I pulled up the narrow dirt path slowly, parking just outside of the familiar wood cabin. The smell of burning wood filled the air and permeated the truck as I killed the engine and breathed it all in. We climbed out of the truck and immediately I could see a thick ring of black smoke rising up from the back of the house and not far behind the scent of burning earth came with the succulent aroma of the deer we were promised. My mouth watered as we walked closer to the house and I could hardly wait to see if it tasted nearly as good as it smelled.
We walked up the path, only this time circling around to a small clearing in the back. The sun was finishing its decent behind the treetops turning the sky a myriad of colors that were as beautiful as they were inspiring. The trees had darkened in color and it almost seemed that the forest was taking on a life of its own amidst the setting sun. An owl called to us from somewhere deep within the woods, the sound of a deer’s soft footsteps as it walked through its home was faint and ethereal. I was so used to the desert that I hadn’t had much exposure to wildlife outside of coyotes and the odd quail here and there so I closed my eyes and took it in, smiling as the life that surrounded me filled me with a sense of peace.
The forest felt nice almost like home and I had to admit I was beginning to grow attached. I looked over at Cordillia who was smiling up at a large hawk perched on an oak tree not far from where we stood. It looked at us for a moment before jumping from its branch and I was left nearly breathless as it flew into the sunset with a kind of grace and majesty I had never seen before.
“You never see anything this beautiful in California,” I spoke softly to Cordillia. I wasn’t sure if there were any other critters around and I didn’t want to scare them off when they had more right to be here than I did. She took a deep breath and nodded. A peacefulness I had never seen in her crossed over her face as she closed her eyes.
“The desert is beautiful in its own way,” a familiar voice rose up behind me. I whipped around and turned to greet him, the same expression of tranquility on his face as he looked beyond me and toward the setting sun. “I’ve been here many years but I never tire of the view,” he spoke as he lifted a small table that sat near the back steps of his home. I quickly reached over and grabbed the other end, helping him to walk toward the clearing behind us where several lawn chairs had been placed.
We set it down and Robert nodded in thanks before turning toward Cordillia and pulling her into a friendly hug, whispering something in her ear before turning away.
“What language was that?” She smirked.
“It was Cherokee,” he answered with a smile. “Just a little prayer to help you heal,” he explained as he gently pulled the collar of her shirt to the side to check her wound. From where I stood it didn’t look good but at least it was healing and for that I had no choice but to be grateful. He gave her an approving nod and patted her shoulder before turning to pull me into the same embrace. It was awkward sure but at least I could be sure that he didn’t judge me for what I was.
“Beautiful day isn’t it.” He smiled as he looked up at the sky.
“Yeah I guess.”
“You guess?” I chuckled nervously and nodded.
“Yeah it is.”
“Sit with me.” His smile was pleasant and inviting as he motioned to the chairs around him. Cordillia didn’t need to be asked twice as she hopped into the chair closest to him and I took my place next to her.
“My family will be here soon but I wanted to talk to you first.” I was confused as his eyes turned to me. He nodded lightly as he adjusted himself in his chair. “They know about you by now I’m sure. My son Marcus was excited by what you are and he never did quite learn to keep things to himself.” He smirked.
“Wait, so he knows what I am?” I asked quietly as if someone could be listening in on our conversation. Not that it would matter anyhow. Robert nodded.
“He was the one that told me.”
“How did he know?” I asked quickly.
“There are ways of telling your kind from ours.”
“Like what?” I felt bad for firing so many questions in his direction but as far as I knew there was nothing I did to set off any kind of werewolf radar. So naturally, I was more than a little curious. Robert sucked in a sharp breath as he leaned forward, his expression never changing from one of peace and undisturbed contentment.
“The way you move for instance, the way you smell but what stood out to my son was the yellow tint in your eyes. He told me that they were almost glowing as you begged him to help your sister.”
“Wait, what?” I laughed lightly. “My eyes aren’t yellow.”
“They are when you change,” Cordillia added from her seat.
“Really?” I asked as I turned to her.
“You’ve seen the change?” Robert asked quickly.
“Sure.” She nodded. “Only twice though.”
“And you’re alright?”
“What do you mean by that?” She smiled sweetly as she crossed her arms on her lap.
“Most people who see something like that lose their minds.” Cordillia shrugged, a nervous smile crossed her lips as her eyes flicked between us quickly.
“I guess I’m just not most people.” He looked at her for a few moments, intrigue written in his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. “Okay you want me to be honest?” she leaned forward as she spoke. “At first it was creepy as all hell. I honestly thought I was stuck in some crazy ass nightmare and I’d be lying if I said that I was completely okay with it or totally used to it by now but...” She trailed off and stared down at her fingers as we waited for her to continue. “But he’s my brother,” her voice was soft, sincere as she looked up at me before turning her eyes to Robert. “He’s all I have left and he’s always stuck by me when I needed him so I guess it’s my turn to repay the favor.”
A smile crossed Robert’s face as he nodded again. I reached over and pulled her into me, holding her tight in a silent thank you for what she had said.
“You are lucky to have each other.” Robert smiled as I let her go and leaned back in my chair.
“Okay so about your family, is it a problem if they know about me?” The idea that anyone knew what I was seemed a little scary and the change in his expression did little to comfort me in my fear. He took a deep breath and looked down at his feet.
“You are in no danger from my family that I can promise you. But I can’t speak for everyone. Some of my people don’t believe in the stories that our people have passed down and some do.”
“And that’s bad for me?” I asked quietly.
“Yes and no.” He leaned forward and began to speak quietly, “There are legends about the return of your kind and those that do believe might see your arrival as a bad omen.”
“An omen of what?” I smirked.
“The return of the great evil.” I was taken aback by what he had said. The more I learned about myself and my kind the more I realized that I was in over my head and no matter how many questions I asked I truly felt like getting to the bottom of it all was a task I would never be able to accomplish.
“What’s that?” Cordillia asked softly as I stared on in disbelief.
“A long time ago a young woman from our tribe saw the return of the yellow eyed beast to our lands. She said his return would be marked by the coming of a lone wolf, a messenger and a truly naive spirit. Marcus my son grew up hearing this tale and he seems to think that you are a bad sign, he is a bit worried.”
“The yellow eyed beast? Like the man from my dream?”
“It’s hard to say but it is possible that he could be the very same.”
“What’s his name?” I finally managed to speak. Robert turned to me and shrugged slightly.
“That I cannot tell you. But I wanted you to know that if my son seems weary or afraid, please don’t take it personally, he’s just very superstitious.” I nodded and just as I opened my mouth to ask another question our conversation was ended by the sound of a car door s
lamming shut just on the other side of the little cabin. I dammed them for coming so soon, I had so much I wanted to know and so many questions I needed to ask but as I saw Marcus rounding the corner with a smile on his face I resigned myself to silence for just a little while longer.
He moved around the edge of the building, his eyes locked on me as Robert stood to greet him. I smiled up at him but somewhere behind our quiet introduction I could feel a thick wave of nervousness coming off of him as he saw me sitting there. I felt bad, I didn’t want to make their family get together awkward but I remembered what Robert said about not taking it personally and somehow that made me feel better about the whole thing.
His wife, I assumed stood next to him, her long white sun dress waving in the gentle breeze that blew the smell of the roaring fire all around us. She was tall and her skin was dark but it somehow managed to glow a wonderful golden shade in the fire light. Her raven black hair reached down to her hips and matched her chestnut eyes perfectly. She was young like her husband and carried an old world dignity with her that seemed almost lost in a day when there would be few left to appreciate such grace.
When I greeted them, Marcus reluctantly shook my hand but his wife that I now knew as Maura only greeted me with a gaze that suggested we were old friends. Something told me that I was at home here.
They sat with us and took control of most of the conversation. Marcus told jokes that made everyone laugh but Maura was a nice contrast of quiet for the most part. One thing I noticed was that she possessed a laugh that seemed like it didn’t belong to her but was more suited to a child in its sweetness.
Shortly after, Robert’s sister, May, his brother in law, Billy, and their two children arrived and sat with us.
May was an older, husky woman with a look of an old maid about her. She looked at home being a mother and I could tell she had been one for a while. Her husband was shabby and dressed in blue flannel that got coated in dirt as he played with his kids on the ground. He didn’t say much if it wasn’t to his children, it was nice to see a father with that kind of devotion.
When our father passed it was more than just a little heartbreaking. You never really get over that kind of pain in your life and I was happy to see kids that would never have to feel that pain in theirs that they would always remember their dad as the man who played in the dirt with him even if it wasn’t appropriate for him to do so.
From what I could gather, Kayla and Jeremy were twins. They were mirror images of each other and seemed to get along wonderfully. I was truly happy for them. They would always have a best friend.
We talked together but mostly I just listened as the family caught up with one another. Billy got a new job as a computer technician in the city and May was giving parenting advice to the trying to conceive Maura. Marcus was quiet and stared at me a lot and I tried to remember not to take it personally as Robert had said. I watched as Cordillia showed the twins how to make the perfect mud pie and I was happy to see that she had found her place.
In everyone’s life there are nights and there are days that take on a life of its own. First dates that you wish would never end and parties that the world stretches time for. As you laugh and enjoy the play of life unfold around you, you feel the presence of something more and you know, just know that this right here is what life is all about.
I sat and enjoyed the night as we ate, laughed and played together. We took turns telling jokes and playing hide and seek with the youngest of our group. We enjoyed their innocence and they enjoyed our wisdom. It almost seemed as though the stars had aligned to bring us together in this little clearing and enjoy a time that was older than us.
I felt like it was moving too fast but knew that we had all the time in the world. The fire began to dwindle and everyone grew quiet. Even the kids stopped their games to sleepily curl up at mom and dad’s feet. As the fire sparked comfortingly, all of our attention was instinctively turned toward Robert as he stood slowly from his chair. He walked over to the small table we brought and returned with a white dish in one hand and a bundle of straw in the other.
The dish was smoking and it smelled like Christmas dinner. I took a large whiff of the air. It was nostalgic and reminded me of Christmas with our mother. Cordillia looked as though she was sharing the memory with me. Robert began chanting in a language I didn’t understand as he walked around our circle pushing the smoke toward us with the handful of straw. He started with Cordillia and worked his way around. As he got to May he began to speak in English.
“My people used sage to bless us and purify our lands. It is a sacred herb as well as a powerful medicine.” I thought back to the green water he used to clean Cordillia’s wound earlier and wondered if that was what was in there.
“I ask the great spirit to bless our family.” As he approached me, he paused for a moment before moving the smoke toward me. “I ask Him to bring our new friends luck on their journey and help them to find what it is they are searching for,” he finished and sat back down, placing the white dish and the straw on the ground next to his chair. We all stayed quiet as if we knew what was expected of us. Or maybe there was just no need to break this peace with useless talk. Robert cleared his throat and looked down toward the ground closing his eyes.
“Many years ago we were a tribe of hunters. We believed that the woods were sacred and we spent a lot of time learning from them. We learned to hunt by watching the bear and the wolves. We learned the ways of medicine by watching the deer. The forest had a lot to offer us and for that knowledge we took care of her. We were careful never to over hunt or take more than we needed and we took care of our brother and sister creatures as we would have taken care of our flesh and blood. It was a time of great peace and we were a prosperous tribe.”
I scanned the faces of the group and realized that we were all hanging on everything he was saying. Even I couldn’t look away for long.
“When the white man came, we invited him into our tribe. We treated their sick and fed their hungry. We even taught them to survive as we had and wished our pale brothers well. We had more than enough to share and we were not a greedy people. Eventually our hospitality was not enough and our new brothers brought sicker and hungrier people with them. The land could not take care of so many and she began to die. Trees began to fall and plants began to wither. The bear left and the rocks cracked as the earth cried, asking us to heal her pain. Our pale brothers noticed that as the rocks cracked, inside lay jewels and golden stones and all he saw was greed. We didn’t want them but it didn’t matter to them, they wanted us gone just the same. We wouldn’t leave and after a while they accepted that.
“There wasn’t much to hunt and a lot of the herbs we relied on were no longer there but we managed to survive. Our time of great peace was gone and we were learning to live side by side with a greed that had poisoned their souls. As time went on, we realized that these were not our brothers anymore but animals after nothing more than shiny rocks.
“As the news moved east that there was gold and gems here more and more men came. Some pale, some dark, some young and some old. It was too much for the land to take as they polluted our waters, over hunted the animals and drove the life away from our land. We held on as long as we could but it was the coming of the great evil that made us finally let go and leave our home.
“After many months of mining, a man arrived who was not like the others. He was dark but not like us and his eyes were yellow, a color my people had never seen before. He was cruel to the others around him and we were careful to stay away from him. He beat those who were smaller than him and yelled at those who were bigger. He held a man’s head underwater and laughed as he choked only letting him up when he was pulled off by a group of older miners.
“When he hunted he was cruel, causing as much suffering on the animal as he could and he was even accused of killing many of his own men in the woods. The others saw his cruelty and decided to use it to rid the lands of us. He came into our camp one night and had an
argument with one of the elders. He told us to leave. He said that we would regret it if we stayed but it was our home and we decided to fight for the good of the land.
Wolves among men Page 10
