The ride on the bus went by smoothly, at least while they were in the city proper. Once they left the outskirts, the roads became a little bumpy. However, the chatty students didn't seem to mind. Just about everyone was talking to someone else about this and that. Even Wryn and Gigi were talking amongst themselves, mostly about the dance that was happening on Sunday and the dresses they were going to wear. They had decided to go together as friends, along with Roy, who would say he got lucky with two dates to the dance. Even if guys rarely paid them any attention, they at least had Roy to make them feel special, and maybe one day Gigi would work up the courage to ask Roy out on a proper date one of these days. But until then, Wryn was happy to be going with both her friends to the dance.

  The ride to the fairgrounds only took about forty-ish minutes to reach from the school. And once the bus had come to a stop and parked, everyone got up and started coming out to get assigned to their group. They all assembled into a ball in the center of the parking lot, where Coach Ginger was calling out names for roll call so she could know for sure if everyone was there and ready to be assigned a group. Wryn was often at the bottom of the roll call list, so she glanced out at the field of the fairgrounds.

  The fairground was a wide open space, easily as large as two or three football fields. There were a handful of permanent buildings scattered out like bathroom stalls and a couple of larger food stalls. But most of what was there now were little pop-ups that we put up and took down for certain events throughout the year. There were about one hundred or so people already working out there, getting the area ready for the dance. Most seemed to be actual workers who were working on lights and a music box. Others were still putting together some of the temporary stands, and a group of a dozen or so were piecing together a dance floor so the ladies who would be in heels wouldn't get them stuck in the dirt and grass.

  As the coach was halfway down the list, several school vans pulled up in parking spots nearby. Some teachers got out of the driver's seats and started to take out boxes of decorations that the Decoration club had been crafting for the dance. Those were mostly what the students were here to help with.

  As Wryn was looking out over the field, her eyes drifted to the forest edge on the far side of the parking lot. Without thinking, she touched the moon pendant that was around her neck. Her mind felt blank, and she missed the coach calling out her name. Thankfully for Wryn, Gigi was paying attention to her as she grabbed her free hand and held it up for the coach to see. "She's present," Gigi announced to the coach. Wryn looked back to see the coach staring at them, but the coach nodded when she saw that Wryn was there. Wryn blushed shyly when she noticed everyone looking at her and Gigi, but the coach quickly moved on.

  "Alright, kids, we've got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time," The coach started. "I'm going to put y'all into groups of four and give you one assigned job so there's no reason why you can't finish tonight."

  As the coach was pairing off groups, Gigi and Wryn stayed close to each other in hopes that they could be in the same group. To their joy, they were, but they were also given two of the football players to be in their group as well. Wryn recognized them as Blake and John, though she didn't know much more about them than that. Both boys were athletically built as the football coach trained the whole team fairly hard. Blake had dark, almost black hair and blue-green hazel eyes. John was a redhead with freckles and brown eyes. The boys came to stand with the girls after they were put in their group. When it was their turn to get a job, the coach looked at them. "Okay, you lot will be transporting the cups and small plates to the food stalls. The boxes are heavy, but you've got two strong guys, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Each stall gets two boxes of each." The group nods in understanding before they set out to the storehouse where the boxes are kept.

  For the most part, the group walked in silence, but halfway there, Gigi spoke, "I hope there aren't any bugs in the storehouse." Gigi was deathly afraid of insects, but mostly spiders.

  Wryn took her hand and smiled, "Don't worry if there are, I'll take care of them for you." She spoke confidently to try to reassure her friend.

  To Wryn's surprise, Blake spoke next, "It's too cold for most bugs; they are either dead or sleeping in the ground this time of year." The two girls both looked at Blake, a little puzzled, and he frowned and shrugged, "What? I don't like bugs either." He rubbed the back of his head nervously.

  John laughed and pushed Blake playfully, "Don't listen to him!" he exclaimed, "Blake loves bugs, he's going to go to college just to study them and become a bug-ologist or whatever."

  Blake's eyes widened at John, and he could barely sputter out any protest, but then Wryn spoke up, " They are called entomologists." She corrected John.

  John smiled, "Yeah, that's the word." He chuckled as Blake turned away to hide how his cheeks were increasingly turning redder by the second. Wryn frowned softly, not sure what to say, but there wasn't much opportunity as the group soon arrived at the storehouse.

  The storehouse was at the far edge of the fairground near the tree line. It looked like an old shed that had been there for ages. It was almost a surprise that it was still standing. And when John went to unlock the door, the latch it was attached to just fell off in his hand.

  "Oh, good job, John, you broke it," Blake jeered and got an annoyed glare from John.

  "This place is old, we'll tell Coach when we're done what happened..." Gigi said softly, trying not to get them sidetracked

  John nodded, "Yeah, it's not like anyone's gonna come and try to steal boxes of cups and plates." He spoke as he opened the door, which almost completely came off the hinges in his hands. "Well... at least we won't have to worry about propping the door open."

  Blake walked past him as he spoke, "And you wonder why Coach Liam calls you, 'John the destroyer.'" Wryn couldn't help but chuckle at hearing that as she and Gigi followed Blake into the shed.

  The boxes were stacked up fairly neatly in rows along the walls. And there was only a thin layer of dust since they were used for last year's dance. Blake walked over to one of the boxes on its own nearby to open it up and take a look inside. Wryn peered around him so she would also see. It was a box of cups, each of which was carefully wrapped in old newspaper to help keep them from shattering. Blake chuckled to himself. "Last year, I was the one helping my Sis and mother clean and re-wrap these after the dance." He looked at his hands, "I'm still surprised my hands still aren't prunes from how much time they spent in the soapy water cleaning every dish."

  "Why doesn't the town council just buy disposable stuff?" Wryn asked curiously as Blake closed up the box again to get ready to pick it up. "Wouldn't that make clean-up easier?"

  Blake picked up the box in one quick motion as if there was hardly anything in it. "Yes, but one-time-use objects are not good for the environment." He explained as though this was something he was told repeatedly. "Could you imagine how much trash the town would make with all of the holidays?"

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  Wryn glanced up at him, a bit nervous, "Ah, well, you have a point," she admitted.

  "Oh, don't let him get to you, Wryn." John said as he picked up his box, "Blake's mom is the Environmental specialist on the town council, and his dad works for the natural park down the way." John cracked a smile, "Ol' Blake here got an earful when he asked the same question last year."

  Blake just rolled his eyes and changed the subject, "John and I should be able to carry two boxes at a time if you and Gigi can put the second box on top of the one we are already carrying."

  "Are you sure?" Gigi asked, a little concerned, "Those boxes can get pretty heavy."

  "Oh, yeah," John spoke, "I could probably carry three, but I don't want Blake to feel bad about only carrying two."

  The two girls just looked at each other, a little amused by the two boys' competitiveness. "We'll just stick to two for you guys, just in case someone trips, we don't lose all the cups and plates," Wryn said as she walked over to a stack of boxes and went to pick up the one on top.

  Gigi walked over to grab the next as she mentioned, "With us taking six boxes at a time, we should be done in seven trips." As she picked up the box, something from behind it darted away into the shadows of another pile of boxes. Gigi dropped the box in surprise, as did John.

  "What was that?" John said, trying to hide the creeping fear in his voice.

  Wryn didn't get a good look at it, but from its size, it was probably a small animal. She put her box down as Blake spoke, "Probably a squirrel or something like that."

  Wryn slowly went to the pile of boxes and carefully peered around them. There, behind the boxes covered in dust and cobwebs, was a small tortoiseshell cat or kitten; she couldn't be more than a year old at this point. Her big yellow eyes were locked on Wryn.

  "What is it?" John asked as he shifted the box in his hands.

  "A cat," Wryn spoke softly as not to scare the small creature. She knelt to try and get a better look at her and see how friendly she might be. In response, the cat hissed at her, which made Wryn frown, but her expression grew even more concerned when she got a good look at her paw. It was very swollen and looked like it hurt a lot. "And she seems to be hurt."

  "My dad runs the pet rescue for the town. If we can catch her, I'll give him a call and see if he can come take her to the vet," John mentioned as she tried to shift the box in his hand to get to his phone in his pocket.

  Wryn nodded, "That sounds like a good idea. Now all we need to do is catch her."She tried to creep closer to the cat. She gave a glance at Gigi, who instantly knew what Wryn wanted from her.

  Gigi went to try to get behind the cat just in case she tried to back up to try to get away from Wryn. Blake watched from the sidelines as John was still struggling to get the phone in his pocket. The poor cat's ears were flat on its head as it did not like how close Wryn was getting to it, though despite the hissing, the cat did not try to swat at her, most likely because its one paw hurt too much.

  It didn't take long for the two girls to be in position. Yet right when Wryn was about to strike, the box John was holding toppled out of his hand, and a shower of newspaper-wrapped cups came falling out as the box crashed onto the ground. Everyone jumped at the sound, including the cat, who bolted the moment the cups hit the ground. Both in shock from the sound of the accident and the cat sprinting full speed under her, Wryn fell back onto the stack of boxes behind her, almost sending them toppling if Blake hadn't been there to keep them steady with his body. It took Wryn a moment to recover, but she was just in time to watch as the cat sprinted out the door.

  Without a moment's hesitation, Wryn scrambled onto her feet and ran after the cat. She didn't want it to get away, so they could get her to the vet, who could help her heal in a safe environment. Wryn was too focused on her goal; she didn't hear Gigi or Blake as they called out to her. Once outside the door, she looked around for the cat, and she just barely saw its tail slip behind a tree as it ran into the woods behind the shed. Without thinking, Wryn went after it, chasing it further into the woods.

  For the most part, the forest floor was unobstructed with only the normal leaf litter and occasional fallen branch, so it was fairly easy to keep her eyes on the fleeing feline. Though Wryn did stumble on the tree roots if she ran too close to the towering pine trees. The poor cat was hurt and was not very fast on her feet, which was what worried Wryn the most, that she could almost easily keep pace with that cat. Wryn was not much of an athletic person on a good day, much less a good sprinter. Though after she spent a minute or two behind the cat, her stamina started to wane, and she could start to hear her heart pounding in her chest. But she wasn't willing to give up the chase just yet.

  Then, however, as Wryn was just about to grab the cat as she went to scoop her up, Wryn tripped on a tree root and fell face-first into the leaf litter on the forest floor. It took a moment for Wryn to recover before she stood up and dusted herself off. She got a matching pair of scuff marks on her knees that were just starting to bleed. She saw the cat keep going deeper into the woods, and Wryn started after it again, though after only a few steps, Wryn seemed to step into something unseen. It was cold and made her hair stand on end like she was submerged in a pool of ice-cold water. The space around her seemed brighter, and at the edge of her vision, there was a shimmering gossamer haze that she could never quite focus on. As she turned around to try to get a sense of her surroundings, the whole forest seemed different, more alive, and she felt lighter, like there was less gravity in this moment. She looked up to the sky, and she could swear she saw stars twinkling in the daylight. She wasn't sure what was going on, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Maybe there was something in the dust in the shed, or maybe somehow she cut herself on something that was causing her to have some kind of reaction. For a moment, she forgot what she had come out for. Then she heard something far off in the distance.

  At first, Wryn wasn't sure what she heard. Then the muffled sounds of a voice, of shouting. The sounds of breaking branches and the growl and snarls of a beast. They were too far for her to make out any kind of detail, but something deep inside her was curious; a part of her wanted to know what was going on. Yet another voice inside one that seemed to reside in the pendant she was gripping tightly in her hand told her to run, to get away as far as one could out of the forest... But what was out here?

  Wryn started to walk. She walked towards the sounds as if some unseen force was guiding her. The sounds felt familiar, though she had never once heard anything like it before. As she walked, the air around her started to feel heavier as there was charged energy radiating through it. The sounds got louder and more defined. It was a girl's voice, shouting, though Wryn could still not make out the words. She sounded determined, though on edge. In response to her shouts, there was the sound of the beast. From the growls alone, it sounded massive and angry. Then there was the sound of... explosions. Fire, a crackling of energy. The smell of burning leaves and the autumn air. Nothing was making any sense. The unexplainable kept Wryn going, pushing on closer to that ever-secret event that was playing out just beyond the trees. And then, as she peered from around a large oak tree, she saw something in the clearing of a forest that she could have never dreamed of.

  Floating in the middle of the clearing was a girl about the same age as Wryn with long flowing auburn curls. She had wings, wings like a fairy with patterns of fall leaves delicately etched in her pale orange wings. She wore a matching top and skirt that were a deep brown and were cut to look like they were made from fallen leaves. And her shoes seemed to be made of dried vines that curled their way up her legs to her knees. In her hands were a sword and a shield, and she held them defensively against her opponent.

  Standing there, hunched, was a great beast in wolf form. It was hulking and grey with large fangs jutting out of its snout. It stood like a man, but it was covered in thick grey fur. Its hands almost looked like a mix between the paws of a dog and human fingers; both sported five massive claws on each hand. It snarled and showed its teeth at the fairy girl. Both seem to have been fighting for quite some time. Around them, both were massive gouges in the tree where the monster had run its claws through in a slicing motion. Also dotted around the field were scorch marks as if a small fire had burned spots in the ground, and large dead vines were lying over twisted or snapped in half. The two seemed to be evenly matched. And for the first moments, Wryn was too stunned to move...