The Huntress

[greenportal]

Title: The Huntress

Fandom: Original Universe

Characters: OC Gwen (Werewolf)

Word Count: 1,155

Summary: Gwen sets out to find dinner for her pack.

Warnings: Mentions of food

Author's Notes: Wrong holiday, oops.

     Carnivals are stupid.
 

     There was nothing else for Jenny to do but sit and think that over and over. Her friends were meeting up on the other side of the state line, where it was legal to celebrate the Fourth of July with their own fireworks. Meanwhile, Jenny had to help her dad run the family’s barbecue truck. Dad wasn’t even there at that point; he had taken her little brother to find the petting zoo before it closed for the night. That left Jenny sitting at the open window and staring off into the nearby cornfield as she kept thinking about the stupid carnival.
 

     Having to work all night was stupid. The crowds screaming in the distance were stupid. Even the parking spot for the food trucks was stupid. Their truck was in the last stupid slot on the line, with the stupid window facing nothing but the end of the stupid road and a mile of stupid corn. She was going to miss the fireworks show with this stupid angle. There weren’t even any stupid customers willing to come this far back in the food truck lot. Stupid.
 

     All she could do was sit and check her phone for updates on the party. As she scrolled through the sparkler selfies, she almost didn’t notice the figure coming towards her from the field.
 

     They stumbled as they walked, a typical drunk at first glance. As they got closer Jenny could tell that they were wearing a long trench coat and wide-brimmed hat with fake flowers. Closer still and she could see their dark sunglasses. Yet they hadn’t found a way to cover the rest of their face, letting their gray and white wolf muzzle poke out from their disguise. They also weren’t wearing shoes, and their dog-like legs were far too thin and narrow for the thicker silhouette of the trench coat. The stumbling made more sense now, yet it also didn’t. They were walking too poorly for a human, yet too well for a dog on their hind legs.
 

     Jenny put down her phone as the wolf approached the truck. It put its paws up on the window counter. No, not paws. The fingers were too long and they had thumbs like human hands. In one fist was a wad of paper money. The other held a crumpled piece of paper that they dropped on the counter. Jenny waited for them to pull their empty hand back before she picked up the paper. The note written on it was in large, shaky letters.
 

     “6 #2s. No Bunz.”
 

     Jenny reread it a few times. It wasn’t that hard to figure out, it was just surreal that it was happening.
 

     “Six pulled pork sandwiches?” Jenny said.
 

     The wolf looked up and down, trying to mimic nodding. They opened their other hand and let the bills fall to the counter. Jenny picked them up and counted.
 

     “Uh… have you been here before? The sandwich was three fifty last year. They’re five bucks now.”
 

     The wolf tilted their head to one side, and then to the other. They tried to lean back to read the menu board, but couldn’t keep their balance. They looked down at the money again and licked their lips before scooping it back up in both hands. Then they stumbled back to the cornfield.
 

     Jenny picked up her phone and started writing a post to her friends. This was just weird enough that someone needed to know. Yet her finger hesitated over the “send” button. She thought about her group, and tried to decide which ones would believe her and which would accuse her of trying to ruin their party with scary stories. Crystal would believe it, of course. Though she would also claim that the wolf was her “spirit animal” trying to contact her, and then spend the next few nights wandering the field to find it. Probably not safe to let her know. The rest of them were more likely to claim jealousy or attention-seeking. Even if she had a picture of the thing it was too ridiculous to be real. Jenny sighed and deleted the finished post just as the wolf wandered back.
 

     This time they dropped the bills on the counter along with a large handful of change. Jenny groaned at having to count it all before proceeding.
 

     As she bent over the windowsill she could hear the wolf panting in her ear, but if she looked up they would stop. Did they think she wouldn’t notice their warm breath on her head?
 

     Once she had the coins sorted into piles, Jenny stepped back from the window.
 

     “You’re still three dollars short.”
 

     The wolf’s shoulders slumped. They looked down and pushed the coins around like they were counting for themself, and then whined softly when they reached the same conclusion.
 

     Jenny sighed at the pathetic thing. “If I give you the veteran’s discount will you go away and leave me alone?”
 

     The wolf stood up straight again and nodded.
 

     “Cool,” Jenny said as she scooped up the coins. After they were stashed in the register she turned to work the smoker.
 

     “You want the other fixin’s? Any lettuce?”
 

     The wolf looked back and forth across the kitchen, mimicking shaking their head.
 

     “Tomatoes? Pickles? Mustard? Onion rings?”
 

     Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake.
 

     Jenny stopped to turn back to the window. “So you want six servings of just the meat. Do you want me to dump it all in one bag?”
 

     The wolf nodded. Their tongue flopped out of their mouth as they started panting again. The back of their coat flapped wildly, unable to hide their wagging tail.
 

     Whatever made Jenny’s job easier. Six heaping servings of pork, piled into one large cardboard bowl and set into the bottom of a paper bag. By the time she got back the wolf’s tail was wagging so hard that they were struggling to keep their balance; almost dancing in front of the window.
 

     “There you go,” Jenny said, plopping down the bag, “Don’t come back.”
 

     The wolf snatched up the bag. It made an odd sound, somewhere between a quiet bark and a loud whimper. It almost sounded like, “Thank you,” if said by Scooby-Doo and run through several dozen voice modulators. They tried to walk off with the bag at first, but gave up halfway to the field. They grabbed the bag in their mouth instead and took off on all fours.
 

     Once they passed the first row of corn there was a sudden uproar. Jenny could hear snarling, ripping, and barking, and saw figures darting back and forth behind the plants.
 

     After a few minutes another wolf came back to the lot, this one dark brown with mottled gray on its back. It dragged the remains of the paper bag to the nearest trash can and dropped it inside, then ran off again.
 

     That was the last Jenny saw of them.