Silvermoon. A Tale of a Young Werewolf. A YA Novel. 12-18 (6 page)

He closed his book with a slap, startling her. She called out as he walked over to the bookshelf, “We can watch if you like.” She gazed through the window. “It’s nice and sunny outside. What do you say?”

He came back with another book titled,
‘Napoleonic Wars’
. “Is Yvette definitely going?”

“Yes, so are you coming?”

He sat down at the table. “I have to read this first,” he added, “It won’t take me long, just under an hour.”

“Okay, I’ll be in the gym, basketball practice, pick me up there.”

She left him sitting there, flicking the pages over every ten seconds or so, ‘
speed-reading’
they called it. She could do it too, storing facts and figures, but not always, as she loved to read about the criminal side of people. She read trial transcripts in the way others would read an enthralling novel. But she hardly read fiction, she preferred law books. She’d studied German law and passed all the exams for university, but she told her parents she wanted to study English law. Her parents, both lawyers, agreed. With her high reasoning abilities, and her qualifications, her parents had no problem finding a place her here, a college for talented youngsters. The school had over thirty pupils and ten teachers, most of them professors. Her tutor was a kindly man who was, in her eye, a walking encyclopaedia on any subject concerning British law.

She made her way back to her room and dressed in her summer shorts. She loved basketball as she considered netball too slow and anyhow, the other female pupils were much too small. She pulled her T-shirt over her head, with any luck she would find Mrs Donat, the girl’s American athletics teacher there and they could play their usual one-on-one game together.

Ingrid didn’t show up, but the sky cleared and the
sun made a welcome appearance as
Jason and Yvette made their way across the fields, their towels rolled up under their arms. She told him, “Ingrid has little crush on John, but he doesn’t seem to want to know. He is our friend though, she said she would ask him to come with us, but she didn’t turn up as you saw, and she did want to come - even though it was out of curiosity.” She giggled and he remembered Ingrid’s words, then she said, “I will race you,” and ran off.

He caught up with her and to his surprise she increased her pace, he remembered his dad’s words and stayed with her. They ran downhill towards the river, and came to a stop by a huge oak tree, its roots reaching into the water. Both of them panted for breath, as Jason kept up the pretence. There they saw a small, sand and pebble beach and undressed quickly, with Yvette giggling once more. They stepped down from the grassy bank and splashed quickly through the shallows and dived headlong into the still, dark water together. Yvette came up gasping and spluttering, next to him. “Mon Dieu, it is freezing, this water, it is very cold.”

She swam away from him quickly, her small frame glidi
ng through the water. He smiled as she hurried
through the shallows and
made her way onto the bank where she grabbed
her
large bath towel. She
wrapped it round her
shoulders
and sat on the grassy bank, shivering.

He followed her out and looked down at her, hiding a smile. He indicated the oak tree with its low-hanging boughs. “I’m going to climb up that tree and jump from as high up as possible. Come with me, the climb will warm you up.”

He ran off towards the tree and swung up into the branches. Yvette stood up, undecided, then she dropped her towel and ran after him, calling out, “Wait for me.” She reached the tree and tried to grab one of the lower branches. “Hey, Jason, where are you, I cannot get a hold, the branches are too high.”

She heard a chuckle and a hand appeared from out of the foliage and then an arm as Jason reached down to her. She took hold of his wrist as he grabbed hers and he whisked her up through the foliage
.

He grinned at her as she squatted on a sturdy limb next to him. “I knew you’d change your mind.”

She eyed his muscular shoulders. “You’re quite strong for your age.”

“It comes from healthy food and living in the countryside,” he said. “So, why did you come?” He asked.

She brushed a lock of wet hair from her brow. “I did not want to be alone, so lead on, Jason Treeclimber.”

L
e
a
d
ing the way
out of instinct, climbing the boughs easil
y as one would climb a ladder, h
e looked down and watched as she climbed up after him, copying his every move, grinning cheekily. They climbed until the st
urdy boughs became thinner, and
found a place where they had a clear view of the river’s surface. “How do you feel,” he asked as she joined him.

“Much warmer, thank you, the water is not all that cold, I am the big
soft
baby today.” She peered hesitantly down at the river below her and asked him, “So, do we have to jump, or shall we climb back down again?”

Stepping
onto a slender bough,
he
took several paces, stopped and held out his hand. “Are you afraid, here take my hand, we can jump together.” He saw her eyebrows rise as he balanced easily on the bough without a handhold. In spite of her outward show of anxiety he could not sense any
inner fear
at all. “Come on, stop ki
dding, you’re not scared at all,
”
he said, smiling.

She smiled and edged along the bough towards him and gave him her hand. They moved along slowly and the bough curved downwards under their weight. As they reached a clearer place the wood creaked alarmingly. He grinned at her. “It won’t break, come
on,” then he said, “Shush, someone’s down there.”

Then they heard a
distant
voice, “Hello, Jason, Yvette, where are you?”

It was Ingrid, standing some way off, then another voice, John. “What are you doing, where are you, have you drowned, maybe?”

“Let us now jump,” Yvette whispered.

They poised together then leaped off the bough, which sprung back into place with a whoosh. They hit the water cleanly, feet first, together and sank to the bottom still holding hands. Yvette looked at him and placed a finger to her lips, and then grinned. Jason knew the others would have heard the splashes, but may not have seen them hit the water and would now be wondering what they were playing at. Yvette tugged at his hand and they swam close to the small beach and waited.

They waited for a while
, peering through the surface at
In
grid who was searching the river surrounds;
while John sat there, staring straight ahead, his eyes invisible behind his dark sunglasses.

Yvette pointed upwards, she exhaled some and Jason pulled her to him, she frowned as he placed his mouth against hers, she pursed her lips to kiss him and he blew some air into her mouth. She looked at him in surprise and J
ason pointed at his lips. She
came closer and with his mouth on hers he emptied half his air supply into her lungs.

After several more minutes, Yvette pointed to the surface and they rose slowly and swam to the shallows. They saw John and Ingrid sitting on the grass talking, both dressed in shorts and T-shirts with the school logo printed on the front. John still wore his sunglasses and Ingrid a large straw hat.

They stood up together and Yvette shouted, “Boo, surprise!”

Ingrid’s head spun round, her mouth agape and she shouted, “What the hell, where were you, we thought you had wandered off somewhere when we saw your clothes?”

Yvette told her, “Come and join us, the water is quite warm.”

Ingrid looked at the pair standing waist deep in water. She rose up and undressed in record time. John stood up and seemed at a loss, he watched as Ingrid took a leap and landed beside the others. She came up gasping, just as Yvette had and with much the same expression. She said as they burst out laughing, “Very funny, ha, ha, ha,” and pushed a strand of hair from her eyes. She looked at Yvette. “I suppose you jumped from that tree. We thought it was trout when we heard the noise. Anyway, where were you hiding all the time?”

Jason caught her eye and shook his head slightly; Yvette smiled and said, “We were watching from upstream, we thought you weren’t coming at first.”

Jason said, “Let’s climb the tree and jump together, then we can hunt for trout.”

They waded to the bank and John eyed Jason all the while.

The three climbed the tree and as soon as they reached the place where they had jumped from. Jason and Yvette joined hands with Ingrid, who after a moments hesitation called out. “Let’s do it.”

They hit the water with a tremendous splash, and sank down to the sandy bottom. They looked about them in search of trout. Jason spied one and swam after it.

The two girls waited as long as they could and returned to the surface. They saw John sitting there looking miserable. They looked downstream, in the direction Jason had swum off in, hoping to spot him.

While waiting for him they swam around some, chasing each other, playing ‘tag’ underwater. After a while they climbed out breathless. Yvette shared her towel with Ingrid and as they were drying their hair they heard a shout and saw Jason approaching along the bank at a run, a large trout in either hand. Yvette clapped her hands and jumped up and down, “Whee, fish, let us roast them on a fire.”

Jason
said as he came to a stop before them,
“Yes
,
let’s make a fire,” then he asked
, “Has anybody got any matches?

“I have,” said Yvette, “But I am getting dressed first, the water was warm, but the air is not so,” she said, “I love candle light, I have many candles in my room.”

Jason recalled her scent from earlier on,
So that’s it,
it was
just candle smoke.

The three dressed quickly and after finding deadwood they made a fire on a patch of bare earth.

Over half-an-hour later with the late summer sun sinking behind the tree tops, the four of them picked at the roasted trout, which soon disappeared down hungry gullets. John licked his fingers and said
,
“Jason, You and Yvette were under water for a while, almost ten minutes, how did you manage that?” He removed his sunglasses, perched on top of his head, and held them out for inspection. “With these I can see below the surface, I saw you both approach and hide not far from the shore.”

Ingrid, her mouth agape, joined in, “Really! Did you have an air tube?”

Yvette looked at Jason, who shrugged lightly and smiled. Yvette giggled. “No, that was Jason. He gave me some of his air, before I had to surface. I swim often under water for long periods. I am used to it, three and a half minutes, swimming slowly all the time.”

John said, his surprise apparent, “And I thought you were kissing. What about you, Jason, what’s your trick, Yoga, autogenic training?”

Jason answered, “You guessed it, an old fakir trick. Mind over matter, fifteen minutes is my maximum.”

Ingrid stood up. “Time to go back before somebody misses us.”

Jason kicked loose earth over the embers and stamped it down. They made their way across the darkened field, stumbling in the half-light.

Yvette almost stepped into a deep dark hole, squealing as Jason pulled her back in time. She held on to his arm pulling him close to her. “Thank you, Jason. That was too close for comfort.”

“Don’t mention it,
”
he said, enjoying her nearness.

They went their separate ways inside the school building. John called out as they reached the stairs, “Jason, have you a moment, please.”

He stopped and turned to face him. “It’s about the river isn’t it?”