I discovered when I woke up in the morning that Luna has a sense of decency when it comes to werewolves around others not of their kind. I knew that because I was still the same wolf I had been when I'd settled in with Kairi.
She too was still with me, of course, resting peacefully with an arm gently holding me nearby. While I'd have liked to stay with her, I needed to stretch, and I was also hungry.
I nuzzled at her neck to wake her, and when that didn't work I licked at her face again. That worked.
"Hey! Cut that out," she giggled at me. "I guess Sora didn't turn up, huh? Well, at least you stayed with me."
As she got up, I gave a good stretch, yawned, then dropped down to the floor again.
"You're going already?"
"I must hunt," I answered. Actually, I had planned to change back and get a normal breakfast, but as I said it I realised I hadn't actually done any proper hunting. All in good time though.
"You be careful then... and if you see Sora, tell him he better have an excuse for disappearing on me again."
I nodded and left, feeling a little guilty about not being able to give her an excuse again. There wasn't much I could do about it though, so in the practical way of the wolf, I just set it aside and left it alone.
Donald and Goofy were downstairs already. I could have tried to slip past them, but there didn't seem to be much point, so I just padded down the stairs as if they weren't there.
Donald tried to stop me again, and backed off when I snapped at him again. Recognition dawned.
"That was you last night, wasn't it?"
"It was."
"What were you doing with Kairi?"
"He was keeping me warm," she told him from the top of the stairs. "He didn't do anything to me. Leave him alone."
I amused myself a little by baring my teeth at Donald, making him step away thinking I might do something, but it was more playful than serious. I'd never really harm him.
Several members of the pack looked curiously at me as I continued through the town itself, having not seen me the night before, and now like this in the morning. It was still early though, so not many were up.
A werewolf I hadn't spoken to – at least not that I knew of – hailed me, and called me over. He turned out to be the town's butcher, and as you can imagine he had a fair amount of trade. All the the werewolves bar me had been born that way, so naturally had a preference for meat.
I'd missed out on dinner last night at the grounds because of the ritual and spending time with Kairi, so was hungry anyway. The sight of the meat only added to that.
Fortunately, our resident butcher wasn't above preparing some breakfast. He was already handling it for his family, I just got invited to join them. While I imagine they didn't mind, I found it somewhat disturbing that he made breakfast while he also carved various joints for display.
We had freshly caught boar, as it turned out. I hadn't seen any in the woods, but he assured me they did roam there. Hunting them was no mean feat though, and their tusks made it risky. He told me even he'd had several injuries from hunting them, but that still hadn't put him off. The boar tasted better than I thought it would, incidentally. It's a bit like pig, but not quite. Try it yourself sometime.
Breakfast over, he left his family to manage the store and asked me to accompany him.
"You haven't done any hunting yet, have you?"
"I keep meaning to get around to it. Something always seems to come up though."
"Should come work for me," he grinned. "I could always use a hand. I'm going after a couple of good deer today, and thought you might like to join in the fun. It's always easier to bring in two when you've got help."
"Guess I'll get to learn from the best, huh?"
"Oh, I imagine you'll pick it up easily, Kulim. It comes second nature almost as soon as you find your prey." He glanced over at me as he said it, then added, "Something up? You look uncomfortable about something."
"It's just a bit odd to hear my other name while I'm human."
"You're lucky. You've got a choice."
"What do you mean?"
"Some of us don't have human names, like me. All I have is Kadach."
"Kadach? I know you now, you're the one who visited me that night, aren't you?"
"I'm surprised you remember me. I never told you my name."
"Kieran did that for you the day after when I went to visit him."
"I know. You asked my mate for directions to his house."
"Really? I didn't know."
He chuckled and looked around.
"It looks like your friends aren't around. We'll change here and run on to the woods."
He and I were almost matched for size, but he was clearly stronger than me. All his hunting and work as a butcher probably contributed to that.
I was a bit faster than he was though, giving us a kind of impromptu race to the edge of the forest. Once inside their reach though, we both slowed. Some parts of the forest are well known, but the areas with better hunting aren't safe to run through at speed. Rocks both small and large, rough terrain with sharp drops that you can't see until you're practically on top of them, and I'm sure those trees can jump out in front of you.
Kadach led me to his favourite hunting grounds, fairly distant from both the town and the grounds. It was actually on the edge of the forest, and at the edge of a lake where they came to graze and get a drink. He warned me that sometimes wolves from another nearby range sometimes hunted here, and out of respect for them he always gave way for them if they showed up.
He also hadn't been wrong about hunting. It's some kind of primal wolven instinct we just know.
The deer were thick in this area, young and old, strong and not so strong, quick and slow. Kadach taught me how to pick out a suitable target.
Their herd would protect the young in the heart, and the young generally weren't good pickings. Older ones were touchy, sometimes they made for good meat, but most of the time it wasn't worth it. The trick was to hide in a bush, laying low and watching carefully as they grazed or wandered, and to look for one that wasn't weak, had plenty of meat to them, and wasn't likely to get away quicker than I could run.
We huddled under the bush for a long time watching them, then one of them caught my eye. He looked like the perfect prey, and was grazing on the outside edge of the herd.
My senses flared, the smells filling my nose, the sounds my ears and the sights my eyes. None of the other senses mattered; this was what a wolf lived for.
Concentration kept me even more still as I watched and waited some more until he drew close. I had the element of surprise, I knew had to make full use of it. I'd only have a small window of opportunity between breaking out of my cover and their reaction.
Almost everything else filtered out of my perception entirely, letting me focus on the prey. My world consisted of him and me, nothing more.
Then I saw my chance, and like a shot out of a cannon I bolted out of the bush with barely a single rustle and charged right for him.
He also bolted before I reached him of course, and the rest of the herd scattered – but I paid them no attention. I had him in my sights, and I wasn't letting him get away.
I knew by instinct what I had to do. I bit at the flanks until he ploughed thrashing to the ground.
Then I had to bite down sharply on it's neck, letting me taste blood trickling out of the wound. I could feel it thrashing around strongly, but I kept my grip and bit down harder, jerking my head to tear at the neck, making the wounds deeper until it stopped moving.
With the certain knowledge it was dead and a sense of pride about myself, the rest of the world seemed to come rushing back to me. Kadach had apparently used me as a distraction and taken advantage of the confusion I'd caused to catch himself another fine deer. The rest of the herd had already scattered, leaving us alone with our kills.
We now faced the task of getting them back to town. Considering how far we were from there, this seemed like a long and hard task. While they were undoubtedly fine kills and would make prime meat, they were also heavy. As we hadn't brought any tools of any kind, we'd have to drag them back ourselves.
Humans would craft a sled or just drag them along. Wolves also drag them back, usually without letting go once they've killed them.
We on the other hand had an easy way out. We simply changed to our hybrid forms, picked up our catches, and headed back toward town, skirting the edge of the forest.
Part way there, his children met him with a pair of sleds to take them the rest of the way in. Kadach calmly advised me not to change form, and when I asked why he merely pointed at my front. Some of the blood had trickled down into my fur. If I'd changed back like that, the blood would be on me and my clothes.
The simple solution was to make a dash for a nearby river and wash ourselves off before we returned to help drag the two deer into the town. The pack saw them with us as we entered the town. I'd been proud of what I'd achieved when I made my kill, but I was even more proud when I saw the approving looks of the other members. They knew they'd have some excellent meat thanks to us, and I knew I'd helped feed the pack.
There was one small dip in the high spirits as we passed the hotel. As we had returned to our human forms when we'd entered town, it was no surprise that I was recognised. Kairi stood outside with a face like a thundercloud and arms crossed. She didn't exactly seem happy to see me, and even less so when she caught the idea that one of the two deer was mine. This was going to take some explaining. I seemed to be doing a lot of that since becoming a werewolf, but it couldn't be helped.
The attention dropped as we neared his store, and handled them into his cold storeroom.
"See?" he said as we did so. "I told you it'd come to you naturally, and you did me proud."
"I could get to like doing that. It's a bit of a thrill."
"A bit? It's that thrill that got me so hooked on it that I took on the family business here. I love to hunt."
"I can see why. That was..." I just couldn't find the words.
"I know. You caught a better one than I did, you know. You should be proud."
"I am... I just have to explain it to Kairi."
"Tell her I hunted them, you just helped me get them back. Even running, it'd take you a fair bit longer to reach our hunting grounds while human."
"That doesn't explain why she thinks I disappeared last night, and only just got back now."
He thought for a moment, then came up with another solution. "I find boar are easier to hunt at night, and I brought one in last night. Tell her the same for that, and if she gets curious I can show her the boar."
"I don't really like lying to her, Kadach."
"I don't see much choice, Kulim. I did warn you that night you'd have to make a few sacrifices, change a few things. Alright, maybe not in so many words, but you knew what you were getting into."
"Yeah, I know. It just doesn't seem fair. I can't tell her anything. It's like the vampire I killed in that attack – she doesn't know it was me. She doesn't know the wolf that kept her warm last night was also me, and now she'll never know I single-handedly brought us in a whole deer."
He put a hand on one shoulder, showing he understood and sympathised.
"If you ever want to vent about it again, just let me know," he told me gently. "I don't mind. I've done it before."
"You have? When?"
"This wasn't my pack originally, Kulim. My family and I migrated to here when our pack was all but wiped out by them. In that pack, the majority of members were like you. Only a handful were born into it."
"I guess you understand a bit better than the others here then."
"Of course. Go on. You ought to explain to your friends. I'll back you up if it comes to that, and the pack will back us both."
"Thanks, Kadach. You're a real friend."
"We're pack-mates. It's what we do for each other."