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Chapter eleven
Sarah ‘Tomboy’ Nakano
Outside Stonehaven, Bear Valley
0445 Hours local
I woke up in a state of confusion, at a very early hour. I thought I heard something, and had woken up. Military life does
that to you, you learn to wake up at the slightest sound that may be the prelude to an attack.
I tried to clear the fog around my brain and looked around. I was entangled with a wolf. I thought of my escape plan in microseconds.
I pictured the exact way I would catapult my legs and take off running at full speed. The wolf would be too sleepy to fully
know what was going on, and I’d use that to escape.
I shot up, miscalculated, and landed on my tail. Tail? I thought, my brain still not working properly. Since when do I have
a tail? I took a look at myself, and my brain cleared up. I was a werewolf, and I had fallen asleep this way. Right, I had
to make these little adjustments.
Bird Dog lifted his canine head, still half-asleep and made a groaning sort of noise and motioned for me to come back to sleep.
I hesitated, and then accepted. The sun wasn’t even out yet, and I was dead tired. I went back over to him and fell
asleep again.
I didn’t wake up until about 8:30 AM. Or at least, that’s what time I guessed it was. The air was still cool and
a bit damp, and the sun was in the more-or-less right position. Another throwback to my military training, you learn to make
the best with whatever you got on you. In some cases, that would just be your eyes and your wits.
When I did wake up fully, I stretched for a while fascinated in the way my muscles moved in this form. Then I followed Bird
Dog who was finishing up with his stretches. No, we don’t have to do ‘The Regulation 50 Jerks’. It’s
just that stretching is a great way to start the day.
We went back to where we had Changed the evening before, Changed back and got dressed. As we made our way back, Bird Dog asked:
“you know Sarah, since you’re still adjusting to this whole new life, would you like to read the Pack history
book? The Legacy?”
I hit him on the arm. “You’re telling me this now? Of course I want to read it!” my stomach growled and
I laughed slightly. “After I get something to eat that is.”
We went inside and started to make breakfast for us, but Bird Dog insisted that just in case anyone came, we’d be making
breakfast for the whole Pack. Now, I can cook, but not very well. Most of what I can cook is simply EDIBLE, and it doesn’t
taste particularly good. That is, when I cook from scratch.
I was frying some bacon, but mostly thinking about what to say to my parents. I didn’t know how they’d react,
but I had this rotten feeling that something bad was going to happen when I told them. What if-
I smelled some smoke, and I realised that in being distracted with my thought, I allowed the bacon to burn. I yelped, put
on an oven mitt, and took the frying pan to the sink where I dropped the burnt bacon in the sink before the smoke detector
was activated. After that, I let Bird Dog take over the cooking, and I simply sat back and looked at a few cook books.
Once breakfast was done with, I followed Bird Dog into the study and watched him bring out the Legacy. I started to read it,
and was completely engrossed in it a short while later. Other cultures and ways of looking at things simply fascinate me.
I suppose if I hadn’t chosen the career path of a fighter pilot, I would have been a cultural anthropologist or a sociologist.
But, I wanted to fly and nothing in the world would drive me away from it.
I took a few breaks here and there, being very careful to put the book back where Bird Dog had gotten it from. Although these
breaks generally amounted to nothing more then a few glasses of water, or something to eat or bathroom breaks a couple of
times.
Elena Michaels
Stonehaven, Bear Valley
1539 hours local
I went upstairs to the study mostly to find out what Sarah was doing up there most of the day. When I opened the door, she
didn’t even look up to see who had entered. I got closer and saw that she was reading the Legacy. I didn’t expect
this.
Actually, scratch that, I DID expect it, just not that soon. I knew Sarah needed some background information as soon as possible,
but I just never expected it to be this fast. Or maybe I was looking at things from my personal experience. I had been locked
in the cage downstairs for several months after I’d been bitten, nearly insane from what was happening to me.
I tapped her shoulder, and she jumped, obviously completely engrossed in the Legacy.
“Whoa! Elena, you scared the bejuses out of me. Don’t do that!” she said, after she knew that it was me.
“Well you should actually listen for when the door opens, or at least smell who comes in!” I laughed.
“Hey, I’m not as experienced as you, okay?” she said defensively. “Cut me some slack!”
Where did that come from? I thought. “What’s wrong?” I asked, wondering what was going on.
She signed and said: “sorry, I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. It’s just that I need to tell my family
about what’s happened, but I can’t think of any way to do it.”
Since my biological family was dead, and I didn’t keep in touch with any of my foster parents, I had no idea what Sarah
was going through. But then, I never heard Bird Dog mention anything about HIS family either, and when I asked him about it,
he said that he didn’t want to talk about it.
I decided to change the topic right there, so I said: “what about Bird Dog? Has he told his family?”
She shook her head and said: “his family’s been dead for a few years now. They got killed when the ULYSSES_1994XF04
Asteroids crashed into the Earth in my universe. That’s why he never talks about them, in Erusia, our home country,
family is extremely important. In fact, it’s one of our central values.”
“But what does this have to do with you telling your parents that you’re a werewolf?” I asked, still a bit
confused on that.
She sighed, and said: “They have to know about this. I usually visit them whenever I’m on leave, and I can’t
disappear for a few hours every time I need to Change.”
After a short silence, I left, and let her continue reading the Legacy. I went downstairs and found Bird Dog watching some
news report. I sat down next to him and said: “Bird Dog, Sarah just told me about your parents, and a few parts of the
Erusian culture, is it true that Sarah has to tell her parents about what happened to her?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she needs to tell them, and I need to be accepted into their family. Although, I don’t think
that’ll be possible after what I did.”
“That was a reflex action, you said so yourself you had no intention of turning her into a werewolf. They’ve got
to understand that it wasn’t your fault.”
He sighed and said: “I don’t think so, Elena. And besides, you aren’t Erusian. No offence, but you aren’t.
You have almost no idea of our culture.” He got up and walked away after that.
I followed him, trying to get some more information out of him, but he sent inside the study with Sarah and closed the door.
Now closed doors aren’t a problem for werewolf hearing, so I listened in. I didn’t hear anything, and then saw
Bird Dog come back out much quieter then the way he came in.
“She’s not in there, she must be asleep in her room.” he whispered.
We went downstairs and I managed to start getting more information on the Ace Combat universes’ countries and their
cultures.
Sarah ‘Tomboy’ Nakano
Stonehaven, Bear Valley
1732 Hours local
I woke up in the guest room of Stonehaven, almost wishing that the last few weeks hadn’t happened so I wouldn’t
have to tell my parents about me becoming a werewolf. No such luck.
I got out of bed and started to get my overnight bag together. I was leaving to tell my parents about what had happened to
me, and that meant going to Farbanti, Erusia. I heard a knock on the door and said: “come in,” not bothering to
look up.
“Going somewhere?” Elena asked.
“Yeah,” I said, still packing. “I’m really sorry, but I have to tell them now. I’ve waited long
enough, plus, they’re expecting me by tomorrow. They know when I’m supposed to go on leave, and if I don’t
show up, they’ll start to ask questions and then they’ll come here.”
She sighed, obviously knowing a meeting with my parents and Clayton would not end well, and said: “okay, I’m doing
this as a favour to you. Where do you need to go?”
“Just take me to the Russian Embassy in New York City or to the bus station at least. I’ll take care of the rest
from there.”
“What do you want me to tell Bird Dog?”
“Tell him the truth, the same with the Pack so they don’t come looking for me.”
She nodded, and gave me a few minutes to finish packing. I did, and got in Elena’s car which had been towed, fixed up
slightly and put back in the garage.
She drove me to the bus station without saying a word, and left me there after I bought a bus ticket to New York City. When
the bus came, I boarded it, and I was getting nervous.
A few hours later, I was in New York City, and I went immediately to the Russian Embassy where I showed my ID, and told the
staff where I wanted to go. You see, inter-universal travel is a bit new for the Soviet army, and it was just starting to
be allowed for civilians although it was highly discouraged, as it cost a lot. However, if you where in the military like
me, they made exceptions for you.
I went inside the miniaturized Chronosphere, and was instantly transported to Farbanti. As soon as I got there, I felt the
Earth’s gravity pull me down a bit harder. That was natural, as my universes’ version of Earth is a bit bigger
and is denser then most other Earths, and as a result, it has more gravity.
I missed that, being born into what the Soviet Union calls a ‘high-gravity world’ didn’t make me feel quite
normal somehow. Perhaps it was the fact that I could take almost 10 Gs before passing out in a dogfight, and how I could lift
slightly more weight then most people native to that universe.
I called a taxi cab and went directly to my house. Now, if you’re not an Erusian, when I say ‘my house’
I mean my families house. You might think this is weird, but in Erusia, it’s not uncommon for people to live with their
parents for most of their life.
I went in, and looked around. I checked for my brother, Neil who was assuming he wasn’t at work, would try to tackle
and tickle me into submission. It was something we used to do as kids. Completely harmless, until now at least.
I went to check the clock, and saw that it was 1:00 PM, Usea Central Mean Time.
And by the way, just in case you’re wondering, yes, time does flow differently in other universes. I don’t think
I can explain it, although the Command and Conquer universe’s version of Albert Einstein would be able to, if you could
understand him and had about a day to kill.
Before I opened the door, I took a sharp breath, pushed my wolf side away, then went in. I took a sniff of the air and was
bombarded with scents from my childhood; my parents cooking, my brother’s books from the National Library and a myriad
of other things that made my knees buckle. Not so much from the shock, but from the memories that those scents brought up,
human memories…
I went to check the schedule for the day. Before I was in the military, everyone would write down what time they worked on
a washable calendar so we knew when we’d all be off work. Today, they all seemed to get off at around the same time,
but I knew that they would take a while to come home due to where they worked.
My mother, Catharine worked at the port as she was the harbourmaster directing the flow of incoming sea traffic, my dad, Eric
worked at the Bank of Usea, while my brother worked at the National Library along with Amanda, his wife and my Sister-in-Law.
There was also something squished in that I had to spend a few seconds working out. ‘Amanda’s Visit, 4:00 PM.’
Shit! I thought. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse.
If Amanda was coming, than that meant that Cera was also coming. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LIKED spending time with
my niece, but the memory of that little girl I killed during my first Change in Moscow brought bile to my throat.
I shoved it down, and went into my room to cry. Was this how my life was going to be from now on? Being afraid of my own parents,
even if they knew what I was? Not being able to horse around with my brother without running the risk of Changing and killing
him? Not able to hug anyone without breaking their ribs, or kiss them without spreading this? And if I did try to keep it
hidden, could I show any emotion at all without revealing my true nature? Would I ever be able to spend time with my niece
again? But what about if I told them? How would they react? Would they constantly be afraid of me, or worse, would they actually
start hating me for letting this happen?
I didn’t know the answers to these questions, but soon other, darker ones entered my mind. Would my parents still see
me as their daughter? Would I still have a brother? Would I have ANYTHING from my human life at all? Another part of my brain
said that I would, but that made it worse. Would they see me as some kind of freak?
A while later, I was out of tears, and I pulled myself together. Once I did, I stared at the bed sheets and finally decided
to wash them to get rid of whatever my tears contained as it might spread my ‘condition’.
I put the sheets in the washing machine, and waited in the living room for my brother to come back from his workplace. He
did at around 4: 10 PM, and I heard: “hey Mom, Dad, you here?”
“Hey Neil, I’m in here!” I called out.
“Sarah?” he asked, and came running in. when he saw me, he went up close and hugged me as hard as he could. I
returned it, but I tried to be gentle because I didn’t know my own strength at the time.
“Sarah,” he said, after he pulled back. “It’s great to see you, wow, you look great, and how’ve
you been?”
I managed a smile, and said: “pretty good, the Soviet Union is trying to make us feel welcome as one part of a whole
team now. It’s still kind of weird that I’m flying with people not just from Osea, Yuktobania, ISAF, Belka, and
Sapin, but now I’m flying with Russians, Americans, and a lot of other nation’s pilots.”
We continued talking for a while until my mom got home. When she saw me, she looked me straight in the eye and said: “Sarah,
it’s so good to see you. I’ve been worried about you ever since ISAF and the Soviet Union beat us in the Continental
War. You ARE still okay, right? They’re not doing anything unethical or-”
“Yeah, mom, I’m fine. Don’t worry so much about me. I can take care of myself you know.” I said referring
to the time I was almost mugged and killed, but I had managed to kick the guy in the crotch, and knock him out.
She shook her head at my hotheadedness and sighed. “I wouldn’t be a very good mother if I didn’t worry,
Sarah.”
We then started to catch up on what was happening, with me and here in Erusia. Of course I left out my being a werewolf. It
would be better to wait until my father was here too.
Eventually, he came in, and he also brought in Amanda, and Cera.
“Aunt Sarah!” she cried, and ran towards me. I instinctively reached out and hugged her. Then, it hit me. it started
with my fingers turning into claws. They sank into her back, and she pulled away, screaming in pain. I tried to stop it, but
it was too late. The Change was taking over, and I screamed as my body shifted.
I turned, still fighting against the pain of my Change to see my Family’s faces. There where a lot of things there:
fear, loss, grief, panic, disbelief, and many others. My face started to push out into a muzzle and I managed to get out an
‘I’m sorry,” before my vocal cords where to canine to form human speech. The final wave of pain nearly caused
me to black out as it always did, and then it was over.
Cera, now terrified at what I had become, screamed. I turned, snarled and leaped!
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