Chapter 5

            Tia smiled as she finished her ears, and therefore, her costume. Faolan was just watching her with a disappointed look on his face while he was chewing on a piece of candy.

            “I can’t believe you did so much work to please the humans,” He shook his head in shame.

            “It isn’t for the humans,” she said without looking up from her craftsmanship. “This is for the alphas. When they realize that I’ll do just about anything to please them, they will indeed be pleased.”

            “You’re working hard to please them so that they will be pleased?”

            Tia laughed, “Precisely.”

            She raced off to the bathroom with the paint and carefully made herself look more feline than canine. Then she put on the orange clothes. She had cut up bits of the black shirt and sewed them onto her clothes to make them look striped.

            Tia put her fake, rope-like tail on, and then her tiger ears. Lastly, she strapped the sword to her waist. She looked at a clock in the kitchen and saw that she had a half-hour to kill before the party started.

            “You should get a shield. If you’re gonna impress anyone, do it right,” Faolan said and walked up the stairs.

            Tia took his advice and went out the door with another fifty dollars to get a shield from Bart and Lucky. She was thankful for the growing darkness, that way no one except Bart and lucky would know what she was, and they were staying home anyway.

            She peered through a window in the shop and saw Lucky at the counter reading a book, and Bart dusting off some of the weapons. Tia walked through the door and Lucky looked up from the book. Bart had evidently smelled her and didn’t remove his attention from his cleaning.

            “I was wondering if I could have a shield to go with my outfit,” Tia said as she walked up to Lucky.

            He smiled and put the book down before disappearing into a room in the back. He came back out holding a light brown wooden shield with a lion’s face on the front, and a smaller metal shield with no markings.

            “These are both 35 dollars. Wouldn’t want a kitty-cat to go unprotected among a band of wolves, now would we?” Lucky said with a smile.

            She thanked him and studied the shields. After a short time she decided that the wooden shield would be better, because it was all for decoration, not actual use.

            Tia handed him her fifty dollar bill and grabbed the wooden shield. She attached it to her arm and took out her sword.

            “Kitty-cat is ready,” she said to him as she took her change back and had to sheathe her sword.

            She walked back outside and looked at a clock that happened to be right outside the door, and discovered that she had five minutes to get to the Omega house for the party. She raced as fast as she could through the town, that is, as fast as she could in human form.

            The bitter fall wind whipped at her face as she raced by various shops and stores, all of which were now closed. Tia tried to keep her breath steady as she sprinted past the Alpha house at the entrance of Otsana. Then she passed by the Beta house, the Guardian house, the regular houses, and finally, the Omega house.

            Tia took a minute to catch her breath before knocking on the door and putting a smile on her face for the humans. Mora opened the door and smiled as well, before inviting her inside.

            The scent of blood was very faint thanks to all of the snacks and beverages lying about the counter. Tia couldn’t help but genuinely smile at their efforts to make it fun for all of the people coming.

            She looked at a clock that was hanging on the wall and noticed that it was at least ten minutes past the time the party was supposed to start, and no one was there except for Mora. Tom had probably already left to go ‘trick-or-treating’ with the pups, and Alex…where was Alex?

            “Mora,” Tia began, “Where’s Alex? Am I the first to arrive?”

            The human smiled and replied, “You are the first to arrive, and Alex is just getting ready.”

            Tia laughed as Alex tried to make a dramatic, vampire-like entrance by leaping down the stairs, but instead tripped on his cape and plummeted head-first into the carpet at the bottom. She and Mora went over and helped him up.

            “You alright?” Tia asked, still laughing a little.

            “Fine,” He coughed as he brushed himself off and smiled, showing incredibly fake vampire teeth.

            They heard a knock on the door and Mora went to answer it. When she opened the door, Tia was surprised to see Makui dressed up as a queen. It wasn’t necessarily wrong, just odd that she’d dress as something so obvious, the humans must have realized by now that she and Buster were the leaders here.

            “And I thought I was going to be late,” she joked as she, too, noticed no one else was there, basically. And Tia could tell that she wasn’t too comfortable around the humans either.

            More gestured towards the couch and said, “Why don’t you two sit down while I go get my costume on, feel free to eat or drink anything we have out here, I’ll be back in a moment.”

            Tia nodded and sat beside the Alpha on the couch, while Alex sat down in a chair next to the box that the humans called a ‘television’. It was a surprisingly short time before the doorbell rang and Alex went off to answer it. He returned a minute later with Cougar dressed as a cougar, Vooko dressed as a Native American chief, and Snake dressed as a tree.

            “Why are you…a tree?” Mora asked as she came down the stairs in a bacon costume.

            “Why are you bacon?” was all Snake said in reply.

            Mora rolled her eyes and ran off into the kitchen for some reason unknown to Tia.

            After that point, more people arrived and the party was actually getting kind of fun. Some of the younger male wolves, those about Tia’s age, pretended to be very friendly at the beginning of the party, and then, towards the end, seemed completely happy, hanging around Alex a lot.

            James and Lucky, for instance, were constantly within five feet of Alex, unless circumstances demanded otherwise. At some point the three were laughing, eating chips, telling jokes, and they all flopped on the couch and started talking, just, talking.

            At this point Tia was sitting in a chair a few feet away, pretending to be intently focused on a sheet of paper on a table next to her. She focused her hearing on the boys’ conversation. Alex laughed a little about something Lucky had said, and then they were pretty silent for a while.

            Finally, the human spoke up in a bit more of a serious tone, “Actually, James, there was something I wanted to ask you.”

            James smiled again and nodded, indicating Alex should continue.

            “I suppose, at a party, you might not want to talk about work or anything,” Alex continued, “but I was kind of…wondering, what I could do to get that wolf pelt off your hands?”

            James and Lucky’s eyes immediately grew slightly frightened, and Tia could smell their fear, but it quickly vanished as James replied, “Exactly how do you mean?”

            “I mean, I don’t have the hundred dollars, and in no way would my mom give me that fur. So I was wondering, since I’m sure someone will snatch up such a great deal like that sooner than I could afford it, could I maybe do something to get it sooner, maybe work to earn it?”

            James, in any werewolf’s eyes, was clearly eager to get rid of the pelt, but get something out of it. Everyone in the pack just wanted to get rid of it, such a beautiful, sleek coat, clearly one of the most honored wolves of her pack, Tia could tell it was female, didn’t deserve to be handed off to some human. But, to remain secretive, James had no choice.

            He rolled a can of pop in his hands, debating what he should say, before setting it down, and asking, “For starters, how much money do you have, that you’d be willing to give me for it?”

            Tia knew how hard it was for any werewolf to say wolf ‘pelt’, because they believed it deserved a better title, but being a werewolf did have to remain a secret, and calling it ‘him’ or ‘her’ would give away too much.

            Alex shrugged, “I have forty-three dollars and fifteen cents, and I would give every penny and a year of hard labor for such a beautiful creature.”

            This sparked Tia, Lucky, and James’s interests all at once, and Lucky asked what they were all thinking, “Do you mean that pelt in particular, or wolves in general?”

            Alex shrugged again, sat back, thought for several moments, then replied, “Both I guess. That pelt in particular is very beautiful, and I am somewhat interested in wolves. I have done quite a bit of research on them, and found some pretty interesting facts. I’ll admit, I do favor many animals to wolves, and I really don’t know too much about them, but you have to admit, they are so amazing. Even the way they…move.

            “Basically, when I saw that pelt in the shop, I felt I had to have it, to experience wolves close-up, but not dangerously. And for such a bargain! I just need to have it, whatever it takes. Plus, it may help me learn more about them. Basically All I’ve done is read a bit about them, seen a few pictures, maybe some video footage, anything I could get a hold of, but to have an actual pelt is amazing. I would definitely prefer the pelt of, say, a leopard, but a wolf would be amazingly awesome.”

            Tia was very confused by what he had said. Basically, he enjoyed wolves and had done everything he could to learn more about them, when he was younger. He sort of, gave up on that little childish dream, and moved on, but something inside him said wolves were going to be a big part of his life, and that’s what Tia interpreted from his words.

            She was suddenly thrust out of these conflicted thoughts by James saying, “Here’s what I’ll do. You bring forty dollars to my shop tomorrow morning at about noon; I’ll keep it from being bought ‘till then. I’ll give you the wolf in exchange for the money, and you come by every afternoon for a week, I’ll give you a few chores. And, I want to hang out with you a little more.”

            Alex smiled and patted James and Lucky on the back in a sort of thanks. Then they all grabbed a can of pop and made a toast.

            James started, “A toast. A toast to our newfound friendship, a toast to mutual cooperation, and a toast to…to, ah….”

            “To wolves,” Alex finished and tilted the can up as he began to chug.

            James and Lucky exchanged a look of admiration, happiness, and reluctance, before doing the same.

            After a few moments, the boys continued their earlier conversation, and got to know each other better. Tia got up from her chair and walked over to Makui, who was politely conversing with Mora, for some reason talking about painting. Tia tapped her shoulder; Mora dipped her head and bowed jokingly to Makui and her royal outfit before stepping away.

            “What is it Tia?” Makui asked as she straightened her bright yellow plastic crown.

            “I was wondering if I could leave early,” Tia said. “The action has gone down quite a bit.”

            Makui grinned and said, “Is their not enough action for the little pussy-cat? A queen needs her second-in-command, and a valiant warrior to stand by her, you know.”

            Tia’s lips twitched as she beamed brightly at her leader, and replied, “I could really use a long run, sort of clear my thoughts.”

            Makui shrugged and gestured towards the door, “By all means, abandon your queen in her time of need.”

            Tia rolled her eyes and went past her, to the front door. She eagerly went out, shut the door, and leaned against it in relief. She was finally out of the hot jumble of scents, and noises, and into the frosty night air. Her breath billowed out in massive gusts as she took deep, long breaths of the clear, fresh air.

            Her thoughts slowly began to unravel as the brittle, rough hands of night embraced her and forced her into a state of peace. She finally started to piece together more about what Alex had said his opinion was on wolves.

            The way he described it made it seem like he absolutely loved them, but he seemed to be sort of distant as he said it. Tia was very surprised how well she could pinpoint the issue, but also very surprised that humans cared that much about wolves.

            She decided that some humans, a select few, weren’t the murderous predators that she once thought they were. Perhaps, maybe, these certain humans, like Alex, were actually…generous towards these amazing creatures. Actually saw the wolves as beautiful survivors, instead of some patch of fur to hunt and kill.

            Then Tia reminded herself of the humans that were as werewolf stories described, the horrifying nightmares she had as a pup were real and genuine. She ran through the forest to the main road, and followed it away towards the shops. Finally, she came to the store that James and Pippi ran, and gazed inside, peering into the gloomy darkness beyond.

            She grabbed a key from her pocket, a universal key for all of the buildings in Otsana, that was given to the Alphas, Betas, and Guardian, just in case. She used it to open the shop, and Tia flicked the lights on.

            At the opposite end of the room was the wolf pelt, buried in a pile of furs hanging on the wall. She raced over to it and uncovered the beautiful fur. She tentatively removed the frost-white fur from the shelf and carefully examined the sea of silvery-gray that traced the wolf’s back.

            Suddenly, Tia found herself burying her face in the waves of misty warmth as tears fought their way to the surface.

            Why do they have to kill? Tia grieved in her mind. Why do so many of the humans seek to destroy such beauty? And How do the not realize the torment they put us through?

            Then Tia forced herself to stop, realizing that she was partially a human, basically. She had a foot in two worlds, one filled with the monstrous beings that kill for pleasure, the other in a world of grief, sadness, despair, and the murder of many. She looked down at the angelic, delicate frost that once graced the body of one of the thousands of murdered wolves. She stroked the radiant beauty before her with a single hand, and basked in the flood of rage and love that seemed to radiate from it.

            Finally she decided that her grieving would not bring back the dead, and hung it back up beside the undeserving pelts around it. How could someone, anyone, see this as anything less than a work of art, a living, breathing creature, deprived of its life for the joy it brings another.

            Tia left the shop, crying, and shifted into her own wolf form before racing back towards the houses, and sliding around the edges of the forest. She found a small indent in the earth and curled into it, laying her tear-stained face on her paws and covering it with her grayish-russet tail.

            Her last thoughts were of Alex, Mora, and Tom, and she knew, without a single doubt, that they weren’t the vicious creatures that humans were said to be. They were a special exception.

            And she slowly drifted off into sleep.

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            A rustling in the forest caught Tia’s attention and quickly deprived her of sleep. She failed to recognize what was there; it had somehow disguised its scent and was well-hidden in the brush.

            She heard someone shift positions behind one of the trees to her left. She saw a peculiar metallic-like device somewhere up in a tree just out of reach, and decided it was some sort of human contraption. Tia refocused her attention on whatever it was only about fifteen feet away. She assumed it was a human, but it was difficult to say with how well they had disguised themselves.

            After a while she decided it wasn’t a hunter, it wasn’t going to try to hurt her, but she still felt it posed some sort of threat. She saw the Moon shining through the leaves and illuminating the forest with its watery luminescence. She could faintly see the shadow of the being and confirmed that it was a human, but then she wondered what it was doing.

            Tia decided to turn her attention to the metallic object in the tree. It had a blinking red light on it, but seemingly nothing else happened. She soon grew bored with being unable to satisfy her curiosity, and stalked off towards her house. When she was sure that the human could no longer see her, she shifted back into a human and emerged into the bright moonlight by the houses.

            She walked along the road and decided everyone was asleep by now, since all of the lights were off. She finally came to her and Faolan’s house and opened the door. She tried not to laugh as she saw Faolan collapsed on the couch with three different candy bars stuffed in his mouth, and several wrappers lying about him.

            Tia closed the door and stretched before going upstairs to her room and flopping onto her bed. She twisted and stirred for about an hour before deciding that sleep would be futile. She got up, stretched again, and gazed out the window.

            She just suddenly realized that she was still wearing her costume from the party. The only difference was that her sword and shield were gone. She went into the bathroom and washed off the paint, then returned to her room and changed into some normal clothes, jeans and a t-shirt.

            She went back downstairs, where Faolan was still sleeping, and quietly made herself a sandwich. Tia then looked outside and just barely saw the first golden rays of dawn emanating from the forest. She decided to go outside, and very slowly make her way to the shops.

            She opened the door, checked to make sure she had a key, and walked away along the side of the gravel road system of Otsana. When she got out onto the main road, the road that led from the entrance of Otsana and went straight to the hotel, she saw a human car containing three very exhausted-looking humans and, oddly enough, a horse trailer which definitely contained a horse.

            The car slowed down next to her and the window rolled down, showing an adult human, female.

            “Which way is the hotel?” She asked politely.

            Tia smiled in a friendly greeting, as she always did with humans, and replied, “Just follow the road straight and you should reach it after about two miles. But I don’t know if it’ll do you much good, the hotel keeper is asleep this time of day, and I’m not positive we have a place for horses.”

            The human shrugged and said, “We don’t have much of a choice, unless we want to keep driving for another three hundred miles, which isn’t a very comforting thing right about now.”

            “Well,” Tia sighed, “I’ll admit, I could easily go get the owner of the hotel, and I could probably find someone to care for the horse, you go ahead to the hotel, I’ll be there in about a half-hour, okay?”

            The woman thanked Tia and drove off. Tia sighed as she shifted into her wolf form and raced as fast as she could to regular house number eight, where Moon lived. She shifted back and rapped on the door as she gasped for breath.

            Blue opened the door and looked at Tia with exhausted eyes, and huffed, as if asking, ‘what?’

            Tia explained what was going on and he vanished into the house for a few minutes. Moon came out alone, looking a little tired, but ready to go.

            “Let’s go,” was all she said.

            “But, Moon, who are we going to get to take care of their horse?” Tia asked curiously.

            Moon just laughed and replied, “There’s actually an empty warehouse where I put horses and other livestock when they come. It’s in the forest way behind the hotel, if you’d like to bring the horse there for me.”

            “I could use a hand,” Tia said.

             Moon yawned and reassured her, “You’ve got one.”

            They shifted into their wolves and Tia felt a little saddened, Moon’s pelt was somewhat similar to the ‘pelt’ Alex was going to buy. She shook her head and raced after the older wolf through the forest and eventually to the hotel. They cautiously shifted back and went inside where the woman was standing alone.

            The woman smiled at Tia and followed Moon to the counter.

            Moon went back into a room to get something, and the woman asked Tia, “Will you be taking the horse then?”

            Tia nodded and the human explained, “If you would go outside, my husband and daughter will help you unload it.”

            Tia nodded and left the building, to see an adult human male, and a young teenage female hanging around the trailer. The werewolf walked up to them and greeted them.

            “I was told you would help me unload the horse?” Tia said as she walked towards them.

            The girl grinned somewhat enthusiastically and went around to the back of the trailer. Tia followed while the man just opened the car door and went inside; obviously assuming they would be fine doing it alone.

            When Tia made her way around to the trailer, the girl opened it up and showed a beautiful dapple gray horse. The girl took the horse out and handed Tia the rope that was attached to the horse’s halter.

            “Her name is Angel,” the girl explained as she stroked its gray neck.

            “Good to know,” Tia said.

            What Tia really thought was interesting, was how the horse looked. It was similar to a deer, and she had a slight urge to attack it, but it was slight enough to control. She could easily understand that this was a superior creature which was very valuable among humans sometimes.

            Moon and the woman came outside together. The young girl and older man got up and followed the woman back inside, while Moon walked up to Tia and Angel.

            “They are beautiful aren’t they?” Moon asked as she grabbed the rope from Tia.

            “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before, but they are pretty cool. Something about them is completely unlike deer,” Tia said.

            “That would probably their intelligence, or maybe even the fact that they are more sophisticated and domestic creatures,” Moon agreed. “the differences between wolves and dogs are basically the same as the differences between deer and horses.”

            “Come on, let’s go get this horse to the warehouse,” Moon said as she led it away towards the forest.

            They were walking steadily for about fifteen minutes until Moon suddenly stopped.

            “Why did you stop?” Tia asked as she caught up.

            Tia gasped as she saw what Moon was looking at; it was one of those traps she’d seen in the weapons shop. If someone stepped in the center of that trap, it would latch onto their leg painfully, maybe snap a bone. It was a werewolf’s worst nightmare for traps.

            “Get a really long stick,” Moon told Tia.

            Tia obeyed and picked up a stick, and stuck it in the center of the trap, which snapped the stick in half, but was now activated, so it couldn’t hurt them. Then Tia dug up the metal stick that held it in place, and put the trap safely away in a bag that Moon had.

            “Now it won’t be used to help kill wolves, or even werewolves, if one of us was foolish enough to step into one of those,” Moon said and gulped.

            Tia tried to imagine what would happen if one of the werewolves stepped into the trap, but the image was too awful. From that point on, they very carefully watched each step to make sure they wouldn’t get caught in the trap.

            “Hope there aren’t any others around, where some unfortunate wolf, or even a pup, could get caught and killed for one of those hunters’ pelts,” Tia growled.