Copyright 2010 Swirly Girl. All rights reserved. Enjoy!
The wolf’s yellow eyes glinted maliciously, sending a jolt of fear rushing down my spine like an electric shock. My hands reached up automatically for the amulet, praying that it would keep me safe from whatever was about to happen. I clutched it with a vice-tight grip.
Something inside me warned me that this was no ordinary wolf.
“Werewolf.” I didn’t know what made me say it out loud, when the amulet worked just as well if the wearer commanded it silently, but something inside of me wanted it to be pure fiction, a fairy-tale story. My voice trembled slightly, and I could tell the wolf had picked up on that; he grinned so horrendously, it must have been a snarl. And then the worst thing came.
He nodded.
His jaws ripped apart to reveal a row of sharp, yellowed teeth, and a cloud of foul breath that made me dizzy. A growl pushed its way up his throat, making him shake and tremble and all the trees around us quiver. How can that be? And then I realised it wasn’t him or our surroundings moving. No, it was me.
Soft tremors racked my body, no more than a vibrating tickle spreading from the amulet into my fingers and hands and arms. The tremors slowly grew in length and in strength, until I was jumping around to the tuneless hum. It was cold, too. So cold.
I was being dipped in ice-cold flames, forced to find my way through Antarctica, splashed with liquid nitrogen. The sun stuttered and vanished completely, along with all the other forms of heat and light I had ever known. I couldn’t see anything but snow and ice and frost, all blues and grays and brilliant, blinding white. My mouth opened instinctively to scream, but I found myself choking on the cold, inhaling it, letting it burn my mouth and throat and lungs. I could no longer feel anything but the cold, and even that was dimming away into numbness. I thought I heard a wolf howl, but I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
And then…warmth. A tiny pinprick of it in my little toe, if it even was my little toe anymore. Sparks of light began to penetrate the thick black blur surrounding me I hadn’t even noticed before, little spears of heat cutting through the chill. I shivered violently, and then found myself crouched down in the middle of a beautiful painting, all bright golden colors that practically screamed, “autumn!” Tall trees towered up above me, much higher than the very distant forest had been. In the middle of the painting sat a wolf, with fearful yellow eyes and fur that blended in with his surroundings; an autumn-leaf russet, flecked with cream. Soft sunlight gently dappled his thick pelt, and a cool breeze ruffled the ferns surrounding us playfully, as we both stared at each other, a ghost of a human, and a beautiful, artistic wolf.
The wolf opened his mouth as if to say something, and I found myself pricking my ears curiously to listen. That was strange. I’d never done that before. Slowly, warily, I lifted my hand and gazed at the rounded wolf paw dusted with wispy chocolate fur in front of me. I twitched the long, glinting claws experimentally. A vivid image of me sinking them into a young deer sent me reeling backward into a sturdy oak, wincing as I caught my tail on some brambles. I was a werewolf.
And yet…I felt like me. Me, Maeve, of Delaware. But here…here, I was a million miles away from everyone and everything I knew. Dad Rachel Claire Freddie Michelle Christina Bob…Matt. All people I knew and loved. Here, I was all alone. Matt, wherever you are, come for me. You’re a werewolf, aren’t you? Find me!
“No. No, no, no, no…”
An oddly human voice forced me back to the present. Snapping my head up, I found myself staring at my fellow werewolf, the only person – or animal – I could truly relate to now. His yellow eyes were wild, out of control, and his beautiful fur bristled in a mixture of fear and anger – I could smell it coming off his pelt.
“The curse,” the werewolf breathed. “The curse… It’s struck again!” His voice thinned out into a desperate wail that made me flinch. “Another werewolf, another life lost, and this time, I saw it happen! No! No, no! Please be a dream. Please be a dream!”
I wanted to say something to comfort him, but my newfound wolf instincts told me he wouldn’t be comforted easily. Instead, I kinked my tail over my head in the international werewolf sign of peace, and held my breath, praying it would work. It did. The young wolf calmed down almost instantly, his breath coming in quick, ragged pants.
“How can you feel so calm?” he whispered, almost awed. “Didn’t it…hurt? Well, that’s putting it lightly, of course,” he added with a snort.
I nodded, slowly lowering my tail so as not to startle him. “Of course it hurt.” My voice sounded the same, just a little bit throatier, with the hint of a growl burrowed deep inside. “It’s just…well, I knew what to expect. I watched my brother become one. A-A werewolf, I mean.” Lies, lies, and more lies. But what else could I say? That I had willed myself to become the most dreaded creature on the Islands?
“Really?” Now there was definitely awe in his voice. “Wow. And I thought I was brave, only crying a little bit…” He laughed without humor. “Oh, well. What’s done is done, right?” It was easy to detect the pain in that last simple sentence.
“Right.” I searched my new wolf brain hurriedly, trying hard to figure out something else to say, but came out blank. My new companion seemed to feel equally awkward, shuffling his paws in the leaf litter and not meeting my gaze.
“Hey, um, I’m really sorry for…well, almost attacking you,” he said finally, eyes lowered and sincere. “I guess I was so hungry, I didn’t smell you were about to…change.”
Correction: No one would have smelled me about to change, even if you were stuffed with the fattest, finest deer you could find. “Oh, well, no problem,” I replied earnestly. When he appeared doubtful, I just shook my head. “No, really. No worries.”
“T-Thanks.”
We stood in somewhat companionable silence for a long minute, watching the birds flit across the sky, singing their little hearts out. A particularity ugly crow perched on a branch just above us, contemplating us with beady black eyes, until I snarled and snapped at him, irritated. He cawed noisily and fluttered off to find someone else to watch.
It was then that I realised I didn’t even know this wolf’s name. “I-I’m Maeve,” I said, stammering a little.
“Oh.” The wolf blinked at me. “I’m Chris. Well, I was. I go by the name Fox now. We all changed our names. You should, too.”
“Who’s “we”?”
“The other werewolves and I.” Chris-slash-Fox smiled shyly. “Did you know there were others? Well, you must have done, considering your brother and everything.”
“Actually, my brother drowned soon after he changed,” I explained in what I hoped was a mournful tone. “I never saw him again. Our mom and dad were so worried about him, despite the fact the curse had gotten him. They left the Islands back to Am – where we lived before – and left me behind. They knew the curse was going to take me, too, and explained that they wanted the very best for me. They said they would never stop loving me, and would have taken me with them, but they wanted me to stay with others of my…kind. They said it would be easier, somehow.” It was surprising just how easy lying came to me. Maybe it was the month of practice covering for Matt’s unexplained disappearances, or maybe I was just a natural…after all, I was an Aries. Matt… His name stabbed through my chest, causing me physical pain.
