“


    “


    “


    “


    That was the bad thing about being in a classroom with thirty other teenagers her age, there was always someone chatting with a friend. It didn''t help that the conversation was about something that had the potential to catch her attention. That was a bolt-action rifle widely used for hunting. She knew thatbecause part of her training as a huntress involved using firearms, and she had used one just like that one while practicing her aim against deer and mouflon. The problem with using such weapons against cinanthropes was that it was bulky, and there was a tendency to go close range. Yes, it had a brutal push, but you had to hit first, and that was a hunting rifle, not a sword. For a point-blank shot, a pistol was much more effective.


    “The Savage is fine, but I think the Remington 700 is more accurate,” said his desk partner, a boy named Rodrigo. “By the way, my father went out hunting on Sunday and shot a deer with a wound in its hock. He told me he had never seen anything like it, that it was as if a huge wolf had bitten it, but there have been no wolves in Madrid for decades.”


    Sofia couldn''t help it. All her attention was focused on her classmates’ conversation. Forgotten were her notes for the public examination. All she could think about at that moment was that the deer had survived. The cinanthrope never returned to try to claim his prey, perhaps because he didn''t have time, or perhaps because he felt it wasn''t worth risking his life against such a beast. With any luck he had left the area, though she doubted it. Normally they used to settle in a territory for years, and except for necessity they did not usually leave.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    “


    White? Sofia immediately thought of the cinanthrope she had crashed into weeks ago, the same one she later saw by the stream. Yes, it had to be the same one, and that must have been the attack her mother warned her about. That he hadn''t attacked cattle again was a good sign. Perhaps he did it on impulse, or perhaps hunger drove him to it, but he wasn’t able to claim his prey before he had to flee after being caught red-handed. The reasons why he had killed a lamb could be many.


    “A white wolf?” said Rodrigo, the second of the three, lowering his voice slightly before continuing. “My father told me that a friend of his who hunts further south, near La Pedriza, told him about a white wolf. It roamed the area for years, but it never wandered into the fields.The ranchers were wary, and told the hunters to shoot it down if they came across it,but the damned creature was intelligent and got away every time. No sign of it has been seen for weeks, but they think it may still be in the area, only more hidden. Do you think it could be the same one?”


    “


    “


    Sofia''s blood froze. A cinanthrope was not a simple dog, he would not fall into a crude trap, but that did not mean that he was invulnerable to trickery. Their intelligence was human, and like any human a well-laid trap could catch them, or worse. Biting her lip, she returned her attention to the papers in front of her. The truth was that she had not made much effort to find him in the last few days, so perhaps she was going to have to get down to work. That didn''t solve the main problem, how could she approach him without scaring him off again?


    So immersed was she in her thoughts that she didn''t even notice the moment Dave returned to the classroom and went back to his desk. There was a brief commotion as Lola returned to her friends. The girls quickly stood up, wanting to ask her what had happened, and in doing so they moved the chairs, causing a ruckus. A ruckus that in other circumstances would not have affected Sofia at all, but being distracted by her ruminations as she was, it sounded like a powerful thunder to her sensitive ears. A thunderclap that snapped her out of it and caused her to jump so hard that some of her papers fell from her desk and flew to the young man''s feet. Dave bent down, picked them up and as he went to hand them to Sofia he raised both eyebrows.


    “


    “


    “