[May]

~2~

Blinding sunlight wakes me. I can’t see, panic grips my stomach again. The morning is silent, dead silent. It’s like everything is waiting.
Waiting for what?
Slowly, my vision returns. Everything is blurry though. Massive shapes loom over me, from the contrast of the sun behind them it’s hard to tell what they are. After a few minutes, I realize they’re trees. Hundreds of trees. I’m in the forest.
The same forest I was in last night.
Dizzy, I stand up and try to walk.
Have you ever been so sick, and had such a massive headache, that it hurt and throbbed with every step? That’s how I’m feeling right now, maybe a bit worse. My skin is still burning. It stretches with every movement and feels like it should tear open at the slightest bit of tension.
Standing up takes too much effort, so I sink back down to the ground and resort to figuring out how I got out here anyway.
How did I get out here?
I don’t remember anything after the fire…
Fire!
I spin around, attempting to get up and run home, but I instantly regret that. My head throbs and I feel like I’m being smashed under a bulldozer. Why was I even worried about the house being on fire anyway? Other than a relatively safe place to sleep, there’s nothing there of immediate importance.
And where did that staff go?
It doesn’t matter where it went.
I don’t need to turn around to know it’s the wolf. Turning over, he’s sitting on his haunches about a foot away looking more like a big dog than a wolf. He has a backpack in his mouth.
I thought you might be hungry…
He drops the pack in front of me. Hesitantly, I open it and look through. There’s a bottle of water, a bag of beef jerky, a wallet, flashlight, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a set of keys.
I gratefully take the pack and eat the sandwich. As soon as I start on the jerky, I hesitate as a terrible thought crosses my mind.
“You didn’t…You didn’t kill the person this belonged to, did you?”
The wolf recoils, as if he’d been struck.
Of course not! I was hunting. The man saw me, dropped the bag and ran. It was obvious he wasn’t coming back, so I brought it for you. I’ve already eaten.
“Were you expecting me?”
Yes. I saw the fire. Heard it, rather. I knew you’d be coming, so I sat and waited.
“How did you know I would come here though?”
I didn’t. It just seemed like a place you would have gone.
This catches me off guard. It seemed like a place I would have gone? How did this wolf know me? Wonderful, now I’m wondering how animals know me.
I’m not an animal.
Fine, mind-reading werewolves.
I’m not a werewolf.
Inhuman freak.
I resent that.
He snorts in detest. I laugh to myself.
“Then what are you?”
Exactly what you are now.
“And that is…”
Beats me. The only thing I know is how it works and what you can do. To an extent at least.
“Am I even human anymore? Are you human?”
Yes, you are. And yes, I am.
“Then how are you a wolf?”
I’ll explain that later. At the moment, I believe an introduction is in order.
Expectant, he cocks his head.
“Oh, right. Sorry. My name is Maya Ellis. You can call me May, I’d actually prefer that over Maya.”
I meant myself. I know who you are far too well. I’ve been watching you for a couple months now.
This just keeps getting creepier by the second. First, this wolf is actually a person in a wolf’s body as far as I understand. Second, he’s been stalking me!
I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I haven’t been stalking you.
“How are you doing that?!”
Quite frankly, it’s aggravating to have someone reading your every thought.
You can too. Concentrate. After a while it doesn’t even take a conscious effort.
This intrigues me. Telepathy has always caught my interest –
I’d like to introduce myself properly instead of having you drag bits and pieces out of my mind.
He pauses, then lies down and crosses his front paws.
My name is Alex. I’ve been able to shift for about a year now, and that staff I gave you last night was given to me as well by my Master. Unfortunately, he met with a bit of bad luck only a week after I was chosen. He never got to teach me, which is why I don’t know much about this, but I learn a little more every day.
Shift?
“Do you have a human body?”
Yes.
“Then why are you a wolf?”
I like being a wolf.
I laugh a little at this, he rests his head on his paws and looks up at me almost questioningly. Remembering his comment on telepathy, I try and concentrate. Who knows, maybe I really can read minds now!
You can also speak with your mind. It’s more like projecting thoughts though.
Slowly, tentatively, I reach out with my mind, closing my eyes for more concentration. It feels weird, like you’re weightless. I guess that’s just because this is my first time though. After a few seconds, I begin to get a little skeptical. Then I feel it, his mind. It’s strange.
Warm.
Twisting.
Thinking.
Moving.
Alive. But why is that such a surprise? I wasn’t expecting it to feel dead.
Then again, I wasn’t expecting to actually feel.
Surprised at the feeling, I withdraw a little, but regain myself and press against his mind. A faint humming seems to come from all angles, as I listen closer fragments of words start to form.
Thoughts.
Whispering thoughts.
Their volume increases the harder I press. Certain thoughts are overlapping others, like he’s trying to hide things, and also trying to make things audible for me.
Understandable. I’d do the same if I knew someone were in my mind, and if I knew how.
The thoughts start to make sense.
…Red hair beautiful ignorant hungry just ate should be taught better than I was he died does she remember me? beautiful still green eyes wolf hiker was scared of me…
Well, they don’t really make sense, but I can catch the gist of some of it. His mental voice is beautiful and elegant.
He turns his head away. Why?
Red hair, green eyes…
I have red hair and green eyes.
Oh…
Wait here.
Alex gets up and trots off into the woods. Did I do something wrong? Did I hear something I wasn’t meant to?
Don’t leave, I’m scared. Reaching out with my mind, I feel nothing.
Seconds tick by.
Minutes.
Something screams in the distance, but it’s more like a screech than a scream. Growling follows, and a loud thud as something falls to the ground.
More minutes pass…
Relief floods my mind as I see the wolf returning. Why do I still think of him as the wolf? He’s got something in his mouth, a hawk.
Look at your finger.
I don’t need to be told which one. There’s a silver scar where the staff’s needle stabbed me, and it burns more than the rest of my body did.
Don’t ask me what happened, I don’t even know that yet. But I do know you can absorb DNA, or something along those lines. Touch it.
Dropping the bird in front of me, he motions towards it. I reach out, hesitantly. The instant I touch it a blue spark spits from my finger and runs the length of the hawk, then the body disintegrates. I jerk my hand back, startled.
Don’t worry, that only happens when they’re dead. If they’re alive, nothing happens. Well, the spark still jumps out, but nothing else. One bit of advice though, keep its mind well under control once if surfaces.
My hand is out in front of me and I’m studying it like it’s the first time I’ve ever seen a hand. Thoughts are racing through my head, I am absolutely terrified. I don’t care how nice this wolf has been to me, I want nothing to do with this. It’s unnatural.
Animals do not talk.
They can’t.
May, I’m not an animal.
“I don’t care what you are!”
I’m screaming now, I don’t want to scream at him, but I am. Alex backs away, ears flattened, tail low, head bowed.
Hurt.
The pain in my head is forgotten. All I can think about is getting home and going to bed. I’m not tired, but sleep is the only thing that seems comforting to me right now. Maybe I’m sleeping now, maybe this is just a dream and I’m still sleeping in the clearing. Maybe I’ll wake up soon and everything will be okay.
You’re not sleeping.
“Don’t talk to me! Leave me alone, don’t follow me, I don’t care what or who you are or where you came from. STAY AWAY FROM ME!”
He promptly sits back and lowers his head.
“I didn’t ask for whatever this is. I don’t want to be a freak. I don’t talk to animals, especially mind-reading, telepathic dogs.”
I didn’t ask for this either, I was chosen. Just like you were. I didn’t choose you, the staff did. I don’t know why I was chosen, or why you were chosen, but we were. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with this either.
This is ridiculous. I’m going home. Alex gets up and tries to follow.
“No, I don’t want anything to do with you!”
You’ll need me eventually. I’m the only one that you know you can talk to.