«Andryush?»
«A?»
«What if we never find a way home?»
«Oh, come on! Don’t start it again!»
«Ok, well…»
She took a deep breath.
«I’m freezing.»
«Me too. And what?»
«Nothing.»
«It’s not winter. We will endure it.»
Somewhere in the distance, a lone wolf howl sounded.
After some time, another one, but a little higher in tone answered it, cutting through the darkness of the night and running unpleasant goosebumps down the girl’s back.
She looked around, and suddenly it seemed to her…
«Look, Andrey. What is this?»
«What exactly?»
She looked again.
«Over there.»
He turned to where she was pointing.
«Strange. Really. Like something is shining.»
«It does not shine. It burns. It’s clearly a light in the window.»
«Come on!»
«I’m telling you.»
«Do you have better eyesight than me?»»
«I don’t know.»
For some time he carefully looked in that direction, and then abruptly unbuckled his belt and began to descend.
«Andre-ey?!»
«Let’s get down!» he commanded in a tone that brooked no objection.
* * *
The master came inside, and all the images on the walls, on the floor and on the ceiling, as if in response to his presence, immediately came to life, starting to emit a dim phosphorescent light. At the same moment Kanny smelled that familiar bitter smell coming from the drawings.
«Hurry, hurry!» literally shouted his essence, weary from the Spell, although outwardly he did not show his impatience, remaining completely motionless in the center of the pentagram on the floor.
As if not noticing him, the master began to monotonously cast spells, moving from place to place, from figure to figurine, from drawing to drawing, stopping where he needed to perform the rite.
Gradually, Kanny felt a sweet languor slowly seize him, as if someone with an invisible hand hugged him, and then penetrated inside. The reality of what was happening began to slowly slip away from his consciousness, the smells began to dissolve and mix with each other, and the picture of the environment became more and more blurred. For some reason, the master’s words were getting louder, and his voice was getting sharper and rougher, as if everything he said caused him an extreme degree of irritation. From somewhere in the room, other wolf people began to appear, just like Kanny. They bared their teeth at him or maliciously, like hyenas, laughed in his face, splashing on him their saliva.
As usual, the werewolf was terrified with all this, but he knew he had to do his best to remain calm and not react to anything. An unbearable itch filled his whole body, as if every cell of his skin suddenly turned into a separate living being and began to live its own independent life.
«It’s close, it’s close!» this was the last thought in his mind before Kanny, as if in a dream, suddenly saw two teenagers approaching the house and, crying out in unbearable pain, fell unconscious.
* * *
Small, plump, bearded, cut like a hedgehog, with gray prickly piercing eyes, a master, he is Alex, he is Uncle Sasha for some villagers in those very rare cases when he still had to see them, he is a hereditary sorcerer, he is… although his last title, as well as other names, nicknames, ranks and the like, were not intended for a wide range of people – he saw as Kanny fell unconscious with the last spell, and thought:
«Weakling! He again could not withstand it to the end!»
At that moment, the bell rang, and suddenly someone knocked loudly on the door of the house.
The sorcerer even flinched in surprise.
«It’s impossible!» he thought, and with undisguised anger looked at the werewolf, who, at that moment, had already gone through the whole process and acquired a human form, to which the master did not feel anything but contempt. There was not the slightest trace of his former fear, which on an instinctive level aroused in him in front of the huge wolf.
Meanwhile, the knocking on the door continued.
Hurrying out into the corridor, Alex came to the exit and looked through the eyepiece of the surveillance camera to see who dared to disturb him at such a late hour in the middle of the forest. To his surprise, he saw two teenagers near the house, a girl and a guy, looking around in fear.
«Oh! Come on! And what should I do now?» the sorcerer thought irritably.
However, he knew that if he did not open, in their desperate situation, these two would look for a way to get into the house. Therefore, opening the inner door, he rudely asked:
«Who’s there?»
«Praise God!» the girl exclaimed.
«Forgive us, please, we got lost,» the guy said.
«Let us in for the night… please!» the girl asked in a pleading voice, as if she would burst into tears.
«Beasts!» the sorcerer thought angrily, and said out loud as calmly as possible:
«Wait for a moment.»
* * *
There became silence behind the door.
«He is not really pleased with our arrival, judging by his tone,» Andrey remarked.
«It doesn’t matter, as long as he lets us in,» Lera answered, chilly rubbing her cold shoulders.
«I think he will, but… I don’t really like all this.»
«Come on. It’s better than spending the night in a tree anyway.»
«It’s clear. But where is he from? I didn’t hear anything from any of the villagers that there was a forester’s house here, they crawled all the way across here. Moreover, it is quite large, not just a hut, but a whole cottage. How in the world did he get such a house like this unnoticed?»
«Maybe we’ve gone so far that it’s not their territory anymore?»
«Hmm, I don’t think so. We need to ask Uncle Venya. He is an experienced hunter. He spent all his life here and should know everything. He certainly explored every single place in the district. If, of course, we stay alive.»
«What are you talking about?» with fear asked Lera.
«Yes, be quiet,» her brother snapped. «I hope this isn’t the damned place he once talked about.»
«What place?»
«Doesn’t matter. One day I’ll tell you, but now… whatever may happen let it happen. It is strange that no light can be seen in the windows. How then did we see the illuminated window? I saw it clearly.»
«Maybe he turned it off?»
«I thought so too, but now, in theory, he should have turned it on again, but look, there is no light.»
«Yes, indeed. It’s strange.»
«I also thought that the moon could be reflected in the window, but no, all the windows are tightly closed