Me and Hannah sit next to each other and wait for Mr. Sterling to take attendance. He has dark eyes, and his hair is feathery and jet-black. I'm honestly a little nervous. Is he really going to be a good english teacher with such a scary face...? Hannah leans close into me to whisper something. "Don't you think he looks kind of creepy? He has this weird look in his eyes, like he's some kind of guy who hunts deer in the woods for fun..." I nod and turn to look at her. "I realize I never told you my name!" I say. "My name is Parker, but sometimes I go by Vix." I remember back to the time where Ghost and Spark asked me about my "therian name." They said it might be helpful to stay connected to my kintype. They also said it would be useful to protect my identity from people I didn't know. For some reason, I feel like I can trust Hannah. Wait...what did Hannah say her friends call her again...? Hannah's eyes light up and she grabs my hand. "That's it! I knew I recognized you somewhere! Vix, I'm Ghost, from the therian forest!" We spend the rest of the class discussing our lives. Hannah has an older sister named Verspera, who's a deer therian. Both of them used to live in a rural area, so they were very connected to the nature around them. Mr Sterling passes out notebooks. He says they should be kept with us at all times, observing everything that we see around us. It reminds me of the small books I keep in my pocket when I go out on nature walks. Hannah jots down a few sentences in her notebook and looks at me. "You should come to my place after school today, there's plenty of good hunting spots at the creek behind my house!" I look down. "Can't." I murmur. "I have language classes after school this year." Hannah does a small flick of her thumb on her cheek. "Man." She says. "Then come to the library with me. I can do homework and you can work on your class. I don't know if Spark goes to our school...but if he happened to see two therians hanging out together...." She gives a smug look. We sit in the library and I scrawl down sentences in german, practicing my flashcards out loud. Hannah reaches into her backpack and pulls out the composition book Mr Sterling gave her. "I think I'll use this as a dream journal. I get brain fog easily after going into therian forest...if I write down what happened right after my dream, I'll probably remember things better." I hear footsteps behind me and turn around. A boy with dark brown hair- almost black, but not like Mr Sterling's- and he wears a beaded bracelet with a red tassel. His expression is unfriendly and cold. "What do we have here...?" He murmurs quietly. "A couple of animals....?" End of Chapter 2 ------------------ Credits: Thank you so, so much to for the inspiration! This was inspired by A Therian's Trail, so go check that out! Thanks Remus on Pntrst for the gorgeous thumbnail! Next: Coming Soon! Previous: First: I never, ever use any kind of generative AI to produce my work.
