By Elektralyte for Tann
"Anything to do with werewolves"
The picture at the end is something Wolfman sent me a while ago, and I thought it fitted in very nicely, just as a fortunate coincidence!
Title: Staying Put
Author: elektralyte
Rating: K+
Characters/Pairings: Sprinklings of Hank/Sheila goodness.
Spoilers: None so far as I can tell.
Disclaimer: I do not own Dungeons and Dragons the Cartoon series. I write for fun and have no intentions of profiting off this piece.
Summary: If only everyone would just stay put! Friends go missing and Hank gets accused.
Author's notes: Written for DDCC2007 Challenges. Challenge #1: Something with werewolves, especially if it features Hank or Lorne. Ha, one down, two to go...
Staying Put
Chapter 1
Two boys were creeping through a forest cover. One boy gestured to the other to copy his movements. The second boy nodded and did his best to match his friend step for step until he tripped on his robe. The noise startled their prey and a couple of rabbits shot out from the under the brush.
The first boy reacted with phenomenal speed and released two arrows. Both hit their targets and the rabbits went down.
"Hank! That was awesome!"
"Shh!" he ordered. Then he mouthed the words, "don't move."
"What are you looking for?" Presto whispered.
Hank ignored his friend. He took a breath, nocked an energy arrow and counted to three. He suddenly pivoted, startling both Presto and a rabbit that was apparently behind them.
Hank released another arrow and that rabbit went down as well. Then he and the other boy went to collect their future dinner.
"I think this will be enough," he remarked as he tied the rabbits together. From any one else this would have sounded cocky but the young ranger was just being matter of fact.
"Hey Hank, how did you see them? I didn't even know they were there!"
"You have to look for their eyes. Their coats act like camouflage but their black eyes stand out against the cover if you're looking hard enough."
Presto looked at his friend thoughtfully for a moment. "How do you know so much about rabbit hunting?"
He hesitated before answering. "My dad used to take me." He left it at that.
Somewhere in that pause was the unspoken history of Hank. Presto wondered if he should press for more as he watched his friend tie the rabbits together. He decided against it because he was a bit too shy to ask.
As the two of them walked down the path something caught the ranger's eye.
"Presto, hang on. There's something I want to check out."
Presto watched as the other boy pulled his knife out of his belt. Hank bent over and started cutting a plant. Presto's mind began to wander until the sound of rustling in the distance caught his attention.
"Maybe that's another rabbit," he hoped. He decided that he could catch his own rabbit and wandered down the path towards the direction of the noise.
There it was, another rustle. He pulled off his hat because he had this vague notion of using it as a net. Presto tracked the sound and concentrated.
"Round black eyes, round black eyes, round black eyes," he chanted.
His gazed stopped at a set of eyes. They weren't black though; they were blue and fairly large. For a moment it seemed like the entire forest went silent.
A shiver crawled up his spine as the scenery, like one of those optical illusion prints, coalesced into something far more sinister. The brush surrounding the eyes melted into golden fur. A great maw opened up to expose overly large canines. What ever it was pushed forward and revealed itself as a huge, wolf-like creature.
"Guh-guh, good boy! Stay!"
Presto nervously made a 'sit' gesture to the creature. It raised its head and growled. Then it snapped its jaws together and lunged at the boy.
He bolted down the path for dear life and didn't stop until he tripped on a tree root. After scrambling around for his hat and his dislodged glasses he realized he was not being followed.
He would have felt relief except for one small detail.
"Hank! Oh my God! Haannnk!"
Presto ran back up the path cursing at himself for leaving his friend behind. He came to the spot he thought he and Hank were together last, but the other boy wasn't there.
He spun around in a circle calling his friend's name in a panic.
"Maybe I'm in the wrong place?" he wondered.
He took off down the path again to a spot that he thought looked familiar but again, no Hank.
Now, besides panic he was feeling shame at having left his friend alone with that thing. He sincerely hoped that the creature was having just as hard a time finding Hank as he was.
"Where'd you go Hank?" Presto whispered. "What am I going to do?"
Chapter 2
"Hey Di, how do you catch a unique rabbit?"
"I don't know Eric, how do you catch a unique rabbit?"
"Unique up on it! Get it? You-sneak up on it!"
"Oh I got it," she answered. "I wish I hadn't."
"How do you catch a tame rabbit?" He continued.
"I give up. How?"
"Tame way! Unique up on it!"
"Are you sure you're telling it right? It's not that funny," Bobby interjected.
"Meeeeh," Uni added.
"Everyone's a critic. Okay short guy, you try it."
Bobby paused for a second before asking, "what do fish say when they hit a concrete wall?"
Eric shrugged.
"DAM!"
"Bobby!" Sheila shouted.
"It wasn't the bad word, honest!"
Sheila frowned and shushed him. Just then Presto came running into the clearing.
"Hey, has anyone seen Hank?" He asked breathlessly.
"I thought he was with you, you know, looking for food?" Diana replied.
"We were together, but I lost him! And then I saw a-a wolf I think--" Presto looked down guiltily.
The other kids shot each other concerned looks.
Diana patted him on the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, we'll find him. Though I'm pretty sure Hank's not lost," she said trying to assuage his guilt.
Hank, after all, was the ranger of the group. If anyone could find his way in a forest, it should be him. Besides, he was well armed.
Diana looked towards the woods. They had been less intimidating earlier in the day, but now that the suns were settings the area became more ominous.
"We should get started before it gets too dark. Sheila, why don't you, Bobby and Uni stay here while the rest of us looks for Hank, okay?" Diana suggested.
Sheila was about to protest but then changed her mind. She was concerned for Hank but didn't want to take Bobby into the woods, especially if there was something dangerous roaming in there. They would be safer here in the clearing where the group had set up camp.
"Hurry up and find Hank, okay? Or we'll have to come in after you."
"No sweat Sheila, we'll find him in time for dinner," Eric interjected.
Sheila sincerely hoped so.
Chapter 3
The others began hiking toward the forest.
"AWHOOOOOOO!"
The three of them stopped. Nobody made a move.
"Um, hey guys? How do crazy people go through the forest?" Eric joked nervously.
"They take the psycho path," Presto answered distractedly.
"You heard that one before Presto?" Diana chimed while fidgeting with her javelin.
"Yeah. Di, do we really have to go in there?" The magician was starting to sweat. He took off his hat and began twisting it in his hands.
"Do you really want to leave Hank in there?" she snapped. Though in all honestly she wasn't happy about going in either.
They started walking again. Diana asked Presto to take them to the last place he saw Hank. Unfortunately, Presto was having a hard time remembering where that was.
"I think it was here..." he said uncertainly, not willing to admit that the trees all looked alike.
"Shh!" Diana whispered.
"What?" Eric mouthed silently as glanced her way. He'd been getting the creeps since before they entered.
She pantomimed a finger to mouth gesture, and then cupped her ear. Quietly and cautiously the three of them closed rank. After a minute nothing happen.
"I don't hear a thing Di--AAAHHHH!"
Something charged out of the trees and headed straight for them.
It was gold and furry.
And huge.
And wolf-like.
The gold, furry, huge wolf-like thing swerved past them, then halted at the end of the path. It turned around and growled at them. Diana and Eric both unconsciously stepped in front of Presto. He was both annoyed and grateful at the overprotective gesture.
With its blue eyes flashing the wolf creature snarled and snapped its monstrous jaws. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared down the path. Presto sank to his knees, shaking from the encounter. The other two were just as scared.
"You okay pal?" Eric asked with concern.
"Yeah, just scared spit less..."
"I'm okay too, Eric," Diana mumbled.
That was when he noticed he had the girl in a vice-like grip. Mortified, he loosened his hold on her.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"No problem, really."
"Did you see that guys? I told you there was a wolf!" Presto wheezed.
"Wolf? What kind of wolf has blond hair and blue eyes?"
"This isn't the time for jokes Eric!" Diana admonished.
"Who's joking? I'm dead serious! Did you see the size of its head? It looked more like a bear than a dog," he screeched.
Diana had to admit that there was something weirdly mal-proportioned about the wolf's body. It was like something out of a monster movie.
"Maybe it's a werewolf?" Presto suggested.
Considering the thoughts she was having Diana decided that wasn't far fetched.
Eric had his doubts though. "Presto, you need to lay off the Elvira marathons. There are no such things as werewolves."
"You mean like there's no such things as dragons and unicorns?" The magician shot back.
While the boys bickered back and forth Diana had the impression they were no longer alone.
"Keep it down guys, you're being too loud--"
CRACK!
The noise startled the three friends. They all looked at each other. Had it come back?
Chapter 4
"Why can't we go with the others Sheila? It's boring here," Bobby whined. He began aimlessly pounding the ground with his club.
Sheila regretted staying behind. They should be helping, after all, what if something had happen to Hank? She watched Bobby swing his club like a baseball bat. He really could handle danger as well as anyone of them. If only he weren't so impulsive, always charging head on into a situation.
"Sheila?"
"Yeah honey?"
"Have you seen Uni?" He asked in a voiced tinged with worry.
Where is the little unicorn? She wondered.
Sheila scanned the rapidly darkening area. There was only one sun left and it would set fairly quickly.
"I don't see her anywhere Bobby. Bobby? BOBBY!" She looked up in time to see him scurrying into the woods.
Sheila muttered something about silly little brothers, then ran off after him.
o-0-o-0-o
Diana, Eric and Presto were all holding their breaths in anticipation. Something was definitely moving around out there. Was it coming to get them?
What ever it was, it was about to emerge from the brush. The three friends readied their weapons.
"Hi guys," Hank called out cheerfully while stepping onto the path. He had three dead rabbits triumphantly gripped in his hands.
The others breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"Hey Presto, buddy. What happened to you? I turned around and suddenly you weren't there."
"Oh, I kind of got lost."
"Hey, I'm sorry. Are you okay?" He sent Presto a concerned look.
"Yeah I am. Are you?" he replied.
"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"
Diana spoke up. "Hank, didn't you see the creature?"
"What creature?" He looked genuinely confused.
"What creature? You mean the big, furry, gold angry dog that went running your way? How could you not see it? You came out of the same spot it went into..."
Eric made a funny face as a notion of doubt tickled his brain. He shot a look at the others to see if were picking up on it. Diana and Presto had similarly confused expressions.
Hank missed it though. "I didn't see anything, Eric. Honest!"
Why is everyone looking at me that way? He wondered. Then he pointed to Eric and Diana and asked, "Anyway, what are you guys doing here?"
"We were looking for you Hank," she explained.
"Yeah," Presto jumped in. "I thought I heard some noises and it turned out to be a wolf or something. I got so scared that I got lost for a minute and when I couldn't find you I went to the others for help."
"You thought I was in danger? From a wolf?"
"Well yeah, it was pretty damn big. Are you sure you didn't see it? It's kinda hard to miss..." Presto asked.
"Honest guys, I didn't see or hear anything!" he insisted.
Presto and the others were becoming skeptical of the explanations, especially Eric.
"What happened to your hand Hank?" he questioned deliberately.
"Huh?" Hank looked down at his hand. It had been hastily wrapped in a cloth. A little bit of blood had seeped through.
"I dunno. I cut it on something when I was hunting I guess..." he muttered, as if he had something to hide.
"You're not sure?" asked Presto.
"Yes I'm sure," he answered a bit too forcefully. "What's with the questions guys?"
"Nothing Hank. Just ignore them." Diana suggested while trying not to sound too suspicious. "Let's get going before we lose the light completely."
They all began walking back to camp. The joy that Hank had felt at catching dinner had quickly dissipated.
o-0-o-0-o
Somewhere, deep in the woods, a little unicorn was being stalked and she knew it. She should have stayed with her boy but the smell of tasty mushrooms was too overwhelming. Now she was in big trouble.
"Bahhh-bee," she wailed plaintively.
"GRROWWWLLL," answered something that wasn't Bobby.
Uni trembled uncontrollably when she saw a pair of glowing blue eyes peering at her from beneath the brush.
Chapter 5
It was dark now. The first moon that had risen was barely illuminating the path before Sheila.
"Bobby!" Where did he go? Sheila was sure she saw him run this way. Honestly, she was going to shake him silly when she found him!
She spotted him up ahead and stomped up to him purposefully.
"Why did you run away Bobby? I swear, sometimes you do the craziest things..."
Her baby brother looked up at her with shining wet eyes.
"Bobby? Whats wrong?" Sheila dropped to one knee so she could be eye level with him. All thoughts of punishment flew out the window when she saw his misery.
"I thought I heard her calling me, Sheila. But when I got here all I found was this."
He held something in front of him. Even in the darkness she could see that it was hair. Bright orange hair. She took it from him and it felt wet and sticky.
"Oh Bobby..." She hugged her little brother, the dampness on his cheeks now transferred to hers. Then he stiffened.
Something behind her was growling. She felt Bobby's muscles flex as he gripped his club.
Sheila covered his hand with hers. Then whispered, "don't move."
She rose as slowly as she could, totally aware of movement behind her. At the same time she wrapped her cloak around the two of them. When she was all the way up she cautiously pulled her hood over her head effectively making the two of them disappear.
Whatever was behind them was now snuffling around with confusion. Sheila carefully stuck her hand out of her cloak and tossed the bit of hair as far away from them as she could. The beast, or whatever it was heard it land and ran for it.
Sheila could make out a wolf-like creature with light colored fur. The creature pawed at the hair, then sniffed. It looked up in the opposite direction of the siblings and took off. With her hood still up Sheila pulled her brother the other way and hurried them back to camp.
o-0-o-0-o
Hank and the others arrived to find Sheila, Bobby and Uni gone.
"Where are they?" He asked.
"Crap! This is bad! We should have known this would happen," Eric complained.
"What would happen?" Hank irritably demanded.
"I mean the minute we started splitting up people end up missing! Just like in the movies..."
"This isn't the movies. What's with you Eric?" Hank was starting to get mad.
"What's with me? What's with you?" Eric threw back.
"Why don't you just say what's on your mind," he challenged.
"Okay. I was just thinking that maybe Presto here could conjure up some Milk Bone Dog Biscuits for you. So that you won't snack on your friends."
There it was, someone finally came out and said it. Hank stared at his friends in disbelief.
"Do you think I'm a...I'm the....monster?" He couldn't believe he was asking this question.
When Diana and Presto looked down Hank's heart lurched. It was like the incident with the Cloud Bears. What did he do to earn such distrust? He tried to be a good friend and leader but times like this made him want to throw in the towel. He wouldn't though.
I guess I'm going to have to prove myself all over again. He thought.
"Look it's not what you think," Hank began. "I can prove--HEY! Where are you going Eric?"
"I'm going to find Sheila and Bobby and I'm staying as far away from you as I can get!" The dark-haired boy then disappeared back into the forest.
"Why'd he do that? Didn't he just say splitting up was a bad idea?" Asked Presto.
"Trust Eric to break his own rules," a voice spoke from behind them.
"AHHHH!"
Chapter 6
"Trust me to break my own rules," Eric mumbled to himself.
Okay, so he over reacted a little. Well, maybe he over reacted a lot. Okay yeah, he had at that. So he was scared, big deal, everyone gets scared sometimes. And sometimes they jump to conclusions.
Now that Eric was calmed down and away from the others he started thinking. If Hank were a werewolf, then wouldn't he have changed by now? After all, there were three full moons in the sky. That's triple the affect of moonlight. He probably couldn't help but change if he really was a werewolf, right?
The young cavalier hurried along regretting his poor judgment. He was having no luck finding Sheila and Bobby on his own. And, if Hank happened to be innocent then there was still a creature on the loose that he would have to face all by himself.
As if on cue something ahead of him growled. Eric immediately fell into a defensive posture though his knees were trying to knock into each other. The wolf creature came bursting through the trees. Eric squeezed his eyes shut and held his shield in front of him.
And just like that, the wolf shot past him yelping the whole way.
Well now he looked like he was scared of something. Eric thought bemused.
He was too confused to be frightened as he wondered what could possibly scare the bejeezus out of a werewolf. Then it occurred to him that whatever scared the werewolf was coming his way.
Right on cue 'whatever' came stomping out of the trees and into view. Fear and disbelief crossed Eric's face.
"Ah, you've got to be kidding me!" He called out to no one in particular. Then he turned on his heels and ran for his life.
o-0-o-0-o
"Sheila, Bobby! Where'd you guys come from?" Diana asked.
"We were in the forest looking for Uni and ran into some kind of werewolf," Sheila explained.
"Just now?" Hank interrupted.
"Uh hm," she nodded in agreement.
"Well I was with you guys," Hank pointed out. Diana turned to Presto who shrugged at her.
"Yeah, and Sheila hid us under her cloak so the monster couldn't get us. Have you guys seen Uni?"
"No Bobby, we were sort of caught up in something," Presto answered.
"Caught up in what?" asked Sheila.
"They think I'm the werewolf! Apparently the monster and I go to the same hair salon or something," a very annoyed Hank replied.
Sheila gave her friends a look of disbelief then asked for an explanation. Diana and Presto quickly briefed her and Bobby on what was going on while Hank stood off to the side glowering.
Sheila glanced at the ranger. The expression he wore was more at home on Eric's face. From what she remembered of the creature it did have a similar shade of fur that matched Hank's hair and it had blue eyes. Maybe the others were right...
But, as Hank pointed out, he was with the others when she saw the creature so the timing was wrong. Also, Sheila had accused Hank of being something he wasn't once before. She wasn't going to do that again. It was time to get to the bottom of things.
Sheila walked over to Hank and took his hand. She looked straight into his eyes so he could understand where she was coming from when she gently asked, "Why did you disappear Hank? If you're not hiding something, then why did the others think you were acting so weird?"
He looked back at her intently. What he saw in her eyes neither an accusation, nor allegation. It was simply the desire to understand. That wasn't so bad.
Hank decided it was time to come clean, even if it was going to be a bit embarrassing. He sighed and let go of her hands. Then, he tugged open a pouch attached to his belt and fished around for a moment until he pulled something out.
"Here." He held out a spray of slightly damaged flowers to Sheila. "I was hiding something, just not what you all thought."
Oh, they're for me! She thought with surprise.
Sheila took them and blushed happily. She gave Hank a shy smile and he grinned back despite everything that was going on. She looked at the flowers she was holding and decided that they were pretty. They looked very familiar to her, sort of like bluebells. Where had she seen these before?
"What about the cut on your hand?" Diana hated to interrupt but she needed to know.
"The flowers were kind of hard to reach. I got this trying to cut them down," he explained.
Although the explanation proved his innocence, Hank felt foolish for having to reveal his feelings for Sheila in front of everyone like this. He was sure he wouldn't be able to live this down.
Diana and Presto glanced at each other and saw the acute embarrassment their leader was going through.
"We're sorry Hank. We thought you were the creature." Diana apologized. She realized now that they had jumped to the wrong conclusion.
"Yeah, we should have known better." Presto added.
For a split second Hank wanted to tell them to go to hell but then he thought about it. The circumstances were pretty suspicious and he was hiding something from them. Who knew flowers could cause so many problems?
"Yeah well, we'll talk about it later. Right now we have to find Eric and Uni."
"I don't think so Hank, look!" Diana pointed to the trees.
There, sprinting for all he was worth was the cavalier. Everyone immediately readied their weapons and tried to spot what Eric could be running from. He reached them seconds later and dropped to his knees, wheezing with exhaustion.
"Eric, what is it?" Diana crouched down to speak to him.
Though he could hardly catch his breath he answered. "Hank (PANT) not (PANT) monster (PANT)."
"We know Eric, Hank proved it to us. Now we have to find Uni," Presto explained.
"NO!" They all focused their attention on Eric now. "I (PANT)...(PANT) Uni..."
"What about Uni?" Bobby demand.
"Guys...I," Eric wheezed.
Something gave a deep growl. The young ones turned to face the noise and were stunned that something so huge could creep up on them like that.
"I think..."
It was well over six feet tall. It had a dirty cream coat with tufts of orange-red hair on its head. Its eyes flashed pink and its teeth were large, squared and equine in size.
"I think I found..."
While its hands were clawed its feet were shod with cloven hooves. Embedded into its forehead was a single, pointed horn.
"MEEEEEEEEHHHH!" It brayed in a familiar yet distorted voice.
Everyone flinched. No one said a word except Eric who whimpered, "I-I think I found Uni..."
Chapter 7
The group stared in horror at their transformed friend.
"MEEHH!" It bleated again in a hellish voice.
The were-unicorn lunged forward and Diana leapt into action. She dove in front of the others and began swinging her javelin.
Hank drew an arrow on his bow and called out, "Move over Di, I'm going to shoot!"
"Nooo!" Screamed Bobby. "That's Uni! Don't hurt her Hank!"
"Ah crap!" Hank cursed.
He loved Uni as much as the next person but only when she was petting zoo sized. As soon as Diana was out of the way Hank fired a few arrows at the ground in front of the creature. The monster stopped advancing for the moment.
Bobby decided he was going to save his unicorn and ran forward. Eric managed to tackle him before he did something foolish.
"If someone has a plan now would be a good time to give it!" Hank yelled. Right now, there was in a standoff between him, Diana and the Uni-monster.
Sheila looked at the flowers in her hand and shouted, "I have an idea!"
"Guys, you have to pin Uni down first!" She called out.
Diana shot Hank a look and asked, "she's kidding, right?" Then she extended her javelin and bopped Uni in the chin with the tip.
The beast staggered back from the blow. Diana lunged forward and swung the pole so that it caught the monster under its chin. Then, with a tricky maneuver she slid her leg behind one of the creature's legs and executed a takedown.
The Uni-monster was too strong though and looked like it was about to slip out of the hold. Hank dropped his bow and launched himself at the opposite side of the beast. He put his weight on the javelin. Now, both he and Diana had held down an end of the pole, effectively pinning the creature's upper body to the ground.
Unfortunately its legs were still free and the Uni-monster was kicking wildly. Eric looked over his shoulder and saw the commotion. He quickly let Bobby go and ran to help the others.
Eric threw himself on the monster's legs but only manage to pin down one. Fortunately, Bobby was right behind and was able to grab the other.
"Stop it Uni, we're trying to help you!" the boy shouted.
Uni replied with more, angry bleating and even stronger attempts at bucking them off.
There were four of them holding the Uni-beast down and they were still struggling. Hank called out to Sheila, "You need to do something quick, we can't hold on much longer!
Presto was about to join them when Sheila caught his arm. "Presto, I need you!"
Sheila held out the flowers in her hand. "I need you to make a ton of these!"
"You want me to make flowers?" He asked skeptically.
"Can you do it? We need lots of them," she insisted.
Presto bit his bottom lip and took the flowers from her with one hand and pulled off his hat with the other.
He waved his fisted hand over the hat and chanted, "Magic hat, use your power, to turn these flowers, into a shower...of, um flower...power..."
Both he and Sheila winced at the rhyme as Presto dropped the flowers into the hat. He closed it and shook it as if it would help the magic along.
Nothing happened.
Presto shrugged apologetically to Sheila. Meanwhile the Uni-monster kicked Bobby off its leg.
"Any day now Sheila!" Eric yelled.
"Eric!" Hank shot the other boy a warning glance but Eric was too busy ducking a hoof to see it.
What Eric could see though, was beginning to scare him. The Uni-monster's horn started to glow. Hank saw this too and shouted, "No-no-no-no-NO! Guys, LET GO! It's going to--"
BAMPHF!
"--teleport!"
The beast disappeared instantly. Fortunately Diana and Eric heeded Hank's warning and let go in a nick of time. The three of them found them selves face down in grass and dirt. Hank rolled over and stood up just in time to see the monster reappear behind an unsuspecting Sheila and Presto.
o-0-o-0-o
Sheila shut her eyes against her failure when she was startled by a shout.
"Hey, I think it's working!" Presto shouted.
The hat began expanding like a Jiffy Pop popcorn tin. In fact, it grew alarmingly large and Presto was having a struggle trying to hold it. He failed to notice the rather large angry goat-wolf behind him.
Sheila, however, was aware of it. "Presto? Don't move," she whispered.
Presto stilled at the urgency in her voice. He could also feel heavy breathing down his back and suddenly realized how screwed they were. Sheila, though had an idea.
She slowly spread her hands apart and brought them to either side of the hat. She took a deep breath and held it all the while watching the monster. The Uni-monster blinked and that's when Sheila clapped her hands.
The hat made an explosive noise, reminiscent of a balloon popping. A blast of air and petals assaulted the monster and caused it to take a step back. It snorted and spat because it accidentally swallowed some of the flowers.
"Bleeeehhh!" The creature furiously tried to scrub the offensive petals off its face. Then it froze up.
The young ones waited breathlessly to see what would happen next. The Uni-monster's face twisted up into a comical grimace as it rubbed its nose. Its breathing became erratic and it hitched twice.
"MEH...MEH..."
"CHOOOOO!"
A flurry of blue and white petals swirled around the group like blinding snowflakes. Soon the floral blizzard slowed and where a monster once stood, now a small, ordinary, baby unicorn sat.
"Meeh. Baabee!" She called out.
"Uni!" He answered before bounding towards her. He grabbed her in a hug and tumble to the ground with a grin.
Uni for her part bleated happily. She was glad to be back to normal and that no one was hurt because of her. Everyone else hugged each other and cheered for the thief.
"Sheila what were those flowers and how did you know they would work?" Diana asked breathlessly.
She had an uncharacteristically smug look on her face when she answered, "those flowers were from the wolfsbane plant. People say it's a cure for lycanthropy. Some of us paid attention in botany class."
"That was a great plan Sheila," Hank remarked quietly.
He looked at her with such admiration that she couldn't help blushing. She also couldn't figure out what to do with her hands for some reason.
He knew what to do though. Hank reached out and took her hands in his. Suddenly everyone else was trying to look at more interesting scenery.
"Thank you."
Sheila was surprised. "For what?"
Hank looked at her seriously and answered, "for believing me this time."
Just as seriously Sheila vowed, "I won't ever doubt you again."
Someone coughed and the two of them looked over at the others. It was Eric looking like he had something to say.
"Uh, yeah Hank," he started while scratching his head. "About all that doubting and werewolf stuff--I'm, a, sorry. I shouldn't have accused you or anything..."
Hank looked at his friends. Presto and Diana were nodding their heads in agreement. Bobby meanwhile, was busy cleaning the small bite wound Uni received from the werewolf.
Hank was still a little mad at his friends but decided to let it go. He wasn't the type to hold a grudge anyway, (well, maybe at Venger) and he knew his friends were genuinely sorry.
He reached out, clapped Eric on the shoulder and nodded.
Eric smirked and asked, "Are we cool?"
Hank smiled back and replied, "Yeah, we're cool."
Eric and the others were relieved.
"Okay everyone. Let's gather our stuff and go," Hank ordered.
"Go? What about sleep? I'm beat," Eric complained.
"Well, you can stay here with the other werewolf if you want, but I'm getting the hell out of Dodge." Hank began gathering his gear. He grabbed Sheila's hand and the two of them stood up together.
The other watched the newly formed couple walked away hand in hand. Bobby pretended to gag while the others stood there, smiling.
"Ain't that sweet," Eric mocked. He turned and gave Diana a wink. She held up her hand and rolled her eyes at him.
Right then something howled loudly and the kids scrambled to gather their belongings. As each young one finished they took off after Hank and Sheila leaving Eric to be the last as always.
"Hey Di, how many werewolves does it take to change a lightbulb?"
"Di? Di? Presto?"
The cavalier had found that he was all alone. His friends were off in the distance now.
"Oh come on, give a guy a break! My jokes aren't that bad..." he called out. Then he ran like hell to catch the others.
The End.
