...

3 views

Werewolf Killers - Urmi And Prateek (part 2)
First Contact was a long time ago for Urmi and her brother Prateek. Their grandmother was in her unmarked grave where her body couldn't be exhumed by Man's sick fortune hunters. The wolves of Bor were less than a dozen now of the original pack they had known, but they still kept vigil on her graveside out of common decency and respect. Wolves weren't like humans, they valued and honoured tradition, even if it did seem to be failing them and their numbers dwindling.

Urmi felt the cold breeze of night against her skin. She could feel her hackles rising, as somewhere out there her brother had already made the transformation and howled in triumph and joy. He was always first above any of their kind to change, some said preternaturally quick. Hybrids found the werewolf transformation happened well into the moon's phase, and only on full moons did it happen faster. She smiled while she still could, Prateek enjoyed letting his wolf out.
"Hell," she said aloud into the darkness, " that idiot isn't even regretful he changes on a full moon into a ravenous killing machine." There were wolves keeping their distance back in the trees who could hear her of course. They shuddered understanding the words of humans, for there was much truth in what she said in jest. They liked Prateek, he was more like them; her not so much. Urmi was a young woman with a conscience, and she felt bad every time she woke up after full moon covered in blood and gore and a very unsettling full stomach.

She always hears the first bone crack, her spine she supposed. The pain was only fleeting, rather like an injection you didn't relish but was bearable. You knew it was going to do you good so you harboured no intention of fighting it. Those who did, who fought against their nature, they ended up in the asylum. She'd seen many a Hybrid incarcerated for going mad on moon cycles, and Man had started calling it a disease named Lunacy. Such pitiable creatures were locked in chains or rooms and could no longer run with wolves. They may accept that in their human forms, but always the werewolf in them came to regret it. They couldn't fully transform if locked in or up, they just turned mad in part transformation. And on a full moon they would kill themselves foolishly trying not to transform, a full wolf trapped under the skin of Man. It smelled vile, unholy. She never wished to suppress her wolf spirit, but she would like to restrain it on full moons. She was born to be a killer, but unlike her brother, she always repented her actions afterwards from whatever recollections she still had; which thankfully were never very many. The Bloodlust that took them over on full moon wiped clean their connection with wolves and sentient feelings, it just turned them insanely strong and hungering for blood...any blood, but particularly the juicy flesh of Man.

Part moon transformations weren't quick nor easy to watch. The wolves of the pack stayed clear until they could mind share with a Hybrid. They didn't feel completely safe until they could hear the thoughts of their brother or sister. They tolerated Hybrids in human form, but they were wary of them, always worried Man had turned them against wolf kind. In wolf form they knew Urmi's love of being a wolf and sharing with the pack. Her eyes grew paler and saw as a wolf, the darkness was a new and exciting playground. She could see eighty per cent of the forest, but in a different way to daylight. Her sense of smell was ridiculously heightened, and she smelled the other wolves on the air. She knew them to be of her pack, and interestingly enough with Urmi she fought the change in her mind just enough not to let the wolf in her go like Prateek did, but not to take over. She was to remain the clever one, let him be the muscle. She fell to all fours, shook her shaggy dark pelt, and let out a challenge of a howl. Then she ran towards the others and offered a greeting, rubbing her warm fur against their flanks and joyfully licking their muzzles in welcome.

It wasn't long before Urmi was tossed to the ground in a tumbling mess. The great heavy brute of a mutt that was her brother barrelled into her and toppled her in jest.
"Jeesh you're strong brother," she sent into his mind in both shock and respect. She wriggled out of his clinch as he tried to pin her, and playfully bit his rump where his tail thumped in happy glee. He yelped and sprang back.
"Ouch, what ya do that for dummy?" the other wolves were watching in curiosity. Very often in wolf society the females were respected for their cleverness. Males knew their place, and they never picked an argument with an Alpha female. His sister was definitely that, and though they liked him most above all Hybrids, they backed off just slightly lowering their heads in submission towards her. In any other wolf pack the Alpha male always lead the pack, but even he showed deference to the wisdom of the females and their own heirarchy. In this case, Hybrids always came to rule and guide. They knew the ways of their common foe, Man. They had insights that wolves did not, and the females were the Queens of Canis Lupus. Her brother, though strong, the strongest and bravest they had ever met, was still deemed only a Prince in comparison.

"She-Wolf," said the Bors pack Alpha stepping up to the side of Prateek and seeming small in comparison to his hulking frame. He lowered his head just a fraction as was his right owing to his status in the pack. " We detected Man has further ventured into the no-mans realm by the Northern marshland."
Urmi frowned, but it felt funny on her changed face under the hair.
"That's odd," she sent back," I looked into that last week. They'd been hunting for materials to make their homesteads. Searching the ground for rich deposits of ore. They didn't find anything, I read their reports."
The wolf didn't answer. He didn't know what a report was but he could grasp what she was saying, that Man should have left by now. He waited for more from her.
"Sister, let me take some scouts and chase them off," said Prateek eagerly. He was ever keen to hunt or chase and the wolves admired him for it. But he was still young, thought the Alpha male called BarkBreath, his exuberance is infectious but often proved foolhardy.
"Sure," she replied,"take three others but watch out for guns. They're meant to be scientists and engineers but you never know."
"Laters..." said Parteek, and nodding to three of the toughest and biggest looking wolves, he was gone.

Urmi didn't get involved in pack business unless it was connected to Man. In all other respects they were outsiders, thought of as above routine pack matters. Think of them as regal guests, consulted only on matters of protection and assault in the war on Man. Pack numbers weren't good, and Urmi could see that owing to the harsh Winter there were fewer cubs than usual as she did her rounds. This worried her. She spent a lot of time with the other she-wolves talking medicines and healing. Keeping wolf numbers up and wolf kind alive were priorities to her. Her brother led the action, but she needed to think expansion. Her rounds took her a long time, it had been a while since she'd been there last. She pulled out of her thoughts when the wolves returned.
"Sister, bad news," growled Prateek whilst his mouth still dripped blood. We had to kill the men. They weren't digging for minerals or ore, they were burying bodies in huge pits. It's like some sort of mass burial. Hundreds of bodies in giant shallow pits. It stinks over there." The other wolves nodded in agreement....."more than usual," he added as an after thought.

"So They lied."Urmi mused.
"Man always lies," shot back BarkBreath matter of factly. Prateek grinned a wolf grin (that looks chillingly like a sneer as if grinning with the intention of eating you!).
"We ought to be on the ready." Prateek seemed agitated.
"What aren't you telling me?" Urmi asked.
"They'd all been murdered. But worse than that, many were women and little children too. It wasn't just mass murder sister, it was a massacre. If Man will do that to his fellow Man, there's no telling what he'll do to wolves when he meets them head on. And judging from how near they're getting to our lands, they're coming....and soon."

Urmi was concerned. No mention of missing people had come to light in her enquiries recently. Someone was hiding something, but for what purpose? Her insides were telling her something was very wrong in all this and she ought to go have a first hand inspection.
"Hold the fort," she commanded her brother, " I'm going to take BarkBreath and scout the area beyond the Marshes to the wild wood. And don't engage the enemy if you see them." She stared him down as he was about to argue. He acquisced and stayed silent. A few of the females made the wolf sound of sniggers but were quickly quiet when Prateek looked round angrily. Urmi didn't know if they laughed for him being put in his place, or for the fact that the killer in him could no more hold off killing intruders to wolf lands, than he could spare a life and grant a wish to his victims during the Bloodlust. She took BarkBreath and six others, their best trackers, and left to check it out. It seemed war was right on their doorstep now...what was Man up to?



© .Garry Saunders