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Captain ‘Bird Dog’ Roy
Farbanti, Erusia
1345 Hours Local
What my father said in my dream was eating away at me. I knew from the Interracial Council that Necromancers where real, but
I didn’t know too much about them. What were my parents trying to tell me? Could I somehow contact them even after all
these years? And if so, how would they react when I told them everything that had happened since they died, or did they already
know about what had happened?
I honestly didn’t know. Like I said, I didn’t know much about them, or how they could help me. Supernaturals and
my home universe where two completely different things, and there was no way my parents could have known about necromancers.
Interuniversal travel simply didn’t exist until the Soviet Union came up with it a year ago, and even then, they had
only just visited the Otherworld Universe only a few months ago.
I sighed to myself, and accepted reality: my parents were dead, and there was no way I could contact them. That dream I had
was just some neurosis born of the childhood trauma of my parent’s death, and the part about them saying ‘necromancer’
was just a part of me that wanted to talk to them again that had been there since their death.
I bought a copy of the Farbanti Times and looked for a psychiatrist. After my parents’ death, I refused to talk to one
mostly because my grief was overwhelming me, but also because I didn’t want that guy to write some book on, or about,
me.
And who knows? Maybe I’d be able to talk with him or her about the relationship problem I’d been having with Sarah.
Of course, I’d have to have STRICT doctor/patient confidentiality, but I knew that that was always assured, no matter
how crazy the patient was.
Oh sure, the military had psychiatrists, but they where mostly concerned with getting their patients up and flying, sailing,
or fighting again as soon as possible. Plus, civilian psychiatrists generally, according to statistics, had better success
rates then most military ones.
Eventually, I found one. Not a challenge in a city the size of Farbanti, but there where only a handful that specialized in
cases like mine; parental loss and relationships. I suppose I could have hired two, but I’m not that kind of guy.
I called the receptionist, and booked an appointment. Nothing fancy, just a one hour time slot and see if he wanted me back
for further analysis.
Sarah ‘Tomboy’ Nakano
The National Library, Erusia
1350 Hours Local
Neil and I took Amanda outside for some air. My brother covered for her saying that she fainted, which she did sometimes because
of her low blood pressure. Once she settled down a bit, I asked: “Amanda, you mentioned something about a Pack. What
is that?”
She looked at me, and then began. “The Pack is exactly what it sounds like; a wolf pack with the Alpha at the top and
everyone else below him.” she stopped then said: “do you know who bit you? All but about two werewolves are in
the Pack, and I have to tell the Alpha about you.” She sighed then said: “looks like I’m not the only female
werewolf anymore. You have NO idea what it’s like for me back in Yuktobania.”
My eyes widened. Supernautrals? HERE? How the…? I stopped looking stupid long enough to say: “Amanda, there’s
something I need to tell you. You know about that Interuniversal travel thing the Soviets got set up?”
She nodded.
“Well, recently, we were in one universe to mostly keep things from getting out of hand as the Soviets solidified control
there. Turns out, there was a lot more to that universe then we first thought. My flight lead, Captain Patrick ‘Bird
Dog’ Roy was shot down and got bitten by a werewolf, and a few months later, he came back to base.
While he was on a run, I was taking a walk in the forest outside Moscow. He bit me, and well… here I am.”
She looked almost the same as I did when I found out what Bird Dog had become when he showed me that Pack trick of a partial
Change: a combination of terror, and disbelief. Eventually, she regained her composure, and said: “well, obviously we
need to have our two Packs meet sometime very soon. I’ll arrange it with my Alpha, and you do the same for yours. Would
you prefer it to be in this universe, or in the other one?”
I shrugged, and said: “I don’t think it really matters. And Amanda, you REALLY need to tell Cera what happened
to you sometime soon. If you don’t, you’ll risk killing her, and believe me, you don’t want that on your
conscience.”
She looked at me confused and then said: “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Look Amanda, my first Change was hell. You probably know how that feels though, anyways, when I got into the forest
outside the Airbase, I attacked, killed and ate three campers, before I became unconscious.” I shuddered, and almost
gagged on the memory. “One of those campers was a little girl, probably no older then Cera, and I killed and ate her
before another werewolf stopped me.”
“But I can’t!” she yelled. “If she knew what I’ve become—“
“Cera’s just a kid!” I yelled back. “To her, you’ll always be her mother. Just tell her that
this is a secret and that she can’t tell anyone! Do you want her to die?”
She looked horrified as I said that, and yelled: “Of course not! You want to know what I want. I want to just wake up
one day next to my loving husband, and realise that all this was just a nightmare! That’s what I want! I didn’t
ask for this! This body isn’t me! I hate this! I just want to be normal again!!”
She was getting hysterical, and Neil tried to comfort her, but she grabbed him, and flipped him right over her head and held
him in a choke hold.
“You see? Before I was bitten, I’d never even be able to attempt this! Now I can kill people without breaking
a sweat!”
She released Neil, and he ran towards me, taking some form of cover. I stood there, trying not to be afraid, but I don’t
think I succeeded to well because she said: “You’re afraid, I can tell! I can smell your fear right now!”
I remained calm and said: “Look Amanda, I don’t want to hurt you, but if you make me, I WILL fight you. You know
I have some marital arts training from the military, so don’t make me fight you.”
Then I saw something that no werewolf should ever see: Amanda had begun to Change out of the fear and hysteria. I gasped,
and checked the surroundings. No people, good. Sort of… the National Library was positioned near the forest in Farbanti’s
early days, but since then, as the city developed, the Library was now only left with a small section of wilderness almost
like a National Park, but a whole lot smaller. Amanda could run here, but not for long, eventually, she’d go into the
main city, and I didn’t want to THINK of the damage she could do in this state of mind.
I turned sharply away to give her some privacy while she Changed. Once I knew she was finished, I turned around, and saw my
brother staring at the brown wolf that was once his wife in shock. No real surprise there, even to an experience werewolf,
Changing is a private moment and nobody should EVER see it. this was only enhanced by the fact that Neil was just told about
this literally only a few seconds ago, and he was still in a state of shock from THAT.
I could tell that he was about to run, but I grabbed him by the arm, and whispered into his ear: “don’t. if she
sees you run, she’ll chase you, and in all likelihood, kill or bite you. Just stay here, I’ll take care of this.”
Amanda still wasn’t quite used to the way her body moved when she was in wolf form, as if she was denying herself of
what she had become. Not that I blamed her, with the disastrous meeting with my parents, I wanted to be human again too, if
only to make it up to them.
I stood my ground as Amanda snarled at me, exposing her steel-grey teeth. I knew what this meant: it was a challenge. Essentially,
a wolf’s way of saying: ‘you and me. right here, right now!’ I knew I was in a little bit of trouble because
a wolf against a human is not a fair fight, but I sincerely doubted that Amanda would give me ten minutes to Change so we
could have a proper fight. We both began the dance of intimation; circling around one another, waiting for the other one to
either back down, or lunge at the other one.
The only way to win was to catch the opponent about to lunge and evade it, lunge without warning, or intimidate the other
one so your opponent backs down. Amanda shifted her weight to her hindquarters, and I knew that she was about to lunge. She
did, I was ready for it, but was too slow to block her entirely. Her fangs sunk into my lower right arm, and I cried out,
more from the shock of her actually attacking me.
I quickly recovered, and delivered a hard punch to her sensitive muzzle. She came off my arm, but not before ripping a fair
amount of flesh off along with it. the pain was very sharp, but I had to concentrate. I was attempting the Pack trick of a
partial Change. Not an easy thing to do when you’ve got a nearly crazy werewolf (in wolf form, I might add) attacking
you.
I dodged a few of her attacks, and managed to get it to come after a few tries. When my hand/paw was ready, I waited until
she was in the air from a jump before ducking under her and slashing at her side. I saw four red lines appear on Amanda’s
side as she flew past me. now she was pissed.
She roared at me and charged again, but I wasn’t ready for it this time, and I was tripped by her, and for a moment,
I found myself staring right into her eyes only a few deadly centimetres away. They weren’t her normal hazel colour;
they were (literally) bright red. Her rage was making them completely bloodshot. She was in pure, animal rage now. There was
no trace of humanity in her movements.
I managed to get her in a headlock, and force her to the ground using a pressure point to induce a massive amount of pain
in a microsecond without causing any damage. I held her head away from any part of my body she could easily reach in that
position, and brought my mouth right against her right ear.
“Amanda, calm down, right now.” I said in as soothing voice I could muster. “You can’t get out of
this; I’ve got you right where I want you. Just calm down, calm down, calm down… you’re Amanda Nakano, Sister-in-Law
to me, and wife to Neil, my brother. You work at the National Library along with him, and you’ve got a child that you
named after me. Her name is Cera, you love her very much.”
She was bucking sharply trying to throw me off, but I was having none of it. If she threw me off, she’d attack my brother
and I would not allow that to happen.
Amanda Nakano
Outside the National Library
I had lost control over myself, and by the time I knew I was Changing, it was already too late to reverse it. What Sarah had
said scared me right down to the bone, and what was worse, I knew she was right. If I had waited to tell Neil and Cera about
what had happened to me, they’d both be killed.
Once the Change was finished, the wolf took over, and I leapt straight for the closest living thing around me: Sarah. She
tried to block my attack, but my teeth sank into her flash, and the taste of human meat and blood set my brain on fire. With
pure bloodlust surging through my brain, I kept attacking.
I missed most of my shots, and I got really frustrated. STAY IN ONE PLACE! I thought, frustrated, while another part of my
brain started demanding I stopped right now. I ignored that, and jumped at Sarah again. This time, she dodged it, and I felt
a sharp pain slash across my side! I roared in pain and shock before slamming onto the ground.
I managed to trip Sarah and for a brief second, I stared right into her eyes only a few centimetres away. That other part
of my brain now started to cry. I guess because it wasn’t in control of my body, either that, or because it had given
up.
No matter, I was about to attack again when suddenly, a rock was thrown at my head! I turned sharply, and saw an adult human
backing away. Then without any warning at all, I was slammed into a headlock!
I tried to get out of it, but Sarah’s grip was too tight. She held her head close to my ear and I tried even harder
to break away. She started to talk into it, but I wasn’t listening. Eventually, I stopped trying to break out of the
headlock I was in, and started to listen to what she was saying.
When I did, the realisation of what I had just done was a crushing blow to me. Sarah let go when she saw that I was more or
less my old self again, and she said: “Neil, go back home, and get some clothes for Amanda. I’ll stay here and
make sure she stays here.”
He nodded and took off. I had to desperately control myself then, and I almost lost. I was shaking like a leaf, but it wasn’t
from the cold. It was from realising what I had almost done: I had almost killed Sarah, and my husband, or worse. While Sarah
was already a werewolf, Neil wasn’t and I had almost attacked him. I started to cry, or at least, tears started streaming
down my muzzle at the mere THOUGHT of what would happen if I bit him.
True to her word, Sarah stayed with me in case something similar happened again. I didn’t Change back, mostly because
what I was wearing was shredded when I had Changed. She took a seat at the picnic table, and motioned for me to join her.
I did, and just in time: some people were walking through the park.
Sarah reached down and started to… well I guess the right word is ‘pet’ me. she also started saying something,
but I didn’t bother listening. It was just some variation of ‘good girl’ repeated over and over. I was relived
when Neil came back with some of my stuff. When he did, I grabbed it in my mouth, stepped into a bush, and Changed back into
my human self.
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