Light of The Moon

Chapter 9

The daily lives of humans fascinated me more than anything.  Even though they acted just like us, they always had a smile on their faces.  There were little children running everywhere as well.  Adam stopped and smiled.

"I almost forgot about today," he said as we came across a small festival.  "It's the full moon festival!"  He took my hand and led me towards the stalls and the brightly lit town square.

"You celebrate the full moon?" I asked, and he nodded.

"The other villages find it weird, but we celebrate the full moon every month as a thank you to our founding fathers who made friends with the wolves when our village was first created," he explained, and I raised an eyebrow.

"Friends with wolves?" I asked, and he shrugged.

"Not your kind of wolves," he said.  "I mean regular wolves."  That made me think.

After all, we were the only kind of wolves in the area since the beginning of our pack centuries ago.  We hadn't seen a non werewolf cross our path since the humans started breeding them to be their companions.  The very idea felt off…  Adam tugged at my hand.

"Come on," he said.  "Let's go.  I have to show you my favorite part of the festival."  With that, he lead me to a small stage, where several more humans had gathered around.

The play that was performed was about a little girl who went into the woods alone to visit her grandmother.  While traveling, she met a giant wolf who distracted her and raced her to her grandmother's house, only to eat them both.  The play was rather vulgar for my taste, but that's not what upset me.  The entire time the wolf was delivering his lines, the entire crowd was booing and shouting at him.  When the part about the lumberjack came, I cringed in absolute horror as I watched the wolf play his brutal death.  It didn't stop there, though.  To make matters even worse, the lumberjack picked up the wolf and threw him off the stage, where several children began beating the "corpse" with sticks.  Beside me, Adam joined in the laughter, and I turned away from the scene.

"I'm tired," I told him calmly.  "Let's go already."  He placed a hand on my shoulder.

"But we'll miss the best part," he complained, and I turned to him, my eyes blazing.

"I want to go already," I hissed.  Nearby, a human smirked at us.

"Better do as she says, Adam," he laughed.  "Pretty thing like that will always find someone better than a silly little gardener if not pleased."  He turned to me.  "You ever decide you want a real man, come find me."  I rolled my eyes and pushed past them both, clutching my bag to my side.

"Wait up, Hanna," called Adam from behind me as I kept walking towards the woods where Robert was waiting.

I just wanted to go home and see my mother and father.  I had enough of these stupid humans to last me a lifetime, and this human no longer had my sympathy.

A rough hand grasped my wrist and whirled me around.  Instead of Adam, I saw a gruff human male, dressed similarly to the lumberjack from the play.  His grip was strong and crushing against my wrist, and he smelled like whiskey.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, his words slurred into a single word.  "It's awfully cold and dangerous to go wandering the woods by yourself at night.  Why don't you come back with me?  I'll keep you warm tonight…"  He lowered his head towards me as his free hand traveled up my side and towards my chest.  I pulled back, trying to escape his grasp.

"Let go," I hissed, and he laughed.

"You're a bit wild," he chuckled.  "Just the way I like them.  You'll make a fine addition to the w***e house…"  What happened next was absolutely horrifying.

There was a flash of teeth and fur just before the man dropped to the ground, blood spurting from his throat.  Robert stood in front of me, growling as he shifted to his human form, and I opened my mouth to yell for him to run, we were surrounded by humans, all holding either torches or some form of weapon.  They all stared between the body of the human and Robert's nakedness.  No one said a word…

"Monster!" called a female voice from the crowd.  More shouts filled the area as the humans closed in on us.  Without warning, I was grabbed from behind.

"Kill the beast!" the voice behind me shouted.  I turned in dismay and saw it was Adam holding me back.  I looked back at Robert, who stared at me as if he was awaiting a command.  My answer was as simple as the nod I gave:  go.

With a roar, he changed into a wolf and disappeared over the heads of the humans and into the dark forest beyond the angry crowd.  Several chased after him as others turned to me.

"She's a witch," one said.

"She bewitched Benjamin and tried to feed him to her wolf," insisted another.

"Kill the witch!" cried out yet another voice.  Finally, Adam spoke.

"She's not a witch," he shouted.  "She's a wolf person, like the other.  Her clan kidnapped myself and four other humans and killed them.  They forced me to lead them to our village to scout out and steal resources.  I led them here to prove to you my father was telling the truth that these monsters existed."  Every word was a fresh wound in my back, and I stared at him in shock.

"Kill the monster!" someone cried out.

"No," Adam said.  "We won't kill the monsters.  We shall tame them and make them our slaves.  They will protect us from other clans like them and tend to our fields.  No one will be able to stand against us again!"  Throughout the crowd rose a cheer, and Adam turned to me.  "I warned you."  With that, the world went black.