The school halls were darker and duller than they had been a year ago. Everyone walking past him looked the same and all the faces seemed to blend together as they pushed and pulled past each other, trying to get to the lunch hall or another class or where ever else they needed to be. He didn't really care about where they wanted to be. He didn't really care about anything. At least not in the dammed school, or even at home. No, he only cared about her.

Then hadn't spoken in over a year. They hadn't touched in over a year. They hadn't kissed – well you get the picture. The only thing that hadn't faded away was the feeling of need, the pull that had always been between them. When they had been together it had been almost unnoticeable, apart from on those weekends when they had too much homework to meet up or that their parents pulled them off into the car for a random family day out without the other.

When the pull started, he had done some research about what it might be on the internet. The 'pull' was referred to as the feeling a young wolfblood may feel if he/she has been bound to another young wolfblood. Two wolfblood's would be bound if one saved the life of another. After spending so much time with her and having as many adventures as they did, Rhydian had lost count of how many times they had saved each other. He was sure that he was bound to her. And he was proud of it.

All he knew now was that he had had enough of the lack of contact and the achy pull in his chest. And he wasn't going to let it last any longer. Throughout every one of his classes through the last week he had spent all his time planning and then re-planning how he was going to find her and get her back. Then, he would spend the detentions he got for not paying attention, going over the thoughts he had had during the day again. Work was not at the fore front of his mind right now, or for the last year. He knew that he should be knuckling down – or at least that was what the teachers of his various classes kept telling him.

But now, after all the planning he was finally ready, ready for the big wide world. He had a list of things he would pack up as soon as his foster parents went to bed tonight, as well as the bus station ticket he had bought yesterday, after that he didn't really know what to do. He had to hope that she would be where she said she would be, with Jana and the rest of her pack. Of course he didn't know were exactly that would be – but, it was a start at least. He knew that they couldn't be too far away so if he got the bus for a few stops he would be right in the middle of the forest, really close to where he thought Jana's pack should be…

And if he was lucky, really close to where she should be...

Lost in his thoughts, Rhydian didn't notice the school bell ringing signally that the French lesson that had seemed to go on and on forever – right now conjugation irregular French verbs was the last thing on his mind and anyway, when would he need to know the 'tu' form of the verb 'aller'? Really?

He was still sitting at his desk five minutes later when Madam Milan had finished packing up her books and dictionaries and what every else she seemed to need to carry around with her to every one of her classes. Soon after, Mr Jefferies walked in getting ready the next period.

"Are you alright their Rhydian?" he asked politely as he wrote the topic for the class on the white board and unloaded the collection of history books he had been carrying around.

"Oh, umm yeah. I'm fine. Just thinking, umm yeah." He replied absent-mindedly, his mind still in the universe it had been in throughout the whole French lesson. It was a happy place full of his thoughts of her and he wasn't quite ready to leave yet.

After their short convocation, Rhydian decided that he wasn't going to waste his last day in school rotting away in history class whilst 'learning' about the First World War. He left the class, telling Mr Jefferies that he would be back in a minuet, and that he just needed to visit his locker… or something like that, the exact words he said had slipped his mind.

He wandered off into the forest, his school bag hung over his shoulder absently. He knew soon that he was going to have a hard time in the world so he was going to enjoy just being able to relax now. As he sat under one of the tallest oak trees in the forest, and sat, thinking about all the times that they had sat here with her over the last few years. He thought about their last words and all the other lasts he had shared with her. But soon, those memories will be a thing of the past. He will find her and he will be with her.

He sat under that tree until the sky turned dark. He sat under the tree and thought of her, thought of Maddie.