Adventure Fantasy Friendship

“Cay, we can’t go that high! Mom said we shouldn’t climb more than three branches, remember?”

But Cay kept climbing, higher and higher, until he was so up into the tree he said he could see a “million trees and houses!” Shane called up to him, but he couldn’t hear her. “What?”

“I said—”

Shane heard a branch snap, and she let go, landing on the grass with a hard thud. Shouting she’d tell Mom he couldn’t be up there without supervision or someone with him, she dashed away into the house through the back porch. Cay had watched her, eyes half-closed.

Whatever. It’s not like I’m going to fall. Besides, I know this tree pretty much like it knows its own flowers and branches. I’m five years older. What does she know anyway?

Cay climbed higher until he got to the top of the tree. The very top. Perching on a branch, Cay stared around at all the town, wind whipping his blond hair and birds flying overhead. Farms looked like play areas. Cay put his hand up, feeling like he could touch a bird. When he looked down, though, he froze.

I didn’t know I was this high up!

Cay couldn’t move. His eyes started to water. Please, someone, I need to get down! He desperately clung to the branch. Cay heard Shane calling for him, his mother yelling for him to stay put. Oh, he stayed right where he was, alright. Don’t worry, Mom. Cay wasn’t going anywhere. He saw some birds coming his way. His heart racing, he jerked his head out of the way—

“You’re safe.”

Cay’s eyes popped open. His shoes dangled above the tree. Panicking, he stopped upon seeing claws holding him. “You’re holding me! A talking bird is carrying me to earth!”

“Putting you safely on the ground!”

And the bird’s words were true—Cay dropped onto the grass, his hands breaking his fall. When he got up, he met two shocked, speechless faces. His mother came alive, staring up at the bird who flew away, Cay saw with remorse. He never thanked it. He guessed it would be thanked if he never climbed so high again. He nodded.

“Why are you nodding to no one?” Shane asked, but Cay called for the bird, stopping only when his mother said should Cay ever do that again he’d be sleeping outside on the back porch. Shane started to say something, but Cay shushed her. He walked over to the tree, looking way up into the highest branches. He backed up, standing so that the tree was in full view. Still, the bird didn’t return. He teared up. Why don’t you come back? He wished desperately he could run his hand over its glossy black feathers. And it talked!

“You’re so in trouble for going up there.”

She bounded away, but Cay sat in front of the tree. Suddenly, the bird landed right beside him, bowing, its wings outspread.

Cay climbed onto its back, and it soared somewhere, landing in front of wolves. “Get off me. I’m a wolf now.” Cay obeyed. IIt explained that whatever it imagined, it could go there or become. For example, if it pictured a winter trail in its mind, it’d be running on that snow, or if it desired to breathe fire, such an element would stream from its mouth.

The alpha approached, asking why the wolf was late. It bowed before the alpha, explaining that this boy had been up in a tree so high he couldn’t get down. The alpha snarled that excuses were intolerable. Cay blinked.

Thanks, man. Thanks a lot. So I’m something you can’t handle.

He stood up straight, daring the alpha to come closer. He was a person, and wolves were below people.

“You dare threaten me?” The alpha bared his teeth, but Cay didn’t back away. He told the alpha he was someone’s brother, son and best friend. He didn’t need to bow to an animal. The alpha growled something Cay assumed was an insult, and searched for a weapon. Clutching a rock, Cay threatened the wolf, but he shrugged. “Stupid boy!”

He turned tail, jumping onto a boulder.

“Stupid wolf! I’ll skin you for calling me an excuse.”

Several wolves braced themselves, the alpha not moving. When another wolf joined him, he moved his tail over, she sitting behind him. When she asked him whether he was going to save his breakfast for later, the alpha growled that he wouldn’t eat it. Everyone stared at him. He wasn’t going to attack?

“Let the boy think he won. He’s nothing to me.”

Cay dashed home. Or at least he thought he was home. He whipped open the screen door, but no one was there. Then wolves started appearing around every corner, growling, snapping, baring teeth. The house started melting. Cay backed away, escaping. He found himself back in the forest. Turning to the wolf, he told it to take him home.

“Can’t. Alpha Wolf needs you—”

“I’m not his dinner! Take me home, or I’ll hurl this rock at you.” Cay raised the rock, ready to strike.

The alpha sniggered. “You stupid boy. You can’t hurt us. One wolf can end you by lunging at your throat. And no one will save you.”

Cay heard someone approaching, and turned a wary eye. It was the female wolf, and Cay hoped she knew what she was doing. She asked him whether he’d like to lead the way home, or he’d like to climb aboard. Cay said he’d lead.

“I like leading. I’m the alpha of my own pack.” Cay started walking in the direction of his house, she behind him. Once they got to a certain part of the woods, he stopped. “I know this place.” He whirled around. “Are you—”

But the female wolf wasn’t there anymore. Cay called for her. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to take me home? Come on!” What on earth is going on? I’m not familiar with everything! Please, I wish someone would just help me. When that female wolf returned, Cay asked whether she disappeared because he threatened her husband.

“First of all, he’s my mate. Second of all, you’re—”

“Nowhere but in a forest surrounded by fall leaves, half of which are dead. And besides, if I get myself out of here, I’ll be walking into another fake house.”

The female wolf told him to join her pack.

“No! I wouldn’t join your mate even if he took me home.”

The wolf disappeared. What did she want—respect? Didn’t she get that from her pack? Was she not the alpha like he assumed? Was she the omega? Cay asked.

“Yes.”

Startled, Cay told her to stay with him.

“Scared?” But she had a tinge of I don’t want to be this way but I’m not worthy enough to say anything else in her voice. Cay, for a split second, saw that she wanted to be more than just a bullied animal.

“Shut up!” Cay snapped at her. “You’re the least in your pack.”

She growled, eyes blazing. “Be quiet, human! I’m the least, but I can lunge and snap your neck quicker than—”

“Can we get out of here?”

“There’s no ‘we’ or ‘us’. It’s just you, and it’s just me.”

“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, wolf.”

The wolf blinked, but Cay saw tears in those eyes. He hoped she wouldn’t lunge. She didn’t over the course of time, but how’d he know she wasn’t evil, or waiting for the perfect moment? She said that when the she-wolves started having pups, the alpha male told her, the alpha female, to help the newborns. She didn’t like this idea, so when she refused, the alpha deemed her the omega and, pretty soon, allowed another she-wolf to rule with him as the new female alpha. Bitter towards the two alphas, the omega said she’d rather let a gun take her life than babysit a bunch of runts.

“And I’d rather get out of here than spend another second.”

“Please—I can help.”

“Prove it.”

She trotted off, Cay watching her the whole time. When they had gotten home, Cay touched the walls of his house. They felt real. Okay, Cay, get a grip. This isn’t some dream. I need to believe I’m home. He walked up to the omega, recalling how the alpha demanded he join their pack. She shook her head, laughing. “He doesn’t know anything. Thinks he’s the best. I’ve always caught the juiciest, biggest fish, attacked the most, hunted and killed the fastest, tracked and found the most deer and—”

“Does every answer come with a backstory?” Cay was irritated. He crossed his arms. “Can you just go home?” But something tugged at him. He felt bad for the omega—though he’d never admit it—because she was the least of her pack, like he was the least academic or studious or outspoken. He just pretended to be confident whenever he was around others he didn’t like.

“Yeah.”

But she sounded so sad.

Cay apologized. “Can we stop playing these trust games, and actually—”

“Let’s go!”

The wolf turned into a raven just as Shane appeared at the screen door. When he looked back as he ascended into the sky, he saw a face of horror that changed into a mixture of jealousy and pleading. Shane then disappeared, assumedly to tell Mom Cay wasn’t doing his homework (or to tell Mom he was being taken away by a huge bird). Cay shook his head, and laughed, spreading out his arms and whooping with excitement that he was flying on a bird, and then the raven descended into the water. At first, Cay screamed, a death grip on those feathers. But the raven promised him he’d be alright. Plunging into the water, the raven became a shark. Cay realized he could breathe. He held onto her fin until she came to other sharks, one looking hungry. It chased her, Cay ordering it to leave them alone. The nasty great white only went right for him!

Cay screamed for his shark to turn into a dinosaur or something huge, and she became an orca, defeating the shark in one blow. Cay wished the showdown lasted longer—then he could’ve written all about such a feat in his journal before it was ripped out of his hands by the bullies at school. Cay wanted to explore the ocean more. While the orca swam, they encountered more and more enemies, from box jellyfish to octopi. Cay stayed glued to the orca’s body when the jellyfish came around. They didn’t look like they wanted to do anything but float there. He didn’t dare test them.

When they left, Cay found himself back at the forest. The same dry, dead leafed forest. Cay turned on the wolf. “Where are we? Are you here to bring me to my death?”

The wolf led him to a leafed pathway. “Come on…”

“Cay.” He said, staring at the walkway, wondering where it led.

“Cay, let’s go.”

It sounded like the wolf trusted Cay. Maybe even wanted to be his friend.

The female wolf trotted ahead, and Cay warily went. She asked him whether he’d like to be a shape-shifter, and he said he’d like to become one. To escape his annoying sister, Shane.

“Shane’s always in my business!” Cay complained. “I never get peace, especially in my bedroom. She’s always there, waiting to frustrate me.”

The omega laughed. Something in that laughter told Cay he shouldn’t worry about this girl called Shane. They went on many adventures in other worlds—fighting dragons, battling huge eels, taking on snakes and scorpions in the deserts while defeating polar bears in the frigid cold Artic. The omega asked Cay over blueberries, melon and ice-cold water why he wanted to go home if this Shane disturbs him so much.

“Well, I don’t want to serve that evil alpha male wolf.”

“I don’t, either. But I don’t desire a place where I’m going to have to.”

Cay sighed. “I have a best friend. And a family. I’m a human boy. And you’re a wolf. You have a pack.”

“No, not really.”

“What do you mean?”

“I was rejected. Or rather I ran away. I don’t have anyone. We could start our own pack, with you as the alpha and me the other alpha. We’d be parents to—”

“No, thank you.”

Cay ran away home. But as he went to school the next day, elaborating on his tales of adventure to his classmates, he felt like he was reading something to people who doubted him. So he closed his journal he had worked on all night long, returning to his seat. As the teacher picked another student, Cay slouched, half-listening to Cindy’s science fair project as a bully whispered to him that he had the dumbest stories.

Snickering with the kid beside him, he didn’t stop until the teacher told them they’d get detention if they didn’t stop. Cay smothered his laughter, but later that day, when he returned to the omega, he related today’s story. She looked sad. He felt a bond because he was the omega of his school. He was always picked on, never buddied at lunch and always picked last at gym class. He only had one best friend—Rohan, from another country.

But, today, he returned to India.

So Cay had no friends.

The omega looked upset. He asked. She said she had no friends, either. No one hunted with her. No one visited her in her den, or remembered the biggest fish. Or the fastest deer caught. The alpha got all the credit. Cay told her to stand up for herself. She said if she did, she’d get bullied by the other wolves. They’d turn on her, snapping and biting, driving her into a corner, intimidating her.

Cay said he’d help her. He could shapeshift into a wolf, too, if he ate something, or drank something—

“Come with me.”

She led Cay onto a path where he found some water by a stream. He didn’t want to disturb it, though. The water was like glass. Cay wished his life was like this. Completely untouched. Unfortunately, bullies existed. The omega barked, startling him.

“Yeah—sure!”

Hoping the water didn’t have brain-killing insects in it, the teenager grabbed a handful. He wanted more water—it was delicious. And more. The omega watched as he soared into the sky as a bird and then landed as a cat. Becoming human, Cay excitedly asked whether there was anything else that would give him other powers.

“No.”

“I drank some water, and I could turn into anything I wanted. But I wished I didn’t, because I just want to be a girl, and—”

“Wait.” Cay thought. “You’re a shapeshifter? Is that why you’ve been disappearing? To drink this water?” His eyes widened. “So you’re human, too?”

“You know, loneliness is hard to have as a friend. You’re always the one searching for a true companion, never able to have him or her.” Suddenly, the omega let out a piercing yelp—an arrow pierced its stomach. Cay lunged at the bloodied area, pressing his hands against her stomach.

“No, no, no!”

Cay covered the wound, yelling for help. The omega whined, and Cay blinked back tears. No, my friend, don’t die. Please, you can’t. He asked whether the wolf could read minds. She said laboriously that she could if she drank more water. But she was sick of having to drink the water to have powers. Why couldn’t she just do as she pleased?

The omega said that the rocks can be flattened, and Cay shape-shifted into a wolf, using a rock as a bandage. He added more until the wound was covered. He didn’t want to take the arrow out, and snapped it, throwing it in the water. Hating the ugly thing, Cay licked at the wound, howling.

“No one will hear you. We’re out here alone. Stranded.”

Cay became a human and gathered some water. He poured it onto the omega’s wound. It healed instantly, and Cay cried with relief. Tears poured down his cheeks, and the omega saw with joy that the arrow could be taken out as long as the water kept being poured onto the fur.

“What was that all about?” Cay asked as the omega got up and shook herself. They made a campfire, Cay and the omega having gathered the sticks, rocks and twigs as birds and dry leaves as people.

As people.

The campfire spat flames into the star-boasting night sky, but Cay and the other teen, Skydance, enjoyed it, sharing plans to return together to the human world. Skydance was never returning to her pack. She had always dreamed of living a true life. She needed to face those alphas upon the boulder. At least the one that hopped up beside her mate after she had hopped down.

“Should we defeat them?” Cay suggested slyly.

“No.” Skydance yawned. “I’m tired.”

But Cay said he had other plans. Skydance became a wolf, curling up, her tail around her, Cay stayed a human. She told him to join her. He agreed.

“Not if you want to get entangled with the alpha male and female.” But Cay said he always wanted to defeat bullies.

“How about we start at your school?” She put a paw on him, like he was going to jump up any minute.

“Okay…” He sighed reluctantly.

When they returned to the pack, the two faced bullies worse than they had at school. If they didn’t submit to them, they wouldn’t return to the human world.

At all.

They’d be stuck in this wolf world until they submitted as omegas, or died.

Or both.

Posted Oct 02, 2025
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