Six

Charlotte wrapped herself tighter in her blanket, glad she’d bought thing even if it was a pain to pack around everywhere. After 16 days of travel, she found herself this morning sitting on a beach somewhere in the northwest watching the reflection in the waves as the sun came up behind her.. “Ok lottie, what's the plan now” she wondered aloud. The money I'd saved had run out days ago, luckily I'd managed to hitchhike this far and beg a few meals from strangers along the way. When I arrived in this cute coastal town yesterday evening I fell in love with it  immediately. It had an old world charm about it, the buildings were old but well cared for, all painted in shades of white, with each building accented brightly in a different color, the whole town seemed to be cascading in a multitude of flowers, overflowing from balconies and windows, winding up lamp posts along the street.  After wandering the town and beaches all afternoon,by evening I knew I’d reached the end of my running. With no money to buy a room for the night I’d fallen asleep on the beach listening to the waves crash against the rocks. Last night was a game changer however -it got cold here at night, much colder than i’d ever experienced before. It was more than clear to me that if I was staying here I had to find somewhere to stay and a job to pay for it as soon as I possibly could.

Being on the road for this long had done my appearance no favors, I’d only managed to take a couple showers, the last one almost 4 days ago. Making matters worse were my clothes, i hadn’t brought nearly enough and opportunities to wash them had been few. Groaning loudly I allowed myself a moment of self-loathing. Who did I think I was kidding, I was dirty and I stank, not exactly qualities employers were looking for. My moment of self loathing turned into an hour and then into several hours. Finally I got up, brushed the sand off of myself, rolled up my blanket and secured it to my backpack before grabbing the bundle and setting off into town.

I spent most of my morning wandering in and out of different stores and shops, asking for any available work, the polite ones handed me an application with a fake smile and the not so polite ones just flat out told me to leave. It had to be around noon now -i wasn’t sure i had no watch- and i had just walked out of a small gardening center with another application in hand when across the parking lot i noticed an elderly woman struggling to load quite a few large bags of garden soil into her suv. Jogging across the lot I approached the woman “Please why don’t you let me help you with that?” Before I reached her one of those infamous coastal breezes picked up and brought her scent to my nose, and stopped me in my tracks. The old woman was a werewolf

“Don’t just stand there with your jaw hanging, come grab these bags and help an old woman out, my back isn’t what it used to be.” The twinkle in her eyes as she looked at me told me she must have already caught my scent as well. I was totally caught off guard, this was the first wolf I'd met since leaving my pack. “S.. Sure” I stammered out and walked the last few feet to her vehicle. With my werewolf strength loading the bags was easy, and the lady just stood silently while I made quick work of it. 

“I’m headed home now to make myself lunch, why don’t you come along with me? I’ll make you a sandwich and you can tell me what you're doing here - after you unload these bags of course.” She half questioned half demanded me

I stood there considering the offer for just a moment before my stomach began rumbling from even thinking about food, reminding me my last meal had been more than a day ago “ummm… ok.” i replied meekly

And that's how I ended up sitting in this old lady’s kitchen, who’s name is Elle by the way, eating the best sandwich I think I've ever had in my life.