C17 Caught

An essential advantage of being a werewolf was that my senses were now sharper. It was a starry night, we had mid-October. I was on my way to Crux and thanks to my new skills I could hear his snoring from far away. I was in the shape of a wolf and, as always, very careful. Crux was asleep, he didn't notice me. On quiet paws I crept up to him, his tail suddenly moved and danced around me. In the cave only dimmed light prevailed; here and there small fires burned. He opened his eyes and his pupils formed into slits. Then his voice echoed through the cave.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

I approached him only timidly, after all, his figure overtook mine by far. The hot breath from his snout came towards me when my face almost touched him. His nostrils widened, he absorbed my smell.

"Larissa? Is that you? What does that mean?"

I withdrew into the darkness, his hot breath following me. Emerging from the darkness, I showed myself to him as a vampire.

"Yes, Crux. You saw right. I'm not only a vampire and a witch, but a werewolf also came to life in me. I want you to know that, that's why I came here.“

He straightened up to full height.

"Well, that's very prudent of you and very interesting too I sense you'll have great things to do. You seem to play an important role for someone, but I can't see who it is.“

Dragons, they were said, couldn‘t only look into the deepest parts of a soul, no, if their eye had once grasped the soul of a mortal or a nonmortal, they were able to look far into its future. The premonitions mostly hit the mark and so it had often happened in the past that a human being or a supernatural being stood up well with a fire snake to always be clear about his fate. I didn't go into Crux's knowledge or ignorance at the moment. I was glad I got this thing over with.

"It's just that“, I continued, "no one shall know about it.“

He made a gesture with his hand as if he would close his mouth with a key and threw it symbolically away. I had understood. The good thing about Crux was he didn't ask me holes in my stomach. What I said was true for him. One week after the foundation of my little pack, we all went hunting at night. We hunted a little further away from the usual vampire fishing areas, so that no one could find out what was going on. Many of the vampires no longer caught their prey in the classic way anyway. The older and more powerful among us had copied hunting on horses with a crossbow from the people and have done so since then. Shooting with the crossbow was great, I had tried it dozens of times myself, but against the natural instinct, we younger could fight badly. For tonight we had chosen a piece of the forest at least an hour's walk from the castle. We quickly explored the surroundings to see if there were any humans or other creatures nearby and we were ready. Frederick had spotted a deer. He pointed me in the right direction. Quick as arrows we shot at our target, me in the wolf shape. The animal hadn't noticed us, it was just drinking from a small puddle. It should be mine, my moment to present my werewolf skills to the boys. I went into lurking position, stalked myself, pushed myself off with my hind paws and drilled my claws into the juicy deer meat. The stag was immediately dead, for I never let my prey suffer for long. The boys applauded, I tore the meat to pieces with my bare hands and handed one to each. But then, the blood just ran down the corner of my mouth, my ears stood up. Noises approached them, they came from further east, not far from us. I could hear steps, but not from two legs, but from four. Damn, there was another werewolf on the way. The others had also heard it and set themselves in motion. The faster we ran, the faster the strange steps became; he had caught us. Better I didn't change, or he'd follow my smell. I hid behind a hazelnut bush, curiosity had seized me and I wanted to know who it was. My pack was long gone. Then I heard a familiar voice.

"Who is it? Come out of your hiding place.“

It was my dear friend Sven. I didn't have to hide anymore and I stepped out.

"Sven, it's me.“

"Lis? What‘ going on here?“, he looked at me in disbelief at the miserable moonlight, „I picked up a trail there in front, that of a werewolf. It leads to you, but how can it be?"

What a fucking mess. That another werewolf would cross my path so far outside the hunting grounds was already too much, but that it had to be Sven, of all people, didn't please me at all. How I could fix it, God knows.

"I can't believe this. You, a werewolf?"

"Sven, listen. You know it now. But don't tell anyone.“

"Why, what's wrong?"

"It would be bad luck if the wrong people found out about this. You‘re inaugurated, Tim, Seb and Freddy and of course Crux and more shouldn’t experience it. Promise me you'll keep it to yourself.“

Without further hesitation, he gave me his consent. „Your secret is safe with me, I will keep silent like a grave.“

I trusted Sven to keep it to himself, I was sure of that. Nevertheless, I didn't like the thought of having to take him into my pack additionally. It wasn't planned that way, but things happen and sometimes you can't do anything about it.

"What the hell are you doing out so far? The werewolf fishing grounds are on the other side of the mountain.“

"I like to hunt alone once in a while. I don't always need the pack. And I like this part of the forest very much.“

Sven accompanied me all the way home. He seemed to like the fact that I was a werewolf too. All the time he spoke of nothing else and very often he touched my hand. I didn't care for anything else. Sven was a very good friend and always would be. In the twilight, we reached the castle, one of the facades of which was still sleeping in the dark and the other was slowly awakened by daylight, and I climbed up the facade to my balcony, as usual, with the newly won member of my pack breathing soft farewells after me. Nevertheless, I also felt a touch of tiredness and let myself glide gently onto my rest camp. About two o'clock noon I went to the witches‘ village, to Emily's house to be precise. What she taught me now was only fine work, but it was hard for me to follow her words attentively. Again and again her picture disappeared and was replaced by last night. Her clearing her throat and her haunting look smashed me back into the here and now.

"What's the matter with you? Am I boring you?"

"Sorry, I was distracted for a moment. It's probably the bad sleep from last night.“

"And too short, as it seems to me“, her gaze became even more penetrating now, she bent down, came very close to me, as if she wanted to confront me, „have you been on the road last night? Have you taken a little walk in the moonlight, like a werewolf always does?"

WHAT? What was that like? Did she really say it? I mean, how the hell did she know? Her words gave me a dull blow in the pit of my stomach, frightened, I retreated. And the chair I was sitting on fell over. Fear crawled up my neck, mixed with anger. Was she spying on me? Wasn't she really so nice and had pretended to extradite me now? I saw myself in front of the Council, how they came upon me and condemned me.

"How can you know that? No one should know about this. If you want to betray me, go ahead, but then all your efforts were in vain.“

"Take it easy, my child. I won't tell anyone, I never intended to. How long have we known each other now? You should know you can trust me. And how do I know? Well, I helped bring you into the world, I knew it from the beginning. I just kept it to myself. I know no one should know, especially not your father. But I'm sure some people already know about it, don’t they?"

I got hot and cold at the same time. Was there something this woman didn't know?

"Yes, a few know about it. Tim, Frederick and Sebastian, as well as Sven and Crux, have been briefed.“

"You can trust them, none of them will betray you, and neither will I. We take your secret and keep it as a great treasure guarded in both our hearts, okay?"

I nodded. Emily's loyalty meant a lot to me. And while we shook hands and looked at each other for confirmation, I was uncomfortable for a short moment. I couldn't get rid of the feeling that she was responsible for the awakening of the werewolf in me. But it couldn't be. Not at all.