“So how long have you been doing this for?”

But it was here too that Albus continued his line of ruthless questioning.

“So how long have you been doing this for?”

She looked up at him with yet another annoyed look, but she was again amused by his cheekiness nonetheless.

“Do you talk to every girl like this?” She retorted.

Albus began to grin before he had even fully formed his counter. This was really just too easy.

“No, you’re the first one I’ve seriously talked to.”

She just looked at him with her mouth open, and turned away again, not able to hold back her smiling. Some moments passed before she gave her answer:

“Few months.” She muttered.

Wow. He definitely didn’t say that out loud, but wow. This girl had a serious obsession with him. So he just nodded, taking her answer seriously. It was an honest answer, a sign of her trust in him.

...and possibly a sign that she was to be watched out for.

In the sound of the soft pattering of their footsteps he remembered those stories he had dismissed as mere legends all those years ago, and his mind all at once became a whirlwind of thought and mixed feelings. His mother would tell him about the werewolves who carried off naughty children in the night as a way to get him to behave – this always worked on his friends but even now he could remember yawning at the tale so many years ago. And now, faced with the real thing, he didn’t feel so sure anymore.

Yet he could not deny this exhilaration that was coursing through his veins right now. How to describe it? He was walking right next to this petite girl, who had been fantasizing about him for months on end and did not even have the courage to approach, or to say anything to him – such was her shyness. And this was where his balance lurched between a dreamlike infatuation and a dark, sinking feeling right in the pits of his stomach. Has she ever killed anyone for sustenance, and had he just made himself a victim completely by accident? Or was she here for something less sinister? He felt trapped: she could have killed him at any second if she so wanted to. Likewise, there surely wasn’t any way now to reject her advances if she made any – not against someone, that is a werewolf, who had been silently stalking him for months.

He almost felt sick in a way. And at the risk of sounding like a deviant… it felt good.

It didn’t help things when he would every so often glance over at her, and for all the adrenaline and instinct that screamed at him to be careful, to get away, all he could see was this innocent girl. His gaze at some point naturally dropped down to her walking feet, which looked so dainty and tiny compared to the bulkiness of the boots he had on right now. A good opportunity to ask a relatively safe question.

“Don’t you get splinters walking around like that?”

She looked at him quizzically. “Splinter?”

“It’s like when you step…” He began his explanation but trailed off suddenly in thought. “Uh, nevermind.”

Another interesting thing he noted was how little she talked. The dynamic in her presence was different – he never felt compelled to say or ask anything; the silence was never awkward. Although this could have been chalked up simply to the fact that she may not have had much human interaction in her life, it felt more like some type of aura about her that was responsible for this feeling. There were many more questions that he could have asked – maybe even should have – but he just… didn’t feel like it.

Whether that was for the better or worse, they had in no time reached the hamlet. By then it was completely dark, and everyone had retired to their huts and houses.

He looked at her, she looked at him. This time he wasn’t so sure how to proceed; there was no telling what could happen if he did something to upset her.