nothing more to see the stuborn boy dead, with a snear he charged forth again, faster and more frantic this time. Its jaws a gap..

Alex had his wand out and fied off a spell, "Bombardo!"

The explosion spell wounded the wolf, however the animal didn't seem to notice, and it pounced on the teen jaws going for its head.

Alex rasied his arm on relfex, and sreamed as the animals teeth sunk deep into his arm.. Like it was on fire, and he couldn't move it...

It was very unusual for Kate to blatantly disobey her big brother, but these were not usual circumstances, and in a moment she was very glad she had, because the unthinkable happened. She watched the wolf bite down, bringing up an awful amount of blood, as though in slow motion, powerless to stop it. Though Alex was quite urgent up until that point, he hadn't yet let on about the pain, but the agonised scream that left him would haunt her dreams forever.

Her wand clattered to the ground, forgotten and quite frankly, useless. Now was not the time to go tinkering about with mild defensive spells, now was the time to act, but she didn't know how. Fear, pain, rage and most potently helplessness rushed up as she saw the wolf bite down, and heard her brother's scream. It was all too much for her, and what happened next, she would never be able to explain.

It was like all of the emotions running through her were charging her, pulsing through her like a circuit. Although it was a brisk, cool night, but she was suddenly overheated, and then she lost sight of Alex and the wolf in a blaze of brilliant light that enveloped them. Blindly, she ran towards where she thought Alex was, and when the light faded and her eyes readjusted, she saw that the wolf was gone.

Her brother lay alone in a pool of blood; scorch marks could be discerned just near him, accompanied by a trail of blood leading away from where they were. Whatever had happened to the wolf, it was clearly gone now. Her eyes returned to her brother, his dress robes mangled and drenched in blood. It was impossible to tell how badly he was injured, but it didn't look good.

"Alex!" she cried, tears streaming down her face as she stripped off his cloak with trembling hands. The nice collared shirt underneath was now much more red than white, and to even her inexpert eyes, it looked like his shoulder had been dislocated, to say nothing of the mangled state of his arm in general. There were too many places bleeding for her to stop them all up at once, and she looked frantically into his half-open eyes.

"What do I do? I don't know how to put you right!"

Alex looked up as his sister from the ground, shock setting in, he no idea how the wolf suddenly vanished.. or what that light was, but there was nothing they could do here, there was nothing. Now with the bite in his arm, the thought of telling his parents what happened chilled him, they would be devistated. He would ruin everything...

"To the house..." he said painfully pushing himself up with his less mangles arm. There were healing potions at there home but they needed to get there first, if not he was dead plainly put.

"Mom and Dad have potions there" he muttered looking at his injures and for even he knew it was not good, he was loosing to much blood. He then absently looked at his cloak.. "Kat, I know its disgusting... but I need you help me wrap my cloak arm my arm. Like a badage okay? Can you do that?" he asked looking at her. How scared she must have been he could only imagine.

The difficult part would be actually getting home, how he planned to do that with out passing out he had no idea. Plus he still didn't know what happened with the wolf..

"Everything will be fine Kate, okay? and thanks I don't know how but I think you saved my life" trying to sound more assuring then he felt.

Kate nodded mutely, the shock of what had happened settling in. Just removing Alex's cloak had gotten her splattered in blood; he'd lost a lost already, and how on earth they'd make it the rest of the way to the house without him losing consciousness, she had no idea. The gore didn't even bother her -- yet -- it was the fact that she was convinced that he was dying.

Wiping her tears, she did as he said and tied the cloak around his arm as securely as she could manage without hurting him even more.

"Is that alright?" she asked quietly, ignoring what he said about her saving his life. It was hard to look at the state of him and say that the danger had passed. The cloak seemed to help, but he still looked awfully pale from all of the blood he'd lost.

Alex nodded "Yes, Great Kate" he said letting out a breath, it was hard to tell if his arm was still on fire or going numb.. it was a odd feeling. Keeping his close to his chest he attempted to stand. The action made him feel ill, but at least he could stand, "I'll take what I can get.."

"Now... Kate I might walk like a drunk but, we can do this alright we just have to get home and get some potions. We done it a million times, peice of cake right?" he said his one good arm on her shoulder. Using her as a anchor point for now, he wasn't sure she could take his weight, and she already had alot to deal with.

"Just stop me if I walk into a tree Eh?" he said blinking it was clear he could not see straight, not that he like to admit it. The tree and path around them twisted infornt of his eyes.. "Merlin.. that werewolf packs a punch" he said taking a very unsteady step forward and trying not to think of his more serious problem.. if he survived this, he would become the monster that had just attacked them. That thought made him wince... and feel more ill.

The weight Alex slung onto her shoulder was indeed pretty heavy, but Kate stood up taller and used all her strength to keep him up as best she could. He was right -- they didn't have to look graceful, they just had to make it home. Which was about a mile away from this point, normally no big deal. In his condition, it could be a death march.

She nodded and started forward, careful not to leave him behind. They'd have to take it at a painfully slow pace, and all the while he'd be losing blood...she wasn't particularly genius at mathematics, but even Kate realised they were facing staggering odds at this point. Not to mention, the werewolf could come back to finish the job any moment, they didn't even know what had happened to it...

"Yes, let's just get home," she murmured, trying to pick up their pace a little bit at that thoght. It had also occurred to her that the best case scenario they were dealing with at this point was that Alex would survive, a werewolf himself. Right now though, all they could do was put one foot in front of the other -- and hope that no one found them.

For Alex the walk home could not take any longer, it was like someone streched the road before them and made longer then it should have been. What he wouldn't give for a broom.. or the focus to ride the dang thing.

They did well until they were just two blocks down from the house when Alex finally lost more then enough blood to loose his balance completely, and slumped to his knees.

"Just a moment Kate" he said his voice sounding foggy to own ears, a sure sign he would loose it soon if something wasn't done. He contempted asking her to hit him or something, to snap him out of it. But he though he might be stretching it.. but something need to give him a bit of a rush just enough so he could walk in the door.

"Kate I need one favor..." he said taking his wand he apparetly picked up before leaving, and handed it to her. "Try to cast the water spell on me, or anything really or I won't make it another step. Heck slap me if you have to" trying not to to sound pleading, they were to close to fail now.

They made the walk mostly in silence, each sibling focused on doing their part to the fullest extent possible. When Alex collapsed, she thought for sure that this was it for him. And they were so close, too...

His request was crazy, but then again, so was the situation was in. They'd already lose enough time ducking into bushes so as not to be seen by passing cars, there was no time to question the request. She took the wand with trembling fingers, nodding.

"A-aguamenti!" she tried, and nothing happened. "Aguamenti!" she said more insistently, producing a rather feeble trickle of ice water. It would have to do for now; she could do no better, and at least the water would help clean Alex up somewhat.

The ice cold water sent a shiver down his spine, and gave just enough of a rush to let stand back up more or less. "Your doing great Kat, Thank you" he muttered little thougn not much clearity came back to his eyes.

He just wanted this to end, he hated being weak, yet it was no wonder, his robe was effective soaked through with blood as were the rest of his clothes and because of the water, dispite the shock boost it gave him hit also made him noticable tremble. He almost wanted to take his normally steady hand off Kate to hide it...

"Not the adrelyn rush I normally like... but I will take it" he said feebly trying to liighten the deadly situation he was in.

When they finally made it to the yard he sighed... and repeated his sisters words from not that long ago... though it seemed a life time ago.

"Home sweet home..."

Kate nodded feebly, just grateful to be home again. Alex's trembling had gone unnoticed by her, shivering as she was from the water that had dripped onto her as well. Between the water and the breeze, she was absolutely freezing, and she knew Alex must have been too -- he was much wetter.

"Let's get you inside....erm, bathroom?" she suggested, getting a good look at the state of Alex in the light from the houses nearby. They were both covered in blood, dirt, and water, and could definitely use showers, if they ever managed to take care of Alex first.

Alex nodded "ah our next hurdle" he muttered staggering up to the door and muttered the password that let them unlocked the door.

"By some miracle we fix this before Mom and dad get back we will have to clean the blood" he said as drops dripped on to his mothers clean marble floor. He hadn't mentioned hiding this from his parents to his sister yet.. but he would, they couldn't know..

He staggered up to the bathroom and started to unwind his cloak from his arm, he hissed as the pain shot though it with every movement. He droped his bloodied cloak in to the bathtub where they could clean it later. Then he dared to catch his refection in the mirror.. to say he looked awful would be understatment.

He then turned on the tap for hot water and rinsed his arm under it while hunching over the sink. His shoulder was still at a bad angle, that would be painful to correct but it could wait.. his bite and cuts first..

"Katie.... there are some healing potions in Mom and Dad's room, could you get them please? I will replase them later" he said while slowly rowling his sleeve up to see the damage done with the bite.

The wound was nasty even by his standerds, the worse part were darker vain type lines coming out from the wound, which he regretfully assumed was the Lycanthropy infecting him..

By the time they finally made it into the house, Kate would have done pretty much anything Alex commanded. He was making a good show of it, but there was no way losing all of that blood could have been good for him, not to mention the wound itself looked like it was infected. Something wolfy, probably, but she seriously doubted there was anything in her mother's cupboard for that.

She stood in the doorway to the bathroom for a moment, cringing at Alex's injuries, and then with a harried "Yes, right away!" rushed off to their parents' room for the potions. There were too many bottles for her to carry at once, so she just picked up the entire basket and dragged it to the bathroom, tracking mud and dripped blood the whole way.

"Here -- this one says it'll stop the bleeding," she told Alex, shoving a bottle with a green label at him before diving into the basket again, looking for anything that mght be useful. "And this one -- blood replenishing, brilliant! There are two of these..." Kate wasn't exactly a Healer, and had no idea how much Alex needed, so she handed him the two frosty blue vials as well before rummaging the basket again.

Alex was looking pretty out of it by the minute or two Kate went to get the potions and had his head proped up aganist the sink, looked like he might have fallen asleep right there had his sister not come back in such a hurry.

"Thanks Katie" he said as he drousily picked up the viles

Stopping the bleeding was his top priority, plus he was not sure how well a werewolf bite would respound to normal healing potions but it was all he had. He poped the cap on the potion and swallowed a few gulps. Then actually poured some on to his bite wound.. his jaw clunched as the bite seemed to not like the potion at all, if it were possible it looked angrier..

His other wounds seemed to stop bleeding as they normally should, only the bite wound seemed to be resisting. With groan he opened a blood repenishment potion and swallowed the whole thing. He hoped it would give him more time so he could figure out the still bleeding bite wound.

"Don't happen to have any Pain relief in there do we Sis?" he asked usng a towel clean more of the blood off his arm.

"Right here," Kate replied, nodding as she handed over the large red bottle. "But you're still bleeding!...the bite...." Her eyes grew round as she took in the angry-looking wound.

"It looks infected. Well it is, obviously, but surely there has to be some way to stop it bleeding! I mean obviously people survive werewolf bites..." Cringing at her own words, she dove into the basket again, this time retrieving a silver flask used to control infections.

"Maybe this one?"

Alex bit his lip, "It might be resistent to magical healing Kate, give it a moment" he said though taking the silver potion and on opening it, pouring some onto the bleeding wound.

This time reaction to the potion was more intense and Alex bit his tounge and squeezed the sink. Merlin it felt almost like it was bitting him all over again. He then took a gulp of a pain relief to take the edge off.

"Jees if that didn't do something I don't know what will" he said slightly breathless as he rinsed it under the tap again. It looked slightly better and was not bleeding as heavily, there was still some streams red coming out, but it was getting there.

"I think that is as good as we are going to get with that, I'll bandage it, keep an eye on it" he said taking out his wand and conjuring cloth badages.

"any last Miricales in there Kat?" he asked wondering if there was anything else that could help.. Something fix his shoulder might be nice as he was not looking forward to popping it back into place.