Luc' 9

~

A loud bang swept through the room. Shortly after a second sank through the wooden door and spread. It niggled his temples and coaxed him from his dreams.

          It wasn’t quite daylight. The sun had barely kissed the world and Zach was knocking on his door. The wolf, he thought and sat up as if he were commanded.

          “Sir? I’m sorry Sir, you requested an early rise.”

          “Thank you Zach,” he said back. Bless Zach, he never needed to raise his voice with the boy…man? They were all boys. You have exceptional hearing Zachary Smith. Sir pushed away his covers and pushed his feet into the warmth of his sandals. There was a bowl of water upon a table near his window. He went to it and gathered the water in his hands, cleansing his face. “I thank thee, the three Fates, for this water and this new day.” Sir dabbed the water from his face and dressed himself in traditional black. As he wrapped himself in the shadows of his cloak he turned his face back to the shrouded world outside. “I thank the Fates for the gifts given to me every day since my birth.” Sir left the view and looked to the door. As he walked to it he continued, “I pray that I will serve as I am meant to, and I do no harm to my fellow inhabitants of this world.” He put his hand onto the metal handle. “If I do, strike me down for I no longer should be in this world.” Sir pulled on the handle and stepped into the hall.

          The wolf-man was in the small dining hall. He sat on a long rug of sheepskin. The clothes suited him better than those of yesterday. Simple colours, nothing flamboyant. Black pants and a simple white long sleeved work shirt. Sir studied his behaviour before he walked in. The boys, they weren’t boys, they were men. My age need not change that. The boys on either side of him were still nervous. Yet the wolf-man talked to them anyway. He was a bit of a marvel there was no mistaking that. Today. Sir decided and walked toward the three.

          The men looked up. The wolf-man kept his head down and lifted his eyes to him as though he were ashamed, maybe he was. It didn’t matter. Sir knelt beside them.

          “I have explained what we shall do. Your role is to trust in what we are doing,” he told the wolf-man. “Now, lay on your left side, close your eyes.” As soon as the wolf-man was ready Sir nodded to the other two and placed his hands gently on the wolf-man’s neck and shoulder. He chanted words he remembered from long ago and invoked the powers which held to them. Beneath his hands the wolf-man tensed as though he were going to fit. The heart beat below Sir’s fingers slowed and his form grew shorter as he became wider. Sir watched finding himself in awe as two limbs sprouted and grew fur. The ears of the man grew into points and his face lengthened until it became canine. The eyes opened and shot wide. His awe broke as the wolf strained beneath all three of their grips and tried to bite.

          “Sir?” Zach worried.

          “Quiet,” he answered and increased the pressure on the wolf’s neck. “Hush.” The wolf attempted to turn its head. When it found that it couldn’t it growled instead and scrabbled at the rug beneath it. “Hush,” Sir breathed. He could only go by his instincts as the wolf did. So much hate ran through the creature’s veins. Hate and anger were not the way to respond. They bred each other only to create something malicious and monstrous.

          Sir bent lower over the wolf and put his mouth to its ear. “Hush. Be still.”

          Still.

          Sir breathed. If he did not his beating heart would rush his words and the fragile calm would break as surely as a child’s snowball. Sir closed his eyes. “Still,” he breathed into its ear. “You will hear and understand. I am with you. I will be your protection and your control,” he let that sink in before he added, “You will not need to be concerned any longer.”

          Hear, I do. Understand, I do. Want it not, do I.

          “What do you wish?” Fur beneath his fingers stretched and adjusted.

          Freedom.

          “You will have no freedom acting as you do. Death lies through the doors. Give yourself to me.” Sir heard his voice lower in pitch and raise in volume. The atmosphere changed as if the temperature had been quickly lowered. A shiver swept through the hall and ruffled the curtains covering the windows. “Calm your heart. You will not go free from here whilst I exist.”

          Kill you I shall, It threatened. In the expanse between its thoughts and Sir’s laughter rumbled like thunder before a storm broke. I do not want to break you. Sir thought to himself. He concentrated on his breathing. A drum beat pounded in his heart and grew in tempo and strength. Sir rubbed his fingers over the wolf’s neck, the feeling was mutual in that moment, he realised. The waves of their minds and hearts had collided into calm seas. In the distant reaches of his mind froth lapped gently over bubbles beneath the surface. They were together. It was done.

          “You may leave us,” Sir said to Zach and the second man. “I will be fine. The wolf will not attack. Go, now.” Fates he was hot. Sweat clung to his skin and stuck his robes and garments to him.

          “Let’s go,” Zach said. Sir listened to their footfalls and opened his eyes as the door clicked shut. He lay down beside the wolf and stared at the ceiling. Cobwebs danced in the breeze and dust breathed clinging to the air which swept it up.

          Trust me, do you?

          “Trust is a sapling. One day it may grow strong and virtually unbreakable. First it must be nurtured and helped to support itself. Our trust is but an acorn in the ground. One day it shall erupt into being. Before that can happen we must christen it.”

          Who be acorn? The wolf asked insightfully. Sir curved his lips and spoke a name.

          “Luc’,” he envisaged the word escaping from his lips as a butterfly and watched it fly free into the shining shafts of sunlight caressing the beams above him.

          Luc’ the wolf echoed in the same gentle tone.

          Now we have truly begun. Sir thought to himself.