I don’t think I’ve witnessed anything more terrifying.
Hurriedly, I search for another rock.
It’s smaller this time, but it’s all I have—I hurl it at its head, but it ducks just in time, slithering toward me.
Then my vision turns white.
I feel its coldness wrap around me like an ice blanket. For a millisecond, I stare death in its glowing red eyes.
I’m prepared to be swallowed whole.
And then, a snarl rips through the night.
It’s not the monster’s.
This one is lower, deeper, one that makes the world vibrate around me.
I turn to my right and there, with its jaws sinking into the shadow monster’s side, is a big, grey wolf.
The shadow monster breaks free, lunging, sending the wolf chasing after it. I see the wolf’s eyes.
Jasper.
I get up, for some reason I have an instinct to help, but once Jasper growls, I take a step back.
This is the first time I’ve properly seen him in his wolf form; he’s formidable.
Jasper traps the monster once again, opening his jaws and sinking them into the side of the monster’s neck.
There’s that deafening scream.
But all I can focus on is Jasper. The way his pearly white canines glisten beneath the moonlight.
His fur is silky, smooth, looking like velvet or cream.
The shadow swirls around Jasper, its body like tentacles trying to pull him down with it.
But Jasper growls again, so loud that it’s as though the trees are going to come crashing down around me.
I hold onto my stomach.
Frightened moreforJasper than anything else. He has to make it out of this.
He’s strong.
Jasper presses his paws deeper into the creature’s body, pressing it down with all his weight.
It screams, a sound like a deflating balloon.
With the shadow monster helpless, Jasper sinks in his jaws again—this time the scream gets louder, so loud it’s as though something’s about to break.
It’s like glass shattering, so intense, I bring my hands to my ears.
Then it quietens.
It’s as though Jasper is feeding, opening his jaws and closing them around the monster’s neck. The rest of his wolf body is dead-still.
Now the smoke begins to dissipate, and the creature is shrinking.