Wolves and Men

The Officer nodded and gestured to a small room off the main foyer. Ansuya went in and turned on the light. She was met with a visage from some unspeakable nightmare, a cheap horror cinema character come to life. She truly was a monster.

Her head was crowned with two elongated ears, her body was naked and covered in fur, which was rich brown slashed here and there with some tan highlights. Her once deep brown eyes, shown golden in the light of the bathroom. Her face was dominated with a canine jaw and the razor sharp teeth therein were long and serrated. Her nose was moist and black at the tip of it.

She stared for long hard moments at what she was now to be. There were no tears, only acceptance. She was still who she was. She could remember everything about her life. She was not a blood thirsty animal that would pillage and ravage the countryside like those old stories. She was still Ansuya Das. She would find a way to accomplish her dreams still. This changed nothing for her hopes of her future, it just made things more…interesting.

She walked out of the bathroom calmly. She fixed her gaze on the British Officer. “What am I to do now, sir? Am I to live out the rest of my existence like this?” she asked with restraint and power. This man may know things she did not but she would not be lesser than she had ever been.

The British Officer ran his fingers through his hair and sat down on a wooden chair that he pulled out from a small table. “I have seen one or two people go through the change. But I have never seen anyone like you before.” The man smiled and poured himself some liquid from a pitcher. “Would you like some water?”

Ansuya nodded her head, “Yes, please.” She was his guest now and manners had been ground into her since she could talk. The man handed her his glass and got up to fetch another clean one.

Ansuya tried to drink but her snout was not used to drinking from a glass and water spilled over her jaw and down her mouth. She hissed at her mistake and quickly wiped the water from her chest and tummy. She set the glass down.

The man returned and set his glass down on the table. He eyed the other glass on the table but he didn’t comment on it. He stood before the werewolf and bowed in the English fashion. “I don’t believe I have ever formally introduced myself, I am Jacob Miller, CPT; 17th Infantry Division; 7th BN Machine Gun unit.” With that he half melted as he had before and stepped towards her in his monstrous form. “I first saw you in a park singing and I felt something. I noticed something about you, the way the sun glanced off your shoulders, the way you moved as you sang. All these were my spies. But it was your eyes that gave you away. I knew you were one of us, or at least had the potential to be. I have been keeping a close watch over you ever since.”

“You have been following me, Sir?” Ansuya asked flatly.

“Yes, for a while I have been. You didn’t think me running into you time and again over the last two years had always been coincidence, did you?” He asked with a small laugh.

“What am I?” Ansuya asked pointedly.

Jacob sighed, “You and I both are called Shape shifters. Well, you are more werewolf than Shape shifter, but in time you will learn to control your gift as I, and all the other Shape shifters have.”

Ansuya inhaled deeply and gazed at the man. “How do I learn to do what you do? How do I learn to change back to my human self?”

Jacob cocked his head sideways, “uh, Miss Das I would love to help you. I can teach you what I know, but that won’t be nearly enough. We have to get you to the nearest City. Unfortunately, the nearest City is blocked to us right now.” He said looking off to his side.

She was confused by his words. “The nearest city is New Delhi and I just traveled from there, it is less than an hour from this very spot.”

Jacob nodded in agreement, “Yes New Delhi is less than an hour from here but I am talking about a city that you have never heard of. A place that is safe from the prying eyes of our enemies and normal humans. Unfortunately,” he again sighed deeply, “The nearest City is closed and the surrounding area is a war zone. All passports there have been suspended even my military Visa was cut.”

“Where were you planning on taking me?” Ansuya asked coldly and calmly.

Jacob nodded out the door, “To Israel. But as I just pointed out it’s a war zone.”

“So what other options are open to us?” Ansuya pressed.

Jacob looked at her with a smile, “Have you ever been to California?”

Ansuya was forced to stay the night with Jacob. The next morning, she woke up, tired and hunger gripped her painfully. Her monstrous form had melted away with her sleep and she was inclined to believe that it had all been a dream, except she was greeted with her strange surroundings and the company of the British Officer.

Over the next two weeks, she was forced to cancel her appointment with the director for her starring film debut and get her affairs in order. Jacob still had to report to his unit but was given leave to handle what he was required to. He was gone often and she was allowed to leave and go back to her apartment and live as she once had.

There was no need to practice singing or studying anymore, but her training had been ingrained in her. She sang and danced. She called her mother and told her what she was planning to do. She never lied, but she let her mother think that she was going to California for Hollywood. It seemed to sooth her mother’s nerves.

She looked out toward the moon every night. She had been sure that on the night she changed it hadn’t been a full moon. All the stories she had ever read the creatures always changed on the full moon, why hadn’t she? She wasn’t frightful of the moon or what she had become; it simply was another form that she would have to learn to control and use. Just like when she learned to dance. Her body was an instrument that she had to learn to control and make it obey her wishes when she wished, for as long as was required, this was no different.