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Captain ‘Bird Dog’ Roy
Farbanti, Erusia
1845 Hours Local
After Sarah’s parents drove off, I managed to walk all the way back into the city and rent an apartment. The room was
tiny, but I didn’t care. I was too busy trying not to fall apart right then and there. I had lost Sarah. We’d
never be able to do anything together, with the exception of Changing and flying.
I flopped myself down on the bed, and stared at the ceiling, remembering all the good times we had before either one of us
was bitten. We flew over the skies of this very city two years ago, and we had even fought the legendary pilot Cipher, the
Demon Lord. We both got shot down, naturally, but it was still a great time we had.
I knew Sarah would be trying to convince her parents to accept me for what I was, but I knew that that would be almost impossible.
I had turned their daughter into a wolf. I knew that they’d still see her as their daughter, but her life wouldn’t
be the same.
Eventually, I guess I drifted off to sleep. I dreamed I was in wolf form, chasing two people, a man and a woman. They looked
familiar, but I couldn’t tell. Not with wolf’s eyesight from that far away. It wasn’t the kind of chasing
that happens to me when I’m hunting, and the wolf takes over. This chase was totally within my control, as though I
was chasing somebody I knew not wanting to attack them.
I kept running, and I managed to close the distance between me and them. I took a deep breath trying to catch the scents that
those two where putting off, but I found out that I was downwind; my scent going towards them instead of the other way around.
I caught up with one of the figures, the woman, and pinned her to the ground. She started laughing as she went down, and as
I started to lick her. As I was licking her, I got a good look at who I was chasing: it was my mother.
I sometimes had dreams like this, but in them, I was human and playing tag or something similar to that with them. I knew
how these dreams ended too when I woke up.
But I didn’t WANT to wake up. I was happy here, playfully wrestling with my father now, even though he was losing. A
human wrestling against a wolf is not gonna win, especially when that wolf has a human mind. He grabbed me around my neck,
and now had me in more or less a headlock, but I managed to slip out of it, and more or less jump on his back.
This dream was lasting longer then most of them, because a few minutes later, we where all sitting down on the grass, breathing
heavily. I felt a hand go through the fur between my ears, and I turned.
“Necromancer,” my father whispered before they disappeared. No! I was waking up! I tried desperately to bring
them back, to stay in this dream world for just a little longer, to see my parents for just a few more seconds, but it was
too late.
I shot awake, crying. That was the farthest the dream had ever gone. We never got to talk. In fact, it usually ended just
after I managed to catch up with my mother. What was that word that my father said before the dream ended?
Necromancer? I knew the term, someone that can awaken the dead, make zombies, ghosts, and other undead things appear, but
what did that have to do with anything?
I checked the time, 5:12 AM. Those dreams always did that to me, they woke me up REALLY early, and I couldn’t get back
to sleep when they where over. I sighed and went outside to get something to eat from a fast-food place.
Sarah ‘Tomboy’ Nakano
Farbanti, Erusia
0512 Hours Local
I felt my heart sink when I woke up. Nothing was wrong, beyond the fact that I had nearly destroyed my family. I looked at
the clock, and saw the time, 5:12 AM. I went back to sleep.
When I woke up again, my brother was standing over me with a tray. He smiled and said: “morning sleepyhead,”
I looked at the tray then said: “Breakfast in bed? You shouldn’t have.” I grabbed a piece of toast, and
bit into it. As I was chewing it, I checked the clock, and now it said: 10:59 a.m.. I had slept in late. REALLY late, and
especially considering that I’m an early riser, I wondered why I had stayed in bed this long.
As I saw the time, I asked: “how come you’re not at work?”
“I don’t have to go in until noon today. There was a bit of a blackout last night and not all the computers are
back up and running yet.”
I finished up with breakfast then said: “so, did mom and dad tell you about what’s happened to me?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but don’t worry, Sarah. To me, you’ll always be my little sister. And besides, I think
it’s kind of cool.”
I looked up. “What is?”
“You, being a werewolf. I mean, do you know how many different werewolf myths there are? How many different variants
of the same thing?”
I shook my head. “How many?”
“A lot, trust me, in fact, would you like to come to work with me today? I can show you some of the things the National
Library has on them. I just want to help narrow down what kind of werewolf you are.”
I shrugged and said: “I’m not doing anything else today. Umm, could you leave please?” I was only wearing
a few pieces of underwear, so I needed to get dressed. Now, even though I went into the forest recently and stripped, I wasn’t
going to do that in front of my brother. He left, and I got dressed.
I tried to avoid my parents until it was time for my brother to go to work, and I said that I was just going to spend the
day with him, catching up on lost time. As we were walking towards the National Library, I caught a whiff of something. It
didn’t belong in a city, and after a few seconds, I knew what I smelt.
Werewolf.
I stopped, and took bigger breaths, trying to figure out if this was a Pack Member, or a mutt, but it was too faint. My brother
stopped, and said: “what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, never mind it’s gone now. I thought I smelled something, but I can’t be sure.”
He looked confused until I said: “I have a better sense of smell then most humans, no offence, and I thought I smelt
another werewolf.”
“Really?” he asked. “Interesting, that’ll help me narrow down what not to show you.”
He kept walking, and I followed. When we got to the Library, the scent was there again, stronger this time, but not enough
to let me have a good ID on who the scent belonged to. I decided not to mention it this time, and I kept walking. When we
got in, the computers where starting to get back online, and my brother led me around the Library. He kept passing me books
as though he had hours to study where they where. He kept putting them onto my waiting arms, and eventually, I had a fairly
good sized stack of books that would probably keep me occupied for most of the day.
The books where from all genres, and I didn’t know what to read first. Once I reached a table, I put the books down,
and Neil left me alone to read. Generally, the things I read didn’t have much, if anything to do with real werewolves.
It was the typical ‘half man, half wolf’ thing, and I put those aside not interested in them anymore. Some of
the things I read had some similarities, but only one book was right on.
The book had no name, author, or date on it, but I read it anyways. From what I could tell, this book was printed during World
War I. it didn’t say that exactly, but it did say something about ‘the Great Human War’. My universe’s
version of WWI happened in 1878 and lasted for two years. Anyways, the more I read, the more I got to feel that this book
was actually true.
This book was dead-on with what I was, weekly Changes, higher senses in human form, transforming into a total wolf, and it
was also clearly made by a ruling class or something, because it often looked down on most other werewolves.
I was so engrossed in reading, I didn’t notice anybody was behind me when a hand touched my shoulder. I jumped, and
turned sharply, trying to figure out who had scared me. It was Amanda, my Sister-in-Law. She looked at what I was reading
and said: “hello Sarah, it’s good to see you again.”
I nodded, and calmed down. “Sorry, you just scared me. So, how are things?” something about this situation didn’t
seem right.
“Oh good, Cera’s a handful though. She’s saying that you have the coolest job in the world, and all that
stuff.” She smiled.
“Listen, Amanda, there’s something I have to tell you.” I said. I knew this was coming, but I had no idea
how she’d react if I told her what had happened to me. Amanda was born and raised in Oured, the capitol of Osea and
there culture is different then the Erusian.”
She sighed and said: “I already know, Sarah. A werewolf’s nose is better then a humans’ but don’t
worry, I went though exactly what you’re going through right now.” She shook her head. “It’s a miracle
you survived, you know that? Most bitten werewolves die a few days after the bite. Either the transformation kills them, they
get torn apart by the wolf that did bit them, or they go insane and kill themselves from the shock. You got lucky, Sarah.
Really lucky. Don’t worry, the Pack will take you in soon enough once I let the Alpha know about you.”
My eyes widened, and I said what was probably the stupidest thing in my whole life. “So, you’re a werewolf?”
I mentally kicked myself, and took a whiff of her scent. No perfume of any kind, some deodorant, and she had the telltale
scent that marked a werewolf. I said something a bit smarter now. “How long—”
“About a few years now. I was vacationing with Neil in Yuktobania just before the Circum-Pacific War started. I was
taking a walk in the woods, and then I was attacked.” She shuddered. “Frankly, I’d rather not talk about
it.”
I nodded, and said: “Does Neil know—“
“No, I know I should tell him, but I’m afraid of what he’ll think. And what will Cera think? Will she want
to be a werewolf too?”
Neil came over a few seconds later, and kissed Amanda on the cheek. “How’s it going Sarah? Find anything good
yet?”
I nodded, and said: “This thing seems to be dead-on with what I am. You should look into it.”
He examined the book I found closely, then said: “oh yeah, this thing. You know, we’re not to sure where it came
from. I’m guessing it was one of things that the Fascists seized. I mean, that’s the best guess.”
Amanda nodded then said: “umm, Neil, there’s something I need to tell you.” And she started to explain what
had happened to her. When she was finished, she was in tears, and we both tried to comfort her.
“Well, why didn’t you tell us about this before?”
“I was afraid of what you’d all think of me. I’m not brave, I’m not a solider like your sister here.
I’m a librarian, not a warrior. I wasn’t brave enough to tell you. I wish I was a stronger person, but I’m
not.”
“Amanda,” I said. “Sometimes, I’m not that brave. Every time I see a missile heading towards me, I
nearly wet myself. Every time I go in for mid-air refuelling, I’m so worried that I just let the aircraft’s computer
do it for me because I can’t stop my hand from shaking. When I’m in the base, I pretend to be strong like nothing
worries me, but inside, I’m still scared.”
My little speech seemed to have the opposite effect of what I was hoping for. She started to cry even harder, until eventually,
she was out of tears. We took her outside for some air. Now there was a REALLY big problem. How would Neil and I tell our
parents about what happened to Amanda over a year ago? And more importantly, how would they react? They had practically gone
ballistic when Bird Dog and I had told them about what happened to me, and that was only a few weeks ago. But for Amanda,
it was a little over a year ago…
The shit was about to hit the fan now…
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