A story of a bad potion

I looked at the shining liquid in the glass William gave me, and screwed up my nose from its strong smell that reminded me of spoiled milk. However, with two pairs of amber eyes following my every move, I gave up and drank the liquid in one gulp. My stomach groaned, threatening me to turn that liquid back immediately, so I closed my mouth with my hand. Aiden stroked the bridge of his nose.

"James was still the best at it," he told his opinion about the potion I just forced myself to drink and looked at William, "He has still a lot to learn."

"I'll tell him your order," William looked at Aiden, bowed his head then looked back at me, "Wait a few more minutes. It should get better."

"Better what? The aftertaste of spoiled milk in my mouth? Is it one of the main ingredients?" I yelled, then closed my mouth with a hand when my stomach groaned loudly, threatening to make my bed linen dirty.

"Damn," Aiden slightly kicked his head to the wall, then straightened up, "If you can't bear it anymore, don't torture yourself."

~𝐀𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧~

I wasn't even able to finish my words when she sprinted to the bathroom and slammed the door. I sighed and looked at William, but remained silent. He scratched the back of his head but hasn't said even a word as well. We both knew we failed at helping her to bear the first transformation after such a long break.

She turned back after almost fifteen minutes and fell to the bed.

"I brushed my teeth for almost ten minutes to get rid of that taste in my mouth," she crossed hands at her chest, then looked over us angrily, and covered herself with a blanket. I sighed, went to the bathroom, soaked the towel with cold water, and put it on her forehead again when I got back to the bedroom. Letty was still a little mad at us for giving her a bad potion, so we went to the kitchen while she was resting. William started brewing for us some coffee, while I sat on a chair and run with my fingers through my hair. We kept silent.

{It happened earlier than we supposed} William thought, pouring freshly brewed coffee into the cup. He turned around, put the cup of coffee on the table near me, then started making another one for himself.

{Earlier, but we knew it's hard to predict when she'll change} I answered, and took a sip of coffee. He concentrated on the coffee to not spill it on the stove.

{Yes, but… What triggered her wolf?} William looked back at me, then poured coffee in the cup, cleaned after himself, and took a seat in front of me. I shrugged.

{Either our kiss or those moon badges worked. We were talking about them and a few minutes after she felt bad} I said and looked at his reaction. William suddenly smirked, then tried to hide his smirk under a cup of coffee, but too late. I sighed, {Yeah, I asked her permission.}

{I haven't said that…} William thought, in an attempt to prove he was not guilty.

{You smirked. I saw that.} I stood up, then went to the bedroom to check out how's Letty.

She was lying in the bed, her blanket on the floor. I came closer to her and removed the wet towel, touching her forehead. She was burning, and the towel in my hand was as hot as she.

"She has a fever," I said as soon as I heard William come to the room. He brought me the wet towel, so I put it on her head to cool her body down. Letty opened her eyes and looked at me. She was sweating and droplets of sweat were running up and down her face, making it hard for her to look. I took a big dish, poured some water into it, then took a fresh small towel from the bathroom, soaked it in the water, and started cleaning her face from sweat.

{The next phase will probably be started in a day or two} William suddenly thought, as if he wanted to hear my opinion, but didn't want to tell it aloud to not scare Letty. He sat at the edge of her bed, and took her hand, then added aloud, "If you need, squeeze my hand as hard as it hurts, okay?"

"Sure," she blinked her eyes as if to prove she understood him, then looked at me cleaning her face from sweat with a wet towel. I looked down at her, then leaned down and touched her lips for a moment, then straightened up.

"You can rely on us. We will do our best to help you," I smiled at her, then sat down at took her second hand.

We were like two bodyguards looking for the Wolf Princess to have a good sleep. However, a good sleep in her condition was impossible. Except for the fact that she was sweating and all the pillow and blanket near her were wet, she had a fever and soon started mumbling something in her dream. It was hard to understand what she was saying, as she was mumbling too fast and all the words mixed into one single misunderstanding. It took me around half an hour to understand that she wanted some water.

"I feel like a dumb schoolboy," I put her head up, and pressed a bottle of water to her lips. Immediately she started drinking it, and some droplets of water spilled from her head to her chin, and then to the pillow. I looked at William, who was taking a nap, still seating at the edge of the bed. It made me look out the window and understand that it was already night.

"Unbelievably. We just went with her to have some breakfast and then… time ran out like crazy…"

I put her head on the pillow, then sat down and squeezed her hand. Letty started mumbling something again, but this time it was more clear. She was asking her father about the diary he was always writing, but never showing to her. And, she said she was very disappointed with him for hiding things from her. I looked at William who was about to fall off the bed and I caught the collar of his T-shirt to not let him fall. He woke up and looked at me with his sleepy eyes.

"Go sleep on the sofa in the living room," I said to him, and he just nodded, stood up, and disappeared behind the door. I smiled, then looked at Letty, soaked the towel into the water, and started cleaning her face from sweat again.

I don't know how much time passed, but I think it was somewhere in the morning, however it was still dark when the sleep started conquering me again. Yet, I couldn't fall asleep as I was busy changing the towel on her head and wiping up her face and neck from time to time. Yet, her fever was going down, and I needed fewer fresh cold towels.

Some time passed before I heard steps behind the door, then William came inside, yawned loudly, and touched my shoulder with his hand. I woke up probably from a nap stat just started conquering me, and turned around at him.

"Go sleep, I'll be here," he said, grabbing the towel from my hands and putting it in the water, "It's not so cold. I'll go change."

When I stood up and stretched my body, William turned back, changed the towel on her head, and started cleaning her face from sweat. I fell to the sofa without the slightest doubt, she was in good hands.

I woke from voices in the bedroom, but I felt so tired that I didn't even want to get my body off it. However, when I heard a female laugh, I almost jumped from the bed and run to the bedroom. Letty was on the balcony with a cup of coffee in her hands. William was sitting on the balcony railings holding a cup of coffee. When I got closer, both of them looked at me with a smile.

"You snored like a troll!" William complained, and I felt my lips stretching into a smile.

"Sorry. You know I have problems when I don't have enough sleep," I sighed and looked at her. There was no sign of sweat on her body. She was looking fresh and even changed her dirty pajamas to some blue shorts and a white top. I kissed her forehead.

"How do you feel?"

"William said, the past hours were crazy? I don't remember anything. I had a fever?"

"Yeah, it was a hard night," I sighed and rubbed the back of my head.

"I already changed bed linens and went to the shower. I'm sorry for you guys seeing me… eh… not in my best?"

"That's the typical first stage of transformation. Don't worry," William looked at me, "You can go take a shower too. Mary brought us fresh clothes from your favorite shop".

"That's right what I need. Take a look after her," I kissed Letty's forehead and went to the shower.

"Let's go to the kitchen, I'll make him a coffee," I heard they went to the kitchen, while I put some cold water and made it run down my body. It took me a few moments to finally relax when I heard a female scream coming from the kitchen.

"The second phase!"