Luc' 7

~

Two weeks later

“Sir, I’m not sure about this,” Zach warned.

          Sir set his hands down and leant onto the table. Even in a trance state the wolf was more powerful than he’d realised. Why had he not considered that? It growled and snapped with the man’s mouth. Sir set his mouth into a line. How strange not to feel fear in these moments. Seeing the hope in others wasn’t always positive. It blinded him, he admitted to himself. Easy now. Fear was not present but anxiety, like tickling fingers, teased and brushed. He shivered, perhaps visibly as the wolf snarled louder. It pulled and jerked in Zach and the other’s hold.

          Had the wolf-man not been in a trance state it would have taken over by now.

          “Hate,” he told it and slammed his hand down onto the table. In the next moment he stood upright. The method would not work. The wolf was already angry, hateful. It didn’t need force. Understanding perhaps. Sir closed his eyes. “You will keep a tight hold,” he told the two.

          Sir travelled up the table and arrived behind. The wolf strained the man’s neck whilst it looked back. As Sir shook back the sleeve of his cloak and raised his hand its eyes shot wide. “Hush,” Sir whispered to it and set his hand down. The wolf-man’s black hair was soft, not unlike a dog’s fur, yet silkier. “You hate. You kill. The cycle will not end,” Sir slid his hand along the wolf-man’s forehead. The wolf panted. Sir watched the blood pulse in the wolf-man’s neck. It was undecided over what to do? “You are afraid,” he was getting somewhere. The blood in the wolf-man’s neck was slowing. It didn’t seem to be straining every muscle at its command. Sir refused to smile. “You do not know what is happening. Sleep.”

          It strained again, it lashed out and barked ferociously using the man’s voice.

          “Sleep,” Sir repeated. “Sleep now,” he coaxed and watched the wolf-man’s eyes close. Sweat trickled like small rivers down his neck and his hair. Sir lifted his hand away and nodded to the two with him. “Leave us, we will be fine.”

          They looked at him as if he were crazy. Sir observed the wolf-man. Maybe he was a little crazy. “Wake,” he said to the wolf-man as the door behind him closed. The second method wasn’t going to work either. As the wolf-man’s eyes opened Sir raised his eyebrows. At least, not on its own.

          “What happened?” The wolf-man wondered to him.

          “It is angry and hateful. I cannot give it a voice.” He observed the wolf-man’s response.

          “You can’t?” He was clearly disappointed. To his credit he was still polite.

          “I can’t. You can.”

          The wolf-man raised his eyebrows now. Me? He seemed to wonder. He probably thought him crazy too.

          “Have you attempted to speak to it before?” Sir asked as he sat down.

          The wolf-man focused on his hands. He studied his palms intently as though avoiding the question. Sit waited. “No. The wolf frightens me.”

          “Frightens you,” Sir echoed. He should have expected that maybe. “Why?”

          “Why? It’s out of control.”

          I think I’m beginning to understand. You hate the wolf as much as it hates humans. You won’t accept it as part of you. Time to change tactic a bit. “You shun the wolf. You won’t give it a voice because you don’t want to hear what it has to say. You must accept that it is part of you and you are part of it,” Sir sighed before he knew it. Frustration commanded his words. He would be regretting it later. “You are the one who made it hate humans.”

          “What?” The wolf-man exclaimed, obviously offended at the very thought.

          “You have spoken to me of your younger days when the wolf was younger than yourself. You kept it shut away, as if it were in a tiny cage. If you do not allow an animal freedom would you expect it to have any respect for the race which imprisoned it?”

          “That wasn’t my fault,” the wolf-man said pointedly. He demonstrated that with his finger pointed down onto the table.

          “Yes, it was. You may not have grown up with your people but you were in control of it in your younger years,” he told the wolf-man and his tone was firm.

          “How was I supposed to let it escape? It would have attacked everyone. Don’t you sit there and talk of what you don’t…”

          “That is enough,” Sir affirmed and loudly. If the wolf-man wasn’t going to take responsibility they would never get anywhere. The wolf blamed him, it was why it never allowed the wolf-man out. Why should it? The wolf was imprisoned for decades. The wolf-man needed to understand that or it would never work. And I cannot give up now. “Speak to the wolf. Now.” The wolf-man opened his mouth but there wasn’t going to be any questioning and no more excuses.. “Now.”

          The wolf-man groaned and swore. He bit his tongue, Sir noticed. Maybe to not swear directly to him. So respect was growing. Good. The wolf-man sighed the last of his annoyance or aggravation. “How?” He asked.

          Sir could only go on instinct, a little insight as well. “Close your eyes and breath. Picture a place you know the wolf is most comfortable and you the most vulnerable. See if it will approach.”

          “Do I speak aloud?” The wolf-man asked. His voice slurred a little. Sleep clung to him as much as alcohol saturated the mind.

          “Speak how the wolf feels comfortable. You aren’t there for yourself. You are there for the wolf only.”