Fantasy Blackspring (Penumbra & Coreonysis)

[Coreonysis]

Into town?

It was one of the worst things she could have asked of him. The last time Entylin was in town, one of his best friends had been shot. It had been a particularly bad winter, and as a rule, the wolves only ever stole from the humans if they couldn't find anything to eat on their own. It had only come to that twice; the first time, everything had gone smoothly. The second, one of their number had died. The stench of despair and shame hung over Entylin for months.

And now, she asked him to enter town as his human form, and try to maintain his composure around so many people.

His humanity was fragile as it was, sitting in a comfortable house with a comfortable stranger. Being in a chaotic place, surrounded by who knows what and what knows who, could be catastrophic.

He couldn't even comprehend what would happen if he shifted in the middle of towns' square. He found himself not wanting to disappoint the girl more than anything. He still had to repay his debt, and if she saw him for what he was, he would not be able to do that. She would cast him out without a second thought, and then he could not go back to his pack. They would not let him return with a debt to a human.

And so Entylin only had one option, and that was to hope for the best.

"Sure. I'll go."

 

[marshmarrow]

Core nodded slightly in approval. "We'll watch your wound, if it hurts, we'll come back immediately." Her voice became clipped and distant, no longer the woeful twitter it was a mere thirty seconds ago. "I only need a few things," she added, noticing his discomfort, "but we should listen for any more news regarding the woods. Don't ask anyone directly what's happening - the town is fairly secretive towards strangers but they love to gossip. It shouldn't be too hard."

Her gaze softened, but the smile long disappeared from her lips. "It's hard for me too, sometimes," she admitted haltingly. "People say many things, Entylin. I'm sure they'll relish saying them to you. Believe what you want."

She then yawned, checking her watch. "You should rest," she told him, changing the subject. "I wake up early, but you can sleep for as long as you'd like. I make breakfast at nine." Standing up, she took their dishes from the table and the cookware off the stove and placed it all in the sink to be dealt with in the morning.

"I have a spare room next to the kitchen," she reassured him. "I've been using it as a library recently, for my books, but the bed is still in there," she admitted sheepishly.

 

[Coreonysis]

He blinked. That was the most Entylin had spoken in years, and she didn't seem at all perturbed. She didn't look at him like his was crazy, and she didn't seem to suspect anything odd about him. It was strange, having someone looking after him. He was used to the pack's support, but never something like this. Never a one-way deliverance of good will and respect.

He began to think about what was going on in the woods. It was interesting, that the town people were so worried. The forest wasn't their territory anyway; why were they so in love with the romanticism of it? He had heard stories of people entering the woods to run away together, but that was a dreadful idea. The forest was a dark and foreboding place if you didn't know where you were going.

The thought of people talking to him made him dizzy; they would most likely notice something odd about him right away, and instead of keeping it bottled up like the girl was, would directly accost him in public. It wouldn't be good for him; he could feel the panic setting in already. But he couldn't do much to prevent it.

Entylin hadn't noticed how tired he was, until she mentioned it. He supposed that a shot to the shoulder warranted him a good nap, even though he never rested for more than three hours at a time usually. He would often take guard of the pack while they slept, in order to help the alpha and his subordinate when they were tired. They were old, after all. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept as a human, however; he didn't even know if he knew how.

"Please wake me when you wake; I would hate to sleep later than my host." With that, Entylin left to explore the house, until he finally found the room she had told him about. The books scattered about made him sheepish; he had never learned to read, due to the fact that no one had thought to teach him. The look of the books, however, made the place feel homely. He crawled into the bed, and not knowing what to do, tried curling up into a ball.

With that, Entylin was promptly carried off into the realm of dreams.

 

[marshmarrow]

Once she had seen Entylin was comfortable, she changed into her night clothes and got into bed herself. The house was as silent as it is when she is alone, but having another person reside in it seemed to liven the air, enriching it.

As exhausted as she was, she laid awake, her mind full of questions about Entylin. He was quiet, but engaging. She was beginning to appreciate his presence, as she had not felt such ease with a man for ages. He was like a caged tiger; a graceful animal limited by what he couldn't control. His injury. His promise to her. She wondered where he came from, and how he had managed to get shot, and what he planned to do after he felt like he had returned her favor to him.

Cora rolled to her side, wondering, but telling herself it would all be revealed in time. She closed her eyes, letting the dizzying blackness swallow her. She dreamed of a yellow wolf she chased through the woods, and when she had cornered him, she held a rifle and shot him in his hazel left eye - the right a solid gold.

 

[Coreonysis]

The smell of food wafted over Entylin, waking him from a deep and peaceful slumber.

Wolves had no need of dreams; they were something created from randomly sparking synapses within the brain. Wolves sleep more alertly; their synapses have no need to craft random thoughts and experiences. So it was always weird to him, waking as a human in a completely different place than his mind had created.

Entylin had dreamed of the woods; running alongside his pack once again. And yet, when they reached a clearing, all of them shifted into human forms. Entylin cried with joy; his family wouldn't reject him if he changed. And yet in the dream, he found he could not change; his body remained strictly wolfish. And worse yet, as he looked to one of his dearest friends, he saw the last person he would expect.

Cora.

He knew she wasn't a wolf, and therefore the dream startled him. He was not close to her; they had just met. Yet he was dreaming she was one of his closest allies; it both comforted him and angered him at the same time.

He put the dream aside as the scent of breakfast grew ever more potent. He got out of the bed, his blonde hair sticking up at odd angles and his clothes rumpled from a night of rest. He padded his way through the house, his footsteps silent, as he made his way towards the kitchen.

There Cora stood, in her night clothes, standing at the stove. Entylin stood with his hands in his pockets and at a slight slouch, his side pressed against the door frame. His eyes were alert, yet his stance was mellow. His voice was calm as he said, "That smells excellent."

 

[marshmarrow]

Cora yawned, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she poked at the contents of the frying pan with a fork, eliciting a mouth-watering sizzle. She jumped as she heard Entylin's voice - for a moment she had forgotten about the stranger taking residence in her guest room. She hadn't heard him come into the kitchen, either.

"Omelets." She turned back to look at him and his bedhead, her face flushing as she realized she was still dressed in her pajamas. The night's events had taken their toll on her, she would have been up hours ago on any other day. She had not yet taken care of her animals, she had only collected the eggs from the coop. She had a guest to entertain, and it would not be ideal to eat breakfast in her muck clothes. She checked the clock on the wall. 9:13 AM.

"Is everything all right?" she asked, slightly annoyed now that half the morning was gone and she still had work to do. "If you're not slumped because you're in pain, you can get two plates from the cabinet above the left side of the sink," she instructed crisply, flipping a slice of bacon.

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin stood up a bit straighter, sort of self-conscious about how she had pointed out a slump. He turned toward the cabinet she had indicated, which was easily in his reach. He pulled down two plates, which weren't very fancy but were well made, and he set them next to her on the counter.

Omelets. Weren't those the things made with eggs? He wasn't very well versed on his food names, due to the fact that it wasn't every day he got a home-cooked meal. He noticed her check the clock, and did so as well. It wasn't late, but it certainly wasn't early either. Most of the farmers he had crossed paths with were up hours before the sun, just to start on the day's work.

"I can help out with the animals." He said, and he knew it was true. He would know exactly what they wanted or didn't want, and how hungry they were. It was instinct; he could tell when one of his brethren were worse off than him, and when that happened, he shared his portioning.

Animals were simple; it was easy to tell what they needed. Humans, on the other hand, were another story entirely.

The bacon on the stove smelled absolutely heavenly; he could have floated on the fumes had he been a bit lighter. He eagerly paced around the room, not noting that it probably wasn't the most human thing to do, and waited for the breakfast to be plated.

This woman's cooking was of the Gods.

 

[marshmarrow]

"You may come with me to the barn, but be careful. I'm running late this morning, they might be a little cross." She picked up a plate, scraping a hot omelet and two slices of thick bacon onto it, before arranging her own breakfast. She turned off the stove top, placing the dirty pans and utensils in the sink to be washed or arranged in the dishwasher later. She watched his eyes light up as he inhaled the salty and heart aroma of egg, cheese, and bacon.

"Salt and pepper is on the table. I'm not sure what you would like, so I only put a little bit of cheese in with the vegetables," she said, smirking as she gave him the warm plate.

"It's hot. Use silverware this time."

 

[Coreonysis]

Damn.

So that little fiasco had been noticed. Entylin was almost beyond caring at that point, due to the fact that such a godsend sat in front of him. He looked to her, searching for something unknown with her eyes. He then clumsily picked up the fork and the knife, and began to stab at the thing like it was some of his prey.

Once he was finally able to get a chunk of the egg-vegetable-heaven thing she called an omelet into his mouth, his eyes widened and his nostrils flared. So this is what he had been missing. While he was in the woods, eating scraps of dead animals and even the occasional plant matter, the people in the village had been dining like royalty.

It almost made him angry, thinking about his fellow wolves in the woods.

Well... If any of them were still alive.

She had been right; it was hot, and therefore he used his silverware for about half of the meal. Once it was tolerable to the touch, however, he relinquished the guise and began to eat with his hands. It felt so much better to feel the juices running down his body, knowing and understanding each and every flavor.

This was how food should be eaten.

It didn't take him long to finish after that; he wolfed down the rest of the omelet and the bacon as well, which tasted just as heavenly as it had smelled. He thought about licking his plate, but decided that would be going too far. He would wait for her to finish, and help her with whatever she needed. Once his debt was repaid... He would try to find his family and tell them what they had been missing.

 

[marshmarrow]

As he started eating with his hands, Cora pursed her lips, pushed her eyebrows together, and looked at him like he had just sneezed on her plate. When they finished, her slowly, him within minutes, she left the dishes to soak in the sink, without uttering a word.

She didn't like to be ignored or defied, and somehow, Entylin could do both and live. She decided that would be changed immediately.

"We both need to get dressed quickly. Put on what I gave you yesterday, and I have an extra pair of boots you can wear in the stable. First, I will shower," she informed him. "I expect you to be dressed by the time I get out."

She turned, walking out of the kitchen and heading to the upstairs. She pulled her stable clothes out of her bedroom dresser and folded them neatly on her bed, before grabbing her terrycloth robe and entering the upstairs bathroom, locking the door with a firm click.

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin made his was back through the house, toward the room he had claimed as his own. For some reason he couldn't quite place, he felt quite odd in the house. Like something was just a bit out of place, even considering he was a wolf in a human's clothing. It was just something about the atmosphere. Strained. Like some sort of bad event had taken place in that spot long ago.

He shivered, pulling on the clothes he had donned yesterday. He didn't mind much what he wore, considering he could just shed the clothes at the end of that day. That was the difference between clothing and his fur; he could get rid of his clothes, but his fur was there to stay.

Entylin didn't want to go to the barn without her, so once he finished getting his clothes on, he made his way to the kitchen where the plates had piled up in the sink. He didn't have much experience with washing dishes, but he turned on the hot water and picked up a sponge anyway.

By the time she was done, he would have a pile that was at least semi-clean.

 

[marshmarrow]

God, what was wrong with her? Cora thought this as she scrubbed vigorously, getting the blood out of her nails and the sweat out of her hair, knowing she would only take another shower after she was finished with her morning chores.

She had slept in, and the disturbances in her rigorous schedule had already put her on edge. Something was bothering her about Entylin - something more than his uncouth behavior or the fact she knew next to nothing about him - but she couldn't fathom what it could be.

It had been so long since she had a guest at her house. Was she really such a hermit the mere presence of him sickened her?

Turning off the faucet, Cora wrung her hair out and slipped on her robe after drying off, making her way into her bedroom. After dressing and brushing her teeth, she came into the kitchen holding two pairs of boots.

She eyed the neat stack of tableware and crockery. "You washed the dishes," she noted.

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin's hands were wrinkled, and he had been using cold water since the forest didn't have hot water and it put him on edge. Therefore, the stack of dishes couldn't particularly be called 'clean'. But he had tried, and he was immensely proud of himself for that fact.

Once he got a good look at her face, he knew something was different.

The slight differences in facial features were how wolves communicated; how they told pain, memories, passion. So he was good with micro-expressions, and noticed hers were not positive.

Had it been him? He didn't know, but he didn't press his luck.

"I can put them back, if you want. I just thought it might help..." He trailed off. That wasn't it. It was something deeper, that he wouldn't be able to find with his words alone. He would simply have to follow her, and allow her actions to portray her actual emotions. Nodding towards the door, he said, "I'm ready to go when you are. I think I'll need boots though."

His feet were bare. He really didn't like the thought of covering them.

 

[marshmarrow]

Cora looked back between the dishes and his face. Upon closer inspection, the surfaces were scraped of any remaining particles, but they didn't smell like soap. There were no residual suds in the sink, either. Entylin wasn't the limp-wristed city boy who sat around buffing his nails all day - his body showed signs of wear and tear - but it was as if he hadn't worked a day in his life. She didn't want to go back on her word, but her work could be dangerous for him if he thinks of livestock as pets.

She didn't hesitate as she handed him the larger pair of steel-toed boots. "These are heavy," she warned, "they take a while to get used to. Be careful you don't trip."

She laced her own pair up with nimble fingers from years of practice. "I'll take care of the goats first, since they make a racket when they aren't milked on time. I'll tell you what to do when we get to the barn. But before that, we need to pick up some supplies from the shed. I need your help loading them into the truck."

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin looked at the boots as if they were made from literal bear traps, but donned them anyway. It was true, they were heavy, but nothing he wouldn't get used to eventually. He picked up his feet and walked around the room for a bit, getting a feel of how they would hinder him. Nothing he couldn't handle.

Looking up to her, he nodded his head absentmindedly. "What do you need from the shed?" He had heard the word 'truck' but really didn't want to think about that. He hated the noisy, disgusting monstrosities that humans drove around in. They had perfectly good legs, but chose to lumber around in some gas-gurgling money wasting mayhem machine.

They also smelled bad.

Entylin opened the door to the outside world, and was immediately assaulted with a variety of familiar smells. The grass, the trees, the flowers, the very faint scent of his own blood in the grass. It was all rather becoming, as it reminded him of home.

"So where's the shed?"

 

[marshmarrow]

Cora looked back between the dishes and his face. Upon closer inspection, the surfaces were scraped of any remaining particles, but they didn't smell like soap. There were no residual suds in the sink, either. Entylin wasn't the limp-wristed city boy who sat around buffing his nails all day - his body showed signs of wear and tear - but it was as if he hadn't worked a day in his life. She didn't want to go back on her word, but her work could be dangerous for him if he thinks of livestock as pets.

"Just some buckets and things for the goats," she answered, taking her keys from where they hung by the back door and letting Entylin go out first.

The air was chilly, and the frost that had coated the grass had not melted though it was almost 11 AM. She pulled her layers around her, glancing at Entylin in his flannel shirt. She had forgotten to get him a jacket. What a doctor she was.

"Wait there," she told him as she backpedaled towards the house. "I'm getting you a jacket."

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin nodded as she left, but he really hated to think about the idea of a jacket being wrapped around his body. His current clothes were already restricting enough, and the boots he wore felt absolutely awful.

That was when a scent carried to his nose through the air.

It was faint. It should have been impossible for him to detect as a human, yet he was positive it was there. He spun around, looking towards the edge of the forest. If he was right, then he would find...

There.

It was her. It was one of his best friends in the whole world, yet he still didn't have a name for her. And there was him, and him and her. All of the beings who held no names but were still the most important things in the world to him.

And they were all watching him. Entylin. As a man. Not as a wolf, but as a man.

And he could tell they knew.

He began to walk towards them, even as a man, and he saw they did not flinch. They were a hundred meters away, and then fifty, and then twenty, and then ten, and then five...

And there they were.

They did not move, though their haunches were raised, and they looked at him with eyes he could not place as a man. All he could find in himself was a choking sob, and a whisper.

"I'm sorry..."

 

[marshmarrow]

Coming back out with her parka - the only coat in her closet that had a chance of fitting him - Cora almost did not notice Entylin was staring at a wolf dead-on.

But she did. She immediately stopped moving.

They never came out this far, and certainly not in broad daylight. Even from their distance, those yellow eyes could not belong to a dog, a fox, or a coyote.

Slowly, carefully, Cora lowered herself to the ground. Entylin was too far away to signal to him, and a sick animal - one would have to be sick to be out like this - would strike out if she made a racket, and the target would be Entylin.

How could he approach it? How could he just stand there and be calm?

As she continued to watch them, Cora slowly became aware of the animal's still presence, and the air of familiarity between the wolf and the man. A sick wolf would attack or cower, but there was a secret intelligence the wolf possessed. One that Entylin seemed to be communicating with.

The frost crunched as Cora crouched, her blue eyes shifting between yellow and a hazel that seemed to become lighter as she focused on it.

Entylin had become less like the man she had saved and more like the wolf she had dreamed of.

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin heard the crunch. So did the female wolf in front of him. They looked each other dead in the eyes, one questioning and one filled with sorrow.

"I have a debt to fill. I promise you, I will be back. Please... Don't leave me alone." The female wolf let out a small sneeze, something she often did when she agreed. That was when he got down on his very human knees, and gave her a very human hug.

Her fur was warm. Her breath was warm. Everything about her radiated, and she stayed perfectly still until he let her go. And then she was gone. They were all gone. Vanishing into the woods like the beautiful animals they were, leaving naught but their footprints in the frost.

They knew he was a human. Now he had to decide if the human should know he's a wolf.

He made his way back to Cora, albeit slowly and carefully. When he finally came up to meet her, he looked her directly in her piercing eyes.

And he let all the yellow of his shine completely through.

 

[marshmarrow]

Cora's breath hitched in her throat as she saw the two embrace like old friends, which is what they seemed to be. Still, her gaze did not waver as Entylin came to her, his eyes as brilliantly golden as the wolf's.

She stepped back, but not in fear. Instinct told her to get away from him.
Her intuition had never failed her before. Stunned, she couldn't speak. Her face was expressionless, but drained of color.

In some way, she had almost knew he couldn't be human. He seemed clumsy in a human body, stiff, like a nice suit that looked good but was just confining enough to feel uncomfortable. He teetered on the edge between beautiful and unnatural.

Finding her voice, she inhaled through clenched teeth.

"I don't know what you are," she managed to growl, without crying or screaming or turning into a puddle of pliant womanhood like the female role in a werewolf romance movie, "but you should go. Leave with your 'friend'." Her eyes darted over quickly to the place the wolf once stood.

"Or I'll kill both of you."

 

[Coreonysis]

Those words hurt him more than he ever would have guessed they would. Knowing that someone was willing to kill a wolf, simply because of him. It made him ponder over why he had chosen this route. The route of allowing both sides to know the other.

Yet now he had come too far.

He took a deep breath and stepped closer, defying the very air around her. It prickled with electricity. It was charged with anger, and hatred, and yet something sweeter that he couldn't quite place. This was the most daring thing he had done in his entire life, and yet it was the most thrill he had ever felt.

He stared directly into her eyes. His flashed the dangerously pale yellow that looked so unnatural on a human, and then faded back to hazel.

"I do not know who I am, or what I am, or why I am. All I know is that I am." He said, his voice catching on the last words. This was his last opportunity to be accepted in his human body. This would decide whether or not he ever shifted back into a human again.

"This is not my choice." He said, gesturing to his entire being. "But I need to try to make it as a human. Because we're dying as wolves."

 

[marshmarrow]

Cora swallowed rapidly, willing herself not to avert her gaze and show weakness. It was exhausting to meet the intensity he held in his eyes, seemingly amplified by their close quarters becoming closer. Despite herself, her shoulders began to tremble, her knees weakening. Fear crept along her spine as she realized he didn't fall for her bluff. She was a terrible liar.

Her words seemed to have power over him, and she was afraid of that power. She was afraid to hold his life in her hands, so she decided to relinquish it.

She hated being the first one to break eye contact, but she trained her eyes on the treeline just past Entylin's shoulder, her face heating. Ashamed, she ran a hand through her hair in a nervous gesture, afraid of what she might see if she looked back at him again.

"I'm sorry," she began, her voice cracking on the last syllable. "You can do what you want. I mean, you're welcome to stay with me as a human. Or a wolf. Or not."

She wasn't very eloquent when she was emotional, but she meant it.

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin only heard a series of words that came together to form a string he had never heard before. "You're welcome to stay with me as... a wolf."

He had been waiting for a time to be alone to change, but now she was practically giving him permission to do so. Right in front of her.

The first things to go are the eyes.

Those irises that had been flickering between yellow and hazel became permanently golden, and then his muscles began to twitch. It wasn't an ugly transformation, but it was definitely one that needed some getting used to. It was an odd sight, as expected, to see a man changing shape.

And yet here Entylin was.

He shed his clothes, though they didn't rip. They simply fell off of his body as he shrank down, his arms and legs twisting and turning in ways unnatural. All the while, his face maintained its calm composure.

And then the fur.

His bright blonde hair became masses of medium length luxurious fur. His legs extended and grew stout, and his head changed shape to that of a canine. He could feel the human part of him slowly leaving, leaving, but he was always able to think. He was always cogniscent of what was going on around him, even if he felt no need to be.

As his muscles rippled one last time, he stepped away from the human clothes he had just worn. His eyes flicked to his human eyes for just a brief moment; just to show her that it was still him, he could still understand.

But now he was completely and utterly wolf.

 

[marshmarrow]

She watched his transformation in awe - skin rippling into fur, nails sharpening into claws - a wild animal taking his shape but not his mind. Recognition still shone in his eyes, though there was also something else beyond human understanding; the other side of the coin.

Cora knelt down to Entylin's level after the last detail: a brilliant tail that looked extraordinarily soft. She knew he did not like to be touched, so she sat and watched him intently, trying to communicate with her eyes. She did not know much about wolf behavior, but he had encouraged her to continue speaking.

"Stories have been told for centuries about your kind," she told him. "Not only around the Elk River, but in many places. Everyone knew they were devils who could transform into animals and lure humans with the promise of pleasure. Familiars, they were called, masquerading as an attractive stranger."

She smiled sadly. "I'm a scientist. Times have changed, but people still hang on to their superstitions. You must have sensed the change in the forest - it may very well be the cause of the wolves' hardship. People are looking for something to blame, and they might blame you when the truth gets out. It will come out eventually.

"It will be dangerous for you to stay a human when that happens. But we can try to solve this problem before it does. Do you trust me?"

 

[Coreonysis]

Entylin did not move. He did not breath. He did not blink. All he did was stare into her eyes. In his mind, his dreadfully human mind, he was nodding his head. He was saying yes. He was screaming to the rooftops that he trusted her with everything he had, because she hadn't rejected him when he came to her as his wolf.

He stood still.

The woods were behind her, and that was where his gaze shifted next. He had to protect them. His family. They needed to know why he was doing this, but he couldn't tell them. He could never talk to them the way he talked to Cora. With her, he could exist comfortable in both forms. With them... He could only communicate in one.

He loved those wolves with everything he had. But now he had to do what was best for them.

His eyes trained on her once more, and he huffed. He knew full well that she knew his aversion to touching.

So it was a big deal for him to slowly, hesitantly, touch his nose to hers.