Birds chirping, sunlight beaming, and fresh air blowing that counteracts the radiating heat on my body as a werewolf rests his head on my stomach: what a wonderful thing to wake up to. Lysander has his arms around me, holding me like a teddy bear while he sleeps soundlessly.

I fixated on his face and recalled the first time I had seen him. The curious, angry, strange muscular man with grey eyes and dark hair who looked like someone straight out of a magazine. Now, he's just -- actually, he's still the same, except he now has light brown hair that's already fading. His glasses that we had given him in the beginning had disappeared somewhere on the road. Slowly, he's starting to look more like how he was before.

Sighing, I gently pushed him off of me so I can stand up and leave the tent. Or at least, I tried to. I had woken up the wolf and I was pulled back in his arms, except this time, he had rolled over so I'm on top of him. His eyes remains closed, but his lips are twitching, as if trying not to smile, and his breathing increased slightly.

"I know you're awake, Scott."

His eyes opened instantly and furrowed his eyebrows as he scowls. "Who is Scott?"

"Only the best werewolf in history." I grinned, which was wiped off within two seconds as my back once again met the hard ground of the tent.

Lysander hovers over me, his eyes darkening. "Take that back." He growls, lowering his head until it is less than an inch away from mine.

My heartbeat quickened but I refused to show submission. I looked at him straight in the eyes and smiled. "I must not tell lies." I stated, using a deeper voice to imitate my favorite wizard boy. I mentally laughed at myself. This would be a time when Eva or Rami would call me out for being a nerd.

Rami. Oh my god. Rami.

My smile faded as I finally took notice of our missing friend. Panicking, my body involuntarily sits up. For a brief moment, I had forgotten about Lysander. My head had accidentally hit him and let me tell you, it only hurt one of us and it's not the mighty wolf.

I burst out of the tent and scanned the area. I don't see the curly haired boy anywhere. Fuck. "Rami. Where is he?" I turned to Lysander with wide eyes. Rami's things are still in the tent, so I'm sure he didn't abandon us; although, I wouldn't blame him if he did.

I wish I could be like Aragorn and track Rami by looking at my surroundings, but I'm only good with science stuff. That won't help me find a lost friend, now would it? Maybe if I climb the massive trees, I could find him? Oh, fuck it. Standing and thinking of stupid stuff won't do any good. And so, I just started walking to wherever my feet takes me. After walking about ten feet away from the camp, I was joined by the adorable black wolf.

His red eyes narrowed at me before slowly moving ahead. I ran after him and stayed by his side. I caught him as his nose sniffs the grass underneath us, then the trees circling us. It took me too long to realize what he's doing. He's tracing Rami's scent. Why didn't I think of this sooner? Werewolf senses are stronger than humans!

I trailed behind the werewolf as he lead the way to where Rami is. I hope he's okay. The woods look quite safe and isolated from people, but it could also be dangerous for that same reason.

At some point, I began to grow tired and Lysander is far ahead. I'm sure if he wanted to leave me behind, he would have done it already. I should really exercise more often, maybe do some running after all of this is over. Maybe. Like once a month. Beforehand, my exercise is basically just when I'm speed walking to class so I'm not late, and walking up and down the stairs on campus to go to the library. As I was resting against a tree, I heard Lysander bark at me. If could understand wolf language, I'm pretty sure he's telling me to hurry up.

Eventually, he reached a spot where there's water. A lake, to be exact. I was way behind Lysander, but as soon as the water came into the view, he ran off towards it. We found Rami close to the lake, on the wet grass, unconscious. I immediately checked for his pulse and almost cried in happiness to find it perfectly just fine. He's just knocked out.

"He was drunk last night, so maybe he's still feeling funny from it." I guessed, watching Lysander check Rami's scent. "Any other scent on him?" He shook his head. "Alright. Good. Our boy has just fainted." I sigh in relief, observing the lake's surroundings. It's quite pretty, thought the water isn't too clean. There's also a lot of algae. Some are even teal colored, so who the hell knows what's up with this water. There are plants growing around it though and they're beautiful, so that's something. Some of them, I haven't seen before, some, I'm familiar with, as I remembered learning about them and how dangerous they are. An example is whitesnakeroot, and there are several of them here. If the liquid gets in your system, you will die faster than you can count to twenty.

Lysander pressed a paw on Rami's chest and I couldn't help but laugh. The wolf glared at me and continued to nudge Rami and push him, trying to wake him up. I knelt down and help him wake up Rami. His poor glasses are cracked on the sides. We really need to do some shopping after this.

"Wake up, you." I slapped his face as gently as I could. Lysander tilted his head and moved a paw towards Rami's cheek. My eyes widened as I realized Lysander was going to copy my move. "No! Bad wolf!" I scolded, before breaking into a giggling fit. "Ha. Bad wolf."

"Ow!" I jumped as Rami yelped. I caught Lysander's paws near Rami's face and I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands. The stubborn wolf hit him in the face and completely disregarded me. But, it worked. Rami has woken up! "What the hell was that?" Rami hissed, glaring at me and the wolf, who almost had a proud grin. "Who hit me?" I pointed at Lysander at the same time Lysander raised a paw to point at me. "Fuck you guys." He rolled his eyes but laughed afterwards. Rami eyed his surroundings and gasped, as if realizing something. "Oh! Drew! I think I know how to make more Sleepers!"

He plucked a flower nearby. It's one of those plants that I am not familiar with. It has long, skinny teal-grey petals, over fifteen of them. "Okay so I took a walk when I woke up and found this lake. I was going to jump in but it looked disgusting so I just stayed in the grass and looked at the flowers because I haven't seen some of them. This one, as soon as I smelled it, I just knocked out. It smelled awful, by the way. It's like burnt food mix with a strong chemical and garbage. I don't know but it's gross."

I remembered smelling the smoke of the Sleepers. Back in Silverstein, when Lysander found me and the scientists tried to get him, they had thrown those small white devices, which emitted white smoke that gave an awful smell, just like Rami said, before I fainted. That has to be it.

"Alright. Let's take a few of these and get to work."

***

We returned to the tent and worked on the Sleepers. Rami and I will try to make our own, since we only have one left. While we worked on crushing the plants, I explained everything that happened last night to Rami. Starting from when he got his first margarita and ending when I dragged his ass, literally, here. Lysander also reminded him that he sang an awful song about campfires, which Rami was quite proud of. He most definitely blew his top off when I told him about the hunters, then he apologized for being careless.

"It's okay. It happens. We're all alive." I shrugged, crushing the plant with a small pebble. Lysander, still in wolf form, is the one helping us with our materials. For our containers, we had used old containers, empty water bottles and anything that can hold a liquid. We do not have proper scientific equipment, so we will have to make do with the resources around us.

"Lysander, can you get more of those plants?" Rami requested at the wolf watching us. "And remember, don't smell it." As Lysander left, I watched as his tail wags like an adorable happy puppy. He's so cute. "So," I turned back to Rami, who's giving me that grin. That grin that people give you when they're about to tease you. "You've been slaying the big bad wolf, huh?"

My face heated up. I shook my head vigorously and focused on the plants. "What? No. Absolutely, most definitely not." Rami raised a brow, obviously seeing through me. "Okay, fine. Maybe a little. Not 'slaying' him, but you know." I blushed deeper, but I put my eyes on the plants, continuing to work as I confessed. "I don't really know how to explain it. It's just weird. Like, I just feel so attracted to him. I don't know what it is exactly, but it's just him. It's like a pull towards him or something. You know, like a magnet with opposite charges." I briefly glanced at him. He's nodding, but also focused on working. "A bond, that's what it is. A strong bond. No matter how much I try to ignore it, it's there. Like, honestly, I should be scared because hello, big bad scary wolf that's super old, but there's just something about his existence that's drawing me towards him." I'm not even making sense to myself and it's making me frustrated. "Okay. Think of it like bonds on atoms. Really strong sharing bonds."

Rami suddenly laughed, so loud that I wanted the ground to swallow be down. I sound so stupid right now. "Oh, Drew." The legitimately had tears on his eyes while laughing. "You're explaining your romantic feelings for Lysander by talking about chemistry." It's the only way I could explain it accurately. "I guess you could say, you have a chemical romance." He snorted at his own joke.

It reminded me of Spooky. Oh, how I missed Spooky and the rest of Physics class. And school (except for my art history class, screw that). And West Grove. Eva. Our life then. "You know, we've been out in the road for a while now. How do you feel? Do you miss West Grove?"

Rami nodded. "Of course. I miss waking up to my loud roommates and the horrible attitude of my Political Science professor, and our odd community." He smiled slightly. "Just two weeks ago, I was worried about not passing our Physics final. Now, I'm worried about hunters and vampires popping out of nowhere to kill us. My momma would flip out when I tell her about it when we come back, after everything is over."

"I don't know how this will end, honestly. When we go to Redwoods, I don't know what we'll do then. Just hide? We can't do that forever. We have to do something. I've emailed Eva, to ask what we should do and look for Professor Rai for help, but I haven't heard from her yet." I just wanted to cry at this moment. I don't know what to do. We're in such a big tangled mess and I don't know what to do. I don't want to disappoint Rami and Lysander by only failing in the end.

"Andromeda fucking Rojas." I cringed. "We will be okay in the end. I know it. You know why?" Rami put hands on my shoulder. "Because we have me." He winks. "And you, and Lysander. We have each other and as long as we stick together, we can do anything. You're smart. I'm smart. And we have a fucking werewolf with us. A werewolf! The military wants him because he's strong. But we have him. And you're his mate. You make him stronger. And you have me, your super cool friend who can be dumb sometimes but will do anything you want for food."

I laughed and pulled him for a big, tight hug. "What would the world do without you?"

***

Lysander returned soon with more of the nameless pretty flower. Rami and I crushed all of them. We have about ten containers with the crushed plant, its liquid and remnants. We then added water, and now, the only thing left missing is our heat resource, something that will produce the smoke. We need to keep the heat resource inside the container so it can burn the plant. We cannot set it on fire like a bomb every time we want to use it because we might not have fire all the time and it'll take too long if we're on an emergency.

"Let's see. What things can cause fire?" Rami wondered out loud. "Drew, remember during our second day of internship, we were working with chemicals." He recalled. "You know, before a certain someone broke in." He scoffed at Lysander, who had finally shifted to his human form and joined us, shirtless, eating a banana. Lysander smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Chemicals that can cause fire. One of them is Carbon Disulfide with Nitrous oxide. We don't have that."

"Hydrogen peroxide could do the trick." I suggested, but then really thought about it. "But it'll be hard and it will react too fast and explode on everything." We need something just right. Not too weak but not too strong of a heat resource.

"Or you could just not do anything and pay attention to me."

"Quiet, boy." Rami puts a hand in front of Lysander's face. "The adults are talking." Lysander laughed at that, obviously amused. Rami opened his mouth to make a comment, but I was surprised when he just stole Lysander's food. The half eaten banana. "Oh, you are a genius!" He exclaims, his eyes lighting up. I scratched my head, just as confused as Lysander. "Banana is rich with Potassium!" Rami screams at me. "POTASSIUM, WOMAN!!!"

It took me a while. "OOOOOH!!"

"Lysander, if you could please," Rami smiles at him innocently. "be a lovely friend and find us some food. Bananas, avocados, apricot, tomatoes, edamame, beans and oranges. Just any thing of those sorts. There should be a lot of them here."

After gathering our Potassium resources, we crushed them just as we did with the nameless plant. We put them on a separate container before mixing them with the water and plant. As soon as we put potassium with water and the plant, we covered it with a bunch of thick leaves and used duct tape from my car to seal it, so air would not get inside the container and interfere with the mixture. If air hits the mixture of potassium, water and the plant, it'll cause a reaction that we need. Potassium with water and air will emit a weak fire, which should be enough to burn the plant and cause smoke to come out.

After a few hours, we were only able to do ten of them as we only had ten small containers. We made another one for testing. I held our sample up, admiring our hard work. "Alright. It's the moment of truth." I said to my boys. "Let's see if this works." I poked small holes on the leaves that act as a lid for the container. After a few seconds, white smoke comes out from the container and straight into my nose.

Once again, I smelled that unpleasant strong scent and everything blacked out.

***

When I regained consciousness, I found myself back in the tent. Well, I guess we succeeded in making Sleepers! Although I probably should have thought better than smelling it then and there. I peeked out of the tent to find Lysander and Rami doing push ups. They both have their shirts off. Rami is quite sweaty and his arms shake as he goes down while Lysander shows off with his one arm on the ground and the other on Rami's back, urging him to go lower.

This should be good.

I stayed in the tent watching them for a little longer. They had done sit ups, which Rami was pretty good at, then pull ups. They used a tree for that. Rami struggled with it as well, grunting a bunch of creative cuss words as he does so. Lysander, on the other hand, breaks no sweat. I bit my lip as I watched him. I'm very impressed. And slightly turned on, but no one needs to know that.

At last, they moved on to fighting hand to hand. Lysander decided to teach Lysander some defensive moves. First, he instructed Rami what to do on certain situations, such as if an arm is choking his neck. Then, after teaching Rami, they fought once again to see if Rami could do everything successfully. I'd say, if Lysander wasn't gifted with his werewolf strength, Rami would have succeeded. But that wasn't the case and Rami couldn't take him down.

"You know what. Fuck you. I need some chocolate."

Rami started to walk back to the tent and caught me watching. "Oh, Drew! You're awake. As you've probably figured, our KOST works!" He grins, holding his hand up for a high five. I stood up and walked out of the tent, returning the action.

"What's KOST?"

"A better name for Sleepers." Rami digs through his backpack to get some chocolate. "Knock Out Smokey Thingy."

I chuckled. "Good enough." I then looked at Lysander, who's smirking at me mischievously. He gestured me to walk over to him using his fingers before stretching and jumping like he's about to fight me. "What! I'm not going to fight you!" It's like fighting a wall.

"Come on Drew, you can take him." Rami cheers, taking a seat in front of the tent, watching us while eating chocolate pretzels. "You may be small, but small people are closer to hell. Demons are stronger than werewolves. You're stronger than him. You got this!"

I put my hands on my hips. "First of all, did you just call me a demon? Second of all, you're only like three inches taller than me. What are you, like 5'5?" I scoffed.

He scoffed back, putting a hand over his heart dramatically, looking offended. "I'm 5'6." He corrected proudly. "Now go kick his ass!"

And kick his ass, I did not.

I lost terribly and Rami laughed at me. Even Lysander slipped out a few giggles when I tried to attack him. "You're so cute, An." Just as soon as Lysander said that, I punched him in the face (which is what he wanted me to do), and Rami laughed even harder. Although, I bet my hand is hurt more than his face.

"You know what. Fuck you." I said, pulling the same dramatic exit as Rami. Lysander grinned and lick his lips. I quickly turned away from him and joined Rami, clearly flustered. "I need some chocolate." Rami shared some of his M&M's while the two of us rested and watched Lysander continue.

There he goes again with the pull ups. I shoved a mouthful of chocolate and glared at the grinning werewolf. He thinks he's so cool. Well he's damn fucking right.

Rami cleared his throat. "Can you feel," he began singing. "the sexual tension toniiiiiight."

Lysander fell off the tree branch while I almost choked on the snack. Feeling my face heat up, I threw some chocolate at Rami's face before pushing him off the log we were sitting at. He just laughed loudly, and I just had to laugh at the way he laughed. We just ended up giggling like children.

***

The campfire returned around seven, when the sun is starting to set. This time, Lysander demonstrated to us millennials how to make a fire with just woods and rocks, because what even are those, right? While we waited for our food to heat up near the fire, the boys played catch with a football while I talked to them about cool stuff.

"I mean, don't you think it's highly suspicious that they're trying so hard to hide what they have inside? And the fact that there's been a lot of UFO sightings nearby that area is not helping them and NASA is trying to cover up for them because they're paying NASA. There are some things that NASA gave explanations to, that doesn't even make sense. I've done research on some of those UFO's and -- " I tore my gaze from the sky to check Rami and Lysander. "Are you even paying attention to me?"

Lysander stopped on his tracks and smiled at me. "Every word."

Just then, Rami threw the football far beyond the camp and Lysander chased it like a bullet and returned like one. Rami groaned. "You suck. Super speed powers is not fair."