Wolves and Men

She ran through the exercises that Jacob had taught her. Even though she didn’t know how that would help she did them anyway. Jacob wasn’t the best teacher; he was clumsy and unsure in his teaching methods. But it was clear to her that he meant to help her. She was blind in this new and strange world that she found herself in and even the fumbling guidance of a child was guidance that she could not provide herself.

One night Jacob came to her apartment unannounced. His face was a bit moist with sweat, looking like he had exerted himself in some way. “We have to leave, now.”

This was a little shocking and confusing to Ansuya, “What do you mean? We weren’t scheduled to leave for another ten days?”

Jacob stepped toward her calmly, in a very British manner, “Ansuya, I have just broke about every traffic law in India to get here in time. I couldn’t take the time to call you, I’m sorry,” He looked toward the back of her apartment nervously, “A group of men came to the military base and have accused you of theft and assault on a British Officer.”

Ansuya wasn’t impressed, “So what? I haven’t done anything. They can have their witch hunt if they want.”

Jacob shook his head, “More like a wolf hunt.” He gripped her shoulders tightly and looked straight into her eyes. “Whatever happens you will be thrown in jail till the whole thing gets sorted out, less than a week at most. But you don’t have a week. You will change again on the crescent moon. That’s in two days. Then they will kill you for an abomination. We have to leave now!”

Ansuya didn’t ask any questions but grabbed a bag and threw some clothes in it, while Jacob grabbed a few things from the closet and bathroom. They were running toward his car three minutes later.

It was almost too late. Just as Jacob was turning out onto the busy main street, he saw a British Army cavalcade of three cars and a jeep pull into Ansuya’s apartment parking lot. Jacob was sure to blend into traffic as he watched Ansuya’s apartment disappear from his rear-view mirror.

He breathed a heavy sigh of relief and sped up the car. They needed to be on a plane within the hour, any plane.

“Who accused me, Jacob?”

The frazzled Officer looked over at the beautiful woman, “I don’t know who they were. But I have an idea as to what they were.”

“Were they vampires?” she asked calmly.

“Yes,” he replied flatly. “We can smell vampires, if they are close enough, and these four men stank of death and blood. How they talked one of my friends into going along with the whole thing I have no idea.”

“How did they find out about me? What did they want?” she asked.

Jacob ran his hands through his hair, “They found you, like they find all our kind. They have eyes and ears all over the world, slaves, or willing accomplices. They have wanted to hunt and kill us since our two species met millennia ago.” Jacob switched lanes and took a side road.

“Before history was written down, during the early dawn of mankind, human beings were weak, unprotected, and miserably inadequate for the harsh cruel world they found outside their caves. It was wolves and other predators, tigers, lions, and even ants that became their teachers. The wolf was a symbol of strength and discipline. Discipline in family, tribe, and survival and human kind took those lessons, which the wolf freely gave.

But after a few hundred years, the civilized people of the world began to forget who had taught them how to survive when they first stepped out of their caves. With the advent of irrigation and agriculture people started settling in cities. The wolf went from a teacher and a symbol of strength, to a ravenous creature that was everything the wild was, dangerous, unforgiving, and brutal.

“Yes,” Ansuya said, “I remember one of my teachers telling me stories of horrible large cats and wolves that would drag children away in the dark.”

“Of course, this happened long after the fall of the City under the Clouds. But the vampires began to rule over the human’s desires, and began to shift their attention from discipline and patience, to immediate gratification and hedonism. Their greatest triumph of the day was Rome. It only took a few vampires a few hundred years to take a hearty, almost nomadic people before the founding of the city, with a strong warrior culture, and turn it into one of excess and base debauchery.”

“But they weren’t satisfied, were they?” Ansuya asked redundantly.

“Since when is excess ever enough?” Jacob answered wryly. “You pretty much know the rest. We Shape shifters have been trying to restore balance to the humans by fighting the vampires whenever we can. But the vampires aren’t going to take that lying down, so they hunt us relentlessly. Hedonism is their greatest weapon and we have been working and fighting against that.”

“How is that working in India? Or England?” Ansuya snapped.

Jacob nodded his head, and twisted his jaw. “Yeah, we haven’t been very successful.” He glanced at her and held her eyes for a moment before returning his attention to the road, “But is that a reason to give up and do nothing? Would you have us stay in our cities and let the vampires take what they want, like they did in Rome?”

Ansuya looked ahead of her evenly and held her chin steady. “No,” was all she said.

Jacob pursed his lips and glanced at her again, “I know how you feel. You told me how you wanted to make a difference with your country, and you will. You only need to learn how to control yourself and then you can go and do almost anything, be almost anything. The City under the Mountain may be your new home for a while, but it’s not your prison and when you’re ready, you’ll be free to leave.”

Jacob was worried about what he might find at the airport but there was nothing. There were able to book a small flight into Thailand. The plane left the airport without incident and a few hours later they were landing safely in another country outside of the immediate British Army’s reach. But it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

They spent a week in Thailand.