Fangs (Chapter 12) The End

I lay awake in the darkness, Talin was asleep next to me. My mind tumbled over the last three weeks, everything that had happened since becoming human. So many things familiar from before I had been human, so many things different, nothing even remotely familiar from my life as a werewolf, except Talin. I struggled to behave as I had in my home village, yet I had changed to much. The forest, looming outside the village, no-longer terrified me but welcomed me, inviting me to come home to it. I struggled to go to sleep, to forget that I had lost almost everything I cared about, needless to say that I could not.1

The next moment I was sitting bolt upright. An eerie wail split through the night, a strange mournful song that instinctively terrified me. I knew that song.2

I slid out of bed silently, careful not to wake Talin, praying the noise would not disturb him. Within five minuets I was out the house, fully dressed and sliding my two daggers into their sheaves. As I approached the village gates, the two guards spotted me and moved to block the way.3

“You can't leave the village.” one told me firmly “you heard that howl.” he stepped infront of me “you ...” calmly and without warning I slid one of my daggers through his neck. Standing further back the other didn't realize what had happened until his companion dropped lifeless to the ground. Like his friend, he didn't have time to scream. 4

I walked at a swift steady pace, I could feel my life swirling behind me. Everything I had, all my possessions, my friends, Talin everything was left behind, abandoned. Should I feel regret for all that I was leaving? The question was irrelevant, I felt none, instead I felt fear. fear churning in my stomach, grating in my throat. But for now the fear was distant, impersonal, irrelevant compared to the burning force that beckoned me on.5

True I might die, if not I would not stay human. As I walked away I could feel I would not be coming back to Calton, not for a long time. I knew that if I ever came this way again it would be with a very different purpose... murder.6

Trees now surrounded me, tall and sinister, shadows dancing as the clouds brushed the moon.7

The wind whistled past me, blowing back towards my human life. I felt relief with the fear, relief to be rid of it all. My home, the stuff I owned, the constant guilt of all I had done, even Talin. Especially Talin, I thought of him, sleeping still. Soon he would wake, find me gone, find the bodies of the guards. I laughed, uncaring.8

The shadows shifted and Sralk stood before me. He was in wolf form, eyes glistening in the moonlight, glinting with his madness. His harsh laugh broke through the night, before I could respond I was thrown to the ground, pinned down.9

Sralk stood over me, jaws inches from my face, grinning, his saliva dripping onto my face. He stared down at me, his eyes falling into the shadow of his face faded from glowing silver to swirling liquid green.10

No human had eyes like that, I was sure no werewolf should either, “What are you?” my voice sounded more nervous than I had hoped and I realised I was trembling slightly. On the other hand I had good reason to be scared of Sralk.11

Sralk laughed at my question and turned to human to answer it. “Clever. I wondered if you'd work that out.” I frowned,12

“Answer the question.”13

The answer was a single word, screamed and whispered into the night. “Freedom!”14

Shifting back to wolf, Sralk lunged at my throat. I felt his jaws tighten round my neck, tear through skin and flesh, pierce my windpipe and finally crush the vertebra in my neck.