The change back to human came shortly after. With opposable thumbs at their disposal, the guards were able to take Red to a place where she could more easily recover. Olive was urged to return home; she did so reluctantly, and didn't even try to sleep in the few hours left before dawn. She went through the day in a daze.

That night, she went to the students' clearing. She was fairly certain that no one would be there, but she wanted to check anyway. To her surprise, there were people there—a guard, and Theo. The two were talking. When Olive walked over, the guard fixed her with a bored look.

"No classes tonight," he said. "Or the rest of this week. Not until your teacher's fully recovered. Arden sent me down to tell you."

"Arden?" Olive asked.

"Yeah, Arden. Y'know, the pack leader?"

"Oh."

The guard stared at her in a way that made her feel a bit stupid, and then said, "Is that it, then? Just you two and that other boy?" At Theo's nod, the guard stood and walked away without another word.

Olive watched him go. "It's going to be weird," she said after a moment. "Not coming here every night, and all." She glanced at Theo, then added, "And being cut off from everyone is going to suck. What if something happens? I mean, you've got werewolf parents—you're in the loop. I won't know for another week."

"Nothing's going to happen," he said. "The guard says that Red's in stable condition, and... they're not going to find the ones responsible."

"What do you mean?"

"The fire was set intentionally, from what I hear. The scent trail leading away from the cottage indicates that the hunters left soon after. A few guards followed the trail..." Theo paused, and frowned. "It went directly to a creek. The trail didn't pick up again on the other side, so the hunters must have walked through the water for a while. Even if we could find where they left the creek, by way of a muddy footprint or something like that, there's still no way to track the scent. It'll likely fade by the next full moon, and it's not much use then, in any case."

Olive frowned. "If there was a creek there, and they knew about it, why didn't they go through it earlier? They just let us follow them right to the cabin. I mean..." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear absently, thinking the situation over. "If they wanted Red to die, they could have just thrown us off the trail, and, well, y'know... and if they wanted her to live, they could have not set the thing on fire. It's like they didn't care either way."

"I don't know if they're even hunters at all," Theo said with a sigh. "There are too many things that don't add up. Why would hunters leave behind a werewolf they'd captured? It's a waste of a perfectly good pelt," he added in a darkly sarcastic tone that Olive hadn't known he was capable of. "Besides that, I overheard a guard say that they didn't find any of the typical hunters' tools in the ruins of the cottage. There were the tranquilizers, and those sacks, the ones they use to carry wolves back to their base—but no traps, and no knives. Not even a pocket knife. And the hunters, or whoever they were, left in too much of a hurry to gather everything; they'd have to carry it all with them, too, since they were traveling on foot."

Olive stared at him. He, looking out into the forest, didn't notice.

"You've really thought about this, haven't you?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" He shifted his gaze back to her. "They nearly killed Red. It would be nice to know why, especially if the "why" tells us anything about how to find them."

"But why do you have to be the one to figure out why?" she asked. "I mean, surely some of the higher-ups would have figured out everything you just said. I say we leave it to them—get on with worrying about Red, instead of worrying about the hunters."

"I'd rather do both, actually. There's nothing I can do about either issue, so I may as well worry."

Olive snorted. "If that's how you deal with problems, no wonder your hair's already white."

"I have Scandinavian ancestry, thank you very much."

"Whatever you say," she responded, smiling slightly. "Well, sleeping's starting to sound nice about now, so..." She trailed off, coming to a sudden realization. "Oh, man."

"What?"

"We have school tomorrow."

"...Right," he said grimly. "I knew I'd forgot something."

"Life as usual for us, then," Olive said, walking over to the clearing's storage rock. "I guess we have to leave it all up to the ones in charge."

"For what good they can do." He nodded to her. "See you next week."

"Bye."

She lifted the rock, touched a certain stone beneath it, and was transported home within seconds. She changed into her pajamas and sat on her bed. With the covers over her crossed knees, leaning on the pillows behind her, she stared at the clock, thinking. At a quarter to midnight, she finally turned off the lights and slept.