Chapter 12

Instructions

Chapter 12 - Martyn “DUDE IT’S NOT OKAY, ABORT ABORT! I REPEAT, IT’S NOT OKAY!” Martyn sat up, groggily looking around. “Dude it’s 2am, why aren’t you asleep?” He barely registered his friend’s shadowed form running in circles like the crazed dog he was. “SOMEONE SAW ME MARTYN!” Martyn winced and covered his ears, “ack- stop yelling, I just woke up!” Seeing his friend’s pain seemed to snap Ren back into reality. His ears drooped and his tail sagged for a moment. “Oh, sorry dude,” he said, his voice nearly a whisper this time. Martyn sighed, “It’s alright.” He swung his legs over the side of his bed, sitting up. “So what happened?” Ren took a deep breath. “I was on a walk in the park, and my hat started itching really bad. So I went into a darker section of the park to take my hat off where no one would see. But there was this couple who were sitting under a tree kinda near me, and I really didn’t think they could see me but the girl noticed and the guy chased me- and- and-” he took a ragged breath, “it was terrible!” Martyn sighed, “It’ll be alright. We just gotta get you someplace safe is all.” Ren nodded, sighing and sitting next to Martyn. “Where do we go?” A thoughtful look crossed Martyn’s face as he looked at the floor. “Well I do know somewhere…” he glanced out his back window. “There’s this tower thing deep in the forest that I found a few years ago. It looked completely abandoned when I was last there.” “Sounds as good a place as any.” They quickly packed bags, both of them also changing into clothes better suited for the trip. Ren had decided to wear one of his altered pairs of pants, revealing a bushy brown tail. “Not hiding the tail?” Martyn asked, pointing to it. “We’re going into the woods Martyn, there’s no one even out there.” “Good point.” The two friends left the small house and trudged into the forest. Cold wind pressed against them. The grass felt damp through their shoes, suggesting recent rainfall. Warm and cold wind mixed leaving them comfortable one minute and shivering the next. Each step led them closer to the forest, and to safety. As soon as they had entered the forest proper, the sounds of the night grew eerily silent. Only the occasional scuttle of zombies or the creak of skeletons could be heard. Every noise seemed to send an ominous chill through their bones. After wandering blindly for a time Martyn found an oddly shaped tree that he thought he recognized and they started to climb up the hill next to it. When they reached the top they found a large tower peaking up above the treetops. Martyn thought he saw something that looked like footprints in the mud but finally dismissed it as some sort of animal track. The two friends opened the door to the tower and started to climb the winding steps. “Are you sure that this place is empty?” Ren asked, hesitant, at the top of the staircase. “Because I swear someone’s been here.” Martyn paused, considering. “Honestly I do too, but it may be our only option.” Ren nodded and climbed past Martyn up onto the top floor. He let out an audible gasp and Martyn called up, concerned. Ren quickly disappeared from view, and Martyn sped up the rest of the stairs to see what had happened. He came up to find Ren on the floor covered in dogs. There were three to be exact. All large and hairy and licking Ren’s face. Martyn laughed as his friend kneeled on the floor, grinning like a child on Christmas morning. “Where did these little guys come from?” Martyn crouched, petting one of them as it came to cautiously inspect his outstretched hand. “No clue dude,” Ren said, his tail wagging what seemed like a million miles a second. they sat for a minute more with their furry companions. The dogs had definitely taken to Ren much more than they did Martyn. He tried not to be offended. Martyn noticed the difference before he heard it. The one that he’d identified as Tilly had perked up, ears toward the other side of the room. He turned, expecting to see some sort of bird or interesting feature of the sky and was instead greeted by a person. She seemed to have come in through a glass door that Martyn hadn’t initially noticed, on the opposite side of the room. Though by what means she’d got in, Martyn had no idea. She stood surprised for a moment, then whistled, returning the dogs to her heel. “Who are you?” She sounded slightly out of breath, and had a slight accent that marked her from one of the more southern cities in the kingdom. Ren and Martyn stood, glancing at each other. After some hesitation, Ren stepped forward. “We were just exploring, and had no idea you were even here, we’re really sorry. We’ll be leaving now.” He took a slow step towards the stairs and Martyn followed. vv Contiued in N&C vv