Penny Pitching

“Isai,” Zane asks as he tugs on Kylar’s shirt. Kylar jumps. He had been daydreaming, or at least he was zoning out due to the immense heat that's beating down on him and the rest of the group. The heat is even worse for him, being a newly changed Lupir. The heat strains his body, makes his muscles and mind weak.

“What do you need, kiddo,” Kylar asks, looking down at his eight year old brother. He sees the tiredness in his eyes -- he needs sleep. Hell, they all do.

“How much longer are we going to be walking, Isai?”

“Hopefully not much longer.” Kylar tries to reassure him with a smile, but to no avail.

“My legs hurt, Isai.” Zane looks down at his leg and pretends to limp a bit.

Kylar chuckles then pretends to limp as well. “Mine too, kiddo, but we’ve gotta keep going, otherwise we might get caught by Corbuli.” The truth is, his legs really did hurt, and the heat was making them weak. It was even getting hard for him to breathe, let alone walk.

All of a sudden a gasp comes from someone at the front of the group. As everyone tries to back up a woman steps on Kylar’s foot and he curses under his breath. Then, as he pulls his foot from under hers, he catches a glimpse of metal. He realizes it's a pistol.

“Zane, get behind me,” Kylar whispers.

Zane listens, but asks, “Why, Isai?”

“I don’t know, just do it,” Kylar says, a certain fierceness in his voice even he didn’t recognize. It must be the heat, making me irritable.

“Just put the gun down, Justin. All right? We need to find shelter.” Kylar listens to the voice speak. Is it Madison? He can’t tell, having only been with them a few days; he can’t tell voices from each other. Justin was a person he only knew little about. He has a daughter, Hailey, and a wife, Christine.

“Now, just holster the gun and I promise, as soon as we’ve settled down somewhere, we can talk about this.” Now Kylar is sure it is Madison. Kylar then heard it, the shift. Bones cracking, and groans of pain. To him the sounds last forever, though the shift only takes a few seconds.

Justin’s voice bursts through the crowd and Kylar hears him perfectly. “No, I can’t trust you. How can any of us trust you? You filthy,” he pauses. Is he nervous? “monsters drain our blood. None of us can trust. None of us! We’re fools for following you for this long. You can’t protect us.”

People whisper in the group between Kylar and the conflict. Are they agreeing with him?! We’re trying to save them as best we can, I may have only been a Lupir for four days now, but at least I understand what would happen if they weren’t here.

The heat is really getting to Kylar now, he feels like vomiting right on the ground in front of him. He has to keep his cool, especially in front of Zane. He really needs to cool down, but in this heat it is impossible without some water.

Kylar zones out, the heat exhausting his mind. He only becomes alert again when he hears Madison say his name, “talk to Kylar, all right?”

He hears footsteps get closer, and then sees Madison’s face. Kylar whispers to Zane, “Stay here.”

“Okay.”

Pushing his way through the group, he stops a few paces from Madison. “Tomassetti,” Madison starts, “you need to get yourself into the shade. You aren’t used to the change of being a Lupir. The sun is going to affect you more than anyone else here. I don’t think we’re leaving until this is resolved, so you need to distribute the water to the humans. Take extra for yourself. Do you understand?”

Head dropping, Kylar nods and holds out his hand toward the group behind him. Zane steps forward and grasps it gently. He leads Zane and the rest past Madison and Justin, and glances only slightly at the pitch black form of Nicolai’s lupine body.

After leading them through some trees toward another open field, the humans sit, most of them against a tree. The water sloshes in its bottle as Kylar pulls it from a pouch at his side. As he is giving a few humans their water, another who is sitting behind him calls his name.

“I think there’s a barn over there.” He turns around and realizes it is Hailey who has said it. Her arm is pointing toward the barn, and Kylar’s gaze follows the direction of her pointing. A barn sits, clearly rotting, on the far side of the field; a few chickens are even running around in the field near it.

“I’ll go report it to Madison and Nicolai as soon as I get you all your water.”

She merely nods at his response and she lets her arm fall back to her side. He gives her and the remaining few humans their share of the water, and even contemplated giving Zane more, but decided otherwise. We don’t need them joining Justin.

He takes the remaining water for himself, tells the other to remain where they are, and heads back towards Madison. Drinking the water slowly Kylar walks through the trees, taking a little bit more time than he did with the humans. He is admiring the beauty in this area, he hadn’t really had the chance before when he was with the others to really stop and smell the flowers. It is hard for him to believe the beauty can exist in this horrible world.

A few minutes pass before he reaches where the conflict with Justin was before. As he reaches the open field, Madison is kneeling on the ground with his hands to his mouth. Nicolai stood over him, in his human form.

The smell of blood washes over Kylar, and he took a step back. He realizes the scent was coming from a body in front of Madison -- it was Justin.

“Is something wrong, Tomassetti?” Nicolai asks in his heavy Russian accent. Kylar ponders a moment to figure out what he asked.

“I, um… We found a-a barn. There… chickens.” Kylar manages to force out. He is using all his self-control to keep himself from running over to the body and drinking from it, but he can’t take his eyes off of it. It is so intoxicating and he is so hungry. A small taste would be just enough to satiate his hunger.

Nicolai approaches him, his eyes narrowed. “You need to learn to resist the smell, young blood. Now, lead us to the barn.”

Nicolai then pushes Kylar, forcing him to lead the way, and they go back toward the humans and the barn.