"Delayah! Don't go outside!" Mother yells as I grab the door. Her words echo around in our small, three-room hut. "The werewolves come tonight, and if they catch you, you know what'll happen."

Before she can repeat the words she says every time, I let go of the door and head to my room. "I'm seeing my friends tomorrow night, the werewolves won't be active then. We've been planning this for a month." I leave out the fact that some werewolves could be active tomorrow night.

"Ok, as long as there aren't any sightings of them."

"Ok."

I lay in bed as mom says goodnight to my three younger brothers. I fall asleep before mother comes to say goodnight, exhausted from the day's chores.

The next morning, I check on my brothers and then go outside. We have three animals, two cows, and a mule. We get eggs from our neighbors and vegetables from our large garden.

I quickly milk the cows and then bring the milk inside. The next chore is to go and get vegetables to give to the neighbors in exchange for the eggs. gather eggs.

Cadon is outside doing his chores when I get to his house. His adorable eyes sparkle when he looks at me. "Just here to get the eggs," I ramble.

He nods. "I know. You come every morning, it's one of the best parts of my day."

I give a weak smile and hurry to the barn before I melt into a puddle of mush. He sneaks up on me while I'm gathering the eggs.

"You're coming tonight? Right?" he asks.

"Of course! I can't miss this! Mom is fine with it as long as there are no sightings. Even if she said no, I think I'd still go."

"Good. I wouldn't want to go without you."

The plan is for a bunch of us to meet up and then go wander around and see if we find anything. If it all goes right, we will see a werewolf.

After I collect the eggs, I hand him the vegetables. "Thank you, Delayah. I'll see you tonight!" He rubs his hands together. "We get to hunt werewolves!"

Cadon's father, Peter, is the biggest werewolf hunter in the nearby villages. He's caught one hundred seven, including the one that murdered my father. Everyone, especially granny mallor and Grandy Louise, has been talking about how Cadon will become the next big werewolf hunter. And he seems to want the role. The reason he wants to go tonight is because of his legacy.

He grabs my hand before I can walk off. My hand tingles from the touch and I blush. "Yes, Cadon?" I manage to squeak out.

"Walk with me please."

He grabs my hand and pulls me gently towards the path behind his house. We walk for a while before he says, "Del, tonight is the night."

"Ooook?"

"It's the night that I fulfill my legacy. I have to catch a werewolf and destroy it. And then I must do the ceremonial betrothal."

We turn onto a new path as I ask, "What's that?"

"It's something all the men in my family do. On the night they kill their first werewolf, they must tell their love to whoever it is they will marry. And from then on they are betrothed."

"That's what you have to do?"

"Yes."

"Are you nervous? Who are you going to do it too?"

"I-I can't say right now. I'm extremely nervous for tonight."

"Are you actually going to kill a werewolf? What happens if you don't want to kill one?"

He doesn't reply, instead, we turn around and walk back to the house.

It's early in the year, during our dry season, and the dirt and dying grass crunch under my feet as I hurry home, the basket of eggs in my hand.

From the outside of our house, it looks like a block with a few short, dying trees in the front. Way off in the distance behind it are the mountains.

That night I hurry and put on my shoes and hat. "Bye, mom." I run over to Cadon's hut since we are meeting there. Only a Cadon and Blak and Zellie are here. After I arrive Maia Lynn and Realyn show up.

Maia Lynn, being her giggly, teasing self, says, "So, Cadon who are you asking?" she winks at me right after. I blush and shake my head as if to say, 'no, not me'. But maybe, hopefully, he'll pick me.

I'm yanked out of the short daydream as we start scurrying towards the woods behind Cadon's house, the same ones we walked in earlier.

It gets darker the further we walk and Blak tries to scare us as we walk. "They say only two years ago a group of friends walked into the woods-these exact ones- and never came back."

"Sure, Blak," I laugh. I'm not scared, but I notice that Realyn steps closer to us.

Finally, we reach the base of the mountains. We turn left and keep walking. Realyn steps closer to me. "Do you see those shadows move?"

I look. The shadows, shadows that don't belong to us, are moving. Suddenly my hairs stand on end. Every little shadow turns into a ferocious beast and when a breeze rustles through the trees, the leaves become howls and crackling of sticks under paws. I look at Realyn. She smiles at me and I see fangs.

I blink and look again. There aren't any fangs, it's just a breeze rustling through the tree and there are no werewolves around. All of a sudden, Blak screams.

he is way ahead so I look ahead. In the middle of the path is a werewolf. We freeze. It only has ears, a small tail, and glowing eyes that could freeze one hundred men in fear..