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Sarah ‘Tomboy’ Nakano
Farbanti International Airport
0730 Hours Local
After falling asleep in the airport waiting for our flight, I woke up at around 7:30 AM, and saw that our flight was in. I
quickly woke up everybody else, and we all went to the airport terminal.
Soon after that, we boarded and we were airborne shortly after that. Personally, I hated flying. I know you might think that’s
strange considering my line of work, but I hate it. Or maybe I should say I hated flying as a passenger in this big and slow
sitting duck. This was made worse by my new heightened senses, and the fact that I had a VERY easily scared werewolf not very
far away from me. Bird Dog was sitting next to me, and he too looked as though he hated this as much as I did.
Frankly, I was relieved when the plane landed in Cinigrad. The first thing we did when we all got out of that plane was to
go and get something to eat. The smell of that airline food somehow managed to completely kill my appetite. Something, I sensed,
that was not easily done for a werewolf.
After getting something decent to eat, we rented two cars one for Bird Dog, Amanda, and me and the other one for the rest
of the Pack. Amanda would drive leading the way to the Ouroboros Mansion.
Ouroboros… I had heard that name before, but where?
“Hey Bird Dog,” I asked. “Have you ever heard of Ouroboros? It sounds familiar from somewhere.”
He shook his head. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s some kind of cooperation. Don’t know what they DO though.”
I heard Amanda laugh nervously. “Maybe I should have told you about that too… sorry. Well, Bird Dog, you’re
right, it IS a corporation, although not in the conventional sense.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“It’s… Well, the sorcerers there call it a Cabal.”
“A cabal?” Bird Dog asked. “I’ve heard of those, but why would they let werewolves live near them?
Sorcerers HATE werewolves, vampires, half-demons, and all the other races. The only reason they let Half-demons work for them
is because they need them for security.”
Amanda turned and looked at Bird Dog strangely for a moment, then went back to driving. “Not in this universe. Remember
the Belkan War?”
We both grimaced. “Don’t remind me,” he said.
“Well,” she continued. “The supernatural population was decimated during that, along with the Continental
War, and the Circum-Pacific Conflict. It was already low to begin with BEFORE the war, but afterwards, it had been cut in
half. Along with those other wars, there were only a handful of supernaturals left alive.
“Eventually, the last remaining sorcerer Cabal, Ouroboros, contacted what was left of the Inter-racial Council and gave
them a choice: join us and get protected, or risk annihilation by the humans and their wars. Most of the remaining supernaturals
agreed and they now work for the Cabal each race taking the job that suits them best. Werewolves are given the main job of
security along with Internal Affairs.”
We were how driving along a country road, and I was wondering how much further away the Mansion was. To kill some time, I
asked: “Amanda, if it’s not too personal, may I ask how you got bitten in the first place? I mean, if you don’t
want to--”
“No, it’s okay. Besides, I suppose I’ll have to tell your parents eventually. Well, at the start of the
Circum-Pacific conflict, I was taking a vacation in Yuktobania. I originally intended it to be only a one-week deal, but because
of the war, I was ‘detained’ to remain in country.
“I was on a bit of a break from the constant questioning from the government’s goons, so I decided to take a little
forest walk to calm down. When I was about to turn back, I was attacked by what I thought at first was just a normal wolf,
and I tried to run. His teeth though had sunk into upper right arm so it was already too late. As I was running, more wolves
jumped out of their hiding places, and went to fight the one that attacked me.
“Those were the Pack werewolves attacking one mutt. This one was one of the few supernaturals that refused to join the
Cabal, so the pack was forced to keep an eye on him. They had sent him several warnings about his killings, but he either
didn’t listen, or care.
“Anyways, after the mutt was killed, I lay on the ground waiting for them to kill me, but they didn’t. The Alpha,
Peter Eckhardt, took me to the Mansion and from there…” she shuddered at the memory of her transformation.
“I was blacked out for most of the time, but in a few places when I woke up, I heard him saying something about if I
was going to die, then I’d die with at least some shred of dignity.
“I managed to survive the bite, and after that, I spent the next two months locked in a cage.” She shuddered again.
“I was driven almost completely insane, and I still haven’t fully accepted the fact of what I am yet.” She
looked at me, and then said: “How did you do it? You’ve been a werewolf for only a few weeks, and you’ve
already got no problem being that way. I’ve been a werewolf for over a year now, and I’m STILL having difficulty
accepting the fact that I need to Change weekly.”
I shrugged. To tell the truth, I never really thought about it. After the shock of the transformation, I hated Bird Dog for
a couple of days, but then I just broke down with my resistance.
We sat in silence for the rest of the way, until we finally came to the Mansion. It did indeed look werewolf-friendly: no
big, loud machines, a large forest nearby with deer grazing near the forest edge, lots of space everywhere…virtually
identical to Stonehaven.
We drove towards a gate where a guard was sitting in a booth as if waiting for us. I took a glance back, and saw the other
car following close behind us. As we drove up to the guard station, he turned, and said: “Are all these people with
you, Ms Nakano?”
She nodded. “Yeah. We’re expected by the Alpha pretty soon.”
I inhaled, but I smelt nothing on the guard. Nothing at all. Vampire, I thought. Looks like Amanda was right, this place DOES
have all the races.
Once we all got out, and stretched our legs from being in the tight space of the rental cars for so long, a person in an executive-style
suit came forward and greeted us. He spoke with a heavy Hispanic accent that sounded jarring in these surroundings.
“Ah, so you must be the Pack Amanda has told us about. Greetings, I am Peter Eckhardt, Alpha of the Pack in this universe.”
He looked at Bird Dog and then me. “Hmm… you are Erusian, no? What are you two doing with this Pack?”
Bird Dog, being my senior as a werewolf and in the military, answered that. “We’re with the Soviet Union Military.
On a fairly recent mission to a new universe, I was shot down and bitten. Once I came back to Moscow, I accidentally bit Sarah.
She was taken in by the Pack in that universe, and we were here to tell her parents about what I did, but…”
Eckhardt nodded, and said: “I see, well, I suppose we’d better start the meeting. Where is your Alpha?”
Jeremy stepped forward and said: “That would be me. You’ll have to excuse the rest of my Pack, but this is a new
experience for all of us.”
Eckhardt nodded again. “As it is for us. Come; let’s go inside so you can meet the rest of my Pack.”
We followed him inside, but slowly. It’s a part of werewolf nature, we’re always a but paranoid. Once we were
inside, we sat down, and I looked around at the other Pack. There were about 10 werewolves there, including Eckhedrt and Amanda.
The two Alphas started discussing various strategy in case the Soviet Union made any attempt to contact them and ask them
if they wanted to join. Bird Dog and I stayed out of the whole discussion. Not because we were new, but because we represented
a three-way connection that our bias might interfere with.
We were both born in the Ace Combat universe, the one we were in now, we were both turned into werewolves and we were members
of the Otherworld universe’s Pack, and we where both in the Soviet Union Air Force.
Captain ‘Bird Dog’ Roy
Ouroboros Mansion, Outside Cinigrad
1534 Hours Local
I felt like a real outsider. I had connection to three things, but I couldn’t voice my opinion without something contradicting
something else. For a brief second, I actually considered joining the other Pack, but I dismissed that. Sarah might not have
seen my point of view, and I wouldn’t join the other Pack if she didn’t want to. Besides, I felt that her friendship
with Elena was too strong to prevent something like that from happening.
Eventually, the meeting was concluded, and my Pack went back into Cinigrad, and we managed to get the return flight to Farbanti.
Once we were back, we all decided that it was time to leave the Ace Combat Universe once again, so we all went to pack up.
Sarah took me back to her parents’ house where I was met by her father, glaring at me. I’m SURE he was about to
kill me when Sarah went in-between the two of us again, and said: “Look, Dad, you can’t stop me from seeing Bird
Dog. We work together on a daily basis and when I need to turn into a wolf, we do it together. I’m sorry, but you CAN’T
separate us.”
“Bur Sarah, just look at what he did to you! He took you away from us! He turned you into this!” he said.
I knew what he meant. Sarah always had a little bit of attitude, but now, it was more then that. A transformation from human
to werewolf almost always increases aggression among other things, and in the past few days, that had shown itself in Sarah’s
personality.
Sarah held her ground, and I heard her mother say: “let them be together Eric. I’ve been reading up on wolves,
and they only have one mate for their entire life. I don’t want Sarah to lose the possibility of having children. I
don’t know what sort of children she might have, but I still want that hope.”
“Catharine,” her father said. “How can you forgive him after what he did to our daughter!?”
“I don’t, but I just accept the fact that this is who Sarah wants to live with.”
Sarah nodded. “Thanks, Mom. And besides, if anyone’s to blame for this, it’s me. Bird Dog told me what he
was before I was bitten by him, but I still wanted to try and have a relationship with him. When I went for my walk, I saw
him in his wolf form and I tried to run. I didn’t know any better, and it’s an instinct for werewolves: if something
runs, chase it and eat it.”
“But if that’s true,” Eric asked. “Then why isn’t--?”
“I stopped before I killed Sarah, but I knew it was too late. When I saw what I had just done, I couldn’t bring
myself to kill her. But Sarah’s right, I attacked purely by instinct.”
Eric glared at me with pure hatred in his eyes, but that ebbed away a few seconds later and he said: “All right, Sarah,
I approve your choice of a husband,” he pointed towards me. “But that doesn’t mean that I have to forgive
you for what you did.”
Sarah hugged both her parents, and then went upstairs to pack her stuff. Once she was finished, she came down, and Eric said:
“Sarah, I want you to write to us everyday from now on, okay? And when you come home from leave, don’t turn into
a wolf. If you REALLY need to, then do it in the middle of the night while we’re all asleep, okay?”
She nodded, said her goodbyes, then we eventually got back to Stonehaven.
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