Chapter 14: Some Humans Things are good
I love chips.
At first when Ian offered me the ‘bag’ I tried tearing off a piece but it exploded and we had to stop to clean the transport. Ian laughed but I took grandfathers advice and appreciated it rather than getting mad about it. The next ‘bag’ he gave me he took time in showing me how to open. It is tricky my human paws and I are not working together yet as we should but I manage without throwing too much of the nice ‘chips’ away.
I love ‘mountain dew’ too.
It’s like water but it makes bubbles in your mouth the way water does in your coat when you swim across a lake. Of course my first try was a failure and as I did what Ian showed me there were too many bubbles and it came out my nose and I couldn’t breathe, Ian had to hit me hard on the back to help me. But it’s okay as long as you take small ‘sips’. It also makes you need to make water often so don’t drink too much of it.
I fill up a lot of memory caves in that transport this way. Words, chips, mountain dew, and other transports, human den’s or ‘homes’ as Ian refers to them are all things I want to remember to show my wolf pack when I return. Ian says I can have as much chips as I want and I plan on bringing them some soon.
The transport is not very big and I get very sore from sitting still so long in this body. As a wolf I could stand watch for hours without moving. Allison must feel the same she is constantly moving in her place. Michael scans my surface thoughts to keep an eye on me and when next I feel him doing it I focus on him.
“Please grandfather.” I send. “I need to run.” I show him images of muscles in pain and needing to be stretched.
I startle him and he makes the transport stop. It is night again and there are no other transports around. When we move again he sends to be patient only a little while longer. He looks curious and confused. He keeps looking at Ian and me, in the little ‘mirror’ like a captured piece of lake you use to see yourself and others near you. I wonder what he is thinking.
Michael takes us to a place called a ‘park’. It looks just like the woods back home and I feel exhilarated. The earphone thing becomes many smaller things when I yank it off and hand it to Ian. He simply sighs and says to himself this time. “Chill, just chill.” Then he throws the ting in the back of the Jeep shows me I can climb out.
The first time I tried to climb out was very scary. The Jeep’s flanks would not open. I had a feeling it wanted us to stay in its stomach. Ian says Jeep is not an animal but I’m not so sure about that. It roars, travels, grumbles and chokes. It even has very bright eyes at night. I don’t raise my doubts with Ian.
To keep Grandfather from seeing me missing my real pack and the other things LongFang and Ian told me not to share with anyone I have started putting all of it in a cave deep in my mind that has a Perseus shield around it. Like a bubble I keep that stuff to myself in private as LongFang had said sometimes private is necessary.
The ‘park’ is beautiful and big and a blessing. We change and run. It doesn’t matter where too just as long as the wind is in my fur and the ground beneath my paws I am happy. The night passes too quickly for my liking and all too soon we are back in the transport Jeep. I think I’m starting to get a hold of this alphabet thing I can say most of the things the lady says although some of my words don’t sound exactly right. Thoughts are so much faster to use to communicate. I have to think about each of the words before I say them. Thanks to the ‘laptop’ memory each word has a picture with it now too.
Michael said last night that we are getting close to the ‘airport’. He showed me what he meant and it all makes me dizzy and scared. Humans have transport birds. I don’t want to climb into a transport birds belly but Michael says I don’t have a choice and everything will be okay. If he trusts the birds then maybe I can too, the transport Jeep hasn’t been too bad so far.
From where we were I could see human places in the distance. I asked Ian about homes again before we curled up for the night under the stars. “Humans live in small family packs. Usually the mother, father and children all live in a small den together.” He explains pointing at a ‘town’ full of odd dens with light not coming from the sun shining out of them. “Each of those is a different little pack.”
“Why do they live that way isn’t it a waste of space?” I asked.
He chuckled. “True but much is different out here in the world with the humans and you will need to learn and accept their ways if you ever want to blend in.”
I’m not interested in ever blending in with the humans but I don’t tell Ian.
“Where do they go when they grow old?” I wonder thinking about my new grandfather. I do not wish for him to go off on his own yet I had only just met him.
Ian and Allison gets a laugh out of my though. “There is a very big difference between the wolf pack grandfathers, human grandfathers and Werewolf grandfathers Jessie.” Michael says pushing Ian aside to come and sit next to me. “I will be around for many more seasons.” He assures me. “Another thing you should know is that Humans don’t follow pack law.”
This startles me. How can they survive if they not only live in very small packs but ignore pack law as well. Pack law keeps the pack safe and well fed.
“Unfortunately my boy the human world is far removed from pack ways. Some Humans and many other creatures cannot be trusted. They lie, steal and murder.” Michael is disgusted by these behaviours.
I know about stealing. We had a couple of lone wolf’s that did not hunt well try and steal some of our kills. LongFang and the hunters chased them away from our territory. I wonder about the lying unsure what he means exactly. I lower my head thinking about murder. I murdered Jenny. I am not ashamed about what I had done LongFang had supported me but I did not want Michael to be disgusted by me.
“It is not the same Jessie.” Michael immediately reassures me. “Murder is when you take the live of another without just cause. What you did was defend your Alpha from a vicious and spiteful attack. It is justifiable and any of us would have done the same in your position.”
I am glad my grandfather Alpha and LongFang agrees on this. He touches my nose with his and sends me a dream of a good hunt. I slept very well that night.