{"sf1_id":851827,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Love and Lycanthropy - Chapter 15","author":"JakeXtraTall","words":10847,"posted_at":"2015-04-24T01:03:00.000Z","tags":["Human","Plot Development","Werewolf"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/851827-love-and-lycanthropy-chapter-15","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/851827","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=851827\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"We made our way slowly along the highway leading into town,\nweaving through the unusually large amount of traffic heading in the\nsame direction.  It was just nearing the end of the lunch hour and\nwe were hoping to go inside and eat in a restaurant somewhere.\n There wasn't much of anything left in the fridge and the wolves\nhadn't had a chance to hunt for a while now so we were all getting\nhungry.We\nwere heading into the city of Nazas, Durango.  The entire\nmunicipality had a population of over 12,000 people, but it seemed like\nat least that many more people had come from all around to visit the\ncity and more were still heading in off the highway, including us.\n There were a lot more people on the road than we'd seen before\nout here and the closer we got to the town, the more\npeople we ran into.  There were campers and RVs and tents strewn\naround in open fields outside\nthe town and as we went in, we saw crowds of people milling\naround who seemed to be preparing for some sort of event.\n There must be a major festival happening today.  If it seemed like it\nmight be fun we may choose to stay and enjoy it.Elias,\nCole and Grace had been in wolf form for only a very short ten\nminutes or so this morning just before the sunrise.  It had been\ntwo weeks since our hunting adventure under the full moon in Nevada and\nnow it was the first of\nthe three night period centered around the new moon, when my three\nwerewolves would be stuck in human form even through the night.\n Since they wouldn't be changing into\nwolves at all for the next few nights, it would be safe for us to camp\nright among all of the other people crowded around the town so we could\nstay and enjoy the festivities, whatever they were all about.The\ntrip from Nevada through Arizona and into Mexico had been absolutely\nfantastic so far,\nand from a trouble point of view it was blessedly uneventful.\n We stayed in Nevada a few more days to enjoy the magnificent Spring\nMountains range before hitting the road again.  We stopped briefly\non the outskirts of Las Vegas to refill the propane tank and to flush out\nthe waste of the RV and top up its water tank, and to stock up the fridge again with food.\n We then hit the highway heading into Arizona.  It would normally take\nus only seven or eight hours of driving to reach Tucson, but we were in\nno hurry.  We'd enjoyed the camping in Nevada so much that we\ndecided to look for camping spots in Arizona to check out along the way.\n We found a couple and stayed the night, and by the time we reached Tucson we'd blown\nanother few days enjoying our leisurely camping vacation.When\nwe'd finally arrived in Tucson my first stop was the post office box\nrental location.  I showed the man at the counter the electronic\nreceipt I had for the rental and gave him the pass code and he turned\nover the key.  I nervously opened the box and inside I found a\nsealed manila envelope stuffed with documents.  Our new identities\nhad been delivered on time and were waiting for us as promised. \n Also as promised, I was not disappointed in any\nway.  Quite the opposite.  I was completely thrilled.  I\nhad no idea how amazingly\nadvanced these criminals had become and I understood completely now why\nthe cost had been so astronomically high.Grace and I each had\nan\nofficial driver's license from New Mexico now.  There were social\nsecurity cards and birth certificates.  We all had passports\nthat not only didn't look suspiciously new, they looked like we'd had\nthem for years.  Inside they even had stamps from various family\ntrips we'd taken up into Canada and down into Mexico.  My passport\nand Grace's also had a couple of extra stamps from when I must have\ntaken the 'wife' on romantic trips to London and Paris.  We must\nhave left the brats behind because Elias and Cole's passports didn't\nhave those stamps.  It all looked amazingly convincing as though\nwe'd been just a regular American family for many years.  The\nquality\nof the documentation was absolutely perfect.  I briefly wondered\nhow the hell they were able to achieve all of this.  Perhaps they\nsomehow resurrected a dead family or something.  That way the only\nreal hack they'd need to do is wipe out the 'death', and they could\nleverage the family's existing birth certificates and social security\nnumbers.Another\nsurprise was a\ncredit card with my new name on it.  There was also a passbook and\na debit card from an account at a bank located in Las Cruces, New\nMexico, where our family apparently lived.  There was a note\nincluded that apologized for the delay and explained that an extra\nbonus had been added by way of a partial refund to make up for it, but\nthat I was still expected to forward the final third of the money I\nowed them or my new identity might suddenly pop up on the FBI most\nwanted list.  I flipped the envelope over and looked closely at\nthe post mark and saw that it had just been processed the day before\nyesterday.  It had taken them a a few extra days to get it ready,\nbut it was certainly no issue for us since we were late getting here\nanyhow.  The note also had the\npin codes so that I could access the accounts online or by telephone.\n It was all real.  I contacted the bank and verified the\naccount and had them change my passcode.  They told me my balance\nwas currently one thousand dollars.  That must be the partial\nrefund they'd referred to.  I also called the 800 number\non the credit card to check my balance and there was no money owed and\nI had a twenty thousand dollar limit on the card.I was\nabsolutely blown away.  The ridiculously high price I'd paid for\nthe service was clearly well worth it.  These people were\nconsummate professionals.  I wasted no time\nforwarding the rest of the money I owed for the identification and sent\nan email to the anonymous person I'd dealt with to let them know I\nwas\nthrilled with the result and any further business I might need in\nfuture would go straight to them.I\nwas so pleased with the new identification that I decided to put it to\nthe test right away and splurge a bit.  We\nshopped around at a few RV lots and got ourselves a brand new, top of\nthe line, forty-two foot Fleetwood Providence motorhome that ran on an\nefficient and powerful diesel engine.  It was incredibly big and\ncomfortable.  Grace tried to convince me that it was way too\nexpensive but I argued that it would likely be our home from now on and\nit might need to be able to take us all the way up to Alaska and then\nback down to Mexico again.  We needed something\nreally comfortable that would provide us with a movable home that\nwould allow us to relocate anywhere and then set ourselves up in a\nspace big enough that we wouldn't go crazy.  Besides, we would be\nliving extremely cheaply from now on with our only real costs being\nfuel and food, and if I became a werewolf and we hunted for our food as\nmuch as possible even the food part of the equation wouldn't amount to\nmuch.  I had enough money to likely last us\ndecades even if we weren't very careful with it.  If we were\ncareful, after the splurge on the RV that is, our costs would be so low\nthat we could likely live off the interest of the remaining money\nindefinitely, once I get around to reinvesting it all under my new\nname.  I might never even have to take on any coding work or\nanything if I didn't want to, but it was always an option if money ever\nbecame an issue.I\nheaded back out onto the highway driving the new RV with Cole in the\npassenger seat, and Grace and Elias followed\nme in the old one.  We drove until we found a sufficiently remote\nlocation to dump\nit.  It was still unregistered and I had no title for it so there\nwas no way to dispose of it properly.  I was afraid that even a\nwrecking yard would need to check the registration and have me turn\nover the title before destroying the vehicle.\n We simply drove it far off road into the desert and parked it\nbehind a large rocky crag surrounded by big saguaro cacti and thick\nshrubs.  I covered it in gasoline inside and out and lit it on\nfire for good measure after removing the stolen plates from it.  I\nlaughed as Elias started making fake trumpet sounds through his lips\nand played 'Taps' while he and Cole solemnly saluted the death of our\ntemporary home, then I hustled them off around the crag back to our new\nRV so we could get the hell out before the fire reached the propane\ntank.  I\ndisposed of the stolen plates in a dumpster back in the city and then\nwe restocked\nand headed back out onto the highway to find our next camping location\nso we could spend a few nights getting used to the new home before we\ncrossed the border into Mexico.Compared to\nour crappy old '79 Diplomat we were now living in the lap of luxury.\n The Fleetwood was so huge there was plenty of room for the wolves\nto lay around on the floor if they wanted to, but we also had lots of comfortable seating and bed space too,\nso we'd no longer need to spend the night on the floor.  Multiple\nsections on both sides of the massive vehicle expanded out while parked to create a\nspace the size of a small house, so we would never feel crowded.  It had cost as much as a small\nhouse, too.  I'd converted all the bitcoins I would need to pay for\nthe vehicle into cash in my\nbank account and then did a wire transfer to the dealer so it was paid\nin full.\n I had no problem getting registration or insurance so our\ndocumentation passed the test.  We were now so far removed from\nour old identities that there was absolutely no way the spooks would\never be able to track us down again.  We were driving in a\ncompletely legit vehicle with our completely legit licenses and insurance so we\ndidn't even need to stress about the possibility of being stopped for any reason.We\nwere now Alexandros and Margo Christopoulos with our two boys Stephanos\nand Nicholas.  Apparently I must have come from Greek ancestry.\n Cole thought it was a hoot and he kept calling us by our full\nnames every chance he got for the first while.  Even while we were\nsimply eating at the table he'd say things like, \"Pass the salt,\nAlexandros Christopoulos\" or \"Could I get the peas, Stephanos\nChristopoulos?\"  We all laughed and indulged him for a while by\ncalling each other by our full names too, but eventually we tired of\nthe game and settled into calling ourselves Alex, Margo, Steve and Nick.\n It was just easier.  Really, for the most part we stuck to\nour real names when we were not in public.  It didn't feel right\ncalling each other anything else and it would only ever really matter\nif we were talking to an official who was checking our identification.Our\nnew documentation meant we didn't need to try to sneak across the\nborder or anything.  We could just drive on through like anyone\nelse.  With our previous few years of stamps in our passports\nshowing prior visits to Mexico, the border official didn't even bat\nan eye when we said we were taking our annual family vacation.  We\npurchased our tourist cards and passed on through without incident.\n From that point forward we'd made our way slowly through Mexico,\nexploring a bit as we went and stopping wherever was convenient for the\nnight to sleep in comfort in our new motorhome.By\nnow we were not quite\nhalf way along our trip through Mexico to reach the Yucatan peninsula,\nbut we were still in no real rush.  We'd made our escape cleanly\nand it would be completely smooth sailing from here on out.\n We were just a regular American family on vacation and we\nintended\nto play the part to the fullest by taking our time and enjoying\nourselves along the way.Grace and the boys would have three full nights through the new moon phase without\nchanging into wolves, so there was no way we could get into any trouble from the change\nnow and we didn't need to hide ourselves away.  We could stick around and be among people for a few days\nwithout any concern.  If the festival continued for a while we\nmight just stick around for all of it.The\nstreets of the town were quite crowded with foot traffic, so after\ncarefully trying to thread through it all with the massive RV and\nbecoming more and more frustrated, I\ndecided to let the others off and head back out of town to find a place\nto park it nearby.  Grace said she would take the boys to get\nsomething to eat and we could meet around the town square later on.\n I told her I would park the RV, then I'd get my own lunch and\nmaybe do some grocery shopping to\nreload the motorhome before I made my way back to them.  They\nshould have\nplenty of time to look around and check out the sights of the old town\nand I'd meet\nup with them later in the afternoon.  They dressed as lightly as\nthey could since they'd be wandering in the heat all day and they got\nout and\nheaded in towards the center of town while I drove back out to see if\nthere were any spaces still available in the field full of campers we'd\npassed on the way in.A\nlocal farmer had been\nrenting out space on his land for the influx of people to use.\n Most of them looked liked they'd camped overnight already and I\nwas the only new arrival pulling in.  All the other traffic we'd\nseen on the way in had been mostly cars, trucks and mini-vans.  We\nmust have arrived late for whatever\nwas going on and it must be happening today.The farmer didn't\nspeak English and I have no real\ngrasp of Spanish and I didn't have anyone around to translate, which\nwas normally Grace's job, but I managed to work out that I could have a\nspot for the night for three hundred and fifty pesos.  The price\nseemed a bit high for a patch of dirt with no utilities but I wasn't\nabout to try to argue with someone I couldn't communicate with\nproperly.  Everyone needs to earn a living and I couldn't begrudge\nhim the chance to make a quick buck off a gringo.  It wasn't much\nmore than twenty bucks so it was no big deal.  I paid him and\nparked the\nRV, and then I got dressed in the lightest shorts and shirt I had along\nwith my comfortable hiking boots and\nI walked back into town.I\nwas fairly hungry so the first thing I\nattended to was eating.  I love Mexican food so I'd been quite\nenjoying any chance we had to stop and eat authentic meals along the\nway.  I found a table outside at a small restaurant and\nordered enchiladas and a cerveza.  There were patchy clouds in the\nsky that occasionally blocked the sun so it was not overly hot for a\nchange and I was comfortable on the veranda.  I looked around at\nthe crowds of people milling around and over at another small\nrestaurant down the street and an open market on the other side, but I\nsaw no sign of Grace or\nthe boys.  They'd probably eaten already and had gone off to check\nout the rest of the town. It was a fairly large place and extremely\ncrowded right now so I probably wouldn't see them until I located the\ntown square where we'd agreed to meet up later.After enjoying\nmy meal I\nwalked past the open market until I\nfound a small grocery store and I stocked up on the things we would\nneed to replenish the RV.  I ended up with several bags full of\nfood and I\nregretted not waiting until I had Grace and the boys with me to help\ncarry it all, but I made it back to the motorhome and stowed it all\naway.I headed back into town on foot again with the intent of\ntracking down the family.  The sky seemed to be darkening a fair bit\nand I looked up to see a fair few clouds scudding around.  A large\none was blocking the sun and it looked fairly dark grey.  If the\nclouds continued to organize it might end up raining on whatever parade\nwas being planned.  I realized I still didn't know what festival\nwas being celebrated and thought I'd snoop around in the shops in town\nand hopefully find someone who could speak English who could tell me about it.I\nwent into a few shops that sold curios and locally made crafts and\nsuch, browsing at what was on hand.  In the last shop I entered I\nnoticed a few people purchasing what looked like empty cardboard\nshoeboxes and then hustling outside.  I realized I'd seen a few\nother people out in the street who'd had something similar.  I\nwondered if it had something to do with the festival.\n After a moment I realized the shop had nearly cleared out.\n The proprietor kept looking over at me anxiously almost as if he\nwas hoping I'd be gone soon too.  I figured I may as well get going and try to find Grace and the boys.I\nglanced out the shop window and saw that the sky was darkening more and\nmore outside and I realized it must be getting ready to unleash a\ndeluge out there.  There might be a severe storm brewing and I\nshould probably get to the town square to find the others so\nwe could run back to the RV to get inside before it hits.  Nobody\nseemed to be rushing around or anything and there didn't appear to be a\nwind building yet so there should still be a bit of time.  I was\ncurious to find out what exactly this festival was all about, so before\nleaving I decided I should at least talk to the shop owner to see if he\nspoke English.I walked over to him and he smiled as I approached and I said,\n\"Looks like there's gonna be a real bad storm out there.  I hope\nit doesn't ruin your festival.  Was there gonna be a parade or something?\"He suddenly looked a bit puzzled and simply asked, \"Qué?\"I realized he must not understand me and I just smiled and said, \"Sorry, I was hoping you spoke English.\"I turned to leave the shop and he said, \"Will you not buy one, señor?\"I turned back to face him and he was holding up one of the cardboard boxes some of the other people had bought.\"I thought you didn't speak English,\" I said while I walked back to the counter.\"I\ndo, señor, some.  There is no festival.  El pueblo está\naquí...\" he shook his head, \"The people are here, umm, para verelek\nlips.\"He kept reverting to Spanish and it sounded like he was talking about verelek lips, whatever the hell those were.\n If it wasn't a festival then why were so many people gathering\nhere?  He was still holding up the cardboard box and looking at me\nexpectantly so I asked, \"What is that?  What's it for?\"\"To see safe,\" he said as he held the box down near his waist and bent over to look into it.\"To see safe?  What's in it?  What do you see?\" I asked, puzzled.He shook his head, \"Not in it, señor.  Up there.  El sol.\"He\npointed up at the ceiling and then held the box out in front of himself\nagain, but made a point of angling it up towards the ceiling.  He\npointed at the end of the box where there was a tiny hole and sort of\ndrew a line up towards the ceiling and then mimed looking into the box\nagain and enjoying whatever he was seeing.  I realized he was\ntalking about looking through the\nbox at the sun.\"It will be fantástico, señor, espléndido.\n You do not want to miss it.  It will be over six\nminutes long!  You cannot look safely without this, señor.\n Only two hundred pesos!\"I suddenly understood what he must\nbe trying to tell me and a bad feeling came over me.  Was that why so many\npeople were out and about?\"Are you saying there's going to be an eclipse?\" I asked, starting to feel fear rising as I wondered about the implications.\"Si, señor, many come to see the eclipse, ver el eclipse, like I say before.  Our town is at\nthe center of it,\" he continued, \"It will be one of the longest in a century and you can only see all of it right here!\"That was why so many\npeople had gathered here!  We'd been on the road for so long, we\nhadn't been paying attention to anything that was going on in the\noutside world for weeks.  I had no idea it was coming.  What the fuck\nwould happen to Grace and the boys?  Would it affect them?\n Could it?  Maybe it was only a partial eclipse.\"Will it be a partial eclipse or total?\"\"Total,\nseñor,\" the man said excitedly, \"Think of it, the sun is high in the\nsky but suddenly for six minutes there will be nothing in the sky but\nthe moon!  It\nwill be as dark as night time in the middle of the day!\"My heart nearly stopped as I thought of what it might mean.\"Please, señor, it is almost time.  See how dark it is already?  In\nminutes the sun will disappear completely.  I must close the shop\nso I can see it for myself.  It is a once in a lifetime chance and\nI do not wish to miss it.\"He held the box out to me to try to\nmake one last sale of his overpriced cardboard viewer, but I simply\nturned and ran out onto the street.As\nsoon as I got outside I looked up at the sky.  I'd been wrong, it\nwasn't getting cloudier at all.  The clouds had mostly burned off\nso the people could finally get a good view of the event.  The\ndarkness was simply due to the moon nearing perfect alignment in front\nof the sun.Panic rose in me as I saw the\nthrongs of people in front of me, most holding cardboard boxes up and\npeering into them as they tracked the progress of the moon slowly\neating away at the sun.  I wasn't completely sure which way the\ntown square was, but it was not going to be easy to muscle my way\nthrough this many people.  I wasn't sure if Grace and the boys\nwere there, either.  I hoped to God they weren't.  Hopefully\nthey'd also found out what was about to happen and they'd found a place\nto hide away from everyone else.  I wasn't sure about Grace and\nCole, but Elias was sure to realize the possible implications of a\ntotal eclipse and would know he needed to get them someplace safe just\nin case, but only if he knew it was coming.  It had been cloudy\nand people wouldn't have been looking into their boxes yet until the\nclouds finally parted, so there was a chance they had no clue what was\ngoing on yet.  Even if they did find\nout, if they'd done it as late as I did, they might still be trying to\nforce their way through the huge crowds of people who'd gathered in the\nstreets to observe the event.I began to try to make my way\ntowards what\nI figured might be the center of town as I thought about it more.\n With any luck it would all amount to nothing.  Even though\nit was an eclipse, the sun and moon were sort of both still in the sky\nat the same time.  It was still really just a new moon, so they\nprobably wouldn't change.  Elias had\nonce told me that the change had nothing to do with actual moonlight.\n If it did he wouldn't change if he simply stayed indoors with the\ncurtains drawn.\n Clouds had no effect either.  The light wouldn't matter in\nthis case anyhow since moonlight is simply the reflection of the light\nfrom the sun coming from the opposite side of the Earth at night.\n In this case the sun would tuck itself behind the moon so here\nwould be no moonlight whatsoever.  In fact, thinking of it that\nway, there was really no such thing as 'moonlight'.  It was simply\nsunlight that happened to be reflected off the surface of the moon.\n There had to be something else at play.I'd never really\ntried to reason out what the catalyst for the change would be exactly,\nbut I thought hard about it now as I continued to try to pry my way through\nthe crowds of people.  It was obvious that the sun and the moon\nwere both actively involved and it seemed as if the sun was the\noverriding factor.  As long as the sun was up, even if the moon\nwas too, like today, there was no change.  If the moon was not up\nand the sun went down, there would be no change.  Only if the moon\nwas up and the sun was down would they change into wolves.  That\nmeant the moon caused the change, but the sun shut it down.  The\nfact that it depended on the rise and set of both over the horizon meant that the Earth\nwas a factor too.  It must somehow block the effects of both the\nmoon and the sun if it came between them and the werewolves.  Elias had said he'd\neven gone deep into a storm sewer one time and yet he'd still changed.\n He would have been underground then, so the moonlight couldn't\npossibly reach him.  It didn't really make sense to him that he\nstill changed under those conditions.The only way I could reason it was to imagine some\nsort of unknown 'field' of force that emanated from both the sun and the\nmoon like negative and positive charges or opposite poles of a magnet.\n The Earth must act like an insulator to both of them.\n Maybe going into the sewer did not give sufficient insulation\nfrom the moon's field to prevent the change.  That's how electric\nand magnetic fields work, so why not these other fields?  Even an effective\ninsulator had to be a certain thickness before it could fully block an\nelectric field.  It might take miles of earth to block the moon's field\ncompletely.  If that was the case, if it was some sort of unknown\nfield, then it followed that when the sun tucked in behind the moon and was obliterated by it,\nthe moon would completely absorb and block the sun's field, but\ncontinue to project its own field down to us.  The moon would\nreally be the only thing in the sky!  They would change into\nwolves!  They might not even know it was about to happen!Panic\nbegan to truly set in and I started to push harder against the mob to\ntry to get through as I hopped up and down to try to see over their heads and desperately began to shout at the top of my\nlungs, \"Grace!  Elias!  Cole!  Run!  You're gonna\nchange!  You have to get out of town!\"My mind reeled as I\nthought of what might be about to happen.  They could be right in\nthe middle of this huge crowd of people!  They would start to\nchange and in just shy of a couple of minutes they would be at the\nfinal stage of rage and confusion and they would be surrounded by a throng of\nstrangers crowding in on them.  There was no doubt the raging\nwolves would attack.  Christ!\"Grace!  Elias!\n Cole!  Can you hear me?!  Run!  The sun's about to\ndisappear!  It will only be the moon!\"The\neclipse would\nlast six whole minutes according to the shop keeper.  If that\nwas the case, any who were bitten by my family and survived would begin\nto turn, and\nin less than a couple of minutes they'd be up and biting others!  There were\nso many people out here!  There had to be tens of thousands\ncrowding the streets and all around the town center!  The whole\ncycle could repeat up to three more\ntimes at least!  I did some quick math and realized if my three\nwolves bit only one other person each, and each of them bit one other,\nby the last cycle there would be\nnearly a hundred people turning and each of them might bite another to\ncreate more!  There might be hundreds of werewolves produced!  Holy Jesus!  I had to find them!I\nsuddenly heard my name somewhere off to my right.  \"Jake!\"\n It sounded like Elias.  He sounded far away but at least I\nhad a bearing to follow now.  I turned and began to push harder.\"Jake!\"  That was Grace.  \"They have Cole!  They're here!  They took him!  Where are you?  Help!\"What\nthe hell?  What was she talking about?  Who took him?\n Could it be the spooks?  How the hell could they find us?My\nheart was hammering against the walls of my chest and just\nas I was about to shout their names again, the whole crowd around me\ngasped.  The darkness was almost complete but there was a strange\nflash and I looked up at the sun.  It was an inky black circle\nwith a\nbrilliant ring of light surrounding it and there was an intensely\nbright flash of light at one end.  I quickly looked down again to\nprevent any possible damage to my eyes.  I knew what it was I'd\nseen.  It was the diamond ring effect that occurs a second or two\nbefore totality.  We were out of time. Suddenly\nthe world was plunged into total darkness.  It was pitch black\nnight, though\nstreetlights had already begun to light all around us.  There were\n\"oohs\" and \"aahs\" all around me as I desperately tried to force my\nway through the throng.  It was too late though.  If anything\nwas\ngoing to happen it had already started.Suddenly I heard the\nsound of laughter off in the\ndistance in the direction that Grace and Elias's voices had come from.\n People started cheering and shouting and whistling and hooting.\n Every once in a while I heard the words \"desnudo\" and \"loco\", but\nI realized what they were laughing about when I heard an English\nspeaking person shout, \"Holy shit!  They're naked!  Check out\nthat woman!  Fuckin' hot!\"Shit!  I knew what it must\nmean.  They must have been hit by the first spasm from the change\nand they knew it was too late to get away from the crowd.  They\nwere peeling their clothes off to protect themselves!\"Grace, Elias, I'm coming!\" I shouted as I began to push at the people in earnest.What\na fucking shit show!  Grace and Elias were going to be in a rage\nin moments in the middle of a crowd of people.  Where the hell was\nCole?  Who had him?  I needed to get to them!I pushed really hard now and knocked a couple of people over in my desperate rush to get to my family.  The\ncrowd was becoming angry at me and several began to push back.\n One irate man punched me in the face and another pushed at my\nchest hard and I stumbled back and fell on my ass.As I struggled to get back up I\nheard a loud scream, then another.  Somewhere in the direction the\nlaughter had come from earlier it sounded like there were now a number of people\nyelling and panicking.  They must be trying to push against the crushing\ncrowd to get away from the horrific transformation that was happening\nright at their feet!My heart wanted to burst from my chest as\nI finally managed to get up and I began to try even more desperately to make my way\nin the direction of the commotion, but now the crowd further in near the transforming werewolves was\npushing hard against the rest, and a lot of the people between us were pushing back in\nanger again like they'd done to me earlier, not understanding that they\nwere keeping those people from escaping the danger.I\nwished I\ncould speak Spanish to try to get these people to start running, but\nthere were so many of them, and nobody seemed to realize yet just how\nmuch\ndanger they were in.  I couldn't fight the crowd so I did the only\nthing I could, I jumped up and climbed onto the top of them like a mosh\npit.  There were shouts of anger as my\nhiking boots came down on people's heads and shoulders as I tried to\nget further in.  Someone grabbed at my ankle to pull me down so I\ngrabbed on to the large branch of a tree just over my head and managed\nto wrap my arms around it and pull myself up before the people I was\nusing as stepping stones could knock me\nback to the ground again.  From the tree I swung over and put my\nfeet on a low metal railing surrounding an outdoor veranda, and I\nbalanced\non it and then grabbed onto an awning that hung over the veranda to\nstop from\nfalling off the railing.  Now I could follow the railing and make\nmy way through the crowd more quickly.I\nheard snarls of rage and screams of both pain and abject terror coming\nfrom up ahead and\nthen all hell broke loose and I could hear shouts of warning and alarm,\nand I could see heads popping up out of the crowd ahead as other people\ntried to do just as I had and climb on top of the crowd that was\nblocking their way in a desperate attempt to get away from the vicious\nbeasts that were suddenly among them.My worst fears were being realized.  The wolves were near the end of the change and they were in\na rage at the crowd of strangers surrounding them.  There was truly nothing I could do to stop it now.The\npeople around me started looking around in confusion and shouting\nthings at each other in Spanish that must amount to \"what the hell is going on?\"They\nstill weren't trying to get away, but they needed to start moving, now!\n I heard more screams of pain and panic and suddenly, far up\nahead, I thought I caught a flash of white fur briefly, but then it\nwent around the corner behind a building.  If the wolves were in a\ntrue rage they wouldn't even think to stick together.  They\nwouldn't think at all.  They'd be\npanicked and fighting their way through to try to get away from the\nstrangers, biting and clawing all the way, off in two different\ndirections, spreading the infection far and wide.  Fuck!  I\nsuddenly\nrealized my estimate of each wolf infecting one other person was more\nthan a little optimistic.  There might be thousands of wolves when\nthis was all over if this crowd didn't disperse in a hurry.\"Run,\nyou idiots!  Get out of here!\" I shouted down at the throng while\nwaving my arms to try to direct them away from where the wolves were.\n A few of them must understand English because here and there\npeople looked up at me, tried to look back to where the commotion had\nbeen happening, then turned and began to push hard in the direction I'd\nindicated to try to get to safety.  More people started to catch\non that something was seriously wrong and there was a more organized\neffort as the crowd started to move away from the shouting, but still\nfar too slowly.I tried to walk carefully along the railing while using the\nawning off to the side to keep myself upright and I managed to get a lot closer to the\nsource of the commotion.  It had quieted down considerably, then I\nheard more shouts from a few different locations further away.\n The wolves must have made their way further out in the crowd, but\nthey definitely weren't together anymore.  How the fuck would I\nfind them when all of this was over?Suddenly I heard several new\nscreams back near the center where it had all began.  Shortly\nafterward there were more growls and snarls of rage and many more\npeople started yelling.  Now there was a concerted push and I\ncould see the crowd of people starting to force their way outward against the bigger crowd at the fringes in an\neffort to get away from the mayhem.  This must be round two!  Those who'd\nbeen bitten but had survived started to change, and now they'd reached\nthe raging almost-wolf stage.  I suddenly realized I was in just\nas much danger as the rest of these people if I didn't get the hell\nout.  None of these new wolves knew me and they wouldn't hesitate\nto tear into me if I got in their way.Finally the crowd this far\nback began to realize they were truly in danger.  There was a\nconstant tumult of screams and snarls and people yelling for help and\nshouting warnings, all coming from the direction of the center of town.\n The crowd started to all turn and push to get further away and\nthere was complete and utter panic as a stampede began to build.  I saw\nolder people and children begin to fall over from the crush of people\npushing to try to run to safety.  Others stopped to try to help\nthem and were knocked over themselves and trampled as more and more\npeople began to desperately scramble and fight their way in the same direction, running for their lives.Suddenly\na couple of\nmassive wolves appeared amidst the crush of people, biting and snarling\nand slashing at anyone in their way as they forced their way into the\ncrowd.  I could see them tearing at people and grabbing them and\nflinging them aside as they fought to get through the mass of people.\n The crowd screamed as they realized what was happening and that the\nthreat was now right here among them, and they desperately tried to get\naway from the immediate threat as the wolves continued their rampage\ninto the heart of the throng, and then through it, to disappear\ninto the night.There\nwere\nwounded people everywhere and suddenly the stampede began to break down\nand people slowed to a stop and began milling about as they realized the\nthreat was gone.\n It was like they thought it was all over, now that the gigantic\nwolves had passed through.  They had survived.  They weren't\nabout to keep going in the direction the gigantic beasts had gone, so\nthey didn't seem to know what to do next.  Families grabbed each\nother and held on.  People were shouting the names of loved ones\nthey couldn't locate.  Many wept while others tried to console\nthem.My\nheart sank as I saw dozens of\nwounded people who'd been bitten by the rampaging wolves begin to\nsquirm and spasm on the ground.  Many of the people still down\nthere began to rush towards the wounded people to try to help them.\n More and more crowded in to see what they could do.\"Get away from\nthem!\" I shouted, \"Leave them alone!  Get out!  Run!\"Most\nof them ignored me as they continued to try to help the injured, who\nwere now beginning to thrash around hard.  Others heard my shouts\nbut simply looked around to see if I'd spotted the wolves making a\ncomeback or something, but when they saw no immediate threat they did\nnothing.  Before long several of\nthose crowded around the convulsing people began to gasp and yell out in shock, then they\nbegan to back away as they looked on in horror at what was\nhappening to those who were writhing on the ground.In\nmoments we\nwere into round three.  My stomach dropped away as I looked around\nat how many of them there were.  There must be close to twenty\ngoing through the change in the streets right near me, and there must\nbe that\nmany more on every side all around the epicenter.  Some were\nwearing clothes that would not split apart easily and I nearly felt\nsick as\nI saw their bodies begin to expand inside them.  They were\nchanging into gigantic wolves, but the leather boots and heavy chain\nnecklaces and steel-banded watches and thick leather belts\nwere not all giving way, and the results were horrific in some cases.\n I tried not\nto look.  The problems the unyielding clothes created were at\ntheir extremities so they wouldn't die, but the pain would be\nunbearable when they came back to themselves inside the wolf bodies.\n Luckily they would only have to endure it until the end of the\neclipse, and we had to be no more than a minute or to away by now.\n They should be\ncompletely healed when they changed back to human form when the sun\ncame back out.  There might not even be any time for this last\nbatch to become themselves inside the wolves before the sun emerged and\ntriggered the change in the opposite direction, so they would be spared\never being conscious of the pain.Those who were changing around me were near the\nfinal stage and I suddenly realized I was still just standing here, perched on the railing and\nwatching it all.  I'd forgotten to run.  There were still too\nmany people around and I was afraid of getting caught in\nanother stampede, so I made my way back along the railing and jumped\nback onto the large tree and climbed as high as I could go to put myself out of\nsight of the new set of wolves who were just now starting to snap and\nsnarl and chase after the remainder of the crowd that had started screaming in stark terror and was trying to get\naway.I just had to wait out the last minute or so of the total eclipse and then I could safely come back down.Now\nit was total pandemonium.  Massive near-wolves were\nrunning this way and that, attacking anything that moved.  People\nwere screaming even far away out past the edges of town by the sound of\nit.  My heart was racing and my thoughts turned back to Elias and\nGrace.\n Where were they now?  Hopefully they hadn't gone far before\nthey stopped to hide.  They should have no problem making their\nway back to town.  I should be able to find them no problem once\nthe tumult died down.\n I just needed to survive the next couple of minutes until the\neclipse ended, then I could get back together with them and we could get\nstarted trying to figure out where Cole was and how to get him back.I\nlooked up to try to see the sun.  It should\nbe over very soon.  I couldn't quite spot it through the trees and\nas I leaned out to try to get a look at it one of the massive wolves\nthat had leaped at its next victim smashed into the tree and my foot\nsuddenly slipped forward off\nthe branch I was standing on and I found myself falling.  I\nflailed my arms as the branch raked up my back and then struck the back\nof my head hard.  I heard a crunch and felt a blast of pain and my\nvision began to darken, but I was still going down.  I quickly\nreached out to try to grab onto the awning over the veranda just to my\nright in order to slow my fall, but all that did was cause me to spin\nslightly and suddenly I slammed backwards onto the metal railing I'd\nbeen standing on earlier.  Blinding pain lanced through me,\nshooting outward from my lower back to every corner of my body as I\nfinally came to an abrupt stop.I\nwas folded nearly in half, backwards,\nbalanced on top of the metal railing.  The crack to my head\nmust have been bad because I could feel myself fading fast.\n Thankfully, the pain was fading away just as fast as the world\nwas.The last thing I saw as I hung backwards helplessly on the\nrailing was a massive, slathering, upside down\nnear-wolf coming right at me, then there was a brief flash of sunlight\njust before the\nworld went black....When I came around I was in a haze\nof\npain.  I was staring up at a plain, off-white ceiling.  I\ntried to sit up, but even just the tiniest bit of effort sent bright\nlances of pain shooting through my body.  As I tried to focus and\nremember what had happened to me, I was at a loss at first, but as I\nstruggled more I began to remember some of it.  I'd fallen.\n One of the last batch of people who'd been changing was charging\nme.  Did they bite me?  They obviously hadn't killed me.\n I thought harder.  No, they couldn't have bitten me or I\nwouldn't be in all this pain.  I would have changed and would be\ncompletely healed now that I'm human again.  I\nsuddenly remembered the flash of light I saw just before I blacked out.\n It must have been the sun emerging from behind the moon that had\nkept the wolf from changing me.  It was yet another piece of bad\nfucking luck.I groaned from the throbbing pain that was wracking\nmy body, wishing the wolf had succeeded so I could be right as rain\ninstead of feeling like this.I tried to\nturn my head to look around to see where I was, but it seemed to be\nlocked in place and any effort to move it simply ramped up the pain in\nmy forehead and neck to unbearable levels, so I stopped trying.  I\nmoved my eyes as far as possible to the right and left and saw what\nlooked like steel rods on either side of my head.  I suddenly\nremembered the blow to the back of my head and the cracking sound I'd\nheard.  I must have hurt my neck.  I was in a brace of some\nsort.I\ngroaned and closed my eyes and went still and waited until the waves of\npain began\nto slow down a bit, then I tried to assess what might actually still be\nfunctioning correctly.  Every inch of me seemed to throb and pulse\nwith pain.  I knew I couldn't sit up and I knew I\ncouldn't turn my head so I wasn't about to try that again.  I\ntried bending my knees and wiggling my feet and toes, but nothing\nhappened.  There was no pain at all, but I couldn't feel anything\nmoving down there.  Then I suddenly realized I couldn't feel my\nlegs at all.\n Panic started to set in and I tried to sit up again while\nreaching down with both hands to grab at my legs.  My left arm did\nnot move but my right arm did.  Like before though, the pain that\nsuddenly shot through me as I attempted to sit up made me yell and\nnearly caused me to\nblack out.I fought a powerful wave of nausea that nearly made\nme\nvomit as I gritted my teeth and waited for the pain to begin to go down\nagain.  When it finally did I much more cautiously tried to lift\nmy right arm.  That was the only thing that seemed to be moving\nfreely right now.  My right shoulder ached but it felt like\nnothing more than a bad bruise.  My right arm hurt a bit but it\nfelt like it was more at the surface and not internal.  I was able\nto lift it up into my line of sight\nand I saw my forearm had been bandaged and my hand looked scraped and\nbruised, but other than that the arm\nseemed OK.  There was an IV line attached to it.  I reached\nup towards my face and found, as I'd\nsuspected, there was a complex metal brace constructed around my head\nwith a wide band that was pinned to my skull and attached to rods that\nwent down to my shoulders and were anchored there.  I must have\nbroken my neck.  Thankfully, it hadn't resulted in total\nparalysis, or I wouldn't be able to move my arm.I felt around a\nbit more with my right hand and I realized I had a large cast that\nseemed to go around my neck and completely covered my left shoulder,\nextending down over my left arm and covering it all the way to the\nwrist.  That\nwas why I couldn't move it.  I must have broken the clavicle on my\nleft side and probably a bone or two in my left\narm also, judging by the amount of pain emanating from there.  I\ncarefully wiggled my fingers on my left hand and I could feel them\nmoving around\nfreely.I\nkept exploring some more with my right hand and I found a very heavy\ncast that started at my rib cage and went down to completely cover my hips and continued\non down my legs for\nas far as I could reach.  Had I broken my back?  Was that why\nI couldn't feel my legs?  I remembered the final position I'd been in,\nhung backwards over the railing, and my heart sank.  That had to be it.Then\nI remembered my family and\npanic set in as the entire events of the eclipse replayed in my head in\nfast motion.  Where did I end up?  Where were Grace and\nElias?  Where was Cole?  They'd shouted something about him\nbeing taken!\"Grace?\nAre you there?  Elias?  Anyone?  Help!\" I shouted.\n The effort of shouting simply brought a fresh blast of pain that\nricocheted around to every corner of my body.  I felt bruised all\nover and my back was on fire.  My skull hurt from the pins of the\nneck brace, and my midsection felt like I'd been stabbed in the gut\nseveral times.There was movement to my right and someone said, \"Please, señor, cálmate.  Calm down.  You are badly hurt.\"A\ndark haired, concerned-looking woman moved into my sight.  She was\nwearing a white nurse's blouse and she began to fuss at the blankets on\nthe bed around me and then checked to ensure I hadn't knocked out the\nIV line.\"You must keep still, señor.  Do not move.  I will get el médico.  The doctor.  Please wait.\"She\nvanished and I heard the rapidly repeating squeaks of her shoes on the\nfloor begin to fade as she rushed off out of the room and down the hall.I\nwaited as my head began to clear a bit more and the pain started to\nincrease.  Whatever drugs they'd been giving me for the pain must\nbe wearing off.  I hoped they'd have another dose ready soon.\n It was all I could do to keep from throwing up the pain was so\nbad.Within\na few minutes I heard the sound of several feet coming down the hall\ntowards the room and shortly a dark haired man with a neatly\ntrimmed goatee and a friendly looking face came into view.\"I am doctor Castillo.  How do you feel, señor?\"I cleared my throat and spoke quietly this time, \"You\ntell me.  I can only feel about half of me, and that half feels\nlike shit run through a shit grinder, with more shit spread onto it,\nand the whole thing thrown at a shit-covered wall.\"The man chuckled but the laugh did not extend into his eyes.  He seemed concerned and serious.\"Please, tell me how bad it is,\" I said, wincing from the pain of speaking.\"It\nis not good, señor.  You live, that is the important thing, and\nyou are strong.\n Many did not survive the horror at Nazas.  There are\nhundreds of injured at hospitals all over Durango, but many did not\nmake it.\n As for you, your left arm is broken in several places.  It\nlooks as though one of those things had you by the arm and dragged you,\nperhaps threw you.  Your left shoulder was dislocated from the\ndragging and your clavicle bone on the left side was fractured.\n You suffered a cervical fracture too, but it did not sever the\nspinal cord in your neck, thank God, or you would be paralyzed from the\nneck down.\"\"I can't feel my legs,\" I said.The\ndoctor\nlooked more serious and he nodded and said, \"Yes, I'm afraid you also\nsuffered an injury to your lower back.  It looks as though you\nfell from a high place and landed on your back and there was a shearing\nforce just above the L4 vertebra in your spine.  You must have hit\nat a slight angle as your right hip was also broken.  I'm afraid\nthe\ninjury to your spine was very severe.  The cord was not completely\nsevered but\nit was badly lacerated and partially crushed.  The damage is\nenough that I'm afraid you may never walk again.\n There is a chance that it might heal sufficiently enough that you\nmight\nregain some feeling again, but I would say the chances are very slim.\n There is a great deal of swelling in the spinal column and we\nwill have to wait until it reduces somewhat before we can begin to\ndetermine if necrosis has set in in from the lack of sufficient blood\nflow to the nerve bundles.\n You went into surgery as quickly as you could be transported to\nthis\nhospital.  We were the nearest with the necessary specialist, but\nthe surgeon did not\nlike what he saw.  He did his best, but he told me to warn you\nthat you must brace yourself for the likelihood that your legs will\nnever work again.\"I groaned as the full impact of how badly I'd been hurt began to set in.The\ndoctor continued, \"You suffered a ruptured spleen and there was a large\nbite on your left side that punctured your skin and muscle at the back\nand did tremendous damage to your left kidney.  We had to remove\nit, but the one on the right is undamaged and functioning normally and\none is all you really need.  You also suffered other internal\ninjuries, but mostly blunt force so there is swelling and bruising, but\nno permanent damage.  You have a neck brace designed to keep your\nhead completely immobilized.  The injury should not take more than\nsix\nweeks to heal and we can then remove the brace.  It will\ntake more time to heal the broken clavicle.  Twelve weeks at\nleast.  We will be leaving the full lower body cast on for at\nleast that long as well.  You should get used to this bed, señor.\n You will be in it for quite some time.\"\"I have a family,\"\nI said, gasping for breath between fresh waves of pain, \"How can I find\nthem?  Has anyone come to see me?  How long have I been out?\"\"It's\nbeen two days, señor.  Nobody has come looking for you yet, but\nI'm sure they will in time.  No one was with you when you were found so\nit was assumed you were alone, or they were injured or killed.  It was\nchaos for some time after the\nevent and it took some time for our government to organize.  You\nhad identification on you.  Your name has been checked against the\nnames of all of the other injured who have been treated at various\nhospitals around the state, but no match was found.  Happily, I\ncan also say no match was found to any of those who were dead that have\nbeen identified.  Only a few were not identified yet, but they are\nall Mexicans as far as I know.\"I\nhadn't really expected Elias and Grace to be injured.  They had\nlikely managed to get out through\nthe crowd and out of the town before the first wave of the ones they'd\nchanged in their rage progressed through their change enough to start\ndoing damage.  Even if they had been injured, it would\nhave healed completely as soon as the sun emerged and they changed\nback to human form.  They must be looking for me.  The doctor\nindicated that the injured were distributed to multiple hospitals\nthroughout the state of Durango, probably to spread out the load.\n It might take them some time to find me, but they would\neventually show up.\"Where am I?\"\"You are in Hospital Mexico Americano, señor, in Guadalajara.\"\"What? You mean I'm not even in Durango anymore?\"He\nshook his head and said, \"You are in the state of Jalisco.  We\nwere the best hospital available to deal with the severity of your\ninjuries, señor.  You were transported here by helicopter.\"I\nsighed.  There would be no reason for Grace and Elias to check\nhospitals in Jalisco.  I suppose once they'd checked all of the\nones in Durango and I failed to turn up they'd start to check\nelsewhere, but there were many states in Mexico and it would take time for them to track me down.  Even\nonce they found me they would have to drive here to get me and that\nwould take more time.  I might be suffering alone for quite a while yet.\"Please, do not worry, your family will\nfind you.  I will ensure that your name is sent to all of the\nhospitals in Durango so if anyone asks for you, they will know you are\nhere.  You will see them soon, señor, I promise.\" \"Thank you, doctor,\" I said hoarsely, \"I appreciate all you're doing for me.\"A fresh wave of pain came over me and I winced and groaned.\"You\nhave been kept heavily sedated.  We reduced it so you could regain\nconsciousness.  We did not wish to keep you out too long.\n Soon you will need to try to eat, but for now you need rest.\n I will increase the morphine drip just a bit to ease your pain\nand help you to sleep.  You must rest some more.  It is all\nthat is important for now.  Give your body time to heal.\"Time\nto heal.  If Elias and Grace would hurry up and get here it would\ntake all of two minutes to heal every bit of the damage to my body.\n I would only have to hold out until the next change happened and\nElias could finally turn me.  If it had been two days since the\nevent, then tonight would be the last night without a change.\n Tomorrow night the werewolves would change for ten minutes or so\nright at sunset and the next cycle would begin with the changes lasting\nlonger and longer again until the next full moon.  With any luck\nGrace and Elias would get here before tomorrow night and my hospital\nstay would be over.I didn't even know for sure that they were\nactually looking for me right now.  Grace had shouted that Cole\nhad been taken.  What if the spooks had caught up to them, too?\n Maybe Grace and Elias had gone after Cole.  I half hoped\nthat was the case even if it would mean I wouldn't see them for a\nwhile.  If there was any chance to get him back, it would likely\nhave to happen right away before he could be taken far.  Maybe\nthey'd gone after him.  I could only pray that they'd succeed and\nthat they wouldn't get hurt in the process.  I wish there was some\nway I could help.What a mess we'd made.  So many people were bitten.  What\nhappened to all of the other werewolves that were produced during the\neclipse?  It suddenly occurred to me that they might not even know\nthat their nightmare was not yet over.  They would have been\nwolves so briefly that many wouldn't even remember what had happened to\nthem when they suddenly regained consciousness out there somewhere in a\nfield, naked, feeling better than they'd ever felt in their lives.\n They would have still been in the process of changing when the\nsun came out from behind the moon forcing them to suddenly change right\nback to humans so they'd have no clue what had happened.  Since it\nwas a new moon they would have been fine for the last couple of days\nand they wouldn't change again until tomorrow night.Oh my God.\n What if there are dozens of people at home with their families\nnow, happy that they had survived the ordeal of the eclipse, thinking\nit was all over?  They would have no idea while they're sitting\namong friends or family, or in a restaurant or a movie theater, that\nthey're ticking time bombs that would explode into a murderous rage the\nnext time the sun goes down and the moon comes up.  They won't be\nready for what's going to happen to them tomorrow night.I sighed\nheavily.  There was no point dwelling on it.  There was\nnothing I could do.  There was really nothing I could have done\nthen, either.  We had no way of knowing the mess we would create.\n We didn't know about the eclipse at all.  We didn't know to\nwatch out for that sort of problem.I felt guilty for what we'd\ncaused.  So many people hurt.  Many even died.  It\nwasn't even over yet.  How many dozens, or even hundreds of werewolves might there be out there who don't yet fully understand what's happened to them?  It's been days and most of them would have traveled into Nazas from all over, and by now would have headed back home.  Tomorrow night when the next change hits there could be raging wolves attacking everyone around them in multiple locations far and wide.  Possibly even in different countries.  There's no telling how far some might be willing to travel for the once in a lifetime chance to view a total eclipse.  They would have all caught their flights home by now.  The nightmare we'd precipitated could go on for quite some time yet.I couldn't really blame myself or my family\nthough.  We just didn't know.  It was an accident.\n Still, we would have to live with the knowledge of the grief we\ncaused forever.I felt helpless lying in this bed not able to do\nanything and not knowing the state of my family.  Now I truly\nregretted not becoming a werewolf sooner.  I'd been holding off so\nthat I could better handle any sort of contingency that might come up\nthat would need a human touch, but it hadn't occurred to me that there\nmight be complications that would require the ability to self regenerate.\n There was something to be said for going through a complete\nregrowth twice a day for most days of the month.  Once I was a\nwerewolf all of this pain would be over.I needed to get better\nfast so we could get started trying to track down Cole.  There had\nto be some way we could find him.  That was my biggest concern\nright now.  If I ever got my hands on whoever was responsible for my losing him, they would deeply regret it.  That goes double if I'm in wolf form when it happens.The doctor had moved out of my vision to my right and\nI heard some beeping as he adjusted the automated drip, and then\nsuddenly the pain seemed to rush away from me backwards along with all\nof my worries, while a warm and wonderful wave of ecstasy swept in to\nreplace it.  I moaned with pleasure and the doctor came back into\nview, smiling.\"Try not to get used to that feeling, señor.  Morphine is powerful stuff.  Rest.  I will return to check on you later.\"I\nsimply moaned again in response as I rode the wonderful cloud I was\nsuddenly floating on.  The lights in the room began to take on a\nkaleidescope pattern of amazing colors and shapes that were spinning\naround me.  I began to rotate with the shapes as I smiled and\nclosed my eyes and let them carry me away.Within moments I was\nonce again completely oblivious to all my pain and troubles.","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/851013-love-and-lycanthropy-chapter-14.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/852464-love-and-lycanthropy-chapter-16.json"}