Nikkan yipped at me like he got my message, and I placed Grace on the ground. Nikkan walked over and lay down beside her, sharing his warmth with her human form. She was shivering.
I hadn’t thought about that. It was a cold spring night, and I wasn’t feeling it in the least. My nice furry covering seemed to be good enough for me to ignore the elements.
Nikkan lifted his head and nodded to her other side. I moved in to keep Grace warm as well. I was slightly worried that the wolves would be able to find us, but Nikkan relaxed and was quickly snoring. That had to mean it was safe.
Part of me wanted to leave my friends and go find Sera, but I still couldn’t do that yet. I needed to speak with them and know what was going on before I went back to Sera and my mother. I needed to know what I could do to help. Without another thought, I closed my eyes and drifted off to a warm sleep beside my friends.
Birds chirping brought me back to consciousness not too much later. Some sort of animal sense had alerted me that morning was coming, and now, it was here. I lifted my animal head and looked at my two sleeping friends. They were more exhausted than I was. I stood and stretched. It was actually much more comfortable to sleep in my wolf form than human form on the ground all night.
Using my new sense of smell, I made my way over toward the interior of the cave, following a weird odor. As I neared, I caught the scent clear as day. Someone, or rather, something had marked the cave with pee, and it smelled horrible. Human pee was bad enough, but to smell it with my super animal senses was awful. I gagged.
“Doesn’t smell too great, does it?” Nikkan asked as he walked past me naked. He made his way into the cave and pulled out a bag from behind a rock. A piece of clothing landed at my feet.
I changed back into human form and pulled on the pants while Grace still slept.
Nikkan had pulled on his own pair of pants.
“So, when did you get bit?” Nikkan asked as he dug through his bag more. He pulled out a sweater and went over and laid it on the still sleeping Grace like a blanket to keep her warm.
“I didn’t,” I replied and watched his reaction. He paused and stared at me. He didn’t reply, so I had to continue. “And I’m not a wolf.”
At that, Nikkan burst out laughing.
I waited for him to finish before I took off the pants I had just put on and transformed into a bear right in front of him. Nikkan had always been more the show than tell type of person. He wasn’t going to believe my words since, even to me, they sounded a bit outrageous. Nikkan stopped laughing and stared at me. I sat down on my haunches and stared at him. Raising an eyebrow, I challenged him to say something. I let it sink in a moment before turning back into my usual self and slipping the pants back on.
“Yeah, so not sure what I am, but I’m not a wolf. Well, I can be, but it isn’t that simple. Really, man, your guess is as good as mine.”
While most people would have been afraid, especially in Elder, where the only magic was with the wolves, Nikkan just grinned at me.
“That’s great. I’d give my right arm to have those powers. If I had that ability, becoming a legend would be simple.”
I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted, but I could see the wheels turning in Nikkan’s head. Being famous was something he wouldn’t mind. Growing up as the son of the Red made me know that it wasn’t anything like he expected it to be. And besides, I didn’t want to be a god of anything. I wanted just to be me and help my friends. But it seemed likely that I’d need to learn more about my background to do anything to help them.
“Were you able to pack food in that sack or just clothing?” I asked, getting away from Nikkan’s new dreams as he thought about my unique abilities. I wasn’t a performing monkey, and I wasn’t joining Nikkan’s grand circus plans that I knew were brewing in his mind.
“Just clothing. There’s no food around the village, and if I was able to sneak something out here, it would attract the wolves.”
That made complete sense. I nodded at him.
“I’ll go get some breakfast,” I commented as I saw Grace still sleeping on the ground. “We can talk more when I get back.”
I didn’t wait for Nikkan to agree. It was already daylight, and the wolves would all be sleeping, exhausted from their terror-filled night, both the ones in human form and those forced into their wolf forms. The woods were safe for now.
“Fine, but don’t be gone too long; otherwise, Grace will worry.”
“Sure, blame the sleeping girl. Good one,” I jabbed back at him. It was great to have him as my friend again.
I wasn’t exactly sure where the fence around the wolves was, so I took off heading east. If I ran into it, then I’d deal with it then, but until then, I kept my ears and eyes open for something we could eat. I was looking for anything. Berries, plants, or an animal if I could find one, but the woods were stripped clean of everything and anything. There were berry bushes I passed but no berries on them. Typical tuber plants had the tops thrown on the ground from someone else finding and eating the roots. And the animals had basically vanished. I needed to get a better view and sense of all of it.
I didn’t hesitate to change forms, and soon enough, I had a wingspan wider than a sapling is tall. My golden-brown feathers ruffled as I gave a hop and took flight. I was beyond thankful that the ability to change animals also came with a natural ability to be one. I didn’t have to learn how to fly; I just knew how.
Once I got above the tree line, I took in the view. It was a sight to be seen, and I wished I could share it with my friends. There was nothing but blue sky above me as I caught an air current and held my wings out to steady myself. I floated in the air. I didn’t have to do a thing. Part of me wished I could stay up there forever. It was simple up in the sky. There was the sun and the clouds, but nothing beyond that: no noise, no distractions, no worries.
I flapped my wings in two powerful strokes and broke free from the air I was floating on. Soaring in the sky and watching the ground pass below was a surreal feeling. I was a man, and yet I wasn’t. I was flying.
Continuing my journey east brought me to the wall. I didn’t hesitate as I flew through it and luckily didn’t crash into it. The ground was still a bit below me, and it would have hurt to hit it at the speed I was going, but I didn’t need to worry. The wall let me right through. As a man, it stopped me, but as a bird, it didn’t. The wall was keeping wolves and humans apart, and I had a feeling that I couldn’t cross as either of those. Right now, I wasn’t either.
With a few more flaps, I brought myself closer to the treetops. As I found one larger branch protruding in the woods, I landed softly on it. It was a great vantage point to see all around me and the ground below. I wasn’t sure when I set out how I was going to hunt as I didn’t have a weapon on me, but now I knew it didn’t matter. I was the weapon.
I waited, sitting perfectly still. It was strange not to have to move. My sense of sight told me all I needed to know. I could see further than I ever could imagine; I could see more colors. It was a strange feeling yet comforting. It felt natural. I sat on the branch perfectly still and waited.
It didn’t take long for prey to arrive. I didn’t hesitate as I swooped off the branch, nose-diving to the wiggling creature on the ground. It didn’t stand a chance as my talons tore into the creature. I landed with a thud on the ground to see if I needed to do more. I wasn’t about to fly around with a half-dead creature. While I ate meat, I understood it was still a life. The animal deserved respect and not to spend its last few moments alive, being terrified.
Transforming into my human skin felt natural as the tingles coated my body, and I instantly was standing on two legs. Reaching down, I could tell the rabbit I had found was dead. That was enough for me. I needed to return to my friends and make sure they were safe before I headed back to Sera and tried to figure out what more we could do.
Before I could change back, I noticed a brown piece of cloth hidden just where the rabbit had come from. I reached down and pulled it loose
. It was a pair of trousers. The wolves occasionally hid clothing, so it was blind luck that I had found it. At least, I thought so until a piece of paper fluttered off it.
I glanced at the note and then back at the pants. Someone had left them for me. The note was addressed to me and told me that it was a present. Who in the world was leaving me a present in the middle of the woods? Who would know this was where I would be? It was like magic that someone would know that I would be there at that exact time. I glanced around the forest. There were no humans within my sight or hearing distance. Whoever left it for me did so more than just a few moments ago.
Not wanting to make my friends wait any longer, I rolled the pants up and placed them by the rabbit. Someone with foresight had to have left them, but I didn’t have time to explore the area and look for a clue as to who it might have been. We needed to eat, especially after last night.
Transforming and flying back was as simple as it was the first time. I was worried that the weight of the rabbit and pants would throw me off, but it didn’t. I also wasn’t sure what the barrier would do, but that was simple too.
When I arrived near the camp, I could see that Grace was up with Nikkan. I didn’t want to attract any wolves to the area, so I sat down further away from them. Slipping my new pants on first, I made my jog back to my friends.
Nikkan had a fire going and was ready for the rabbit I handed him.
“I’m not really understanding all this, but thank you, Castiel, for helping us,” Grace told me as I sat down next to her and the fire. It looked like Nikkan had filled her in on me.
Being an animal was definitely warmer than being human. It had to be all the long fur. But I couldn’t complain too much. The fire was keeping us all warm as Nikkan expertly skinned and placed the rabbit above the fire to cook.
“I do not understand it much myself,” I admitted. Grace smiled shyly and nodded.
It was crazy to see her shy again, but then again, Nikkan was with us. The confident girl that was giving up her human life only days ago seemed like a dream. She was back to being the red-faced girl I grew up with. I really didn’t mind, though. After the first night of them behind the wall and no news of what happened, I was grateful that my friends were just alive.
Nikkan sat down and took Grace’s hand in his own. She was still a good shade of red but happier than I had ever seen her before. Nikkan shrugged at me.
“When you are faced with every day being your last, you kind of have to make a move,” he explained, which made Grace turn a deeper shade of red. “Don’t waste time wondering if something is right or not. We have to live in the present and be happy now as we don’t always have tomorrow.”
I laughed. When did Nikkan get sentimental? I was more than happy to see my two friends, finally admitting the truth. In all this darkness, they still had hope.
“So yes, explain it more,” Grace said, changing the subject. “What are you?”
That made me laugh more. “Um… I’m Castiel…..pretty sure I’m human….male, at that, if you want to check,” I teased.
Grace’s cheeks went back to red as she covered her eyes, thinking I was going to get naked. That was more Nikkan’s style, not mine. I was only teasing.
“I meant the animal thing Nikkan was trying to explain. He said you could turn into a wolf, but you aren’t a wolf.” She peeked through her fingers at me and removed her hand once she saw I was still sitting...and still had my pants on.
I nodded. “So far, I’ve been able to turn into any animal I want to be.”
Grace’s eyes bugged at my admission. It seemed that Nikkan hadn’t really explained it much at all to her.
“Anything?” she asked.
I nodded again.
“How about a mouse?” she suggested.
I hadn’t tried yet, but it seemed likely. I stood up and thought about being a mouse. My body shrunk, and soon Grace seemed like a mountain beside me. Her face pinched into an oh as she looked at me. I transformed back into myself as Nikkan grabbed Grace’s face to stop her from looking at me. I completely forgot about the whole naked part of being cursed.
“Oops,” I said as I made to cover myself.
Nikkan dropped his hands from Grace’s face as his mouth hung open in shock. The pants I had found in the woods while hunting were still on me. It seemed maybe someone was looking out for me after all. I grinned at my friend without a single way to explain it. Being a shifter just got a whole lot easier. One shifter problem down and one more to go. I was feeling more than a little optimistic.
While I wanted to head right back to Sera and show her that I was okay, I couldn’t. My friends were both injured, and I couldn’t leave them to fend for themselves. I hoped that one good night’s rest would be enough to allow me to go find Sera and prove to her that everything was fine. She wasn’t serious about my mother taking her head, but I knew she was worried; both of them would be.
After spending the day playing with my new transformation powers, yes, I could shift into any living creature, including a fly, we made plans for the night. Grace could feel the power of the moon and the curse calling to her. She was having trouble keeping human, so we decided it was better if we were all wolves. Before night fell, we all transformed. As she shifted on her own accord, she had control over her wolf or at least seemed to. We weren’t sure how long her control would last, but she had it for now.
Nikkan’s camp was the perfect place to spend the night. We were able to take shifts and keep to ourselves the whole night. It allowed us to rest and recover as Nikkan and Grace were both still recovering from their injuries. The food I had caught helped, but they needed more. All the wolves needed more.
It would be a great time for the kingdom to come together as one, but the tree people were still unrealistic. They would rather let a race of their kingdom die, than risk helping them. I didn’t understand their position before the curse returned and even less now. The wolves were all trapped behind a wall to keep them safe, and the tree people still didn’t want to help the wolves in return.
While we could hear the howls and the voices of anguish, we were far from the mess of the village. It seemed likely that we were the only ones trying to stay away on our own. I had expected more people to leave, but Grace and Nikkan had explained to me that as a pack, it was hard to do that. Nikkan had an easier time leaving because of all his time spent with me, and Grace was able to latch onto that. Being a lone wolf was hard, but it seemed we had our own little pack going on, so that made it easier for both of them. Everyone else was more or less stuck in the main pack.
19th March
Finally rested, we were able to wake at a normal time and had the energy to go about our day. We headed back to the village as humans to see how we could help and gather supplies for the next few nights.
I tried my best not to gasp as we reached the edge of the village. We had only been gone one night, and it had changed more than I thought was possible. What was once a nice little bustling town was now a war zone. Blood and dirt splattered nearly every wall. People lay around in various stages of death. We passed more than one person who was never going to recover and probably wouldn’t last another night. We’d run through it the day before, but it hadn’t really registered in the way it was registering now.
It was hard to walk by people and not stop to help. We didn’t have the supplies to help, let alone the time. Another moon was coming tonight, and it was hard enough to keep Grace from being pulled by the curse.
“I’m going to go find Micco,” Nikkan said as he took Grace’s hand and pulled her with him. “We’ll come back to the wall to meet with you and Sera.”
I nodded to my friend as he took off to the west, and I continued south through the village. I tried not to look too hard at anyone I passed. There was bound to be someone I knew, and it was hard enough to just walk through it. If there was someone I knew, I’d have to help them.
As I made it to the southern edge of the village, I happen to glance a
t the hut I was passing. There was a small person sitting by a severely injured older man. The person was dutifully bandaging the man and didn’t notice me. I stopped to help, and the person looked up at me. I stared in shock. It was a young boy. He couldn’t be more than seven or eight winters old. I froze in my place. All the carnage I had seen had consisted of adults. I’d assumed the children were locked away somewhere safe.
The curse couldn’t affect young children. It wasn’t until they reached maturity that the magic would take them too. Nikkan’s family had sent his younger siblings away days ago. I didn’t expect there to be any left.
“Are you the only one here?” I asked.
The boy looked up at me with big sad eyes. He shrugged.
“Micco came last night and helped my sister escape, but he could only carry one person at a time. I made her go first because she’s smaller than me.”
“So, Micco has a safe spot for you to go to?”
The man the child was tending started to cough, and he tried to sit up.
“He said he was going to get them somewhere safe, but I think he’s fighting the curse like the rest of us. I hope Tilly is fine.”
I needed to find a way to stop the curse, but at the same time, I just couldn’t leave the boy in the village. He wouldn’t last the night. There would be no reason to stop the curse if there were no youth left. While I wanted to go back and look for more clues, I was needed more with the wolves.
“Wait here,” I told the boy. I needed to let Sera know that I would be back to Azren as soon as I could, but first, I needed to get the children to safety.
The boy looked to me and nodded. His father tried to thank me, but I stopped him.
“Save your strength for tonight.”
The man nodded.
Before my friends could return, I took off running to the wall.
Everything swirled together in my mind as I ran. I was a shifter, but that still didn’t help me break the curse. I knew why the healer told me to stay away from the wolves. Maybe it was possible the curse could happen to me also. But I really didn’t care. Being cursed could end my life as I knew it, but at the same time, I couldn’t just turn a blind eye to the wolves like the rest of Elder was doing. The wolves needed help, and I was going to help them, no matter whether it put my life in danger or not.
God of Shifters Page 2
