Wolves and Men

He looked up and met her in the eye. “Look, Nickolas and I were trapped in a city with no escape because we had no idea how to open a way into the Whyte Plain. I don’t even know how you know where an opening even is! If I’m meant to fight in your war, if I’m meant to protect my pack and fight against those shadows and vampires, these are things that I need to know.”

Pepromene looked over at her pack mates and nodded. “You’re right, William. We may have been overly cautious of you and your pack mates training. You are the youngest of us and the last for some time. This has made us very protective of you, but that in itself has been a disadvantage to you.” She turned around back the way the four of them had come. “Do you see anything?”

William looked at the road that stretched out for a block or two and ended abruptly in what looked like a dead end of smooth obsidian black. He had never gotten used to the strange twists and turns the City made. It was a maze that only his experience with it had allowed him to get anywhere. Here was nothing but space and black polished stone.

“I don’t see anything.”

“And that’s why you can’t open a way into the Whyte Plain,” Efraim said sternly. “You have to see with more than human eyes. Look past what you see and follow what you know.”

William was lost. He looked again at the street ending in a dead end. There was nothing there. He looked past that to an obsidian wall. He looked up and saw the brightly glowing crystals embedded there in the rock ceiling. He looked to each side of the street and the buildings and walls. There was nothing…nothing.

“You know what is there because you passed through it a moment ago,” Ryan said patiently. “If the Whyte Plain was so easily seen, don’t you think everyone would know about it? I know this is going to sound cliché, but reach out with more than just your eyes. See beyond what sight alone tells you. Feel what is there in front of you.” He smiled encouragingly at the younger man.

William took a deep breath and closed his eyes. If his eyes wouldn’t tell him what he needed to know maybe some of his other senses might. He listened to the soft noise of the city off in the distance. He could feel the cool air around him; the city was never truly warm or cold. The air moved around him but not wind, just a feeling of circulation that was just beyond still air. The smell of the place was that of stone and earth. The obsidian had a very sterile, worked smell and the ceiling of the cavern was harsh stone. There were so many things for his senses to explore. He had never actually studied this place with all his senses.

Then he felt it. A cold hollow place where there was no scent. The place they had exited, the Whyte plain was a huge empty space in the middle of the smells and feel of the city. It was something that raised goose bumps on his skin immediately and even though he wasn’t afraid of that place there was a sense of foreboding coming from that empty hollow part of the city. He opened his eyes.

“You started to feel it didn’t you?” asked Pepromene.

William nodded, “It was cold, like a dead, hollow thing. But I’ve never felt anything like that while traveling through the Whyte Plain.”

Efraim nodded and Ryan folded his arms across his chest. “The cold you feel is the void between this plane of being and that of the Whyte Plain. To understand why you perceive it as a cold feeling is because your mind and body doesn’t know how else to process the idea of different planes of existence.”

“Whoa, whoa, hang on. You’re telling me that the Whyte Plain is like another dimension? That’s something out of Star Trek.” He shook his head and laughed to himself. “That’s impossible.”

Efraim stepped up in front of him, “I don’t care what you believe, pup. Just know that what Ryan said is true, more or less.”

“Wait, what do you mean more or less?”

Pepromene answered, “The Whyte Plain was built by Shape Shifters thousands of years ago. It exists in the space between, as a tangible plane of existence. In layman’s terms think about it like this: picture the Earth and its surface. Then about halfway between the Earths’ crust and its core write in another circle, that’s where the Whyte Plain exists. It was built to allow Shape Shifters to move quickly from place to place in the world. You probably know that at one time it was a beautiful place, filled with light and warmth, Shape shifters met there to discuss their discoveries, to travel and share ideas and experiences. The cold hollow feeling around the entrances now is because of what the Whyte Plain has become, a diseased, festering wound that has been trying to spread out onto this plane of reality.”

“OK, I understand that,” William replied. “But how do I open it and get into and out of the Whyte Plain?”

Ryan shook his head. “It’d be too dangerous to go through this opening right now. The Shadows who pursued us are very likely waiting by this place. They are not devoid of sense and any shift in the dimensional rift between the two planes would be felt and they would try to take advantage of that weakness to rip open a hole between the two. If you want to learn how to open the way, we need to find you another entry point.”

Pepromene shook her head. “We have things that need to be done. And we need to report to the Elders on our raid.” She nodded at William. “If you want to learn more about the Whyte Plain you should gather your pack and seek proper instruction. We should go.” The werewolf led the other two men away, leaving William standing in the middle of the street.

That was weird. He took a look around the place one last time, feeling out the dead hollow sensation of the Whyte Plain beyond his sight. It was a very unpleasant feeling. That coupled with the creatures that now call the Whyte Plain home he felt dirty even letting that cold sensation touch him. He moved away from the possible opening and directed his senses to find him a way through the labyrinthine City back to his room.