Chapter 4
"It's not funny!" Aleu tries to say with authority, but Kila continues to roll around on the snow floor, laughing hysterically.
She wishes that things could be better among the group, but they look just as amused as Kila. Sitka has a wide smile on his face and looks on the verge of chuckling as well. Nuju looks rather emotionless, but she sees his quivering lips as they threaten to form into a grin.
Aleu releases a savage growl as she starts pacing the small empty clearing she and her Betas are meeting in, wondering how to get her wolves to see the seriousness of the situation.
Finally Sitka coughs in a way to rid himself of his smile while lifting one of his legs and gently kicks Kila as a way of letting her know to get up. "Sorry pack leader," he apologies, but Aleu can still see him fighting to keep a grin off his face.
"What is it that you don't understand?" Aleu finally asks as she turns on the Betas, "I would have thought this would have shocked you."
"Oh it did," giggles Kila. "A wolf that can stand on his hind legs and have the arms of a human." The beta is now choking as she tries to keep down her laughter "A wolf who looks to be part man, I got to admit Aleu, I never thought you would be one for storytelling."
"It's not a story!" Aleu finally yells, wiping the amusement off the wolves faces. "It really happened and he is real, a wolf that walks like a man and looks capable of wiping out the entire pack."
Silence greets her, a positive sign to her that the Betas are finally giving her their full attention.
"Aleu," Sitka speaks softly. "I have seen many things in the wilderness, but I never even heard of a…man wolf before."
"Same here," Kila speaks up as she looks to her leader with a rather apologetic shrug.
This is when Aleu realizes that someone hasn't spoken up yet. She turns to the remaining wolf, a certain grey wolf to be precise.
Nuju is silent and he is looking down at the floor with a puzzled expression on his face and for some reason it fills Aleu with unease. "Nuju," she says slowly, "are you alright?"
He blinks once before looking up at her and says, "This is something I'll look into, what you describe sounds familiar…but I do not believe its name is man-wolf."
"Wait," Sitka says, "you heard of these things before?"
"When you gaze at the stars as long as I have," Nuju tilts his head back as if to back his claim, "then you learn a thing or two about our strange world."
"As long as you have?" Sitka asks, "I'm pretty sure we are the same age."
Aleu ignores the previous comment as she walks up to Nuju and asks, "What do you know, Nuju?" She couldn't help but feel a flutter of excitement threatening to overtake her, will she finally learn something about this wolf…or whatever it is that Omega seems to be.
Nuju frowns slightly for a bit before shaking his head and says, "It has been a while…but the description is certainly memorizing…and disturbing." He looks into Aleu's face, "I don't know pack leader, but I fear that your new found friend may not be the type of person we should be associating with."
Aleu didn't really mean it, but she growls at him, "I know he is different…and a bit frightening, but that is no reason to turn him away."
Nuju bows his head, "Forgive me pack leader," he says civilly, "but these are bad times to be meeting unnaturally new friends."
Curious, Aleu tilts her head, "and why would you say that?" She should have been anticipated it, what else could be expected from Nuju as he glances up to the brightening skies as the sun rises, but they can still see some stars visible.
"The red star is bright," he says in a solemn tone, "a very bad sign foretelling of trouble and spilled blood."
Normally Aleu wouldn't pay mind to Nuju's rambling, but this time it is different, and the other Betas notices this as well. Nuju usually spoke in an untroubled voice, so to hear him speak of such terrible woe and death in a grave tone fills them with concern, no matter how often they ignored his star gazing tales.
Aleu gulps a little before asking, "And what about that other part? What do you mean when you said Omega is…unnatural?"
Nuju is silent as if he is in deep thought before saying, "Have you ever seen anything like him in nature?" He asks, "Or even heard of anything like him? From storytellers or birds or even from the conversations we have heard from men?"
"I…" Aleu trails off before looking at the other present wolves. Kila looks mystified and anxious while Sitka wears a cautious and tense snarl on his face.
"Exactly," sighs Nuju, "I have heard of something like him though" this comment alone earns him more attention than any other pass murmuring of the stars as the Betas and Pack Leader watches him.
"It is unknown where the stories have come from," admits Nuju, "many wolves believe they came from these lands," he looks around at the forest they are in, "others believe they originated from the frozen east, others from the dry south, or maybe even from isolated lands floating out in the great ocean. There are even some beliefs that they crossed from the lands across the water to here by using an ice bridge like we did."
"Wait," interrupts Aleu, "Who are they? And what stories do you speak of?"
Nuju regards the wolves as if debating whether to tell them or not before he finally speaks.
"They go by many names: two legged ones, cursed ones, and werewolves." Aleu tries not to shiver, but in truth these are sounding like horror stories being told to misbehaving pups and the true terror here is the possibility that such tales are actually based off facts.
Nuju continues, "They walk alone, rarely move in packs, they are few in numbers yet they strive for territory. Killing if they so wish. They only reveal themselves at night and disappear during the day for some unknown reason or another. No one knows where they originated from or what it is they are, some believe they are a part of a dying race, some think they are cross breeds spawn of men and wolves-" he pauses while Kila snickers at this, "But some believe it is a curse brought on by magic users."
Sitka quirks an eye brow, "Walking wolves created by sorcerers, oh I should have seen that one coming."
"Shush," Aleu hisses at him before signaling to Nuju to continue.
"As I was saying," the grey wolf says, "No one knows where the stories came from, but so far that's all they are, stories. I for one have never seen anything to suggest the existence of such creatures, and to know one personally…it's downright unbelievable, I can't tell whether this is a remarkable discovery, or a great tragedy waiting to unfold."
Aleu feels her throat go dry before forcing out, "W-what makes you think this could be a tragedy?"
Nuju shrugs, "there have been rumors about these creatures attacking men and they aren't…gentle."
"What do you mean by that?" Kila asks with a tinge of fright on her voice.
"Well…they haven't been confirmed. But there are the possibilities that these human like wolves are stronger than men, have the speed of a wolf and the savagery of a feral." Nuju clarified.
"Oh great," Sitka remarks as he slaps his forehead with a paw, "so if these legendary creatures do exist, and if they're as dangerous as you say they are, and there's one now taking up residence in the forest, then we are in trouble aren't we?"
"No," Aleu suddenly exclaims. "No, just because some of these…things exists, then that doesn't mean they are all dangerous. This is like when a feral attacks a man and in turn the humans believe all wolves are bad."
Sitka grumbles at the comparison, but the other two Betas nod in agreement.
"Besides, I believe Omega is here to stay," Aleu states. "So, whether we like it or not, we need to be friendly towards him if we wish to coexist, got it?" None of the Betas argued, nor did they look pleased with the prospect of being allies with a creature that can tear them apart with little to no trouble.
Aleu nods to them, "good," she says before releasing a yawn. She has been up all night trying to round up her Betas to inform them of the encounter. It's just now becoming morning, but maybe she can take a nap for a few hours. Then she remembers the agreement she made with Omega earlier and moans when she realizes she will be up late again that night so she can show him around.
"Well, I'm going to go see if I can catch some sleep, so if you will excuse me." Aleu turns to take her leave when Sitka speaks out. "Aleu," he calls out, causing the she-wolf to look over her shoulder and right at him. "What if Omega is as dangerous as Nuju claims?" He demands. "How are we supposed to fight something that is stronger than men?"
Aleu looks each Beta in the eyes; Sitka with his strong gaze, Kila with her slightly rounds ones and Nuju and his steady sight. She finally sighs, shakes her head and says, "Let's just hope for the moment that we can win a potential ally and not another enemy to be weary of."
Percy has just barely opened the window and pulled his pained body within before the sun rays struck his fur and he jerks on the floor.
He bites on his own arm as he tries not to scream as the change takes him once more. His fur burns and singed hair fills his nostrils. His finger and toe nails throb until they pop off and newer but smaller ones take their stead. His face caves in on itself as the snout molds back into his skull and his ears folds back and buries themselves back into his body as his human ones carves their way back out the side of his head. Blood is dripping by this time, his entire forearm is just about soak in it, but soon his sharpen fangs lose their grips as they fall, landing with the patter of rain drops as his dull canines return and fills his gums back up. Finally his legs shrink and his tail retreats and before he knows it, he is human again, lying on the floor as he pants and tries to recover from the change.
He moans as he holds out his arm and inspects it. He has left deep gashes within the limb and blood oozes out, but he watches as his skin slowly spreads out over the wounds and slowly the blood disappears and his arm is left whole.
There are nights he curses his wolf body, but on other nights he is thankful for it.
So what kind of night was last night?
He rolls onto his back and places an arm over his eyes as he tries to think of what had occurred less than an hour ago.
Aleu…what a strange yet musical like voice. Her grey body and light tan underbelly still comes to mind, along with those ice blue eyes. He has no idea why he hid from her, she doesn't look like the type who would attack him out of spite, but after all these years he has decided not to take any chances. He agreed to come and have her show him the local area, and that could benefit him very much. He can learn where to hunt, where to hide, and if worse comes to worse, an escape route if he needs one.
But that would mean spending more alone time with Aleu.
It's not that he doesn't like her, far from it; she is actually the first person who saw what he is and didn't attack him, or run away screaming. The fire of courage and curiosity burned within her eyes as she regarded him with a look that looks close to be wondering. She is interested in him and that's what makes him hesitant.
Does she truly wish to help, or is she just doing it further study him, have him as more of a project rather than a friend?
She reminds him of Annabeth, always asking questions. She could never seem to be satisfied without knowing everything. Annabeth, that brought some tears to his eyes as she flashed in his mind.
And what about her pack? What if they choose to attack? She can use what knowledge she has gained from me and use it in their favor. Percy has learned that mystery and fear are his best weapons, he could lose them if he reveals everything about himself to Aleu.
Should he go tonight? What if he doesn't? Then if he meets her again things may turn out badly. He can't risk having wolves as his enemies, not the ones who roam and patrol the forest, his one and only sanctuary.
He sighs, looks like he is on for that date with Aleu, at least he knows she will be respectful and curious. It is actually nice, her knowing what he is yet not being afraid. He has showed her his biggest secret and she didn't shy away from him.
He is a man who turns into a wolf, but now he realizes that Aleu doesn't know that he is a wolf who turns into a man.
He stands up while grumbling about his luck. So much for that, now he really has to watch his step otherwise she will regard him as a freak if she learns he can shift from a wolf to a man and vice versa.
He stands and stretches, but figures he should try and get some sleep before going into town today and find a job, he doesn't have a lot of money left after buying the shed and he's going to need more if he wishes to build a house of his own.
He yawns and looks out the window and freezes.
Watching from the cover of some bushes are small beady eyes and there is a scent that is carried on the air, one that could only belong to one thing. A dog. It's too late, somehow they fit the pieces together and they know he is not of the natural world.
Are they going to run me out of town like what happened last time? The dog doesn't move one bit, he can see the eyes squint as if in anger. He is probably here to watch and nothing more. Percy glares back flicking his eyes silver, and releases a snarl, hoping the wind will carry the sound to the animal before he closes the window.
Looks like things have just gotten worse.
"Can you pull your own weight?" The old dock master, simply known as Joel.
The job is tough and challenging for a number of reasons. There is the weather that can be cold and severe, but must be ignored as the workers do their job. There is the cargo that can be heavy, fragile, or combustible, one drop is all that will be needed to doom any hope of being paid. Then there is the loading of supplies off and onto ships, the constant pitches of the sea could throw a person into a cold icy grave. Finally there is the workers themselves, working under these extreme conditions can make men as tough as vinegar and just as sour.
Percy pays these thoughts little mind as he shrugs, "No problem."
The man nods his head, "any work experience and a good reference or two?"
"Well," Percy started off before pausing for a moment., "I served in the military for 5 years and made it to the rank of sergeant, but that's about it, this will be my first real job."
Normally the dock master would prefer men with familiar with this trade, but he can tell Percy can probably take the strain, the young bucks always can. Plus Joel is short of hands at the moment so any help can be appreciated. "Very well then Mr. Jackson, you've got a job," with that, Joel offers his large rough hand.
"Thanks," Percy simply says as he takes the hand, "boss."
The man smirks, "alright," he glances out his window and takes note of the orange skies, "you can start tomorrow, nine o'clock," he looks back at him, "try and be early will you?"
"Not unless you cook me breakfast," Percy says as he stands from his seat and moves to the door.
"I'll promise you one cold egg," Joel says in answer.
"I'd prefer two." Percy jokes with a smile before he exits and closes the door as Joel's thick chuckle follows him.
Percy walks down the stairs and breathes in the deep cool air as he reaches the bottom and closes his eyes to savor the moment. The air tastes nice here, the mix of a forest and the ocean that he is just a few paces away gives him a feeling of unbelievable bliss; perhaps it's the wolf within him loving nature.
He opens his eyes and lazily observes the sun. He better get home quick and get ready for his "date" with Aleu. He wonders how that will go, she obviously has spirit and a fighting heart, the potentials for either a great ally or a dangerous enemy. She thinks of her pack first, if he does anything out of line she could be onto him within moments and have what could well be a good force of wolves at her call. He needs to play out his next few moves carefully otherwise it could be the end of him, dogs are one thing, but wolves are easily a whole different breed of animals.
A flash of movement catches his eye and he looks up just in time to see a dark four legged animal scurried behind a house. Was it one of Aleu's wolves checking up on me? No, he's getting paranoid now, there is no way a wolf could just wander into town. It must have been a dog. He sighs in exasperation. He doesn't want to fight, but if push comes to shove then he will hold his ground. But, what is taking the canine community so long to attack though, normally at least one dog would have tried to attack him by now.
Are they planning something big? This cannot bode well for me.
Updated: 03/11/2018