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Chapter Two

The Den

Warm, damp, and heavy, that's what I felt like when I awoke; I also felt dizzy. My head stopped spinning for a moment giving me a chance to take in my surroundings.

It was dark but what I couldn't see I could hear, and smell, not to mention feel. The closest sounds, were the snores of three sleeping figures. Two of which had me firmly pressed between themselves, one holding me in his lap the other laying his torso in my own lap, his head lolled against my chest.

Massive and covered in thick coarse fur by the feel of things. Both of those who had me between them were furry every inch of their wolf-spliced man bodies, covered completely in fur. Thankfully they were also clothed in thick leather pants and open vests. The third wolf man figure was leaned against the right shoulder of the one who held me.

Testing the are I was able to pick out individual scents. The one lolled against my chest who was also right under my nose smelled spicy like pine or cedar, very woodsy. They all smelled woodsy I realized but it seemed to vary from one wolf to the next.

Not far from where I lay pinned by three sweltering wolves, the sound of scrapping filled the air. Mixed with this was the crackling of a fire; the sizzle of roasting flesh teased my eardrums and belly but I couldn't move much where I was. The smell of mouth-watering dreams just beyond my grasp tortured my stomach, which had been deprived of good wholesome protein for many weeks now (sorry salted pork just doesn't cut it)

Detecting something else my ears picked up low conversation, near inaudible, I strained only to barely make out what was being said as it progressed in what I believed to be the direction of a fire.

"I know I thought they stuck to the lower regions too, but here he is, hunting in his man form no less. You don't suppose he's new to this do you?"

With a shiver, I recognized the voice of the wolf who'd killed the buck I'd stalked. The features that I'd only glimpsed for forty two seconds blurred in my minds eye mingled with fear. Then another voice spoke. It sounded ruff and grizzled, grinding my mental pictures to nothing.

"Can't be sure till he wakes up. But he does seem a little experienced with not leaving physical traces." Pausing as if to select the proper words the second one continued speaking in his rocky tones "You stalked him, you saw the trail, not a single print. The stalker wolf responded with a grunt of acknowledgement. "That's not easily done," continued the second wolf,

"I know that," said the stalker.

The second speaker sighed as if he had no more points to make. The sound of scraping dominated the sounds while the stalker puzzled over what had been said. Coming to his conclusion he sat and asked. "But why'd he run?" Sitting down as well the second speaker thought for a moment and then asked "Did you make like you were gonna hurt him?"

The stalker wolf laughed, and then said, "No I told him the buck was partly his, I was friendly, didn't charge him or nothing."

A sigh from the second speaker followed by saying "well that looks like your problem right there,"

The stalker started to say, "what?" but got cut off by the second speaker, "you were too friendly; should of kept your distance and let him be for a bit, he might not of panicked then."

(I myself disagree and think that even if he had turned and left I still would have panicked and gone racing home hysterically but that's just me.)

"Oh," said the stalker wolf, realization dawning on him seeming to end the conversation.

What more needed saying?

The stalker wolf had made a beginners mistake and his senior, pack brother had given him a correction.

Curiosity soon birthed another line of discussion. "But, why would a werefox come onto clearly marked werewolf territory," the stalker paused then trying to come up with a point that would give his question merit... I think.

Finding the point he thought would be a good one, he continued on with his line of thought, "I mean what if I couldn't tell the difference between a human and a were-brother in his man skin?" The wolf paused again unsure if he was being brushed off or not,

The other wolf who must of appeared not to be paying attention asked, "What is it you're saying Will?"

Sounding perplexed the stalker wolf who'd been called Will gave an unwitting "Huh?

the second wolf sighed. "There you go again saying half of a thought and not finishing it."

A whine of embarrassment, followed Will's being called out on his absentmindedness.

"from what I gather, said the unamed second wolf, "you're wondering what werefox in his right mind, would come on our turf when there are clearly young stupid puppies around who might not know the difference between friends, and food yet; is that what you're trying to say?"

The wolf called Will, (insults aside) seemed to agree. "Yeah that."

Re-situating himself on the ground the second wolf grunted and then said "Guess you can ask him when he wakes.

I felt vexingly uncomfortable with the idea of being asked stuff when I woke. It's true I had no sure way of knowing if the wolves would kill me or not, but from what I'd overheard I got the idea that these wolves thought I was some kind of fox and kin to them. That was a comforting thought...

On the one hand, I could pose as a fox thing and make my escape.

On the other hand, they could get pissed, and come and kill me... And my family! When they learned that I'd tricked them who knows what they'd do. From the sound of things when they did learn the truth, there'd be no stopping them from making me into food. Like the second speaker had said?

Weighing my options I decided to put the family first. I'd tell them the truth and they'd do whatever they felt like with me. It did not look like I had very good odds either way. Even if they did let me go, I still didn't have the much needed food that I'd endangered my life by following the stupid trail here in the first place. If I did escape, what likelihood was there that I'd catch anything once I got off of wolf turf. All that there was to be had, had already been had. And what ever remained probably wouldn't see us through the heart of winter. Either way I threw the dice, the odds were staked against me. My family would die either way; it was just a matter of whether we went as food or skeletons. While I brewed in dark repose I think the heat of the compression between the three wolf men, and the rhythmic scraping of the deer hide lulled me to sleep again.

...Some couple hours later...

I'm not sure how much time passed. Heck, I'm not even sure how much time had passed the first time I woke since falling in the river. All I can do for now is speculate, that it was more than a few hours. I awoke again, this time lying in a bed of warm fur.

A particularly warm pelt behind me had an arm over my left side. whichever one of them lay behind me was Pressing with the flat of their palm of a paw like hand and forearm, against my now clothed chest.

The wolf pushed me up against his much larger furry chest. I think what woke me had to have been the slobbery tongue of the wolf man as he lay behind me caressing the back of my neck with the slick leather that would hang from any dog like creatures mouth. It felt strangely... soothing.

I don't know why, and as I became aware of how things were going the soothed feeling disappeared, to be replaced by unease and tension.

The body of the werewolf who had me in his care picked up on my change in state of consciousness almost instantaneously; resulting in a low grunt from deep in his chest more like a vibrating growl, that summoned the others.

I'm certain we've all done it at least once, feigning to be asleep. Whether or not we've been successful at fooling others into believing us to be asleep or not is a different matter. For me in this particular case my portrayal turned out to be a complete failure. The phrases like "He's awake!" and "Don't go charging up to him like that Will!" uttered in low whispers that were surprisingly audible because of there raspy delivery floated through the air. Hovering ever closer to where I lay caged by the arm of the slobber monger who had me at his mercy.

The sound of foot steps on the stone floor of the cave drawing nearer seemed for all there softness to be all the more menacing. I remembered something my father had told me, how dogs, (and wolves especially) could smell fear. He'd told me they could smell it and had a tendency to prey upon it.

Trying for the life of me to stifle the fear running up my spine, it caused me to shiver. Certainty of failure plagued me until... The warm breath of the wolf behind me cascaded over my head. He let it out in a great big sigh in my hair, which helped tremendously. Relaxing or trying to I prepared to face my doom.

A warm paw on my shoulder shook me to see if I really was conscious, "Hey you awake little fox." Pinching my eyes tighter I pushed away murmuring "Five more minutes." Burrowing deeper into the warmth of the great big wolf man behind me as I did so.

The paw like hand patted my cheek roughly. "Come on, faker, you don't have to play dead we're all friends here." cautiously opening an eye just a bit I surveyed what there was to be seen, a wolf man crouched on his hind legs in front of the shelf like recession in the cave wall that I lay in. The shelf looked to have been dug out for a bed or at least some one had turned it into one. Two others stood looking from behind the one who crouched in front of me.

The gruff sounding one, in a human form looked as rough as he spoke. Sporting a full beard of black hair with more covering a fair amount of his chest that the brown leather vest he wore left exposed stood too the right. Arms like cannons folded over his chest, giving him an imposing look. A stocky build only added to his coarse appearance, and while shorter than the wolfman next to him by several heads, he radiated size in the promise of how easily he could kill if he wanted to.

The wolf man to the gruff ones right could only be the Stalker wolf who's name was Will.

Will still as he'd appeared when he changed before me stood two heads taller than the gruff man, his coat was a solid grey that border lined on the color of cold steel, and his build as a wolf was by far not near as impressive as his elder. Lacking in all but his shoulders, other than those he seemed kind of thin but, still it was a lean kind of thin.

The wolf in front of me who crouched in front of the other two so he could be on my level wore as it had been referred to his human skin. His was a slight build with brown hair. He had a calm smooth look about himself, accented with the ghosting of Carmel facial hair about his chin. Everyone's eyes where of the same color. yellow like gold. Even so, closer examination revealed different shades with each wolf, but to the generic eye it looked yellow. The one in front of me reached out his hand perfectly human if a bit hairy on the back and with nails that needed clipping. he placed it on my head, rubbing my greasy mud brown hair about. "Come on little fox you can open your eyes we're not that ugly."

A roar of laughter erupted behind the man "speak for yourself Marlow" bellowed the gruff one.

I flinched, the explosion of the gruff wolfs guffaws, chilling my body. I found myself scooting underneath the wolf man who held me, I'm not very big so such a feet was quite possible for me. The wolf man lifted himself out of my way letting me get behind him.

"Jagger, knock it off you're scarring the crap out of him." The wolf called Marlow said turning to the rough looking wolf over his shoulder.

"Sorry." The gruff man said stifling his laughter and coming up to the empty spot next Marlow, I looked out from behind the wolf man who it turns out looked more like a bear. the feel of his stumpy waging tail brushing against me, bringing comfort.

Stifling my shaking I looked at the gruff one from this safer view. The name Jagger fit the stocky wolf perfectly, rough and jagged not soft looking at all or so I thought. He surprised me then with his smile. Jagger's entire face seemed to lose all of it's menace and his eyes, they were gentle even if his nature wasn't.

"Sorry little one." He backed off then taking the stalker wolf called Will by the scruff of the neck and dragging him back away from me too.

Will had been advancing to Marlow's other side effectively boxing me in. He gave a yip when Jagger seized his scruff and began towing him away. Protesting at being dragged he reached with his hands to get control of his neck fur again, shouting. "Hey, let go!" He let out a barked whine when Jagger smacked him over the head releasing him,

"Didn't you hear me earlier? said Jagger. You crowd em' and they freak." turning then to me he gave that soft smile and then hardened it off as he turned his gaze on the other man saying "Come on Marlow give him some room," when the man called Marlow looked reluctant to Jagger took as step towards him. "Come on, back off, he's not ready for this yet." Marlow stood up, following Will who'd been sent away whining, towards a bend in the cave from which a fire light could be seen.

I watched them go. Thinking that maybe I should of handled this differently. The bear whose name I hadn't heard sat up then and looked at me hiding behind his back. His fur, a hazelnut color also had a sheen to it that the others had lacked. Stocky build was his too in way of barrel sized arms and legs that seemed like several sets of the containers had been stacked beside each other. His chest could more effectively be described as a red wood stump. he'd been well endowed with his build but so also was he favored by height. Come to think of it he was huge a giant among men guarantied and the largest were-creature I'd seen today. Sense would of said be afraid and run, but I felt safe around him for some reason. Turning his boulder sized head on an angle and giving a small whine-like growl, he reached down and scooping me back up he pulled me into a sitting position next to him.

I didn't squirm or resist him, his whole appearance told me that I was the equivelent of a rag dall in his hands and if he wanted he could do whatever he pleased with me. Normally that kind of knowing would have left me in fear, but with this bear the absolute certainty of where I stood with him made me relax and let strong hands secure me.

I watched him reach over for one of the blankets. The were bear picked it up in his right hand and situated it about my shoulders before putting his own arm around me too. I leaned into his furry body, the soft warmth comforting.

Comforting that is until Jagger came over and plopped down next to me. I moved closer still towards the were bear, as Jagger crossed his legs, looking at me thoughtfully. I didn't much care for his scrutiny but, with the huge bear pinning me to his side, there could be no escaping.

I sat there, edgily shifting under that heavy withering stair. finally it softened, Jagger's face relaxing into that Gentle smile, that I was already coming to love. "So, you got enough room now that the puppy and other dog are gone." I nodded, saying "Yes... and thanks." I did feel less crowded now that there were fewer wolves around.

"Hey no problem little guy," looking up at the bear then Jagger patted the arm that lay over me holding me in place. Instantly the giant bear man lifted it off, letting me go he rearranged himself so he sat with his back leaning against the shelf's side wall. The relocation put him farther away from me by about five feet. It left me feeling vulnerable him being that far from me now.

Extending his massive legs straight out he moved them about me one massive calf ending in a large foot on my left and right. Jagger's smile grew Broadening into a grin,

"Jason really likes you" said Jagger giving the big bears great foot paw pads a shove from one of his own legs. the bear man reached down with his mitt sized hands and slid me back to him lifting me from under the armpits and then sitting me on his lap leaning me against his tank of a chest. Hooking his right hand and forearm under my arms and over my gut getting me snug against himself immediately I felt safe and then... '

"DON'T BE AFRAID LITTLE ONE. NO ONE WILL HURT YOU WHILE I PROTECT YOU MY BROTHER."' I felt weird what had been said it happened in my mind that was all I could think of to describe it.

Jagger put up a hand and said "Easy Jason he's not used to that kind of talk." looking up at Jason who held me and then over to Jagger I made to ask, What happened but before I could speak Jagger broke in saying, "Sorry about that, I should of warned you, Jason he... well he's more bear than man so he has a tendency to talk with his mind."

Jason leaned down and breathed on my head again before looking up at Jagger 'IT DIDN'T HURT HIM,'

Jagger shook his head "No but I don't want our friend here getting freaked out, again."

I felt confusion behind me followed by 'WHY SHOULD HE BE AFRAID OF MY VOICE, IT'S COMFORTED HIM SO FAR.'

Jagger rubbed a hand in his beard and then nodded his surrender to the truth of the fact. "All right Jason but don't get to vocal with him all right."