Ch. 3 Getting to Know You
So, we had a goggling naked blond named Clayton staring with rapt interest at Teό and trying to slowly move to where he could watch my brother change, and a defensive jaguar Cayo trying to make sure to keep between the blond and Teό and me (which, mind you is not a pleasant thing to do when you have a werewolf in front of you that is determined to get a better look), a naked Me, who is just a LITTLE pissed off at this point, a form changing Teό, who is trying to rush through his change, and suffering through the pain, and finally we have guests storming up the path towards us.
And we're naked.
Great, I'm standing smack dab in the middle of a standoff, and we're about to have visitors to watch the showdown. AND I'M NAKED! I REALLY don't feel like explaining to a bunch of strangers what I'm doing standing in the middle of a national park in Indiana IN THE FALL, with a naked stranger, my naked brother lying on the ground behind me (if he can finish changing before they get here, that is), and a jaguar standing in front of a HUGE dead wolf, all while I'm wearing nothing but my birthday suit! 'Oh, Officer, I was just going for a jog with my brother when this large cat jumped out of the woods chasing the wolf, followed by this other guy, and all clothes just MAGICALLY disappeared after my brother tripped and fell…' Yeah, that's not gonna go over well with the gringo policia. At best, we'd be charged with public indecency. At worst, we'd be stuck in a loony bin somewhere. Ok, maybe that wasn't the potential worst thing, but that's what my brain was sticking with.
So I started to panic. I looked over at Teό in hopes that he was either able to rush his change enough to be human, or reverse it and still be a jaguar. No such luck. He was currently still more jaguar than human, but he wasn't about to try and stop the change for fear of getting stuck. That's one of the only things the boys had ever envied me for… having a form with a fairly quick change.
"Clay!" called a voice from down the path. "Clay! Where are you?" The voice was male and had an accent, and I assumed that it belonged to the clomping boots that were coming down the path towards us. The blond named Clayton didn't seem to hear him calling, or wasn't paying attention, at least. Another black wolf loped out of the woods first, followed shortly by a guy who couldn't have been any older than me. The black wolf slid up next to the blond named Clayton, and took a defensive stance while beginning to growl at Cayo and me. Oh great, we were gonna have a furry standoff… except the challengers have no clue they're horribly outgunned. They might as well have brought .22 pistols to face off against a set of Howitzers. Alright, maybe they weren't QUITE that unevenly matched…
The human in boots finally caught glimpse of the blond named Clayton. "Clay! Have you caught the—whoa, who is that?" Apparently the human in boots finally caught on to the fact that they weren't alone in the woods. He kept shifting his gaze between me and the blond, but he seemed to linger a little longer on my naked form. I crossed my arms in irritation and shot him a "fuck off" look. The black wolf was still trying to do a Mexican Standoff with Cayo, and when the human in boots reached over and touched the blond named Clayton's shoulder, the blond finally snapped out of his trance of staring at Teό's transformation, and realized we had company.
"Nick, enough," said the blond to the black wolf. The black wolf sat with a whine. Who knew you could train wolves like dogs? I'd have to remember that trick for the future. The blond then turned to the human in boots. "Reece, go phone Jer and the pack and let them know that the mutt is dead. And tell Elena she might want to get one of those damn council members down here fast. We might have a situation."
The boots named Reece looked back over at me and Cayo with wide eyes, and took off up the path, fumbling to get something out of his pocket. I can only assume it was a cell phone he was trying to extract while he retreated back up the way he came. I stepped forward and tapped Cayo on the shoulder, trying to get him to stand down. They had made a show of good faith, and I was thinking we should too. He growled at me, and I caught him by the scruff and pulled him back a few steps. If he wasn't gonna back down, than he was at least gonna back up. No one ever claimed my brothers weren't overprotective, and while I knew what Cayo was doing and why, it didn't mean he was right to do it. And if I had to kick his fuzzy butt to prove it, I would.
I shot another glance over my shoulder to Teό, and saw he was able to rush the change enough that he was just past the halfway point. Great, I'd have to stall again. I turned back to our 'company', and said the first thing that popped into my head. "So, you're dog's name is Nick?" That caused the blond named Clayton to snap his attention back to me with a glare. "He's not a dog," he snapped in his drawling voice, "but yes, his name is Nick." I heard a chuffing come from the black wolf, and I could SWEAR he was laughing at me. I shot the wolf a glare. I don't like being laughed at. "So, if he's not a dog …" I trailed off, brain refusing to believe what I was just about to ask, "I should assume he's also a werewolf? He's DEFINITELY not a full blooded wolf with THAT coloration." That earned me a glare from both the black wolf named Nick and the blond named Clayton. The black wolf even let out a short low growl. Ok, maybe I deserved that.
"Now, are you gonna be polite and finish introducing yourselves?" the blond named Clayton asked. I glared at him again. It wasn't like I was the one being impolite here. Or at least I didn't think I had been; not yet. I tried to swallow the venom in my voice.
"I already TOLD you, my name is Pίa. If you MUST know, that jag in front of me is my brother Cayo, and the one changing behind me is my brother Teό." I was not about to give him any more information than necessary.
"And am I gonna have to guess at what you are? Or are you gonna be a polite mutt and tell me" the blond countered.
"How DARE you call me a mutt, you sonofa—" I began to charge at him in anger, fist raised to strike him with a punch to the jaw, but was stopped by a hand closing around my ankle. Teό had managed to rush through his change quick enough to be almost completely human, and had reached over to grab my ankle to stop me from charging off again in anger and doing something stupid. I stopped and looked down at him, knowing how much it had to have hurt him to reach out before his change was complete. I knelt down and carefully removed his hand from my ankle, wincing as he hissed in pain. If Teό was willing to hurt himself in order to get me to stop, then I would stop. I let my anger fade as I watched with concern as he finished his change. I knew Cayo would make sure neither of the wolf people would charge us while I was making sure Teό was ok.
A few more agonizing minutes, and Teό's change was complete. I helped him sit up, and he panted for a moment. "Forgive my sister," he all but whispered through his panting, his Spanish lilt coming out more obvious than normal. "She's always been a bit of a hot head." I waited until his breathing had become more normal and helped him to his feet. He allowed me to help him up, but being typical male, would not show any weakness to an outsider afterwards. He stood tall and turned to address the blond named Clayton like a prince greeting a foreign diplomat. "I am Teόdulo San Martίn de Azulcό" he said with an air of nobility. "As my sister Pίa has already stated, I am called Teό, and that is our brother Cayo," he said, gesturing to both me and Cayo. Cayo chuffed in agreement, but still stayed on guard.
"As for what we are, that is a little difficult to translate," he began to explain. "The best way to translate it is as the Hidden," he said, "but that does not tell you what, only who. As you have already seen, we are the Jaguar people. We change into jaguars, much like you change into wolves."
The blond named Clayton gaped at this knowledge. "But that's just a myth!" he replied. "I searched for the Jaguar people in the jungles of Mexico and Central America, and any sign of the Olmec and Aztec cultures remaining among the tribes for years!" He began to take a step forward, but Cayo snarled at him. "The culture died out centuries ago, and all that was left was stories and carvings."
I couldn't resist.
"Well duh, they don't call us the Hidden for nothing," I bantered back. "If we were easy to find, do you think we would have lasted long?" That earned me another glare from the blond and Teό.
"But the anthropomorphic studies done of the region did not show any validation to the Stirling hypothesis of the Jaguar people myth, citing the presence of the Rain Baby's image only in such places as the Tecnochititlάn monuments, and the cultural studies done on the remaining tribes in the vicinity only told rumors of such changing creatures, including the Nagual and other creatures that were clearly mythos such as Quetzalcoatl," continued the blond. Geez, he sounded like a scientist or a professor.
"Watch it," I warned. "That's my ancestry you're badmouthing."
Teό gave me a look, and I immediately knew I needed to shut up.
"Our people were indeed originally part of the Olmec and Aztec cultures, as well as several others lost to time," explained Teό. "When the Spanish conquistadors came, our people were no longer seen as the ultimate protectors and were shunned from their once communities. As outcasts, they melted into the jungle and became a nomadic group for many generations. When the region became more and more settled, our people decided it would be better to try to blend back into the populace, since all knowledge of the Hidden had become mythology." Teό stopped the story of our people there.
The blond named Clayton took a few moments to digest the information. "I see," he said. "I take it that the jaguar is passed down through the male lineage then, just like with the wolf."
"Correct in most cases," replied Teό, "though I assume that your wolf can be passed on by bite, much like our jaguar can" said Teό. The blond grunted a confirmation. I felt like I was stuck in a culture versus research debate in one of my college anthropology classes. Cayo and the black wolf didn't seem to be following the debate, and I wasn't surprised. Wait, why did that name sound familiar…?
"Oh shit! You're THAT Clayton Danvers!" I practically screamed as realization dawned on me. Everyone just looked at me like I had lost my mind.