At Dawn, in the Forest

“Did you have something to eat yet?” Aiden asked.

Dawn shook her head. As she stood there partly under the tree and partly under the hot sun she became aware of the temperature outside. It was frustratingly hot. Why did she climb up that tree while the sun got at its highest point? She wasn’t used to any extreme temperatures as it was always a steady twenty-one degrees in the lab. And her body let her know how unpleasant it felt. She scrunched her face and wiped the sweat of her forehead.

“Let’s get inside where the AC is on,” Aiden suggested. He had taken them to the kitchen and started making a rich sandwich, with lettuce, tomatoes, salmon, and pesto. All ingredients were nutritious and tasted good together, according to Aiden. Dawn just sat there, she didn’t have a particular desire or liking to what went between the two slices of bread. She had forgotten about how good food tasted as she always got some grey mush at the lab, that looked like porridge, but wasn’t anything like it at all. Even now she was free and had a couple of well-balanced meals, she had a hard time enjoying them. She had to focus on taste.

Dawn sat down on one of the barstools up against the kitchen island. There was something peaceful watching Aiden moving around in the kitchen and building two sandwiches. The way he effortlessly moved between the counters, cabinets, and fridge made the illusion he was floating in the air. He was swift and knew his next move after the other.

Once done Aiden stretched over the kitchen island and settled the plate with the salmon sandwich in front of Dawn. “Here you go.”

“I am not hungry.”

“I could hear your stomach growl when you were up in that tree. I know this might be hard, but now that you have the freedom to listen to your body, I would recommend doing so,” Aiden finished his tip of advice with a wink. Trying to sound and appear rather playful than serious. He knew anything that would remotely sound like a lecture would only result in resistance from Dawn.

Silently and carefully Dawn ate her sandwich. After a couple of minutes, she finally could focus on what she was eating. There was still a fear lingering that somebody would take her food away. Even though the grey mush was horrible, without some fuel in that lab it was even worse. But once tasting the rich flavours of the salmon and pesto she almost moaned in content.

Aiden tried hard to suppress a chuckle. Just as Dawn wanted to ask if something was wrong, Max entered the kitchen. “Yo, Aiden, just the man I was looking for.”

Aiden’s face turned serious and he raised a brow. “Max, what have I told you about addressing me as one of your ‘buddies’?”

Max face paled and his joyful demeanour changed into a much calmer and serious one. “My apologies, Beta Aiden. I forgot.” It was now Dawn who raised her brow. She hadn’t known that Aiden was a Beta. For some reason, she couldn’t picture him in a high rank. She didn’t know why, but there was something about Aiden that rather told calmness and kindness than screaming power. Or maybe she had forgotten how people in higher ranks were in packs and created a stereotype in her head.

Dawn tuned back into the conversation when Max was done speaking to Aiden and put something in front of her. “I need you to fill in these forms. I need them filled out at the end of the day.” He lay a pen next to the forms and made his way out of the kitchen.

“Why do I need to fill these out?”

Max stuck his head around the corner. “It’s for the council.” Again he tried to leave but Dawn beat him to it. “What council?”

Max sighed. “You need to fill it out so the council will know your story. Once they have your testimony they will look at other evidence and if all goes well you may choose a pack of your choosing to stay in.”

Dawn still didn’t know what council Max was talking about but the forms did make sense now. “Oh and Beta Aiden, the Alpha wants to see you now, not later.” And then he finally left.

“I think that’s my cue,” Aiden sighed. “Make sure to eat that sandwich, I will find you later.” And now Dawn was alone with a half-eaten sandwich and a bunch of forms and a pen. She scanned over the documents and there were many questions for her to answer. It overwhelmed her. She looked over her sandwich again and it looked way less appetizing than when Aiden had just made it.

Dawn ignored the food and focused again on the forms. With trembling hands, she picked up the pen. It felt awkward between her fingers. She had a hard time figuring out how to hold it. Finally, she settled on holding the pen between her fist.

Agonizing slowly the pen moved across the paper, writing her name in big block letters. Once done, Dawn was filled with frustration and anger. After everything, she had forgotten how to write properly. She could feel the burn in her eyes. Quickly she tried to dry the upcoming tears. She refused to cry over something so small as writing.

But just as she wanted to move on she faced many more obstacles. The first page required basic information regarding the witness, basic information Dawn barely knew about herself like her last name, birthday, name of the pack she came from, and name of the pack she found refuge in. She settled on skipping those questions and moving on to the next, which were even harder to answer. She had to give a reason as to why her status as a pack member was being questioned, followed by a question to explain that said reason. Then she had to give additional information about the reason and explanation to make her case stronger. On the next page she had to describe how she came to the pack she was currently staying in and a follow-up question about the treatment she got from that said pack. And the list of questions went on and on.

Dawn had no idea where to start. She went from staring at the forms to staring at her sandwich. Slowly she watched as the pesto got fully absorbed by the upper slice of bread and the tomato juice drenched the lower slice.

A couple of hours went by when Max entered the kitchen again. “So, are you done yet?” He asked with a smile, rubbing his hands.

Dawn didn’t know how to answer that question, technically she was done with filling out what she knew to write down, but she wasn’t done filling out all the questions. She looked at the forms and then back at Max.

When he didn’t get an answer Max looked over Dawn’s shoulder and scrunched his brows. “Why isn’t this filled out yet? I gave you this three hours ago. We need to send this out today, Dawn. Don’t you understand how serious your situation is?”

In all honesty, she didn’t know. How could she? She was still processing she wasn’t held in her familiar cell anymore, and that she was finally free. She didn’t understand why people weren’t more relieved she was safe and sound again and that she also needed time to give everything a place. She didn’t understand why people weren’t supporting her more.

Dawn kept quiet and Max sighed again. He did a deep breath in and out and sorted out his thoughts, trying to be sensitive with his next words. “What is the problem, Dawn?” She still kept quiet.

Max shuffled through the papers. “Don’t you understand the questions? Is that it? Don’t you know how to read or…” He stopped talking. Max settled on the first paper where Dawn’s name was written out in wobbly lines as if a toddler wrote it. “You… you don’t know how to write?” He asked.

“I know how to write!” Dawn defended quickly. “I am not a child.” Max held up his hands. “I guess, I-I just don’t know how to write properly anymore,” She whispered. “A-and I don’t know every detail anymore about my capture and rescue.”

Max set down next to her and held the pen in his hand. Smoothly he moved the pen between his fingers and Dawn couldn’t help to feel a pang of jealousy. “Well, I can help you write it down and fill in on the details of your rescue, as it was me who got you out of there,” He winked. “But about your capture, we might need some help from your family.”

“What do you need help with?” Caspian entered the kitchen. He stood unsure in the entrance as if he had been waiting for a better time to enter.

“Some details when your sister got captured. Can you help?” Caspian nodded his head. He walked to the kitchen island and stood on the opposite side of Max and Dawn. “Alright, what do you need to know.”

Within an hour Dawn described everything she knew and Max scribbled every single word down. He and Caspian would fill in the gaps where it was needed. She listened carefully to their words. How Dawn had been captured only three weeks after she first shifted. How it was during midday as she, Caspian, and Finn ran through the woods celebrating that their little sister could finally join them on their runs. How they had gotten off track and when she was out of their sight for a couple of minutes her brothers had turned around in an attempt to look for her to only hear a high shrill scream and then no trace of Dawn anymore was to be seen. How the following months their pack and one neighboring pack tried to find any leads, which turned out to be dead ends. How months went by and it just seemed like she had vanished from this earth and how their family decided to stop looking as their hope was torturous. (Dawn had to withhold a scoff, how would they know what actual torture felt like.)

Then Max explained how their pack and two neighboring packs noticed many disappearances over the last six months and the three of them went to investigate. It was when one of the captives managed to escape they got the information they needed and started forming a rescue plan. How Max was surprised to find Dawn at all as they weren’t given any information about a young female werewolf being kept where she was. Their inside information said only about huge cells containing five to seven people. There weren’t any talks about werewolves being kept separately.

Max words haunted Dawn’s mind. A shiver she could no longer withhold ran down her spine. If it wasn’t for the escapee she would have never been found. If it wasn’t for them she would have died in that lab. She was sure of it.