A Long way. part 4
#2 of A Long way.
Here you go.
Dusk was awake, but barely. It's that state of mind when you're awake but you aren't quite aware of that fact until something breaks it. In this case the breaking factor was Aelric. Aelric rose and started stoking the fire, sighing heavily. Dusk stirred, shifting slightly and pulling Scott closer before asking;
"Aelric?" Aelric started at this, looking disapprovingly at Dusk.
"Do you ever sleep?" He growled. Dusk smiled in return.
"Never mind that. I need to ask you something." Aelric turned away, turning his attention back to the fire.
"Ask if you must." He sighed. Dusk shifted over slightly.
"Did you mean what you said yesterday?" He asked.
"I said many things, you'll have to be more specific." Aelric grunted
"Well firstly, when you accepted Scott. Did you mean it? Only I never expected such a response and I'm begining to fear it was too good to be true." Dusk enquired. At this, Aelric sighed heavily and stopped what he was doing, turning towards Dusk.
"I understand why you might think that. You know I've always had difficulties trusting people, especially humans." He moved closer now. "But I promise I meant it. At first I had my doubts but..." He looked at Scott sleeping and smiled. "I got to know him, much as you once did. And now...I like him, I even trust him." Dusk seemed happy with this answer.
"And the other thing?" Dusk urged.
"The things I said last night?" Dusk nodded.
"Never have been so sincere, it just feels right. After all, I've accepted him as family now so this affects me almost as much as it does you." He turned back to fire.
"What time is it?" Dusk asked. Changing the subject.
"Time to get up." Dusk seemed shocked at this.
"Already?"
"Well not really." Aelric chuckled. "You can let Scott sleep a little longer but I wouldn't bother trying to get back to sleep. We've got a busy morning ahead."
"Why?" Dusk tilted his head.
"Well I need to go visit some human friends, they can contact the rest of the pack and call a meeting." He stood up now. "I would want you to come, but someone needs to stay with Scott. And seeing as I'll be gone for a few days we need to make sure you've got enough peat, food ,water etcetera."
"A few days?" Dusk exclaimed. "How far are you going exactly?"
"Fort William." He moved over to the table and began packing a bag for himself. "I know it's not that far but I'll have to take the long route to avoid the busy roads and when I get closer I'll have to travel at night."
"Fine. But is it really necessary to call together a meeting so soon?" Dusk pleaded. "He's been through a lot lately and a clan meet of wolves might be too much for him."
"I know but..." He paused, looking at Scott who stirred in his sleep. "I've been thinking. About Scott, about the attack on his home. Something seems amiss. The sooner we establish some kind of communication the better."
Dusk sighed in acceptance.
_"Anyway. You should wake him up now." _Dusk nodded.
"Scott?" He lifted Scott off him and shook him gently.
"Scott?" Scott stirred now, moaning and trying to crawl back into Dusks warmth. Causing Dusk to smile evilly. He braced himself before pushing Scott off the couch and onto the wooden floor laughing uncontrollably.
"Ow!..." Scott yelled. "What was that for you bastard?" He threw a worn cushion at Dusk, missing. Causing Dusk to luagh even more.
"Easy with that Scott." He tried to get his laughter under control. "I was just playing."
Scott chose that moment to lunge forward and sieze Dusk by the paw and hauling back, futiley trying to pull Dusk off the couch. Causing Dusk to luagh again, louder.
"You weigh a tonne!" Scott complained, giving up and breaking into a mischevious grin. "You must be getting fat." Dusk growled at that, Scott expected that response but knew it was in good humour. What he didn't expect was for Dusk to pounce on top of him and pin him to the ground. In fact it was so surprising that he didn't have time to properly react, only let out a startled yelp before he was well and truly pinned. Now he could only look up at Dusk, who was now smiling and giigling again.
"Let me up" Scott complained.
"I will...When you take that back." Dusk said with a knowing smile.
"You know bloody well I was joking!" Scott answered "Now let me up!"
"I know you were joking...But I want to hear you say it."
Scott sighed. "Fine, you're not fat. Okay? Now let me up."
Dusk smiled again and let Scott up, but not before planting a huge lick on his face.
"Aw 'ciss man!" Scotted complained, wiping his face and pushing himself to his feet.
"If you two are quite done faffing about." Aelric broke in. The pair turned and looked at him as he stepped forward and crossed his arms. "We have some work to do...Dusk, have you explained yet?" Dusk simply shook his head before turning to Scott again.
"Aelric's going away for a few days. He needs to call together a clan meet." He explained.
"Why? I thought you said that you didn't meet often."
"That's true but we need to discuss you." Dusk continued.
"Me?...Why?" Scott was worried, a clan meet of werewolves wasn't a very pleasing prospect.
"And Dusk." Aelric interjected. "He's been missing for two years without contact. It's important that they all know about him. And as for you...Well, dusk tells me your whole family is gone. Yes?"
Scott nodded. "My father died a long time ago, and Dusk says my mother is dead. I don't have any other living relatives."
Aelric nodded sadly. "Well we can't send you away if you've got nowhere to go. All the more reason that the clan should know about you." He walked over to the fire and knelt down. "The two of you will stay here, I've already told Dusk that I'll be a few days, maybe more. Anyway, before I go we should make sure you have everything you need."
"What would you have us do?" Dusk asked.
"I need you to help me bring in some more peat." He then gestured at Scott. "And I need you to look through the cupboards and make sure we have enough of everything." He pointed towards a table where a note pad rested.
"I take log of everything that I can get from our contacts, as well as what I can get up here. I just need you to go through the list of Items and make sure you know where everything is. Okay?"
"Alright." Scott moved over and started reading. And Dusk followed Aelric outside.
.................................................................................................................
Several hours later, after Aelric had said his goodbyes and left. Scott lay on the couch breathing heavily. Dusk luaghed as he sat down next to him.
"Glad that's over hey?" He laughed rubbing Scotts head with his paw. Scott groaned and nodded.
"I'm fine with the logs. But when he asked me to help with the peat and water-"
"'The stream's nearby' he said." Dusk finished for him. "Nearby? It was halflway down the bloody mountain." He sighed. "Still, at least we don't have to worry about food and water for a while." Scott nodded at this. And for a while the two sat in silence.
"Dusk?"
"Mm?"
"Can I ask you some more questions?"
"Go ahead."
"Well...what are you exactly?" Dusk look confused at this, so Scott continued. "I mean, you said you were werewolves or something. But how? You can transform your physical shape from that of a dog to..." He gestured at Dusk "This!...It just doesn't seem possible."
Dusk sighed at this. "I'm sorry to say that really can't answer that. Quite frankly, we don't know any more about it than you." He leaned back._ "We've been around for a very long time, at least as long as humans. But we've never understood how we could do the things we could."_
"You really don't know?" Scott inquired.
"Really...I'm sure one day science will yield some answers for us. They're just beyond us right now."
"And religion?"
"Religion?...ha, we have no love for modern religion, just it has no love for us. It labels us as demons and evil entities." Dusk was angered by this, but Scott knew he was angry at the world. Not at him. "Ironically ,the only religions that have ever accepted my people are those modern society now views as the most primitive. Particulary tribal peoples. North America, ancient Europe and Afric-"
"Africa?...Surely there aren't werewolves in Africa." Dusk laughed at Scotts protest, reaching over and rubbing his head again.
"No there aren't. But not all of my people are 'werewolves'. We've adapted." _He paused for a second before continuing. _"Think of dogs, or canids in particular. Every dog, no matter how different it may be from another type is still the same species. A wolf is the same species as a Jackal and etcetera." Scott started nodding as Dusk explained. "In Africa, my kind resemble other canids. Jackals, African hunting dogs and Ethiopian wolves. Do you see?"
"yes, I see now." Scott answered, now sitting up. "So what DO you know about your kind?"
"Apart from what I've already told you?" Dusk sighed. "Well, we're pretty numorous. But nowhere near as much so as humanity. We all have at least two forms-"
"At least?" Scott interupted.
"I'll get to that. We can also transform humans to be like us, and no. I don't know how that's possible."
"You can transform humans? How? A bite or-"
"It's not that simple. In fact here's where it get's really complicated." Scott scooted over so he was facing Dusk directly.
"Well firstly, it's not as simple as a bite. Or else you'd have transformed by now." Scott nodded at this. "It's actually a very long and painful process. I'll spare you the details. Secondly, when I mentioned that we all had 'at least' two forms, I was reffering to those of us who used to be human. They have a third human form."
"Do you...?" Scott asked slightly embarassed.
"No, Aelric and I were born into this life. But I'm told that our grandmother was human." Scott stayed quiet fr a while after this. Trying to build up the courage to say what he wanted.
"Dusk?...Do you think it'd be possible if...if I-" Dusk cut him off.
"I know what you're going to ask Scott. And all I can say is that it's your decision to make, but do not make it lightly. You shouldn't abandon your humanity just because of a string of unfortunate events. If you become one of us then your life will become MUCH harder. You'll even have the hunters to worry about." Scott was embarassed, and slightly ashamed. He knew he thinking too rashly, Dusk was right.
"Wait...Who are these 'hunters' you keep mentioning?" Dusk was gratefull for the change in subject, as the former upset him just as much as it did Scott.
"Simply put, the hunters are humans who know about us and don't like us. They vary from bigoted hoodlums to global associations. The one's we encountered were little more than resourseful hooligans."
"Is the world really so hateful towards your kind?" Scott whispered.
"Well yes and no, of the population of humanity very few know about us. of that some are against our existence and some are protective of us." He reached over and pulled Scott closer "The United Kingdom is pretty good to us, Militairy intelligence has an entire branch deticated to wiping out the hunters globally."
"How many of the upper tiers know about you?" Scott asked, leaning against Dusk.
"Quite a few actually; Most of the Royal family, The Prime and Deputy Prime Ministers. The upper tiers of several goverment departments. Scottish parliment and the Highland council included." Dusk continued. "And they've mostly been of great benefit to us."
"But they haven't managed to eliminate the hunters." Scott sighed.
"Not yet, but it's hard to eliminate an entire organisation without someone noticing. Some of these hunters also have access to weapons and other equipment."
"Where do they get it from?" Scott asked.
"All over. The Americas, The middle east. The remnants of the terrorist cells in Ireland. Even eastern Europe."
"But it is pretty safe for your kind here?"
"Pretty much. Overall it's the more developed countries that we thrive in. Western Europe, The mediteranian, Canada, Scandinavia and Australasia."
"What about the US?" Scott interupted.
"Things in the US are getting better, but they're still pretty bad. It's a pretty young country and it seems to more focused on external affairs than inernal." Dusk explained. "But anyway, that's enough questions for today. We'd better get some sleep."
Scott nodded at this and yawning, he allowed Dusk to push him into a lying position . Dusk started to lie down himself but paused, thinking about what Aelric had said.
Sieze the day. He thought. No time like the present.
Without pausing to think he leaned downwards and kissed Scott on the lips, Scott eyes shot open at this unexpected occurance. He moaned, but otherwise didn't resist. Dusk stopped the kiss and lay down, pulling Scott against him.
"Goodnight Scott." He said. And waited for an answer.
None came.
_ _