I am Wolf (The Wolfboy Chronicles) (15 page)

I closed my eyes and waited for the pain, but it never
came. Instead I noticed the weight holding me down was lighter. I opened my
eyes and looked at it and realized it was now a human, a big and strong man who
was holding me down. His hair was white and thick like the wolf’s fur and his
face showed he had experienced much even if he didn’t look old. He was truly
handsome, I thought. I watched as his face grew more human and finally the wolf
was completely gone.

He got off my back and stood next to me in the snow.
He was naked. So was I. It was freezing cold.

The man smiled at me and grabbed my hand. I took it
slightly reluctantly. He pulled me to my feet.

“There,” he said. “Now we can talk.”

I stared at the man as he began walking. Did I know
his voice? He turned and looked at me. “You’re not staying there all naked, are
you?” he asked.

I looked down, then began walking towards him. “I
don’t know where my clothes are,” I said.

“Well good thing that I do,” the man said. “I grabbed
it for you last night when I realized what you were up to. I hid it with my own
things. Come let’s find it before someone finds us. The two of us naked in the
snow won’t look good.”

He began to walk and I caught up with him. He led me
to a small bundle of trees and bushes where he pulled out my clothes and his
own. Then we got dressed. I was still freezing and tried to get warm by jumping
up and down. It helped a little. The man put on a heavy winter jacket then
turned and looked at me.

“I’m Caspian, by the way,” he said.

My eyes widened. “You’re Caspian? I saw the painting
of you at the Wind-People’s castle. But in that you were more grey.”

Caspian touched his hair. “Well it changes with age.
Think it happened around when I turned the big five. As in five thousand years
old.”

I stared at the handsome man with awe. Then I was
struck with embarrassment. Here I was with the great Caspian and look at the
circumstances he had found me in, he had literally caught me about to sink my
teeth into human flesh.

Caspian smiled and grabbed my neck. “Yes, we need to
talk about that,” he said. “But first you need to eat.” He took his sack and
found a piece of bread and handed it to me. “Here eat that while we walk. We
can’t stay here. It won’t be long before the villagers will be out looking for
the wolves with rifles and guns. Out here they believe in werewolves and if
they find us they will begin asking questions. Come, let’s start walking.”

I grabbed the bread and ate it greedily. Caspian
laughed. “Take it easy, son. Don’t choke.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just been so long since I last ate.”

“I noticed that,” Caspian said while we found a small
track leading towards a mountain. “We’re walking south, right? Towards
Bucharest?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Then let’s go this way. We want to find your beloved
Catalina before it’s too late.”

I followed Caspian on to the small track while
finishing the last of the bread.

“Rule number one,” Caspian said. “You need to satisfy
your wolf. You can’t let it go without food. Then you will lose control.”

“I know. I want to say I really didn’t mean to harm
those people, I just ... well I couldn’t help it.”

Caspian turned and pointed at me. “Yes. Yes you could
help it. You are the only one responsible for your wolf’s actions. You have to
respect the wolf, you can’t deprive it of food or its nature. It needs to hunt,
it needs to kill and it needs to eat. It’s very simple really.”

“But I couldn’t find any. I searched everywhere on the
top of the mountain and the next day in the valley. I just couldn’t find
anything.”

“It is bad times and many people and wolves are
starving. It makes them lust for human flesh. But you must never, ever eat
human flesh, you already know that. It’ll make you sick, it’ll madden you. See
if I hadn’t saved you last night you would have done it and that would have
been the end of you and even worse, of Catalina. It would drive you crazy and
you wouldn’t fulfill your promise to the Queen or your destiny. You have to
take these things seriously, Sami.”

I bowed my head in shame thinking it might already be
too late. “How do you know so much about me and where I’m going?” I asked.

Caspian sighed. The path took a turn and began slowly
to climb the mountainside.

“I created you. You are my invention so to speak. I
have followed you ever since I first caught your scent outside of your father’s
property. I first smelled you in the forest where you met Catalina. I was
actually on her track, trying to protect her, but then she met you.”

“You? You were the wolf outside the barn? You were the
beast that bit me? You gave me this? You made me the wolf?”

“I did. I like to say that I transferred it to you,”
he said.

“But why me?”

“Because you were perfect,” Caspian said and smiled.
Then he patted me on my shoulder. “You were just perfect.”

“Perfect for what?” I asked slightly angry and
confused. “You cost me everything. I was happy living with my family.”

Caspian chuckled. “We all have to grow up at some
point, Sami. We all have to leave the nest and take responsibility for our own
destinies.”

I sighed. I didn’t know whether to be mad at Caspian
for doing this to me or thank him for saving me from my own dark side, the
craving for the human flesh. “So does that mean you have followed me all this
way? Was it your paw-prints I saw back there in the snow?”

“Oh yes. You discovered me the night before. Your wolf
was starving and sensed my presence. See, when your wolf is in control the
instincts and senses become even stronger. You must have caught my scent
somehow, because suddenly you turned around and tried to attack me. You wanted
to eat me. I didn’t want to hurt you, so I ran. The next night when I realized
you had gone into that house I had to do something, I had to stop you. You were
about to hurt innocent people plus you were about to ruin your life by becoming
an addict to human flesh. I had to prevent that, so I figured I had to reveal
myself to you and help you get some of your many questions answered. It was
about time anyway.”

I exhaled thinking he should only know I had already
done that, I had already ruined my life. It was too late. I didn’t want him to
know, so I cleared my mind, knowing he could probably read my thoughts if he
wanted to, if he was anything like me. “Why were you tracking Catalina?” I
asked.

“Well I feel protective of her. I have kept an eye out
for her ever since she was born into the human world. I kept an eye on the
family she lived with and protected her from danger. Up until recently she has
been fine. The family the Queen chose was very good to her and she had a safe
upbringing. Before the war, that is.”

“They are Jews?”

Caspian looked away. “They were. They are all dead
now. The soldiers that attacked their home shot them all. Except for Catalina.
She managed to escape. I was too late to save her family.” Caspian paused and
sighed. “She can’t know I’m watching her since she can’t yet know about her
origin. She still thinks she is an ordinary girl, it has to remain that way
until she turns eighteen. Then the Queen will be able to take her home and make
her choose, but not before.”

We walked in silence for a couple of minutes while the
information lingered in my mind. It was a lot to take in right now, but I was
so pleased to have Caspian with me now. I was not alone anymore and finally I
could get all these questions answered that had been on my mind for days and
weeks now.

“I still don’t understand why you thought I was
perfect, why you chose me,” I said as we reached a high point and took another
turn. A small river was flowing next to us. Most of it was frozen yet a small
slim strip was still flowing. Caspian bent down and started drinking, I did the
same.

“Of course you don’t,” Caspian said when he lifted his
head. “You were perfect because you had Catalina’s confidence, she trusted you,
but you had no strength. Plus I could smell you from far away. You already had
wolf blood in your veins. I knew you would cope well with the transformation.
Most humans wouldn’t have survived what your body went through in the following
days.”

“I beg your pardon? “I looked at him startled. “Did
you just say that I had wolf blood in me?”

“Sure. I could smell it from far away.”

“But how? How could I have wolf blood in my veins?
What does that even mean?”

“It means that there is someone in your family who was
or is a wolf, just like you and me.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “No one in my family is
a wolf.”

Caspian shrugged. “Well I could be wrong. Normally
when someone smells the way you do it’s because they have wolf blood in them.
But the way you smelled made me certain that you were the one.”

“Which one? What do you mean?”

Caspian stepped back from the river and onto the path
where I was waiting. He walked towards me, then looked me in the eye. When I
stared in them I saw his wolf reflected in his pupils. It was looking back at
me. “I knew you had to be the one destined to take my place once I leave this
earth and go to the next world.”

Caspian patted my shoulder then turned his back to me
and began walking. “Come on. We still have a long way to go,” he said.

I felt frozen and didn’t move a muscle. This was
getting more and more strange, I thought. I didn’t know if I was supposed to
believe him or laugh. But again the last few weeks of my life had been quite
strange and eventful and had turned my view of this world upside down, so why
not? I thought. I began to walk still shaking my head wondering what was
happening to me. Was I in fact just going insane? Or maybe it had all just been
one very long very strange dream that I would awake from in a few minutes,
laughing at my own foolishness.

But I knew it wasn’t. I knew all too well that this was
reality, this was my reality now, even as strange and far from anything I had
ever known as it seemed.

"W
e need to reach
the valley before
sunset,” Caspian said as we came closer to the next mountaintop. “I know this
valley. It used to be filled with animals, lots of goats and wild boars. That
should satisfy your wolf and make it controllable.”

I stared at the horizon where the sun was hanging on
the sky just above a mountaintop. “Then we have to hurry,” I said and caught up
with Caspian. “We only have a few hours.”

We reached the top and for a few seconds I enjoyed the
spectacular views of the majestic mountains surrounding us, dressed in white
snow, before we began our descent towards the valley.

We ran the last part while the sun slowly descended
behind the mountains. But while we were running I felt how the change came upon
me and I stopped to pull off my clothes, throwing them in a pile next to
Caspian’s. I looked at him as his wolf slowly emerged and hid his human nature.
His almost white fur blended well with the snow and made it easy for him to
hunt. We left our things then ran for the kill. I felt a thrill inside to
finally not be alone, to have someone to guide me through all of this. Even if
I hadn’t told him the entire truth about me.

Caspian took good care of me. First he found a flock
of mice that he let me have, then he killed a goat and we both ate it, though
Caspian let me have the most of the meat. Soon I caught the scent of a wild
boar and together we hunted it down through the valley, each of us on either
side of it. It was thrilling, exciting and fun. For a brief moment I forgot all
about my possible addiction to human flesh, my family and even Catalina. We
snapped our teeth at the boar and chased it mostly for the fun of it. Then
finally I jumped its back, sank my teeth into its neck and it fell to the
ground. It was still alive with me on top of it as it lay panting on the ground
waiting for us to finish it off. I jumped down and let Caspian finish the kill.
He lifted his head and sunk his fangs into its throat, then ripped out a huge
chunk of meat. Then we both howled just before we feasted of the boar for
hours.

We traveled for two more days before we finally reached my old
hometown.

“Where do you want to go first?” Caspian asked.