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My eyes popped open in the dark. It was warm and smelled overwhelmingly like ax body spray. I realized my hands were pressed against two hard things. Looking to my left, I could see that I was snuggled up against a shirtless Daniel. He had his pants on, but somehow he had lost a shirt in the night. My fingertips were pressed against his rock-hard tanned abs. I gulped as I looked at him sleeping there. His lips were only a few inches from mine.
We appeared to be in a tent. The ground was lined with many animal furs, and it was these furs that we were lying on as we slept. I finally looked over to my right, to find my hand resting on Rune’s crotch. I immediately pulled back both hands. A cry escaped my lips, but I lifted both hands to cover my mouth, blocking the noise to keep either man from waking up.
As I glanced around the room, I realized that several of the boys were asleep in the tent. Apparently, none of them wanted to leave me alone with Daniel, so they all took it upon themselves to pile into the small tent. Andrew was there. So was Stephan. Allan was lying in a corner, and Alex was actually sprawled out in his guy form over two of the guys. It looked like a put of ferrets.
It was at that point I noticed I was sniffing my hands, which had the manly scents of the two boys I had just been touching. I pulled my hands away quickly. What was I thinking? I wasn’t some kind of strange pervert who would do something like that! My hands still had a bit of their warmth lingering there. I found myself holding them away from my body like they had been irreparably contaminated.
With that, I steadily stood up, being careful not to make a sound. I knew how strong some of their hearing was. I just wanted to get some fresh air. The boy scent that filled the room was making me slightly tipsy. No! That wasn’t it at all. It wasn’t like I was getting some kind of strange satisfaction by smelling boys! My hands are away from my body! They had a 12-inch distance! While thinking such thoughts, I pushed my way out of the tent flap and walked out into the night.
“Is everything okay?” A voice asked, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin.
I spun to see Ryan sitting there in a chair next to the tent flap. He had a large generator-like box sitting next to him, and a cord appeared to be running from it to his body.
“You’re awake?” I cried out.
“I was charging,” Ryan explained. “When you passed by, you set off my proximity alarm and pulled me out of standby.”
“Ah… I’m sorry.” I blushed. “ I just… needed some air.”
“I never understood this statement. Is there not air everywhere?” Ryan asked curiously.
As he said that, I noticed that there was actually quite a commotion going on in the bowl. I could hear what sounded like fireworks. There was music playing. I could hear tons of people talking too. Considering it was the middle of the night, this caused my attention to drift towards that.
“What’s going on down there?” I asked, ignoring his question as politely as I could.
“It’s a festival. After the tournament ends, there is apparently a large celebration.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“They are werewolves.”
I let out a small chuckled. Of course, I felt stupid now that he said it. Why wouldn’t a werewolf festival be during the night of a full moon? I sniffed and could smell barbeque and meat and various other good smells. My stomach rumbled and I realized that with the Triwerewolf tournament happening, I had barely eaten anything.
“Would you like to go down? I still have a few hours I need to charge, but I would be willing to disconnect for you.”
Why did the way he say that send shivers down my spine? No, that was just my imagination getting the better of me. Ryan was a robot, so naturally, he would be practical with his offers.
“Um… actually…”
“I’ll take her.” Another voice came from the darkness, and I almost jumped again.
How many people were hovering around the tent at night? Rather, why were all of my friends so nocturnal! This voice wasn’t coming from one of the boys though. It was actually Treena who had made the offer to take me down to the festival.
“Are you sure?” I asked, feeling a bit uncertain.
We had been mortal enemies just a day ago, or at least it, kind of felt that way. Treena had been my toughest competitor, and in the end, Daniel was still going to leave with me while she needed to take his place. Admittedly, she was a woman who obtained that leadership role, but I still felt like there was a bit of unresolved anger between us.
“It’s fine,” Treena said, not looking at my eyes, and keeping her hands in her pocket. “I’ll take you.”
“Are you sure you are alright? I saw the damage you took earlier.” I reached out instinctively, and just managed to touch her forehead before she reeled back.
“I’m fine!” She said a strange look in her eyes as she jerked away.
“Ah… sorry.” I pulled back immediately, not even sure why I bothered.
Treena let out a long sigh and then nodded down the bowl. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”
I followed Treena down into the bowl. Although wolves supposedly had good eyes in the moonlight, this fair was completely lit with large lighting panels. It was a legit festival too. Treena revealed that one of the branches of werewolves were carnies, so they actually had all of this stuff anyway. So, setting up a carnival, even in the middle of the forest, was no problem. They even kept the prices down. However, most of the games weren’t normal. For example, the milk jug ball toss would be too easy with the eye coordination and strength of a werewolf, so they put them farther away and cranked up the difficulty.
I only had to try one game before I realized that none of these would be something I’d be able to do. Even though I had sported a werewolf hand for a few moments, I was nowhere near the strength of a werewolf during a full moon. It was a shame too. There was a little werewolf stuffed animal I had been eyeing, but winning it was impossible.
“You want it?” Treena pointed at the doll.
“Ah! No!” I cried out, holding out my hands defensively.
“I’ll get it.” She didn’t hesitate to hand out some money.
In the end, even Treena took four tries to successfully get it. In the end, she half turned into a werewolf form. That was where her nose was that of wolves, and she had the ears, but most of her facial features remained.
“Here…” Shoved the wolf in my hands.
I held it up and feeling a bit mischievous, I grinned at her. “It looks a bit like you, Treena!”
“Huh?” She suddenly reached up and touched her wet nose.
She must not have realized she had changed, because she spun and started frantically rubbing her face to make it go away. I let out a laugh.
“Ah… it was cute…” I then held up the wolf stuffed animal and rubbing its nose against mine, “Well, I’m just going to have to call you Treena from now on, okay?”
When I glanced over at Treena’s back, I froze for a second. She hadn’t turned back around, and it looked like she was shaking slightly. Did I really anger her? I must have gone too far. I suddenly felt bad. Just as I raised my hand to apologize, she spun around and pushed past me.
“Whatever, let’s just go.” As she said that, she grabbed my hand for some reason and pulled me along.
I hugged the wolf stuffed animal as Treena showed me around. It was already nearing morning, so I definitely would have missed out on a lot if I didn’t have her as a guide. She got food from a cart. It was some kind of meat on a stick. I figured I was better off not knowing what it was. However, it tasted really good. When I tried to pay her back, she vehemently refused.
There was a guy taking a picture too. I grabbed Treena and pulled her close. At that point, I was having fun, so I decided to just treat Treena like one of the girls. I grabbed her pulled her close, pushing out cheeks together.
“Cheese!” I said, making a sign.
I went up to the guy and waited for him to print out the image. When he was finished, I looked at it. Treena was right next to me, but she was distinctly looking away. However, her cheeks seemed to be bright pink.
“Hey, Treena, were you blush-“
She grabbed the picture and ripped it out of my hands, then shoved it in one of her pockets.
“Nevermind. It’s a bad picture. Let’s go!’ She said angrily, pulling me someplace else.
We only had time to visit a few more stops before the sun dawned and I realized I needed to get back to the tents. Even with Ryan there, I was sure the guys would cause an uproar if they woke up with me gone. They were all so troublesome. I grabbed Treena’s hand this time and pulled her back up to the tent as the midnight carnival was put away like it had never been there. She followed behind me with her head down, looking strangely shy.
I stopped a bit before we reached the tent flap, as I didn’t want to set off Ryan’s proximity alarm again. I turned to Treena and smiled.
“Look, Treena… I know we’ve had our differences, but I want you to know that I don’t want to stand in the way between you and Daniel.”
Treena blinked like she was coming out of a daze. “You don’t.”
I shook my head. “If you wish to pursue him, I’ll cheer you on, okay?”
“O-okay…” Treena looked down and noticed the stuffed animal I was holding. “That animal… keep it close, will you?”
“Huh? Yeah sure…” I was confused as to what the stuffed animal had to do with anything.
I heard a noise and turned to look at the tent. It sounded like the boys were starting to get up. My peaceful night with one of the girls ended. I almost wanted to cry.
“I wish it could just be us, girls, sometimes… Mm!”
Before I knew what was happening, I felt two lips press against mine. I put my hands out instinctively, finding myself grabbing on to a woman’s chest. My eyes widened as I saw Treena across from me, her eyes closed, leaned forward and kissing me. Before I could push her away, she had already pulled away.
“G-goodbye!” She suddenly spun and ran, heading back the way she came at the speed of a werewolf.
At that exact moment, a bunch of noisy guys came jostling out of the tent. Meanwhile, I was frozen in place, my hands still in the position where I had grabbed her chest, and my eyes as wide as possible.
“Hey, Jane!” Daniel immediately called. “That’s where you went!”
He ran over to me, joined by a bunch of the other guys. I still didn’t move an inch. He suddenly sniffed me.
“Hmmm… you smell a lot like Treena.”
“Hehe… you’re saying Jane’s smell reminds you of another woman?” Rune sneered, “How disloyal!”
“Th-that’s not what I meant!”
“Ah, Jane passed out!”
“I knew she didn’t get enough sleep!”
I found my vision turning horizontal. Even as ten men crowded around me, their body odor filling my nose and their half-naked bodies filling my vision… the taste of a girl was still on my lips. Why did I have the feeling my life was only going to get more complicated from here?