Quote from Adriana on March 19, 2023, 4:00 pm

"First Aid for Beginners", "Natural Remedies for Illness", "Wound Care"

You're nineteen. You have no ID. No visa card. You technically don't exist in this country. Thankfully due to the HIPAA laws, hospitals can't report you to immigration even if they find out you're an illegal immigrant. I'd give them a random address every time, go to a different hospital each time, but eventually you run out of options and people start to ask questions.

I'd been in the country of three years and for two of those I'd been employed by a certain group that wasn't exactly in the eye of the general population. I'd left the put together, pretty and tidy organized crime back at home, for "organized crime" - in the loosest sense of the term. I know, it sounds idiotic.

In my families line of business, we had nice homes, we were well versed in horseback riding, fencing and dancing. We enjoyed the finer things in life and traveled first class to any country we felt like. We were taught second and third languages by private tutors.

Things were perfect on the surface.

It only took a second look to realize that wasn't the reality.

Your own brother would stab you in the back for daddies approval, and your sister would try to off you in your sleep if you maybe kneecapped the man who was taking advantage of her title (although she was too naive to see it). Maybe you were a nuisance and had no business carrying on the family name, and maybe you didn't want to.

My parents were getting old and starting to divide up the family fortunes. I had been the scapegoat since the second I came out of my mother's womb. I didn't look enough like the rest of them - and in spite of having me tested, my father was never fully convinced I wasn't the product of an affair. My eyes were blue - my entire family had hazel or bright yellow eyes. My hair was light brown and bleached in the sun, and the family all dawned unchanging, flowing black locks.

When the inheritance was announced, tensions got high - surely the youngest child of an affair had no business earning any fortune at all; nonetheless I was still set to get a healthy sum. I knew my days were numbered if I stayed. So I ran.

I ended up in the same line of work as my family, only my family made it look so clean and tidy and pristine compared to this faction. Instead of dining on the finest, I ate tuna out of cans and slept in seedy hotels only when I was really lucky. Most of the time I took showers at truck stops. This was the new normal.

Looking down on the various open pages, I brushed my brown locks out of my eyes for the umpteenth time.

Then, I caught the scent of something I usually didn't in the tame suburbs - the scent of another werewolf. I was immediately on high alert, honing in on every footstep and breath.

Quote from Indy on March 31, 2023, 7:19 pm

I can always pinpoint the day that I knew I was different.

It wasn’t a gradual thing. It wasn’t because I liked different things than my classmates, or my parents had expectations I couldn’t meet, or I felt an ache deep down in my soul.

It was the day when I was 14 years old, studying too late in the library, plagued by a migraine that hadn’t let up in weeks, only to feel something stir deep down inside of me. A thing that had been sleeping all those years, just waiting for the day the divide between us weakened enough for it to break out.  I’d found myself sprawled out on the library floor the next day, papers everywhere, my clothing in ruins, and a very frightened librarian dialing for the cops and paramedics.

That was the day I became what I was – and when it happened again, and again, and again – and no doctor or psychiatrist had an answer, I found stories of old that described beings united in soul and body with their animal half.  That’s what saved me in the end. Some dusty book on a library shelf that no one had thought much of, until I’d come along and found the answers I was seeking on a silver platter.  I was a werewolf – and there must have been others out there too, eons before me.

And that’s why I couldn’t flunk out of my first year of college. I’d managed to leech every book from the library remotely related to my Introduction to Anthropology, Calculus I, Greek myths and legends, and Linguistics courses and fit them not-so-neatly into my well abused backpack.   It wasn’t just because I couldn’t disappoint my parents in being the first child in at least five generations that hadn’t completed college (although, that was a close second), and it wasn’t just because I couldn’t ever look myself in the eyes if I got anything lower than a B (although that was a close third). But if I stopped my journey here as anything less than the best, then I wouldn’t ever be good enough to unravel the secrets in my blood.

I know there had to be others out there. I had come from somewhere, even if the hospital had no record whatsoever of my birth parents. Even if it took me weeks, years, or an entire lifetime, I would record their lives, histories, and cultures in a volume more comprehensive than The Histories of Polybius.  And such monumental  academic figures of history would never come to be if they got an F on their first Calculus class. Failure wasn’t an option.  Even if success presently felt like it was trying to break my spine in half.

The sky was still silver and gold from the emerging sun as I stumbled through the library.  I could at least manage a few chapters of math homework, polish up my compositional essay on the greatest Roman historians, and finish The Trobrianders of Papau New Guinea by Annette B. Weiner so I could begin an extra-credit assignment assessing the flaws of Bronislaw Malinowski’s original field research of their culture.  I hoped the bitter cup of coffee in my palms would at least touch on the previous night’s all-nighter. Or better yet, momentarily quiet the part of me dreaming of the power of the mountains, the weight of dirt beneath my paws, the smell of green in the air…

I stumbled in the library door, briefly swaying as the weight of my bag settled strangely, then found a quiet desk in between the rows of books. As I dropped my bag, it made a surprising thump on the ground that made some sound between a sorry and an ‘eep’ escape my lips. I hope none of my other classmates were in the library and had noticed. Then I unzipped my bag and fished out my binder and Calculus text…

Quote from Adriana on March 31, 2023, 8:55 pm

He's young... younger even than myself.

And he hadn't seemed to notice me, in spite of me having already taken too long sizing him up. I returned my eyes to my books - I was a couple of tables away, hunkered over the books like the decrepit hobo I was.

Judging by the heft of his book-bag, he was a student.

Seriously,  how had he not noticed me? Was his nose broken? I reeked of alleyways - stale trash and unmentionable fluids (none my own, all the worse) - and if that wasn't a giveaway, surely he could smell the blood.

I worked on commission. I could take assignments or pick up free range jobs that were posted. Usually I could pick up enough well paying jobs to stay in a hotel, but lately they'd all seem to be claimed last minute, right under my nose. Each day I couldn't get a good assignment, I was a little more tired, a little more hungry, and a lot more desperate. The last job I'd taken went south - and I needed enough time to recover so that I could take on something worthwhile. In the meantime, my pockets were bone dry.

But this kid, this naive, clueless werewolf - I could do something with that. I wasn't sure what yet. I decided to watch him for a little longer, see if he ever so much as sneezed in my direction.

Quote from Indy on March 31, 2023, 10:17 pm

I cracked open a book and tried with every fiber of my being to believe the fundamental theorem of calculus was the most fascinating thing I'd ever read.  Say something enough times, and it has to be true... stare at the same page for hours, and I'd at least be dreaming of numbers ...

ACHOO!

I was awake in a hurry, panic washing over the softness of sleep.  My eyes darted nervously to the window, but I didn't find the sun any lower in the sky.  It had just been a moment. My cursed allergies had been the thing that had saved me.

"Okay.... too early for calculus," I mumbled to myself - then looked quickly away when I realized I wasn't the only one in the library. Some guy who looked more disheveled than I did (probably an even more studious student than I) was situated at one of the large study spaces.  The only silver lining was that I didn't recognize him from any of my classes... so even if he had seen me fall asleep, at least we wouldn't meet again long enough to remember it.

My cheeks were still burning as I replaced my calculus book for my intro to anthropology course.  At least I knew I could pay better attention to it.  I flipped open to one of the annotated sticky notes I'd placed in the book. I'd probably read this passage a dozen times already.  I didn't really need to read it again - but it was a little ritual I'd acquired in the semester, a little glimmer of why I was working so hard.

"Creation Myths:

Creation myths are a common component of nearly any culture worthy of anthropological study. Indeed, often the manner by which a society believes they came into being can reflect their history, present, and future. For instance, the indigenous people of the Quileute tell of their two-sided mythical figure Dokibatt and K’wa’iti creating the first humans of the tribe from wolves. Such myths suggest a particular reverence and importance of wolves to their society, perhaps aligning with the domestication of dogs at that time."

Just that little snippet was the only part of the book I'd read almost everyday, dissecting each word and referring back to every reference associated with it.  Maybe it was nothing. Or maybe, somewhere, my own brethren had integrated into an indigenous tribe - or perhaps, founded one entirely...

Silver-bodied wolves running in the moonlight, their feet soft on the floor. The tribe converged upon their prize, an old buck.... the beat of drums... the buck fell to the sound of teeth and claws.... a dozen beautifully dressed men and women danced in skirts woven of bark and soft downy wool. When they turned, their eyes were bright yellow, and red iron blood was smeared upon their face in intricate designs. Children helped carve up the hide. Women sang. Men told stories, of the days when wolves became men... but sometimes, men could go back to wolves again.....

Quote from Adriana on March 31, 2023, 11:11 pm

He dozed off. It was only a few minutes, but it amazed me nonetheless. Even at my most exhausted I couldn't fall asleep knowing there was an unknown werewolf in the room.

Then, a sneeze. Hah.

I picked up my books and cautiously moved over to his table. Maybe he thought I was a student. I could almost pass for that. Most students who came through here looked about ten years older than their age due to the sheer suffocating pressure of college, getting a degree, a job, dating, and whatever else it was average young American adults worried about.

"Looks like you could uh, use a study partner." I said, dropping my pithy pile of medical books down. "Jack," I held my hand out - squeaky clean, in spite of the rest of the appearances - I'm not an animal.

Quote from Indy on April 1, 2023, 12:09 am

"W-wah?" I jolted upright, nearly ripping the textbook page that had pasted to my head. I had nodded off again - that alone was to make my cheeks burn.

Then there was the matter of the stranger I'd seen a little while before, parked right in front of me.  He'd no doubt seen me drooling on my books.  But short of fleeing out the door, there was little else I could do to recover the situation. I took a quick glance over him, frowning.

"Um.... what are you taking?" I glanced down at his books, "Are you... Pre-Med? Or... Nursing? Sorry, sorry - I'm Alexander but you can call me Zander. Everyone does"

I see the hand way after it's been offered. I blink at it twice, awkwardly take it, and shuffle my hands back to the safety of the books.

Quote from Adriana on April 1, 2023, 2:02 pm

I sat down directly across from Zander and glanced again over the books that had been previously under my arm.

”Yeah, nursing.”  That seemed like the safe response. I could wing it in that.

“What about you?” I pointed to his books-it looked to an untrained eye as though he was entry level into college and going for his basic knowledge.

Quote from Indy on April 2, 2023, 6:37 pm

"Oh cool - yeah my aunt's a nurse, she always said we need more of them out there," I can feel my voice a thousand miles away - because I'm not sure what else to say, and this guy literally just saw me peel my face off my textbook.

Fortunately the next question is a little easier, "Oh! Well right now I'm technically undeclared. My parents said I should explore a little bit before I decide on my major. But if I'm being honest, I kind of have my heart set on Anthropology. It's been like a--"

-CHOO!

The sneeze escapes before I had any sense of it. Awkwardly I feel a snot rocket on the tip of my nose and shrug my head away uncomfortably to wipe it. I can taste the air again, for just a second. Earthy books, dust mites and bookworms, wood polish and...

The hair on my arms goes on end. I frown, unable to place the last smell exactly. But it's everywhere. Pervasive. I look at the stranger, but he doesn't seem perturbed (why would he?). I sniffle my nose one final time.

"--Umm... sorry about that... so anyways... I've been obsessed with learning about new cultures since I was a kid. I guess I always thought if we could all just understand each other, maybe the world would be a little better? And I know that's silly, but you can't argue with what you feel".

Quote from Adriana on April 2, 2023, 8:32 pm

I crinkled my nose up with the second sneeze. Then I caught that fleeting second of doubt in his eyes; questioning maybe. He could hardly breathe, it was no wonder his senses were dulled. Even so, he hadn't placed me. The recognition was lacking, telling me he hadn't interacted much - if at all - with other werewolves.

"Other cultures.." I thought aloud. "There's a lot to be learned from other cultures. Any particular fables or myths that pique your interest?"