Chapter 13
Answer Me This
The men had brought in some chairs and they sat now some feet from the bars of Wolf's cage. Several hours had passed and neither Wolf nor the men had spoken a word to each other. It was a stand off of sorts, so to speak and all parties knew it. Occasionally the priests went in and out of the building, relieving each other, stretching their legs, tending to the duties neccesary in the upkeep on such a large property. Though Wolf did not know it, he was in fact several hundred miles from New York city, in an old abandoned but recently refurbished monestary. Though large, it had been forgotten for many dozens of years until the church had rediscovered it, almost hidden as it was in the mountainous region upstate. His cage was located in the old abbey which had been stripped of pews, altars and the like. But it was still consecrated ground, which gave the priests an advantage in their own minds. They didn't realise that their captive was entirely unfamiliar with their religion. The funny dead man hanging from the wooden post as was depicted in the coloured glass windows had no significance for him whatsoever.
Wolf stared at the men, studying them just as intently as they were looking at him. They were different ages and some clearly deferred to others. They all wore the same clothing, all black cloth with strange white collars. Some wore unusual necklaces of beads, and others wore small copies of the dead man made of gold around their necks. They each had a copy of a book Wolf had seen before somewhere. Virginia had called it a Bible, or something like that, when he had asked her, having seen people swear on it when he had watched Law and Order on the television. He didn't know what it was about, but had devised that it was important to some people anyway. He cursed himself inwardly for thinking about Virginia again. Not that he didn't want to, but it was becoming a distraction and it made him upset. He did not want to show weakness in front of these strangers.
He yawned widely and got up from the floor, pacing back and forth. He occasionally put his hands to the bars, surreptiously testing them for spots of weakness. He hadn't found any, yet he began to feel as though he might be able to break or at least bend them when he came into his full strength at full moon time. His cell in the Snow White prison had been mostly of thick stone for that very reason. He counted the days in his head. Still a week away at least, though he wasn't entirely sure how long he had been asleep. He stared pointedly at the men again, seeing their reactions. Some visibly squirmed under his gaze. He was secretly gratified to see this, but then frightened men were the most unlikely to free him, he realised. Others, especially the younger ones, sat forward intently. They at least had a certain curiosity on their faces, albeit tempered with the attitude of one who already knows the truth of a situation and waits only to be proven correct. All in all he could see a whole range of human emotions arrayed before him, many of which he was entirely familiar. Hatred, fear, misunderstanding, confusion, he had dealt with them all. Being a half-wolf made you a target for these things all your life, he thought bitterly. He had thought himself free of those things. It had been part of the attraction of living in the 10th Kingdom, aside from waking up to his darling Virginia every morning. Damn! Stop it fool! He absently scratched at his temple, growling at himself.
He continued to pace for a while. His nakedness did not upset him in the way it would a human. He had never found anything shameful about his body, even when it misbehaved on occasion. Rather, he felt exposed, unable to hide his true nature as he had been conditioned to do from birth. He very well couldn't try and pretend his way out of it as he had done many times before. A tail? No, you must be mistaken! His stomach rumbled, loudly. Trust his appetite to make itself known. He wondered if they would feed him, and how he might react if they didn't. He had gone without food before, in the depths of winter when all hunters felt the pinch, but it didn't make him a happy wolfie, no sirree. Not happy indeed! The sun was going down outside. The day had passed and still nothing had been said. No accusations, no questions. He wondered what they were waiting for. Perhaps they were waiting for this "Lord" they kept muttering about to themselves.
He came to the bars in front of them finally, unable to bear the silence any longer. The more time that slipped away, the longer away from Virginia, he reasoned.
"Why am I here?" he said finally, struggling to remain calm and alert.
There was a sudden quiet commotion amongst the black clad men, clearing of throats, straightening of collars. One of the older men, stepped forward confidently, though Wolf could smell his fear-sweat easily.
"What is your name, demon?" the man said. Wolf identified this voice as belonging to the one called Peter.
"My parents called me Wolf" he replied. He gave them his use-name, the one he had taken as an orphaned child, partly as a curse laid upon himself, partly in defiance of those who would use the name as such. He had no intention of revealing his true name, his pack name. Not even sweet Virginia knew that one.
"Wolf" the man Peter repeated, uneasily.
"Why am I here?" Wolf asked again.
"We will ask the questions, demon. You will answer with lies, no doubt" Peter said with some force.
"I do not understand this word 'demon' that you call me" Wolf stated. Peter laughed, scoffing at him.
"Surely you must, creature from Hell! Or has your maker given you no mind of your own to think with?" the priest told him.
Wolf was taken aback, confused at the questions. Obviously, pleading ignorance wasn't going to work with these people. He sighed, leaning against the bars. One of the younger priests, sensing the captive's lack of comprehension, stepped forward.
"If I may, Brother?" he asked of Peter respectfully, gaining a nod of approval.
"Wolf, where were you born, and when?" he addressed him.
"In the 2nd Kingdom. I don't know exactly when. I am about 35 summers old this year" Wolf replied, gazing at the young man whose name was Frederick.
Frederick had never heard of the 2nd Kingdom, of course, so decided to leave it for the moment.
"And your parents? They are?" he trailed off.
"Dead. Good people. Just like me" Wolf answered, a bit sharper than planned.
"Just like you? Like you?" the priest repeated, gesturing to Wolf's tail and back crest, the most obvious features of his kind.
"Yes. Half-wolfs. Both of them"
"You call yourself, a, 'half-wolf'?" Frederick stammered.
"Yes. And I can tell from your faces that you have never seen one of us before, never even dreamed of such a thing" Wolf shot back sharply.
"There are more of you" said the priest, faintly.
"Of course"
"And where did the first 'half-wolf' come from?" interrupted yet another man, the one Wolf knew had orchestrated the whole capture. His stalker in the park that night. He wished now he's made a meal of the puny man. Connor repeated the question.
"Well, use your imaginations. Obviously a human and a wolf have loved one another. Half-wolf's are the offspring. There are whole communities of us now. Every so often another pair will breed and a new line is formed, introducing new blood into the families" Wolf spoke slowly, purposefully, explaining what everyone in the 9 Kingdoms knew (whether they approved it or not, of course). Wolf knew well the kind of imagery his descriptions had formed in the minds of these men. The results were quite predictable.
They recoiled as a group, stepping back unconciously, drawing together. Some looked vaguely sick, other's merely disgusted. Some had to sit down even. Wolf allowed a brief smile to his face. He knew he wasn't helping himself by taunting them this way, but he found their fear filled ignorance too tempting to ignore. He wondered if he should provide them with a more detailed description of human and wolf relations, but he was stopped by look on the face on Brother Peter. The man was positively gleeful in expression, not the slightest bit disturbed by Wolf's revelations. In fact he looked at his fellow men with disdain.
Wolf and Peter continued to stare at each other through the bars of the cage.