CHAPTER THREE | GERMANY

After what felt like a grueling eternity of travel we finally reached the home stretch. The four of us packed into a Taxi that Kadejah hailed, and it took about four minutes into the drive for Jewel's soft snores to fill the car.

I turn my gaze to the window for the majority of the drive, all of us are too tired for much conversation anyways. I'm unable to tear my gaze away from the window, too mesmerized by the scenery that flew by, a complete 180 from home. We entered a small town with a cobblestoned path. Despite the light autumn cold, the town was bustling as a usual market day would. The roofs all the same or similar with roofs pointed towards the Grey-blue sky.

Suddenly the car jolts to a halt followed by a light honk. My breath catches for a moment and I direct my vision towards the hood of the car. A brown dog growls in distaste before running out of our path and into an alleyway between buildings.

"Jesus, that scared me." Cassie, curses clutching her chest.

The Taxi driver mutters an apology and continues on towards our school.

"It's okay, at least you didn't hit her," I reassured the diver.

Kadejah raised an eyebrow at this, "How do you know it was a her?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know, Dej. I just assumed."

Finally, our school becomes visible in the distance. My jaw nearly dropped at the sight of it, even more, breathtaking than the pictures. Before the massive building was a giant green pasture where few students lounged, since school doesn't start till Monday. The building itself looked to be in pristine condition despite its elderly age and antique style. Too immersed in the sight, I didn't notice that we stopped until Dej elbows me for my split of the fare.

"Danke," I say, attempting my german as I slipped out of the Taxi. The driver gives a short chuckle with a thumbs up in approval.

Now fully awake, the energy between the four us nearly cackles. As we pulled our luggage up the paths towards the dorm buildings, I eye the map Dej holds before us.

"A232," She mutters, examining the buildings before us then back onto the map.

In the middle of her struggle, I notice someone coming down on our path seemingly lost in his earphones. His tall lanky stature, made him slightly intimidating compared to my shorter height of 5'3 but we could use the help, and he seems to know his way around here.

"Jewel, your German is the best out of us all, Maybe you can ask that guy for help," I whisper, just in case- and gestured to him.

Her eyes widened into saucers, she shook her head feverishly. "My German is adequate at best," She whispers, harshly in return.

"Sweet Jesus, he's a looker," Cassie says, interrupting our conversation.

On cue, we all whipped our attention to him after her comment. She wasn't joking, a defined jaw, light 5 o'clock stubble paired with unruly midnight black hair with his attention directed onto his phone.

Cassie pushes Jewel in his line of the path before she could object. "Okay soldier get into battle."

He stops abruptly, once he notices Jewel wave brightly. With eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he removes his earphones.

"Hallo, können Sie uns zeigen, wo sich der Schlafsaal A232 befindet?"

He raises a thick eyebrow with a half-smile, his ocean blue eyes observed Jewel in amusement before finally parting his lips to speak.

"I can understand English, but I will commend you on your pronunciation." Then proceeds to point a finger in the building to the left of us. "Should be on the second floor."

Jewel's normally tan complexation, flushes into a bright blush. "Thanks." She mutters, turning to walk back to us.

"Please end me."

I go to give her a hug and handed her the handle of her luggage. "C'mon, it's not like we'll see him again," I reassured as we continued on to our dorm.

"Yes, let's just be thankful for his help because the sooner we get settled, the sooner we can go exploring tonight!" Cassie rally's, quickly leading our path.

+

Exploring quickly turned into babysitting. Once Cassie found out that she was of legal drinking age in Germany it was game over. Of course- Jewel being the supportive yes-girl she joined in on her relentless pestering. Despite my scolding Cassie for peer pressuring, Jewel wafted a hand and said she was 'always curious anyways'.

With Dej on the left holding a nonsense-spewing-Cassie, and me on the right holding a barely-conscious-Jewel, we struggled to make our way out of the restaurant. Initially, we wanted to walk back to the dorms.

That idea quickly was thrown out of the window.

We managed to find a nearby bench and immediately slumped down onto it.

"They are so lucky that classes don't begin until Monday." Dej, sighs as she began to ring a Taxi on her phone.

I chuckle in agreement, unconsciously fingering the pendant on my necklace. "Without a doubt."

From my peripheral vision, I see a quick movement. Immediately I sat up in alarm and whipped my head in its direction.

There sat a dog, upon closer inspection, I realize that it's the dog from earlier. The one the Taxi almost hit. No collar, but too clean to be a stray. A lovely dog also, but definitely not a german breed.

It begins to step closer to me as if it were observing before it sat up once again but this time directly in front of me. Dej immediately catches wind of this.

"Lunar, whatever you do- don't move." She advises, eyeing it carefully.

I furrow my eyebrows at the serosity in her voice.

"It's just a dog--,"

I'm quickly cut short by it's brisk movement towards me, a leap forward with a wide jaw. I barely have time to yelp, before it's jaw clomped down, missing my neck by barely an inch. The dog takes off, immediately after, running into an alleyway.

My heart rapidly thuds into my chest, and I immediately clutched my heart for reassurance.

"Are you okay?!" Dej, asks jumping up from her seat. "Everything happened so quickly, I'm sorry--,"

I shook my head, "It's okay, it did happen quickly. I even barely had time to react. I'm fine." I reassure, still rubbing my chest in attempts to calm my heart when my eyes widen.

I stiffen my back, feeling my mouth suddenly go dry in the stark realization. My hands wander up to my bare neck to confirm my fear.

"What's wrong?" Dej asks, worriedly eying me.

I clench my jaw in disbelief, with a shake of my head. 

"My necklace...It's gone."

3rd Pov

Her paws hit the cement with little to no sound, just a light patter easily lost in the wind. She effortlessly maneuvered through the pathway, until it finally leads to her home. As she trotted up the cobblestoned path up to the door, she decided to check if the ring was still in place. After licking her bottom row of teeth, her tongue grazed along with cold metal and small stone.

She could barely contain her smirk of satisfaction. Upon padding up the steps, she graciously slipped into the doggy door and into the house.

"Where have you been Sana?" Came a voice of disapproval.

Susana, almost rolled her eyes at this. Without a second thought, she began straightening her limbs. One after the other, it began to stretch into their normal form. Her brown fur, retracted into her tan, bare human skin.

When back into her human shape, she stretched her limbs out in satisfaction, picking a hand in her mouth to remove the necklace before he could notice.

"What does it matter to you, Elijah." She sassed, using his full name as she turned on her toes up the stair case.

The other person, 'Elijah', with storm blue eyes narrowed in disapproval, ruffled his jet black hair in exasperation.

"You're lucky he isn't here. Especially because of the state you're in."

When he received no reply, she continued, "What have you got there, anyway?" He asked, raising his voice a bit as Sana began to tread farther up the stairs.

"Revenge," She replies nonchalantly.

At this Eli narrows his eyes in annoyance, "What do you mean, 'revenge'?"

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, she emits a sigh, leaning onto the banister--allowing her long, brown waves to fall forward past her face as she looked down.

"The girls who almost hit me earlier?" She began, "I found one of them at the square; thought it would be fun to give a good scare."

"You could've compromised our positions. Your job is just to watch."

"I know, I just thought she needed a taste of their own medicine, is all."

"But what did you take from her?"

After a moment of contemplating she relents, "A necklace." Her delicate fingers hold it up to the chandelier. "It's a simple trinket."

From below she hears a growl, "I know that you're not that stupid. You need to return it."

A sense of defensiveness comes over her as she held the necklace tightly onto her chest. "Human always has new trinkets, what hurt could this one have?"