"Why are they here?"
"Maybe someone should go out with guns and shoot at them to scare them away?"
"What if that just angers them and they attack?"
"They haven't done anything to the town yet. Maybe we should just let them be."
"They are such graceful and beautiful creatures."
They don't even know the half of it. Ludwig thought to himself as he took a drink of hot apple cider. The local café was generally quiet this early in the morning which was why he would stop on his way to school and enjoy the sweet cinnamon flavor with an English muffin. The drink was one of the few sweet things that he allowed himself to indulge in, while his brother seemed to eat sweets religiously...especially chocolate.
What Ludwig did get most caught up in apart from school work and football training, was watching the wolves that passed through the woods behind his house. Normally the packs would only be there for a brief amount of time, a week at most, before he assumed that they had moved on farther into the mountains and away from the towns. But this most recent pack was different, they had been around for nearly two weeks now and the town was taking notice. There were eight members total and they liked to romp and play through the trees like his dogs. In fact, they sometimes played with his dogs in the trees. He had found that really odd at first but he just assumed his German Sheppard and Siberian Husky felt they were wolf enough to fit in with the pack. What he couldn't understand was that the wolves accepted them. And even more bizarre was that his Golden Retriever didn't growl and bark at them like the hunting dog she was supposed to be, and the wolves likewise didn't seem bothered by her. Especially not the one strange Italian Wolf with the funny single hair that stuck out from behind his ear.
That was another unusual thing about the pack. Instead of most normal packs which consisted entirely of wolves of the same species...ie Timber most often...this pack was made up of seven different species of wolves...two of which were supposed to be extinct. There was the 'as far as he could tell' Alpha English Wolf...which was supposed to have died out hundreds of years ago...with his light nearly bleach blond coat and his flashing green eyes. His Beta, and other extinct species, a dark eyed and dark coated Japanese Wolf. And the other clearly Omegas. A bright green eyed show off Polish Wolf. A Canadian Timber Wolf with such fine light hairs that he almost looked translucent. Another rather light Finnish Wolf that appeared to have lavender eyes. A Chinese Tibetan Wolf with a rather bizarre amount of long hair that hung down from the back of its head, in what could only be described as an untied ponytail. And finally the two Italian Wolves, one with angry grass green eyes and the other with dancing auburn brown that matched his fur perfectly.
And going through the list brought up the third strange thing about the pack. It was completely devoid of females. Every single member of the pack was male and never in their time romping around behind his home had they ever been joined by a female. It wasn't like they didn't like females. After all, the one Italian seemed constantly to 'flirt' with his Golden Retriever, Lili. He would bark and leap around her with his tail wagging and occasionally risk a quick lick on her face before Ludwig's over protective and, rather bad tempered, German Sheppard, Vash, would come and snap warningly at the wolf.
Those three things made the pack unlike any he had ever seen pass through before, and there had been plenty of others in the years he had lived in this small town. The wolves were the one thing that he could count on. The one constant in a little town that was growing larger and becoming more interested in behaving like the other nearby cities.
That was a ridiculous notion of course. The cities over the mountains were frighteningly larger and bustling with too much activity for his taste. He preferred the common peace and tranquility of the foothill air. The whisper of the breezes through the pines and firs. The playful laughing of the stream that ran through the trees behind his house. And the wolves.
With a smile, Ludwig rose from his chair, dropping a few coins onto the table and headed out into the morning sunlight.
*~Mousoka~*
"Did you hear that the old Hathoway Manor got bought?"
"No kidding? How awesome! I wonder if the owner will be cool and let me take a look inside."
"Isn't it haunted?"
"Well ye...yeah, but the hero can handle anything!"
"Says the one that freaked out playing that new horror game last night."
"Ah come on Gil I wasn't scared."
"Kesesese~ you screamed like a little girl...ow!"
Ludwig looked over to see his older brother Gilbert rubbing his head where Alfred F. Jones had just cuffed him in annoyance.
"I do not scream like a girl." The tall, dirty blond huffed.
Gil grinned and shook his head.
"All right deny it all you want but anyways back to the Hathoway house. If it is haunted, you guys wanna make bets on how long it takes the new owner to leave? Betcha he's a rich old geezer that came for peace and quiet and he won't last a week."
"He's young." Francis interjected with a smile on his face and faraway eyes, "Looked to be our age maybe younger even. How he could be buying a house in that case though...but anyways. Quite a cutie too. Got light sandy blond hair and bright green eyes. He's also a Brit."
The others gaped at Francis in astonishment.
"You been stalking him or something Francis?"
"Nah I just happened to be passing by the house the other day when he and the real estate agent from Crepes were going at it. Yelling about the price I mean." Francis winked, "They weren't actually going at it. That most certainly would have been a sight to see."
Antonio laughed.
"Franics is that all you think about."
The shiny blond smiled and looked down at his hands.
"Oh no mon ami. I think about many other things more often."
Ludwig had a sad suspicion that he knew what Francis was referring to by other things. It had hit the overly romantic minded Frenchman hard when his flamboyant and breathtaking mother had run away with a high up businessman that had been staying with an elderly relative in the town for a month. Both the older teen and his father had been completely shocked and heart broken. It took several weeks but Mr. Bonnefoy seemed to be recovering. Francis on the other hand...well Ludwig just wanted to leave it at scarred...deeply.
And now that he considered it in a new light...perhaps that was the thing that scared the town most about the wolves. They were new, strange, and unlike other strangers that came and went, longer lasting. And while the mayor and council of the town felt that change was good and would bring progress...the majority of the residents...were very wary of it. And could they be blamed? Francis's case was not the first, nor the most damaging, incident that had struck the town via a strange presence.
But the wolves
His mind slipped away from the bustling classroom and the chattering of his older brother's trio and Alfred, into the woods behind his house...where a pair of large hypnotic auburn brown irises gazed out of a gap in the trees. Breathtaking...stunning...and somehow...though he had no idea why...he had this odd sensation that prickled through his body and seemed to hint...those eyes had the power...to flip his world off its hinges and change his life...forever.