In a fit of brilliance, I managed to get a concussion on Thursday, during the last five minutes of training. Which meant that I was immediately benched for Friday's game. The thing that pissed me off the most was that coach was willing to start me before I managed to have the shit knocked out of me in a tackle.
Mom and Kevin were rather unimpressed when they had to pick me up from the hospital. Mom said a lot of things, all of which sounded rather like 'I told you so'.
Regardless, we won easily on Friday. I'd been to a few games before we left, but watching in the stands was a world away from sitting at the sidelines with your team. I had a feeling I'd have even more fun if I played.
I spent a decent proportion of Saturday helping Leah build a bonfire. Apparently young men couldn't be trusted when there was potential for great columns of fire to be made. Go figure.
By sunset, we had what had to be the largest intentional fire I'd ever seen. Leah thought we could have made it bigger. I enquired as to whether she was insane. The mythical John, who had also appeared told me I'd be happier not knowing the truthful answer to that. As we made our acquaintances, Seth and the other guys appeared, carrying what looked to be the equivalent to several cows. What I found even more surprising was that the several cows all ended up eaten. It seemed that today was a day wherein my mind was going to be opened on all fronts.
Once the ingestion of the livestock had been completed, everyone settled down to listen to Old Quil tell the tribe's legends. How he was still alive and kicking, I don't know, he had to be at least eighty. Regardless, as he was telling the stories I saw… Emily? I'd only seen her once or twice, before I'd left, and when I had, I hadn't remembered her face being all scarred. Anyway, Emily was checking over and occasionally editing what must have been a transcript of the legends (oral history for the 21st century).
The plot was reasonably familiar, when I was younger and being babysat by Rachel, she would tell me the stories in order to get me to go to sleep. The only difference was that now, everything was starting to make sense in a really worrying manner. I'm not sure what started the what-ifs in my head, but suddenly I realised that if, just if, the whole shapeshifting thing was true, then all the weird stuff that had been gnawing away in the back of my mind all made sense. The fact that everyone was so huge, the significant looks I'd seen flying around, that niggling feeling that I was missing something; everything suddenly made perfect sense. The only issue was that men turning into wolves was completely impossible.
Impossibility or not, I couldn't shake the fact that that explanation was awfully convenient, and ticked pretty much every box. It was only when Old Quil mentioned Taha Aki's third wife, the spirit wife, and I saw Sam look at Emily, and Paul look at Rachel, and Jared look at… what's-her-face… no-one had told me her name, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seth look at me – it was only then that realisation hit like a bucket of cold water. Holy fuck, the myths were true. Every neuron in my brain was screaming that it was impossible, but so help me, it just made such perfect sense. Especially the fact that Leah seemed frozen at 18 and all the guys seemed frozen in their early to mid twenties. Holy fuck.
There was nothing for me to do but sit on my realisation until I could talk to someone about it. Colin and Brady had been my friends since forever, they wouldn't bullshit me if I asked them straight out, and if the logical part of my brain was right, and everything was in my head, they wouldn't laugh at me… much.
I didn't really concentrate for the rest of the night, I was too busy working out the connotations of what I thought I'd just worked out. At the forefront, was the rather terrifying thought that Seth had formed some kind of lifelong attachment to me. That was something I was in no way ready to deal with. I mean sure, I liked him, but I'd only really known him for a couple of months. Everything before I'd left was just peripheral acquaintance.
By and by the stories ended, and everyone started packing up and heading home. Mom didn't even bother asking me if I was going with her and Kevin. She knew I'd get myself home. I was about to grab Colin and Brady when Seth asked if he could talk to me for a minute. I couldn't say no without seeming completely rude, and let's be honest, if I was just being paranoid, I was reasonably sure he'd laugh even less at me. We walked to where the woods began, just inside the trees, but close enough to the edge that the moon provided decent light.
"So, you know the stories…" Seth began when I jumped in.
"Tell me that they're all fiction. Tell me that you were not keeping that a secret from me. Look me in the eye and say that you do not turn into a giant wolf, and that you haven't formed some kind of freaky permanent connection with you."
I'd started shaking as I had in the past few weeks in moments of high stress. This time, Seth just stood there, looking at his feet.
"Tell me this is all in my head, Seth. Because I cannot deal with that kind of crap right now."
"I'm so sorry, Jimmy. I should have told you."
As if. Of course that more or less tipped me over the edge. The next thing I knew, I was a giant wolf. And so was Seth. Well that explained a lot.