Circle Of Sisters
13. The Village Idiot Does It Again
Wolf woke with a start. For a moment he stared wildly around himself, disorientated. Slowly the room came into focus and his mind cleared. Ah yes, the Baa Bar Inn. His and Virginia's room. Wolf turned his head from the pillow to look out the window, although his body knew precisely what time it was. Dusk lay over the Little Lamb Village and moonrise was but two hours away. Wolf smiled in the gloom of the darkened bedroom. He threw off the covers, seeing that they were damp with sweat. Even though he was naked in the cooling evening air, his body burned with a furnace of it's own. He could feel the muscles twitching and bulging as extra blood flowed to them. He sat up slowly, savouring the sensations. Well, all except for the raging hunger that seemed to turn his stomach inside out. Wolf gasped as the cramping reached a peak and then gradually dissipated. Still, hunger was good, especially if one knew how to hunt one's own dinner. He scratched at his nose in agitation. No Wolf, you're in human company now. You'll just make your way down to the dining room and eat with good manners just like they do, he reminded himself, searching around the room for his clothing. Virginia's baggage seemed untouched from where she had left it earlier in the day. Wolf wondered where she was as he splashed cold water on his face and combed back his hair. He could not hear her voice from amongst the multitude downstairs in the bar, but then she would be unlikely to be singing "We Will Shear You" as loudly as the other hotel patrons were, he thought with a smile. Wolf finished his dressing and looked at his reflection in the mirror over the dresser. No, he didn't look as feral as he felt, thank the Goddess. His eyes still appeared human enough, for now anyway. Not that it mattered much tonight in this town. These villlagers knew exactly who and what he was and of course they would be astute enough to know it was full moon tonight. Wolf suspected that the village square would be all but deserted after moonrise as the villagers barred their doors and windows. That would mean that he, Virginia and the others would be able to approach the Well most likely without being seen.
Wolf shut the door firmly, the sudden increase in the smells coming from the kitchen making his stomach do another round of somersaults. Virginia had been right in the fact that the quality and taste of the food wasn't as good as it had been when the Peep's had all the water, but Wolf didn't mind in the slightest. Hungry half-wolfies weren't fussy in the slightest. Wolf hoped that his brother Will was behaving himself. He stole down the stairs, hoping to catch a servant unawares and give him or her a little scare. But there were none about, so he made his way into the communal dining area. There was only a moments pause in the conversations as he appeared, but none of the humans were so obvious as to turn their heads and stare at his entry. Wolf scanned the room, picking out Will and Elias at one of the rear tables. Both had tall tankards of cider and plates piled high with meat and vegetables. Will raised his arm to beckon across the room. Wolf crossed the crowded room to slide in on the other side of the table.
"Evening. Where is Virginia?" he asked, reaching for a rare cooked chop off Will's plate. His brother almost growled at his theft.
"Hmph. We don't know. She's not with you?" Will replied through a mouthful of meat. Elias shook his head in silent agreement. Wolf looked from one to the other. The meat in his mouth went down with barely a chew.
"What do you mean, you don't know? I haven't seen her since she left our room before lunch. I thought she was with you" Wolf said sharply, not willing to listen to the alarm bells going off in his mind just yet. Across the table, Will's face creased in a minute frown. Elias cleared his throat softly and beckoned to a passing tavern servant.
"Good man, I hope you can help us. We're looking for our companion, the Lady Virginia. Perhaps you've seen her?" he asked smoothly, staring deep into the man's eyes. The man's face went blank, like he'd been put in thrall. His voice was monotone when he answered.
"No, good sirs, not I. But, if it pleases you, I'll ask around right now. I'm sure someone has seen her" he said, darting off immediately into the smoky rooms of the Inn. Wolf tried to clear his mind and calm the beating of his heart whilst they waited. Where was she? So unlike her to leave his side for so long, not without telling him where she was going. Or maybe she had, and he'd just forgotten? Wolf racked his memory of the morning. She'd risen long before he'd wanted to, quite well rested in spite of the long hours they'd spent awake the night before. Wolf recalled that he'd wanted to persuade her to spend a few more hours in love play, but he'd let her go. He'd been uneasy about her scent. She had seemed fertile to him, though he knew it was out time with her normal female cycle. Maybe the injuries and the stress had thrown it out, but Wolf didn't want to take chances. He had promised Virginia not to give her any more cub's without asking first. Wolf barely restrained himself from leaping up when the servant returned, this time with Mrs Peep in tow. She looked very uneasy.
"My lad here tells me you can't find the Lady Virginia?" she asked. Wolf didn't trust himself to speak so he was glad when Elias took up the inquiry.
"Yes Mrs Peep. We were hoping that one of your good village folk might know where she is"
"Well no, I'm sorry Mr Elias. No-one's seen her since early afternoon. She was walking through the village market place, last I saw her"
"Was anyone with her?"
"Not that I saw. But I had to go on my way. I thought she'd returned here to the Inn. Thought she must have been upstairs with her, umm, I mean, with..." the manageress stammered the last part, her face going scarlett with seeming embarassment. But Wolf detected the revulsion in her voice all the same. The Goddess only knew just how these sheltered people pictured human and half-wolf sexual relations, but Wolf knew that they weren't all that different. There was no point in telling the human's this though. They had all manner of odd rituals and superstitions regarding the expression of love. Wolf stared hard at the woman, trying hard to curb his wolfish temper.
"You mean, you thought she was with me" he said smoothly, forcing Mrs Peep to acknowledge him. He was tempted to add a more descriptive reference, but the woman looked like she was about to bolt. Maybe she was just afraid of delivering bad news to a table of cranky wolfs on the full moon. He forced himself to smile at her. "Well, she hadn't been with me since early this morning. She was going out for a walk and she hasn't come back. I suggest you ask around further. Surely someone saw where she went, or knows where she is now. I'm getting very upset, Mrs Peep". The woman bobbed her head up and down so vigourously Wolf thought it was in danger of falling off. She disappeared in a flurry of skirts and soon Wolf could hear the scraping of chairs and mutterings that announced the hasty departure of a good portion of the Inn's customers. Within minutes, they had virtually the whole dining room to themselves. Will coughed quietly across the table and Wolf looked over at his brother. Will's face suggested that he was about to make one of his glib comments, but a glare from Wolf silenced it. Elias had dropped his typical recent neutral expression and replaced it with a worried frown.
"What about you?" Wolf asked him coolly.
"What about me?"
"Do you know where she is? You've been following her around like a dog on heat, and don't think I don't know what you really want. Maybe this has something to do with you..." Wolf began, but Willem cut in before Elias could respond.
"Wolf, stop this. It won't help. Elias has been with me, all day" he said with surprising heat, before adding in wolfish "You know I wouldn't let Elias have any access to her without your knowing about it". Wolf nodded at the words, but he threw off the placating hand on his arm, too tense now to appologize to either Will or Elias. He shoved his chair away from the table briskly, standing up to his full height.
"Right, well, lets go then. Can't leave it to these puny humans to find her. We'll track her down ourselves. Probably should have kept it to ourselves anyways. The scent will be all muddled with all the human's tramping over it". Wolf was pleased to see Will and Elias standing almost at attention as he spoke, and as he turned to leave the Inn they followed meekly behind, although Wolf noted that Will scooped a great pile of meat and bones into his small pack as they left the table. Well, he could hardly blame his brother for taking along a snack for the trail. It could be a long night after all. His own stomach grumbled loudly in protest at his daring to look at meat and not eat it, but he ignored the troublesome thing as he stepped out of the Inn. It was full night now and over on the horizon the pale gleam heralded the approaching Goddess of the night sky. But where Wolf had expected to find the village well lit with scurrying citizens trying to find his Virginia, he was perplexed to find it almost deserted. Not a single human soul showed their face from any doorway or window. Will huffed behind him.
"Well, this is great. Really helpful people, this lot" he said, loudly enough so that his voice carried up to the shuttered windows above. "Typical" he added after a moment. Wolf stood a minute more, scanning the night for sounds of an ambush or hiding lynch mob, but there was nothing there. Well, two angry half-wolfs and a monster from another dimension roamed their village this night, so it was probably just as well they had decided to stay out of the way. It disappointed him though, that they could fawn all over Virginia one moment and abandon her when she might be in trouble. Wolf's brow crinkled at the thought. Will had moved into the street now, snuffing over the multitude of scents for the one they all loved in one way or another. Wolf joined him, bending low over the cobbles.
"Virginia! Virginia!" he called, softer than he would usually, knowing her enhanced hearing would serve her well. He picked up her scent almost immediately, sorting out the invisible trail from the older one she had left the day before. The three of them followed it for quite a few minutes as it meandered over the stones, going down random streets and stopping now and then at shop fronts and the like.
"She's not moving as if she were in danger or threatened" said Will, and Wolf agreed. She'd just been wandering through the village like any visitor might do.
"Let's keep going" he said, following the thin trail as she doubled back and made towards the village square. The statue of Sally Peep scowled at them as they quartered the area. The scent led eventually to the Wishing Well itself. Virginia had stood looking at it for long minutes, and then she had gone right up to the edge. Wolf sniffed all round the circular wall, but the trail stopped abruptly. A low snore broke his concentration for a moment, and he saw in the shadows the familiar shape of the Village Idiot lying stretched out half under a nearby building. Wolf went and nudged the man in the ribs with his boot.
"Wha...what, who's there?" stammered the Idiot. Wolf thought he stank as foully as he had a year ago, but he bent to pull the little man to his feet. The Idiot's crooked teeth glimmered in the dark.
"Ah...'ello then good sirs. Would you be wanting to 'ear the story of our Well then?" he gabbled, apparently unaware that the man who held him had red glowing eyes.
"No, no, stupid. But did the Lady Virginia come here today?"
"Who'd be that then?"
"Oh, you fool, listen carefully. The Lady Virginia. You know her. Very beautiful, brown hair, blue eyes..."
"Ah, nah, don't know 'er I'm sure" the Idiot replied. Wolf thought the man hadn't even tried to think about it. Or maybe he had. He shook the Idiot until his whole body wobbled. Behind him. Elias coughed suddenly, before starting up a unique boot stomping rythum on the stones. Dah dah dump, dah dah dump went the heels of his boots. Wolf was about to drop the Idiot and bite the equally stupid werewolf when all of a sudden the Idiot blurted something out.
"Oh, yeah...we will, we will, shear you, dah dah dump" he sang with an excruiating vocal range. "Oh...'er you mean. Yep, she was 'ere all righty..."
"What did she do? What happened?" Wolf almost shouted at the painful unravelling of the Idiot's mind.
"Oh, she felled in, she did"
"She fell in? When?" Wolf yelped, leaping to the edge of the low wall.
"Well now, let me think. It was, umm, maybe it was, ahh...ah yes! It was today!"
"She fell in. Did you help her? Did you tell anyone?" Wolf asked frantically peering down the Well. He could see the pale sparkle of water far below, but there was no sight or sound of Virginia. He almost didn't want to hear the Idiot's answer.
"I ah, hmm, ah, well, I don't rightly know..." mumbled the man.
"He didn't, Wolf" Will said with a sigh as he came up to stand beside the Well.
"You didn't tell anyone. YOU IDIOT!" Wolf howled at the simpleton.
"Well, yes I am!" said the Idiot, looking strangely at Wolf. "Everyone 'ere knows that!" he added, drawing himself up with dignity. Wolf paid him no more attention. He leant as far over the side as he could.
"Virginia? Virginia honey, are you down there?" he called, hearing his voice echo dimly down the stone walls. Only silence came back in response, but Wolf thought he saw for an instant the flash of sparkles as the water below shifted. He had his leg up and over before Will's arm stopped him.
"Wait a minute will you! Let's get prepared first. If she's been down there all day then a few minutes now won't make any difference. Elias, run back to the Inn and get our packs, and some rope if you can find it" he spoke firmly, not letting go of Wolf. Elias leapt to obey and his running footsteps faded away into the night. Wolf glared fiercely at him but stopped struggling, knowing the sense of his brother's words. He peered mournfully down the wellshaft again, letting his low range love-howl sound down into the depths. Did she hear it? Or was she dead, even now floating cold and still in the waters?
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She wasn't dead, she was too warm to be dead, thought Virginia. Unless these were the very last moments of life that her dying brain clung to, convincing itself that all was well. But no, she'd been down here a while, she was sure of it. Her body twitched suddenly as it remembered it's terrifying plummet through the darkness. Except it hadn't been terrifying at all, Virginia told herself. Rather, it had been elating in the extreme, kind of like the freefall one experienced only in dreams. She continued to float a while, thinking of nothing in particular. Her hair fanned out in all directions and she felt a faint tugging on her scalp as it snagged on something. Putting her hands up to feel behind her head, she felt her fingers brush against smooth stone. She flipped in the water, over on to her stomach, seeing that she had floated over to the rim of a small pool. Tempting as it was to remain in the oddly buoyant water, she placed hands on either side of the stone to heave herself out of the pool. It wasn't a large space she had fallen into, perhaps twenty feet across to the other side. In the centre she could easily see the bright disc formed from sunlight as it filtered down the wellshaft. Virginia slipped back into the water and paddled out to the circle of light. Far above, the opening of the Well made only a tiny prick of light. She had no idea how far down she was, but she suspected it was further than it looked. No sound came down the shaft, no rope of rescue. Maybe no-one had even seen her fall in.
Virginia swam back to the edge of the pool and once more lifted herself out of the warm waters. She let her feet dangle as she sat on the side and thought about what to do next. The fluid rippled with sparkles of light when she moved her legs through it. She reached out experimentally, cupping a mouthful in the palm of her hand. It tingled strangely in her mouth and she spat it out, unsure suddenly. Her body and clothing steamed gently in the warm air. She would be dry in no time at least, so Wolf's worries of a freezing waist deep reception were unfounded for the moment anyway. Virginia wondered if he was still asleep in their room at the Inn. Most likely. He'd been short on sleep for many weeks. But he'd be worried when he woke and she wasn't there, she knew. Virginia didn't have any doubts that he would be able to track her and surmise where she'd gone, but he'd be ropeable when he found out she'd gone ahead and taken the risk of jumping down here before he had. But, had she jumped at all? Had she just overbalanced and fallen, like some stupid tourist might do? Or, had someone, or something, pulled her in? Virginia shivered and looked around herself properly for the first time. The walls and ceiling of the grotto looked to be of natural stone. Only the bricks at the base of the wellshaft were man made. At her back the walls ended abruptly a few feet from where she sat, but across the pool, in the dim light thrown from the shaft, she thought she could see the outlines of a tunnel winding away into darkness. Virginia stared at the tunnel opening for quite a few minutes before she crossed the pool to stand in front of it. She strained her ears to hear, but the only sound that came out if it was the faint plink plink of water dripping into the inch deep rivulet than ran across the floor and into the pool. She took a step forward hesitantly, her instincts at war with each other. Part of her knew she should really wait for Wolf and the others, but she found herself walking forward anyway.
After several yards, the pale light from the Well had faded, but a new and much stranger light source sprang to life in the darkness. Small, knobbly shaped fungi that grew on the walls began to glow with a green and silver light. It reminded Virginia of the phosphorescent light made by the small sea creatures in the waves at night on the beach. She touched one of the fungi, but drew back in surprise when it spat a small jet of water in her face.
"They don't like to be touched, at least not by humans" said a deep male voice from out of the shadows. Virginia froze in fear. An unusual scent came to her, one she did not recognize. It was a earthy, almost stagnant smell. She strained her ears, hoping her stalker would give his position away. But what could she do down here anyway? She had no weapons, no way of escape. A pale green hand, clammy and wart covered, lurched out of the dark. Too late she tried to leap away, but the hand clamped down over her face, covering her mouth. She struggled, but it was like fighting a slippery eel. The creature, whatever it was, lifted her off her feet with ease and hurried forward, away from the wellshaft and into the maze of tunnels far below Little Lamb Village.