Chapter Nine
Clara woke the following morning a little tired but exhilarated by the previous night’s adventure. She lay in bed reliving it all and had reached the bit where her aunt had made her some hot chocolate and sent her up to bed, when Selina appeared at the bedroom door.
“Good, you’re awake, breakfast’s nearly ready. I hope you’re hungry,” Selina smiled and disappeared again.
Remembering with a wry smile the chicken smell from the night before, Clara rose and dressed quickly, putting her hair into her usual ponytail and running the toothbrush around her mouth, before running down to the kitchen.
The pair enjoyed a leisurely cooked breakfast with toast on the side and lots of tea, before Selina suggested that they walk into the village to check out the train times for the following day’s journey home. “We can even buy a ticket, so we don’t have to worry about it tomorrow,” suggested Selina.
Clara was disappointed at the thought of leaving her aunt just when she was starting to shape-shift, but she was also looking forward to seeing her family and her own bedroom again. It was a beautiful spring day and they enjoyed a lovely walk along the road into the village, admiring the border of cheerful, bright yellow daffodils.
As it was Saturday, the village was bustling. On the way to and from the train station, Selina and Clara browsed the stalls of a farmer’s market. Selina knew tons of the people in the village, as she’d lived there most of her life, and she stopped now and then to chat to them. People were curious to meet Clara, as they’d never met any of Selina’s family before, and they all asked how she’d enjoyed her stay with her aunt.
When they were back at the cottage, Clara asked if she might be able to stay with Selina during the Easter holidays.
“Of course, you can dear. I’d like that very much,” said Selina. “I shall speak to your parents about it.”
Clara spent the remainder of the afternoon packing her things for the journey home and having a nap before dinner.
That night doggy Selina took doggy Clara out exploring in the woods again, making sure she was confident at turning back into her human form, before they went to bed in the early hours of the morning.
Later that day, Aunt Selina sat Clara down to discuss a few things before they left for the station.
“Firstly, Clara, I have a gift for you,” said Selina pushing a small wrapped parcel across the table.
Clara exclaimed in delight. She pulled open the bow and ripped the wrapping paper off to reveal a dark blue velvet box. She popped it open to reveal a delicate gold watch. Clara gasped.
“It was Clara’s,” Selina said. “It’s been passed down through all the shape-shifters in the family and now it’s time to pass it on to you. It reminds us of those who have gone before us and see how, instead of a date on the face of the watch, it has...”
“The phases of the moon,” exclaimed Clara with a smile of happiness.
“That’s right,” said her aunt. “But being as it’s an antique, this watch doesn’t run on batteries. You need to wind it up every few days. Will you remember to do that?”
“Yes,” said Clara, breathlessly, putting the watch on. She’d never owned anything this grown up and thought it was lovely. She couldn’t stop admiring the way it sat on her wrist.
“One day it’ll be your responsibility to train the next shape-shifter and you can pass on the watch accordingly,” said Selina. “It’ll remind you when the full moon is due. Although with the strength of your gift you probably won’t ever need it,” she added wryly.
“Now, I don’t want you to get over excited,” she said. “But I have something else for you. I understand you have a copy of the front door key to your house.”
Clara nodded, “For emergencies,” she said. “Or in case I get home before Mum and Peter.”
“Well, as your parents’ bedroom is at the front of the house, I think it’d be safer for you to get in and out using the back door,” and she held out a key to Clara. “This is a copy of the back-door key for your home. On the first night of the full moon you must wait until you’re sure that everyone’s asleep, and then sneak out the back door. In the woods you can undress and shape-shift as we’ve been doing this week. Don’t stray too far from home at first. You may think you know your way around but, in the dark, you’ll find everything strange and unfamiliar to begin with. As soon as you think you’re able, go back to where your clothes are and shape-shift back. You need to ensure you’re back in the house and in bed before anyone wakes up and notices that you’re gone.” She pauses for a moment to make sure Clara’s paying attention, then continues. “You must make sure that you look after the key and don’t leave it lying around where you might lose it, or your parents might see it. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Clara, slightly bewildered by all of the instructions.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” said Selina, patting Clara’s hand. “The only other bedroom at the back of the house is your brothers and he’s a solid sleeper, like his dad.”
Selina stood and reached for Clara’s hand. “Let’s get a move on,” she said. “I don’t want you to miss the train.”
Clara said her goodbyes to her aunt on the station platform and boarded the train. As the train pulled out of the station she waved to Selina until she couldn’t see her anymore. Then she pulled a book out of her bag, intending to read it on the journey home, however, the book lay unopened on her lap as she revelled in the memories of all the things she’d seen and done over the last few days. Maybe having this gift was not going to be all bad after all, she thought, smiling to herself.
***
Clara had a joyous reunion with her parents and brother when she arrived home and she was ecstatic to see her own room again. She emptied her travel case, and put her things away, straightening her belongings affectionately. The room was exactly the way she’d left it a week before, and yet it felt different and strange, somehow. But it wasn’t the room that had changed, it was Clara, herself. Her experiences over the last few days had altered her. She felt more mature and responsible, and excited and alive all at the same time. All the same, she thought fondly, I’m glad to be home.
Sinead was also delighted to see her friend, having missed her all week, and asked all about Clara’s visit to her aunt. She wanted to know all the details of Clara’s trip and Clara found herself editing practically everything she told Sinead, particularly the last few days. In an effort to avoid Sinead’s questioning, Clara asked Sinead what she had been up to. Sinead’s stories of her holidays filled up the rest of their journey to school.
The following few weeks sped by as the school year was winding up towards exam time. Before she knew it, Clara’s watch was indicating that a full moon was due. In preparation, Clara cleared all of her outstanding homework assignments. She checked the drawer of her dresser several times to ensure the key was where she’d hidden it and looked out the clothes she was planning to wear.
On the morning of the first day of the full moon, Clara went to school with a heightened sense of awareness. She was edgy all day, full of barely restrained energy.
In the evening she ate lightly and then went to her room to wait. She was building up a nervous energy and had to pace back and forth in order to avoid exploding with anticipation. First, she heard her brother go to bed. Then she hopped into bed herself, but struggled to lie still, tossing and turning and fidgeting. She was so wired she knew that falling asleep was not a risk.
After what seemed an eternity, Clara heard her parents checking the locks on windows and doors and getting ready for bed themselves. About half an hour later she heard her father’s snores. She waited anxiously for another half an hour to ensure everyone was deeply asleep, before quietly slipping out of bed and down the stairs. She put her trainers on at the back door, unlocked it with her new key and slipped out. She felt a thrill run along her spine at being out this late on her own. Her breathing was shallow, her heart beating hard and fast.
She eas
ed slowly and soundlessly through the back gate and into the trees. A little way away she found a log on which to put her clothes. After which, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and imagined herself as the black dog.
On opening her eyes a few moments later, she discovered that she was much closer to the ground, had four legs instead of two and was covered in black fur.
Ha! she thought. That wasn’t so hard, and she trotted confidently off along the path. Edging the woods, she explored the area along the back of her street, sniffing here and there, glancing up at each of the houses as she went by. Her acute sense of hearing picked up the noise from the odd television and, occasionally, other dogs barking. Whenever she heard a dog bark, she had a very strong urge, which she controlled, to bark back at them. She understood that it was a natural instinct for dogs to defend their territory, but she didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to herself.
At the end of the row of houses, and mindful of her aunt’s advice not to stray too far, she turned and made her way back the way she’d come. She passed the back of her own house and carried on down to the opposite end of the street where she turned down a path she’d not been down before. Her sense of direction told her the path would bring her in a circular route around the back of the woods, and eventually back in the direction of her home but, on this initial foray, she planned to cut through the woods at the first opportunity, to get back to her starting point more quickly.
After a few minutes of nosing, she became aware of another large presence close by. She stopped, perked her ears up and sniffed. Slowly rotating her head, she picked up a scent off to her left. Whatever the presence was, it wasn’t making any noise. Was it aware that she was there?
Clara eased back into the cover of a bush and then stilled, almost holding her breath.
For a few minutes nothing happened. Then the scent direction changed slightly. It was moving. Clara felt alone and vulnerable all of a sudden, missing her aunt’s golden retriever companionship and protection.
But the presence was moving away from her, albeit down the path she’d planned to take. A short while later it disappeared completely. Clara breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Now Clara had a dilemma, though, should she continue down the path as originally intended or should she go back the way she’d come to avoid whatever the presence had been? She sat for a few moments considering her options, then, recognising that she was curious about her almost confrontation, Clara decided to continue going down the path in the same direction she’d previously been travelling, albeit with more caution.
With her senses on high alert, she moved forward slowly. She stopped every once in a while, to listen to the noises in her vicinity, but didn’t pick anything up other than the rustling of what she could sense were small mammals under the bushes.
Eventually, she came to a fork in the path. One fork would take her back home and the other fork continued around the woods. She followed the homeward fork through the woods without further incident and traced her way back to the log where her clothes were waiting. Clara sat down and rested for a while. It was way too early to shift back into human form.
When she felt it was the proper time, Clara closed her eyes and imagined herself back into her human form. She followed the same procedure that she and her aunt had followed, but when she opened her eyes, she was dismayed to find she was still a dog. Perturbed, Clara closed her eyes and tried again. Once again, she opened her eyes in her dog form. Now she was really starting to get nervous.
What’s going wrong? she thought. I never had this problem at Aunt Selina’s.
After a few more attempts to transform, Clara’s nervousness turned to panic. What will happen if I can’t change back? I don’t know what to do.
Clara paced anxiously back and forth by the log. Every few minutes she tried to transform back to her human form and failed. With each attempt her confidence chipped away. She could feel time passing. The approaching dawn was her enemy, and she could sense it getting closer with every minute, unstoppable and undeniable. She shivered, imagining what would happen when her parents woke and found her gone. She recalled her aunt’s story about her ancestor who’d taken the form of an animal and was never seen again. She started to ponder what her life would be like, wandering the streets as a homeless mutt. She slumped down to the ground, hopelessly, her eyes tightly closed, her muzzle on her paws, shaking and whimpering. And then, suddenly, her aunt’s image sprang up in her mind’s eye. The image was so vivid that Clara felt she could almost smell her aunt’s perfume. The image of Aunt Selina winked down at Clara and smiled at her tenderly.
“Imagine yourself back into your human body. The Clara your parents would recognise,” Selina said confidently. Clara felt a small ball of warmth developing in her chest. It spread out through her body and along her limbs, as the image of her aunt remained strong in Clara’s mind.
Okay, she thought determinedly. I need to get a grip. I can do this.
Clara took some deep breaths and felt the tension in her body releasing fractionally. After a few more deep breaths she started to feel less hopeless and more confident. She brought forward the memory of the first time she’d changed back into human form. Drawing on that memory she imagined looking in a mirror and seeing her human form staring back at her. Still breathing deeply and relaxing muscle by muscle, she concentrated on every detail of that mirror image, from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers and toes.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and almost cried with relief. It worked. Shaking so hard she could hardly get her fingers to work properly, she dressed and crept home as quickly as she dared.
Pausing at the back gate she noted that the house was still and dark. She tiptoed up to the back door, slipped in and locked it behind her. She then tiptoed up to her room, changed into her nightdress and slipped under her duvet just as the hall light came on and she heard one of her parents go into the bathroom.
Whew, she thought. That was close.
Clara breathed a deep sigh. Then, before she could reflect on the events of the night or consider the implications for the following night, Clara dropped off into an exhausted sleep.
Chapter Ten
Clara felt strangely refreshed and alert the following morning, despite the little sleep she’d had.
By mid-afternoon, though, she hit a wall. She could barely keep her eyes open and wished she could have an afternoon nap then and there in the warm, muggy, classroom.
When she arrived home, she made an excuse about getting out of her school clothes and went to her room. Once there, she lay down on her bed and fell fast asleep. A couple of hours later she was woken by the enticing smell of dinner.
When Clara mostly moved her food around the plate rather than eat it, her mum looked at her with concern.
“Are you okay, Hon?” She asked Clara.
“Yeah, I’m fine thanks,” said Clara and she smiled brightly at her mum with what she hoped was reassurance, while her stomach did cartwheels in anticipation of the night to come.
Sitting down to watch the DVD after dinner, Clara found she was unable to concentrate. She was becoming increasingly jittery about her upcoming transformation. Her confidence had been seriously knocked the previous night and she was terrified of a repeat performance tonight. She put off going to bed for as long as possible, only retiring to her room when her parents became stern with her.
Once in her room she changed into training pants and a fleece and paced up and down for a while, breathing deeply and repeating under her breath “It’s going to be fine, it’s going to be fine, it’s going to be fine.” When she heard her mum getting ready for bed, she climbed into bed herself, feigning sleep when her mum checked in on her.
When she was satisfied that the rest of the household was fast asleep, she crept nervously down and out of the house, through the garden and into the trees. So far so good, she thought. She undressed and closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, she was the sha
ggy black sheepdog she should be. She gave a little yip of delight and jumped for joy. She seemed to find it easy to shift into animal form. The real test, it appeared, would come later.
She turned in a small circle wondering what she’d do with herself this evening.
She decided to see if the path went both ways around the woods and headed off in the direction she’d originally taken the night before, but instead of turning back when she reached the end of the street; she carried on down the path. She was a little further along the path than she’d explored the previous night when she came across a smaller trail up on the left. Clara followed it, curiously. She climbed up the slope until it came out at a clearing on top of the hill. At this height there was a steady breeze and Clara saw the estate on one side of the hill and the woods at the other side.
She counted along the row of houses until she reached her own and identified her bedroom window. The house was in full darkness, as it should be.
She spent a little time admiring the view and then sat down and opened up her senses to see what would happen. Slowly but surely, she started to feel other animals. Cautiously, for fear of becoming overwhelmed by the sensations, she focused on individuals. She sensed a large bird, probably her old friend the owl, sitting in a tree waiting patiently for a meal to come along. Shifting her focus, she sensed a cat prowling through the trees some way away. Then she sensed a familiar presence. The one she’d almost bumped into the night before. Turning towards the back of the woods she identified its location as being similar to the previous evening. Yep, it was definitely a dog. Clara’s impression was that it was comfortable in its territory and that it was wild by nature, that it wasn’t domesticated. Although it might’ve been at some point, she thought, probing deep into the dog’s mind. She sensed a memory of living indoors and being taken care of, but it was a long time ago. The dog was hungry and was searching the undergrowth for something to eat.
Under the Light of a Full Moon Page 7