Hawtness - Volume 3 - Chapter 5
“Where did Treena go?”
Katrina grimaced, looking back at
the tents below, “She left. After you announced your intent on saving
Daniel, she just stormed away. I have not seen her since.”
We were standing at the edge of
the forest, waiting for the arrival of Demetrius. Katrina had negotiated with
the elder and allowed me to bring friends for emotional support. In truth, the
werewolves were terrified I’d get killed in the competition. They already
assumed I’d lose, they just didn’t want
to be responsible for a human’s death. Apparently, a human dying on werewolf
territory was bad for PR.
However, they didn’t know what
kind of resources I had. If I just took some of the vampire venom at the right times, I could win this.
“Victor!” I called,
running up to the vampire as he emerged from the forest, giving him a big hug.
He laughed, a glitter in his
eyes. He wore his stage clothing, a conflagration of glitter, black leather,
and rippling abs. The scent of roses fluttered in the air around him. Demetrius
really had toned his body well. He also smelled of suntan lotion, I suppose
that was a given in this environment. Katrina approached the man warily, watching
me.
“I got the gist of it over
the phone. It looks like you’re in it deep.” Demetrius chuckled, looking
me up and down calmly.
I nodded, “I need some of
your venom in order to get through
this.”
Demetrius sighed, shaking his
head slowly, “I think you’re putting a bit too much faith on that venom.
We’re up against werewolves here. Even though the werewolf and vampire
animosity is deeply exaggerated, they are still dangerous. I know you think you
can fix this easily, but I think we’re going to need a bit more help.”
“Help?” I asked curiously.
Demetrius gestured behind
himself, and my mouth fell open. Andrew, Rune, Alex, Stephan, Mr. Xavier,
Allan, Daltom, and Ryan all emerged from the forest as well.
“You guys all came?”
“Of course, we did,”
Stephan spoke up, “We’re your friends!”
“And Daniel’s,” Andrew
added.
“I made this an official H
club trip. I got us all excused from school. Samantha is not going to be happy
I ’forgot’ to notify her of the trip.” Mr. Xavier adjusted his shirt,
“You can thank me in private later if you’d like.”
I ignored him, turning to the
rest, “You guys! I’m sorry I didn’t tell you where I was
going…”
“It’s alright. If you
weren’t sneaking off to do something, you wouldn’t be you,” Andrew gave a
reassuring smile, “Besides, we made Alex spill the beans. Even if
Demetrius hadn’t called us, we might have shown up here eventually.”
I glared at Alex who shrugged,
“They tied me up and had their ways with me until I squeal. I had no
choice but submit to their every dark desire.”
“Don’t make it sound gross,
Alex,” Rune snapped.
“Actually, those lyrics would
work for one of my songs.” Demetrius added.
I laughed and gave each of the
boys a hug. Shockingly, I kind of missed all of them. Spending some private
time with Daniel was kind of nice, but nothing beat having the group altogether. That realization caused a small shock
to jump through my body. Up until now, I’ve been resenting and avoiding the
boys. When did that change?
“So, these are Daniel’s
friends?” Katrina asked cautiously, breaking me from my thoughts.
“He has been taking good
care of us,” Andrew bowed to Katrina, “Thank you for allowing us to
come here.”
“It is unusual to allow
outsiders into our land, but these have been unusual circumstances. Just keep
your heads low. I don’t want anyone else to be hurt by this.” Katrina told
each of the men.
I broke into the conversation,
“I only have a few hours before the first competition. What is the
plan?”
Stephan nodded, “Well, I
can’t really help too much unless you
want me to show you how to lose an arm with some finesse.”
“Um… no, thank you.” I grimaced as Stephan
smiled.
“I would like to look into
the crime scene. I’ll take Daltom with me; I could use a second pair of eyes.
If we can prove Daniel didn’t do it, then you don’t need to compete.”
Stephan bid his farewell; Daltom gave a squeak before giving everyone a nod and
following after him.
“Would you by chance have
any rule books on this competition?” Allan inquired.
“There is a tent just down
the hill with the elders. They should be able to provide something,”
Katrina nodded.
Allan nodded, “I will take
Ryan there. I need to know the rules to see how we can work between them. Ryan
will be able to process the new data faster than anyone. Would you mind
assisting?”
Ryan shrugged, “I am open to
choose what I want to do until my mistress returns. It would not be displeasing
to assist Jane.”
Allan nodded, straightening his
glasses and moving down the hill. Ryan followed him close behind. I could hear
Allan talking to Ryan as they walked.
“I have come up with an idea
that may be able to assist Jane, however, I would need a robot’s finesse to
accomplish this, would you be willing to-“whatever else Allan was saying
was lost as he moved out of hearing range.
“Can you remind me of what
the challenges are?” Demetrius spoke up once the pair had left.
“There are three challenges
in the Triwerewolf Tournament. The first is a hunt. The second is an obstacle
course. The third is a battle royal.” Katrina explained to the remaining
boys.
“We’re short on time, just a
few hours until the first event. Let’s concentrate on the first challenge. Once
we finish that, the break in between will give us time to think about the
others.” Demetrius spoke up.
Katrina nodded, “The great
hunt is just that. You’re not allowed to attack each other. That doesn’t mean
the occasional accident doesn’t happen. It’s very dangerous. All of the
werewolves move off into the forest and have an hour to hunt for prey. You
capture wild animals. The more animals you capture, the more points you get.
Capturing them alive nets more points. The greatest hunter will catch the
largest game.”
“What kind of game?”
Andrew broke in.
“In these forests? Maybe a
deer if you’re lucky, mostly rabbits and squirrels though. We have points for
everything from a mountain lion to a zebra, not that we’re likely to find
those. First place gets a hundred points, second is ninety, third is eighty,
and fourth is seventy, and so on. Werewolves are hunters, so we instinctually
kill our prey. Keeping it alive is harder so it nets more points.”
“Well, Jane’s not exactly a
hunter. I suppose she wouldn’t have too much trouble not killing something, but
is there any other way she can get an advantage?” Rune asked with a sound
of worry in his voice.
“I’ve been thinking about
that myself,” I spoke up causing everyone to turn to me, “The
werewolves, they usually hunt in their werewolf forms, right?”
I let Katrina nod before I
continued, “What about birds?”
Katrina shrugged, “Not a lot
of points, but they are hard to catch since they fly away all the time.”
“What do you have in
mind?” Demetrius asked.
“I’m pretty good with a bow
and arrow. When I was in middle school, Samantha dragged me to a few classes
because she had a crush on the instructor.”
“How did it go?” Andrew
asked.
“She said she got to second
base, but he was like eight years older than she was and wouldn’t go all the
way with a minor.”
“I meant your archery, can
you shoot?” Andrew explained.
I blushed, “Oh, yeah, I
think I could hit a bird or two.”
“That’ll help, but she’s
still going to be up against some of the greatest hunters alive.” Katrina
sighed, “The skills of a wolf are nothing to sniff at.”
“That’s why we brought a
special weapon.” Alex snickered, pulling something out from her purse.
“Oh… it’s a… bunny…” I
said with mock enthusiasm, not quite sure what to say.
I frowned looking down at her
hands. She was holding a small white bunny. I stared blankly at the
little creature. It was actually quite adorable. They weren’t actually
suggesting that I should shoot the bunny and murder it, are they? I reached out
and touched the body, who seemed to accept my hand without being skittish. As
my hand lightly petted it’s fur, I confirmed that there was no way I could kill
this adorable little bunny.
“Hey, baby, if you’re going to
stroke it, start from the bottom.”
“Eh?”
I could have sworn the bunny just
talked. Furthermore, it suddenly rolled around in Alex’s arms and spread it’s
legs, taking on a sudden lewd position. I let out a cry and pulled back my hand
as if I had just touched an electric fence.
“Reginal! We talked about this!
This is why you got demoted in the army for misconduct!” Rune chided, his face
blushing as he gave me an apologetic look.
Katrina’s eyes widened, “My
son has certainly acquired some interesting friends. A-a talking bunny, is it?”
“We’re demons!” Reginal shrugged,
rolling back over. “What do they expect, for me to not hit on the new
recruits?”
“You know what you did to that
goat, and Abaddon still hasn’t forgiven you!”
“A-a goat?” I asked, putting on a
disgusting look.
“It’s a demon goat!” Reginal
defended himself. “And I’m a demon bunny. It was just some playful demon sexual
harassment. You’re not being a specist, are you?”
“What, me? I’m not specist!” I
tried to defend myself from Reginal’s attack.
“You know, I don’t think putting
the name demon in front of sexual harassment makes it less horrible.” Rune shot
back.
“I don’t really care about
this guy’s backstory. What’s the bunny going to do for her?” Andrew
frowned, “Even if she captures him alive, a bunny can’t be a lot of
points.”
“Oh, he’s not there for her
to capture him,” Rune grinned, “He’s there to get the others chasing
after him.”
“What am I doing now?”
Reginal glanced back, his eyes open.
“Oh… just going to waggle
your tail in front of a half-dozen bloodthirsty
werewolves who want to eat you, and then run like hell.” Rune
laughed.
Reginal whimpered, “Why you
got to play me like that, Rune?”
“Father said until you’ve proven
your worth, you’ll be subjected to the grunt work.” Rune sniffed irritably.
“Reginal,” I moved over
to him, petting his chin, “Can you please help me? You’re the only one
that can do this for me.”
Reginal rubbed against my hand,
his whiskers twitching, “What can I say, high school girls are my
weakness. What the hell, why not?”
My frozen smiled twitched a few
times, but finally I turned away from disturbing bunny towards my group of
friends. For the first time since I agreed to this competition, I felt like I
might actually be able to do it. I remembered I was still missing one thing
though.
“I need a bow and a pack of arrows,” I spoke up.
The boys all looked at each
other, but it was Andrew who stepped forward, “I might be able to help you
with that. I’ll need some privacy though.”
Rune laughed, “What privacy?
You hiding a secret stash?”
Andrew turned to him and spoke
frankly, “Yes.”
Rune stopped laughing. Rolling
his eyes, he turned away with a shrug.
“Well, let me treat Daniel’s
friends. Why don’t you all come down to my tent and I’ll make something for
you.” Katrina nodded, gesturing everyone to follow her, while eying the
perverted Reginal cautiously, “I suppose rabbits out of the
question.”
Reginal squeaked, but the rest of
the group laughed, following her down the hill. As they moved away, Andrew
remained standing on the hilltop. I didn’t move either, watching him as he
turned back to the forest while seemingly lost in his own thoughts. I got
caught staring at him. With the sun shining through the clouds, the forest as
his backdrop, Andrew surely looked angelic at this moment.
“Jane, you coming?”
Rune called up from the group.
“I’ll be right behind you,” I responded, coming out of my
reverie.
Andrew looked over at me,
“You can stay if you want. I just don’t care for a demon to watch me but I
don’t have anything I’d keep from you.”
I nodded and after giving the
group a wave I followed after him into the forest. I felt like he was about to
do something that I had to be there to witness.