Catch a Wolf

by A. Katie Rose

“Let’s hope there’s more where that came from,” Witraz grumbled.

  “Amen, brother,” replied Rannon.

  “Your Highness,” Yuri complained, gesturing toward Kel’Ratan. “He’s hogging the wine. Make him share.”

  Ly’Tana sighed, a deep sound that came from the depths of her lungs. “Kel’Ratan,” she snapped.

  “Oh, all right,” he grumbled, taking a deep gulp before passing it on.

  Wolves licked their lips and greedily watched the squirters. Rygel, as he courteously filled Elder’s cup with water, refilled cups already available with wine. Wolves drank them to the dregs. The squirting game resumed, albeit with some discretion. No few tails wagged and tongues lapped the sweet wine on the fly. At this rate, we’ll empty our full supply, I thought, bemused.

  “Human gods and goddesses walked among their people in those days,” Elder said, shaking his head at Rygel’s offer of wine. “No, I’d best not drink of that. Should I, I’d fall asleep and then where’d we be? Two-legged and four-legged folk, while not actively friends, were at least not enemies. Wolves shared their hunting grounds with humans. In those days, they didn’t take more than they needed. Peace reigned throughout all the lands. People of all species tolerated one another and treated one another with respect.

  “Darius laughed and lived, a great wolf among his children. Then one day, he enamored of a female. A human girl-child.”

  The drinking slowed as all eyes settled on Elder, the mild laughter and carousing ceasing.

  “In those days,” Elder said after taking a sip of his water. “The gods owned the power to change themselves at will. They could change their forms into whatever shape they desired. That is no longer true, but it was in those days. Darius changed himself into the likeness of a human male and wooed the girl.”

  “I was young and foolish then.”

  “She caught pregnant with his seed.”

  “That doesn’t sound too good,” I said to Darius, privately.

  “It wasn’t. It went against all the laws of the universe.”

  “The Lords of the Universe were wroth with Darius,” Elder continued. “Inter-species mating was absolutely forbidden. The gods may be gods, but they still answered to the Lords of the Universe.”

  “They’re all a bunch of unimaginative fools, if you ask me.”

  “I don’t think we did ask you,” I replied.

  “Taking him,” Elder continued, “they stripped him of his divinity and all but the smallest of his powers and threw him into the netherworld, into prison. He is guarded by a monstrosity created by the Lords, a creature with only one task in its life.”

  “What?” I asked aloud. “Where?”

  “Into hell.”

  “What powers do you still have?”

  “Well, I can influence a few things. And I can talk to you. And I can speak to Tuatha and a few others. Tuatha is, in your human terms, one of my priests.”

  “Elder is your priest?”

  “It’s not the same as with you humans, but the term is close.”

  “The girl gave birth to a son,” Elder went on, as though unaware of the silent discussion. “Her son was half human and half wolf. Gai’tan. The werewolf.”

  Now all the drinking ceased. Wolves and humans alike stared at me, jaws slack. Surely the wolves knew the tale, but still they stared as though never hearing of it before.

  “Some of them haven’t heard it all.”

  “And how long is your sentence?” I asked him.

  Darius didn’t answer me.

  “The child the girl bore grew to manhood, ignorant of his heritage,” Elder said. “If he could change himself into a wolf when he willed it, he had no knowledge he was the son of a wolf and a god. Yet, his soul belonged to the human’s gods.

  “And thus it was, down the generations, the scions of Darius were born, lived and died. Many found they could change themselves into wolves. Most did not. Most lived human lives, never knowing their heritage.

  “But there were, outside Darius’ bloodline, men born with the souls of wolves. They, also, were called gai’tan in the stories and legends. As what happened from time to time, while rare, this phenomenon did occur in nature. They, too, could alter their form, and walk among men or wolves at will.”

  Elder paused to drink, gaze into the fire and collect his thoughts. I wondered if his throat was sore after so much talking, and I half-rose to go to him. He saw my movement and his tongue ran out from between his jaws in a small grin.

  “I am fine, Chosen One,” he said. “Do not concern yourself.”

  I sat back, Ly’Tana settling into my shoulder, my somnolent, yawning wolf son in her lap.

  “There are few differences between men and wolves,” Elder said. “There are many similarities, if one chose to look. Both are hunters, both devoted to family, both intelligent, and, for the most part, civilized beings. After Darius was imprisoned, the gods no longer walked among their people. Instead they governed from afar, answering prayers, bringing the souls of the dead home, casting their judgments, but no longer visible to the living. Save to the chosen few.”

  Against my shoulder, Ly’Tana stiffened. Rygel also sat up straighter, eyeing her sidelong, a frown furrowing his brow. As though a piece of information teased him from afar, and he couldn’t quite place where it belonged. She caught his glance and something swift passed between them. But what it was escaped me entirely.

  “Evil times came to the earth,” Elder continued, Arianne’s voice murmuring her translation. “Men and diverse creatures became enemies. The griffins flew to their mountains. The Tarbane fled their homeland. Bears, elk, wyverns, unicorns, centaurs, minotaurs, and those lovely creatures, the winged horses called the gwyhyvaar, all hid themselves from men, and found paths that took them away from the wars and the death. Wolves entered the forests, seldom seen. Men’s wars consumed the lands where the gods once walked.”

  Elder paused in his tale to lap more water, his bright, intelligent eyes sweeping the firelit camp.

  “The Lords of the Universe set terms of the wolf god’s sentence. They decreed that Darius would only be freed when one of his blood, also born with the soul of a wolf, came to fight the Guardian and free his sire.”

  His eyes turned to me. “There have been many gai’tan,” he said. “Men who were born with wolf souls, throughout human time and cultures. Your family line descends from Darius himself. But there is only one who is both. There is only one who contains the blood of Darius and is born with the soul of a wolf. There is only one Chosen. You, my son.”

  In panic, I leaped up and backed away. Ly’Tana fell into the dirt, my adopted wolf son sprawling across her chest. Hastily, so quickly, my four legs got confused with the two I remembered and I fell down. Scrambling, fighting to get my paws under me, I backed into the pine tree again. There, I sat down, hard. My teeth snapped shut on my tongue, but I scarcely felt the pain.

  “What?” My voice sounded more like a mouse than a wolf.

  “When the Lords of the Universe imprisoned Darius, they set his sentence,” Elder said, unflappable as ever. “When one of his seed, who were not born with wolf souls, but wolf blood, was born with both, that gai’tan was the Chosen One. The Chosen One who must fight the Guardian, for that is its task. He must kill it.”

  “You’re my—”

  “I told you, you were my son.”

  “Rather far removed, don’t you think?”

  I heard amusement in his mental tone.

  “Two thousand years doesn’t mean much to a god.”

  “What is the Guardian?”

  As I couldn’t ask that question, of course the ever-inquisitive Kel’Ratan did.

  If Elder could shrug, he would have. “Only Darius and the King of the Netherworld know that,” he said. “The Lords created it on the spot to guard Darius until such time as the Chosen One arrived to fight it. It is the only one of its kind.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s certainly unique. It’s
man-shaped and huge, with a face reminiscent of bull, but much larger. Much like a minotaur in several ways. It can stand on two legs and has arms, with ape-like hands. It has griffin-like wings, though why they put wings on it is beyond me. It can’t fly, at least not here.”

  “Maybe they plan to turn it loose if I fail,” I suggested, my mouth dry. Ape-like hands. I stilled a shudder before anyone could see it.

  “You will not fail. It’s quite stupid and you certainly aren’t.”

  “The wolves,” Elder said, eyeing me as if knowing I spoke with Darius himself in my head, “have guarded Darius’ offspring against the day when the Chosen One would be born. These men never knew why wolves protected them and their families. Many killed the very ones who sought to keep him alive, all in ignorance. All of us knew that from his bloodline would spring the Chosen One.”

  I had to ask. “Why? Why is freeing him so important?”

  “Do you think I like languishing in prison?”

  Most of the wolves, who were sober anyway, sat up. With ears perked and eyes bright, they watched me with anticipation. That alone made me sweat. Since I wasn’t a man and couldn’t sweat, I panted. Their attention, their hope, made me suddenly very nervous. I didn’t like their eager eyes.

  “Unless Darius is freed from his prison,” Elder said, after taking a sip of water. “No wolves can meet their maker and be judged. Their souls will be reborn forever and ever, never finding rest or peace.”

  I sagged back into the pine tree. Ly’Tana clutched the pup to her, his whines falling on deaf ears. Humans stared, wolves watched, with bright, hope-filled eyes, at their savior.

  Me.

  Too late, I remembered the words of the pup’s natural mother. Telling me she grew weary of rebirth and sought rest. How she craved eternal rest with her mate. She’d never find that unless I killed the Guardian and freed the wolves’ god.

  My ultimate sire.

  Not only was I born with the soul of a wolf, I descended from one.

  “And a god,” Darius said primly.

  Gods above and below—

  “You, too, are certainly one of a kind.”

  “Thanks,” I replied. “I think.”

  Elder’s voice grew soft. “I myself have grown weary of rebirth. I would seek rest with my god, find eternal joy in his presence.”

  Numbly, I nodded my muzzle toward the pup Ly’Tana held. “His mother said much the same. I didn’t understand, not then.”

  “I didn’t know her,” Elder said softly. “I knew of her. She was a great and noble wolf. She brought you a fine son. He will do you proud.”

  The pine tree’s branches broke under my weight. I fell, in an undignified heap, and lay within its prickly branches uncaring. I stared up at the bright stars, half on my back, half on my side, my front paws up. Why me?

  “Why not you?”

  I began to laugh. Not as humans do, with air passing from the lungs at a higher rate of speed, with sound, but as wolves do, with parted jaws and lolling tongue. I laughed, my tongue falling sideways out of my jaws and into the dirt. “I’m a slave. A gladiator. An outlaw. What I am not is a savior. To anyone. I can’t even save myself.”

  I didn’t try to keep my dialogue with Darius a secret. Arianne, Rygel and the wolves all knew what I said aloud, in the growling wolf language. The humans did not, since Arianne failed in her task as interpreter. I felt their baffled eyes on me. She stood, anxious, concerned, her hands wringing in distress. At my nod, she hastily translated my words, although with heavy reluctance. One by one, the Kel’Hallans, even Rygel, stared at me with disbelief, with incredulity. Prince Raine, heir to the throne of Connacht, was not only a wolf but the scion of a god? I could all but hear the thoughts click in their heads. I saw many fingers make the sign against strong enchantment.

  I wanted to crawl away and hide. I was a freak, an aberration, a mutant, no different than a two-headed cow one might see at a fair. They should put werewolves on display, I thought morosely, look Timmy, see the ugly werewolf? Take me home, Mommy, I’m scared.

  Wolf or man, I wanted away from the stares, the condemnation I saw, their judgment. When I’d never run from anything in my life, I wanted to run hard under the moon to never be seen again by anything living. High in the mountains, I could find a cave, hidden from the eyes of men, wolves and perhaps even the gods themselves. Who wanted huge, black, long-fanged freaks running loose in the world?

  I turned my face away, blinking.

  “You are not a freak.”

  The wolves watched me with expectation, even the ones who had had too much to drink. Despite their love, their hope, their acceptance, I cringed away from them. What they wanted I could not give. I dared not give. They wanted nothing more than my life strangled, my neck broken, to appease their needs. Why should I give it to them?

  “This is indeed your choice. Choose not to take on this fight, your own soul will never find peace or rest.”

  “Maybe you should just shut up for a while.”

  Elder’s warm brown eyes watched with compassion and understanding.

  “You have a monumental task,” he said quietly.

  I laughed again, choked on my laughter, and laughed again. “Monumental? I think that’s the understatement of the century. This task is like draining the sea one spoonful at a time.”

  “It’s not as bad as all that.”

  “That’s easy for you to say.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Silverruff asked, confusion perking his ears into furrowing his brow.

  “Darius,” I answered, lying back in the dirt and broken pine branches, still laughing. I shunted my anguish, my bitterness, much as I shunted the pain of my wounds, to the background, where they belonged. I might be on display like a caged beast, but my grief and pain didn’t have to be.

  “Darius speaks to you?”

  My back itched. Ignoring the staring eyes, uncaring how it might hurt my royal and wolfish dignity, I rolled onto my back and twisted from side to side. Ah, much better. Those broken branches might as well be of some use. I flopped around like a huge, black landed fish and laughed. The pine dug into my back and ribs, easing the itch along my spine and between my shoulders. “For some time now. He’s a rather indecent fellow.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “Of course you would,” I replied, rolling back onto my side to raise my head. I shook my ears, feeling them flap about my head in a most satisfying manner. This being a wolf isn’t so bad, I thought. I could get used to it.

  “You’d better. You’re going to need all the strengths of both human and wolf to free me.”

  I sat up, using my hind leg to scratch an incessant itch behind my ear, my leg thumping time. “Well, you bred me,” I replied. “I am what I am.”

  “Why are you laughing at me?”

  I grinned, my tongue lolling. “You behaved like a randy goat. You’re the one who got yourself thrown into prison. But I’m the one who has to get you out?”

  The wolves in the camp rose in outrage, hackles bristling along spines. I reckoned I had just blasphemed. This time, Arianne translated my half of the conversation to the Kel’Hallans, who glanced at the irritated wolves with concern.

  “Believe me, I learned my lesson. From now on, its paws strictly off the females.”

  “You better. If I survive this and if you get tossed into hell again, I’m not going to bust you out.”

  “If not for my behavior, you’d never have been born.”

  “Oh, please,” I said, still laughing. “Right now, I’d much rather that was the case.”

  “Be easy on him, Darius,” Elder said. “Remember, he’s just like you were.”

  “Tuatha, you just had to say that, didn’t you?”

  “I think I did, yes.”

  “He’s as stubborn as—”

  “You are.”

  I laughed again as silence reigned in my head. “So the young wolf is just like the old wolf,” I said, flopping back into the branches, on m
y side. A wolf body flopped quite well, I thought. Very comfortably so.

  Ly’Tana, cuddling my sleepy son in her arms, tossed her hair from her eyes. “I think that just answered a question for me,” she said slowly. “Why you’ve been haunted so. You’ve been hearing Darius’ voice in your head.”

  “Arianne, tell her she’s dead on target.”

  At her translation, Ly’Tana bowed her head over the pup, her red-gold hair, gleaming in the firelight, draping them both.

  Rygel suddenly sat up straighter, the wine in his hand apparently forgotten. “Uh, was it Darius’s voice in my head today, telling me where to find you?”

  Elder spoke up. “You heard my voice, good friend. Darius, as he is with the Chosen One, saw the dilemma—”

  “Dilemma?” I asked. “Elder, you do tend to understate matters.”

  Elder’s amused eyes slid my way. “—predicament the Chosen One, his sister and his mate were in, and told me how to find them. As you have his blood, you could hear me. As I told the wolves to gather in force and protect him from his enemy.”

  Ly’Tana sat up suddenly, her jaw slack. “So that’s why so many wolves were on hand to fight for us.”

  “Just so,” Elder replied, his grizzled head bobbing toward her in acknowledgement. “Darius still retains some divine foresight, and knows your enemy, and also his enemy, will stop at nothing to have him, and you, back. At all costs, the Chosen One must prevail. He has, through me, been summoning wolves from all parts of the earth, the biggest, strongest, toughest wolves in wolfdom.”

  “I started calling them in months ago.”

  Something Elder said triggered a bell in my head. “Elder, you said, ‘divine foresight’?”

  “I did.”

  I jerked my muzzle toward Arianne. “So that’s where her sight comes from. She, too, is a scion of Darius. She has the god-like ability to see the future.”

  As Arianne gaped at me, and failed in her duties as interpreter, Rygel relayed my words to the others. The half-sober Kel’Hallans nodded wisely, saluted her and drank more wine. Ly’Tana smiled at my sister, as though finally answering yet another unasked question.

  “And yours, don’t forget you, also, have the Sight.”