Urquia

Chapter 8: Camping.

*Andrea POV*

Oh my God, what's that smell? I wake up to the heavenly smell of cachapas with cheese and fried pork (a Venezuelan dish)! Damn, I've missed my mother's cooking! I won't ever cook again! I see Dad already preparing our gear with Damian and Diana through the glass doors. Cris has the baby. Ugh, I overslept outside.

-"Mami, why didn't you wake me up?!" I ask as I walk through the backdoor.

She yelps like she's seen a ghost, and Cris and the kids start laughing.

-"Mija, me asustaste" (you scared me) she says with a hand on her heart.

I pour myself a cup of coffee, give everyone a kiss, and go upstairs to pump. I throw the milk away because I drank last night, and it won't be good for the baby.

I take a shower, put my two-color hair into two braids—this year it's light peach pink and mint green, but I might change it. I've lost the dreadlocks but kept the colors. I put on a sports bra, a tank top, and a long-sleeve white shirt with the word CAPTAIN on it. I tie a gray plaid flannel long-sleeve shirt around my waist, then put on some black sports leggings and my black hiking boots. Downstairs, I braid Diana's hair and Cris's hair, too.

We are all wearing the same outfits with our ranks: First Lieutenant (Cris), Lieutenant (Damian), and Sergeant (Diana). I give my parents their shirts with Major for Mom and Colonel, obviously, for Dad. He is wearing a red plaid flannel because he's our leader today, even though I'm the one who knows where we're going. Even the baby has a white shirt with the word PRIVATE and his own gray plaid flannel shirt, too. We look super cute! I make sure to take a thousand pictures.

After breakfast, we take Cris's jeep and my bike and head northeast. There are a lot of mountains and a nice river that goes through all the borderland of what we now know as Nathan's land. If I'm right with my werewolf theory, it's not wise to be on his land uninvited. So we won't trespass; we'll just go along the river until we find a place to camp.

After 25 minutes of driving, we find the dirt road that leads to the river. We park at the side, and I show everyone the route we're going to take so in case we separate, we know where to meet. Each of us has a survivor kit. Our dad taught us well. Dad puts the baby in my child carrier backpack; he takes my favorite hunting rifle, my Mauser M18.

-"Hey, that's my baby!" I pout. No one touches my baby guns.

-"Baby girl, today I'll be the protector of the family," he says while putting the rifle on his back.

-"Okay, but no hunting. We still have enough deer in the fridge," says Cris.

-"You forget I taught you girls to hunt only for eating, not for fun," he says with amusement.

-"Okay, so I'll only use it to scare the bears and wolves, I promise," he says. He gave up when I stared at him.

-"Well, let's get started, because I'm eager to explore this beautiful forest!" Mom says, all excited.

We start trekking up the mountain. Cris was in charge of the music, and Dad was making lame dad jokes and quizzing us about the plants.

-"Hey Diana, what do you call a group of grizzlies cracking up together?" he says.

-"Umm, what?"

-"A BEARel of laughs!" he laughs, and we all roll our eyes, but Dami and Dee are laughing hard.

The dogs were running wild, and the kids were having so much fun they didn't complain as usual. It took us almost an hour to get to the river. We walked upstream for two more hours until we came to our usual place.

I gave baby Sam his bottle, and he took it without any tantrums, so that's a good sign. Mom and Diana started to collect stones and sticks for the fireplace. Damian was helping Cris with tents, and Dad was inspecting the area and setting up our alarm systems. This is pure happiness. I've dreamed about this day for so long, and it's finally happening.

After getting everything ready, we play and dance a little bit. Dad and Damian fished for our lunch. Sam was sleeping in my tent, and after pumping and again throwing the milk away, I walked the safety perimeter we made.

I had a feeling we were being watched, but I couldn't see anything. It must be an animal or maybe a rogue. I shrugged it off and went back to our camp. In the afternoon, Damian and Diana showed Dad a few new karate moves they learned, and

Dad showed them his Krav Maga moves. He was an Israeli soldier back in his time. He may or may not have been working for Israeli secret intelligence for a while. We'll never know for sure. He'll definitely never tell.

At some point in his life, he became a pacifist, and now he tries to make peace wherever he goes. I only saw him use violence a couple of times; for example, when we were in Yemen buying slaves to free them. And in Somalia, those were the times we were involved as a family.

-"You wanna try and see if you can beat me, baby girl?" he says with a smirk.

-"Oh no, if someone gets hurt, I'll smack you both with my chancla," Mom warns us.

-"I don't know, old man. Wouldn't want to break a bone," I say, grinning.

-"Oh, no she didn't!" Cris says, laughing.

-"Bring it on! I'll break you something!" he says while walking to the side and stretching.

-"I want to be the judge!" says Diana.

-"No, I want to be the judge," says Damian.

-"Both of you can be our judges. Dad, what are the ru—" I got interrupted by Dad launching at me and tackling me like he was a football player. I'm on the floor in two seconds.

-"OH, IT'S ON, ALRIGHT!" I say, but I can't stop laughing out loud.

He tries to disable my hands with a strong grab, but I use my feet on his hips to push him off just a bit, tangling my legs to his hip and leg, and in a swift move, I incapacitate him.

-"Kids, come help me!" I yell, and the kids come with Cris, and we all start to tickle Dad while he's laughing so loud I bet you can hear him from far!

Peppi, our pitbull, comes and starts licking Dad's face, and he gets up with his hulk force and a roar. I’m tangled with him like a constrictor snake, while a kid clings to each of his arms giggling and Cris hangs from his back.

From all the noise we made, Sam woke up, and Mom sent the chancla flying to my head. We kept laughing, sparring, and tickling and just had a good time until it got dark.

We make hot dogs for dinner, and Dad begins to tell us his not-so-scary stories about fairies, witches, mermaids, and shifters. After I pumped again, I got out of the tent. I still have the feeling someone is watching us, so I go check on our alarm systems.

The kids fall asleep with Cris in her tent. I sit with marshmallows on a stick and my mom on my side.

-"I feel it too, you know. We have to be careful," she says calmly, her hand on the ground.

-"It's probably an animal; I got it covered," I say, touching the ground as well. I feel the nature, the wild animals around us.

-"Well, don't forget to put the food away from our tents," she reminds me like nothing is wrong.

-"Of course, Ma, I'll just stay here a bit longer," I say, looking around.

She kisses me good night, and I open a coke can and watch the moon reflecting on the river and all this beautiful view around me, feeling at peace and relaxed.

Suddenly, I blink a few times as my eyes focus on two yellow dots in a huge shadow between the trees on the other side of the river. I get up to get a closer look, and the shadow gets near, too. Then my German shepherd, Loki, starts to growl at the shadow, and as the moonlight reflects on it, I realize it's a huge wolf!

The same one from my house; I'm sure of it! I bet it's one of Nathan's men! It has bright, amber glowing eyes. I silence my dog, and he shuts up.

-"Loki, go to Sam!" I order him, and he obeys.

I lock gazes with the beautiful beast, and in his eyes, I see intelligence. I took my phone slowly, trying not to scare him, but when I was about to take a photo, he went back to the shadows. Oh, shoot, I missed it! I look around a bit to see if I can spot him again, but I don't see anything anymore.

I've never seen a werewolf in its wolf form. We've dealt with them vaguely on our missions, but I'm pretty sure that wolf is a werewolf. Now I have to find out if he's one of the four men we know are following us. It's going to be a long week. I finish my coke and put the fire out. I make sure the food is high and far from us and go to my tent, where my baby is waiting for me to cuddle.