Her Perilous Wolf, Julie Steimle [howl and other poems TXT] 📗

Is this the same Jessica whom Audry knows?”

Michael nodded. “The exact same.

“Anyway, I didn’t exactly ignore the curse, but my grandmother—who I realize now was sick of me—took me to the library and got for me a book which, as it turned out, was a portal to another world. And I got sucked in.”

Blinking Vincent cocked his head to the side. “Pardon?”

“You heard me right.” Michael gave him another nod. “I was sucked into another world through a portal which was in a book.”

“But the news said—”

“Do you actually think we would tell the news media that we magically were spirited away into a library book? It’s laughable.” Michael shook his head with incredulous chuckles. “No. We made up the story about the Wolf’s Wood Cult. Most people would find it more credible.”

“But—”

Michael extended his right hand, palm up, across the table. Vincent could see a mark on Michael’s palm which appeared to be branded by a hot iron. The welt was circular with a whorl, akin to the sun with flames. But the more he stared at it, he could see it was not a sun, but a dragon, with the wings as flames on the outside, his tail curling inward to the center. But then the color of the burn scars went lighter as if it were being branded anew. The light swelled up from the center, glowing. In a snap, a flame appeared from his welted, searing skin, floating outward from the burned-in emblem.

Vincent leaned away, eyes wide on the fire that should not in all sense be there.

“It is a very long story, which would take forever to tell,” Michael explained, “But let it suffice that I was not the last person to get sucked into that book—that was Jessica. And Jessica was the one who figured out how to get us back to our world again.”

“Another world?” Vincent murmured, blinking at him. That was way beyond anything real. It had to be made up.

Michael grinned at him. “I’ve read a lot of C.S. Lewis after that incident, when I got back. The Magician’s Nephew became my favorite. And yeah, other worlds. They exist. I mean, if you come to think of it, it is arrogant to assume that our world is the only one out there—whether you believe in aliens, elves, or not.”

“So you’re not a flat-earther, I take it.” Vincent chuckled nervously, the conversation giving him a slight headache. Michael was serious. And Tommy sat there as if he were not saying anything insane.

Michael rolled his eyes peevishly. “Don’t you start.”

Tommy laughed. He said to Vincent, “I’m impressed. You are taking this in good stride. Most people freak out when they learn about the extended universe. It is usually too much for the common mind to handle.”

“Oh…” Shaking his head, Vincent said heavily, his left temple throbbing “Don’t think I am not freaking out. I just know that it does no good.”

Both Tommy and Michael nodded, exchanging similar looks of agreement. It really did no good. But they were pleased he was not openly melting down. At least he was still sitting upright and not laughing maniacally.

“So you got back to this world and, well, obviously you were changed by the experience,” Vincent said, just trying to keep up and sane. “What happened to the book that, that, that took you there?”

Nodding to him, Michael grinned, perhaps reading his nerves. “Oh, initially we buried it. But while I had returned home, I heard from the others that there was another portal that got opened up and… let it suffice that they had a small invasion—which thankfully did not get very far. My friends had a struggle getting beings from that world to move back. But they did it. And they closed the portal as well as destroyed the book completely.”

“Oh, good.” Vincent breathed a bit easier, but in truth was quite stunned. He asked in a higher voice, “Did they ever find any other magic portals to other worlds?”

Michael shook his head, hardly bothered. “No, but we do keep a lookout.’”

A shudder went through Vincent. That meant there probably were others out there. How many other worlds existed? And how connected were they to theirs? And were they in anyway connected like those comic book multiverses? Or were they more like parallel worlds like in that old TV show, Sliders.

“I guess this does prove your point, though,” Michael murmured. “None of us were seeking out supernatural things when we were abducted. Maybe Howie wasn’t so stupid to show you what he was. He didn’t tell you to forget. He was telling you to pretend you did not know.”

Vincent nodded, fixing his mind on that. “Yeah.”

“Ok.” Michael nodded to himself with a glance to Tommy. “Then I won’t feel guilty for filling you in on as much as we can. You’re right. You need to be able to defend yourself and your family. I was more of that philosophy anyway. It was one of the reasons I had joined the SRA. I wanted to protect normal people from the unseen world in a more…uh, real world capacity.”

That gave Vincent so much relief. Finally he would get the help he needed.

“I guess that’s my cue,” Tommy said, shifting in his seat. “First thing’s first. We don’t know all there is to know about the supernatural world, as a large number of supernatural beings are shape-shifters.”

“What?” Vincent paled. His mind went over what that could mean. He had seen enough sci-fi involving alien chameleons to understand what that could entail. 

Grinning at him, Tommy started to explain.

*

They stayed in that village where the witch has been, rather than moving on. The witchdoctor wanted to ensure this poacher hunting team had sufficient protection from the dangers of what they might be hunting. They finally explained to Audry that they might in fact be hunting ogres—which were a cannibalistic sort of demon who loved destruction and had zero scruples. They would use human greed to benefit them.

“So, there really are ogres?” Audry sat at the campfire with not only Juma and friends, but also the witchdoctor, the village chiefs and select warriors who had expended all their energies trying to find that witch, without success. The fire itself was the one they had made to burn the cursed items the witch had brought in. The wanted to make absolutely sure all that remained was ash.

Juma nodded. “And foreign ones. These days, the monsters are not just from Africa. In our tradition, there are stories of magic, swallowing monsters, a kingdom in the sky and afterlife world in the earth, and shape shifters who can become any animal, man or beast. There are many legends among the people. Some are just stories, but others, I am sure are true.”

“Which ones are true?” Audry asked, her hands still shaking from what she had seen that day.

His eyes widened on her. “You are definitely different. Changed. Are you now believing in things of the unseen world?”

She shivered. “I… I don’t know. But, I have seen things lately.”

“Such as?” Juma asked. Everyone there craned close to listen. They had been watching her intently since she has seen the witch and had pointed it out to Sefu who was the only other one to have seen the mouth on the witch’s neck.

Blushing, Audry shrugged. “I don’t want to name names, but more than once, in my rescue work, I found out that I had actually rescued a werewolf—on accident. I thought he was just a wolf.”

“Werewolf?” murmured on Luis’s lips. He then translated to those who did not understand English.

Juma’s eyes widened on her. “What did you say?”

Closing her eyes, she explained, “There is a wolf I came across twice in my rescue work. He is peculiar. Very different from all the wolves I’ve ever seen before—or since. Hair like… the color of rust. Gray eyes—not a usual wolf color. More humanlike. When I first came across him, I dug this bullet out of his leg and bandaged him up. It saved his life. The thing is, at the time, I did not know he was a man whom I also knew—same hair color, same eye color.”

Juma and the others drew in breaths, staring at the bullet on the chain around her neck.

“I rescued the same wolf again earlier this past summer. It’s a crazy story, but the wolf had stopped a cougar from eating my niece—”

Luis translated quickly. Sefu gasped.

“What’s a cougar?” Akachi asked.

“An American mountain lion,” Audry explained. “They’re smaller than African lions, no mane on the males, but just as dangerous.”

“How?” Juma’s eyes were wider on her. He looked likely to faint, though it was an odd notion about such a large man.

More nods came from everyone. Though there were no wolves in Africa, Luis explained they were similar to jackals.

“A lone wolf is no match for a cougar in most cases,” Audry explained with nods, taking in their stares. “But he jumped in anyway and bit into the cougar’s throat where he hung on until the cougar bled out.”

The listening group’s eyes widened on her.

She shook her head. “He killed the cougar, but he nearly died. The cougar practically peeled off his skin trying to make him let go. But anyway, I bandaged the wolf up—and he later…” She shook her head more. How could she tell them? Would they understand?

“Did he hurt you?” Sefu asked.

“No.” Audry shook her head again, in her mind, seeing those wolf eyes sadly gazing at her, remembering how it was, remembering how desperate she felt. It was her wolf. “Um, I tried to get the wolf to a vet, uh veterinarian, but the park didn’t have any and I ended up leaving him in a ranger’s station for a while in a cage, but…” her mind worked it over, realizing now what actually happened, “…he managed to get out. And somehow he arranged for it to look like he, the man, got in a car accident to explain why he needed to be in the hospital. It’s a long and complicated story. Seriously, my head spins over it now that I know the truth.”

Juma leaned away while the others murmured over what she had told them. Taking her in, examining her pale face especially, Juma asked, “How did you find out the man was the wolf?”

She shrugged, remembering Rick in the hospital after the fact—the partial word FOO penned on his forehead by friends who had thought he had acted foolishly. “On accident. I was with my cousin. It was the same summer, the end of it, months after the attack, but, well, just a couple weeks ago….” She shook her head. “The thing is, I know the man better than I know the wolf.”

They all drew in breaths, staring.

“Juma, if I were to mention his name, you’d be surprised.” She turned her eyes on him.

Her friend’s brow wrinkled, his lips pursing together. He finally said while the others whispered their speculation, “Did you know we also have legends of were-hyenas and were-jackals here in my country?”

She shook her head, her cheeks flushing. Her eyes peeked to the witchdoctor who nodded gravely.

“Many of them pose as handsome men, coming to villages to charm women away from their families,” he continued.

Audry trembled. Rick definitely was handsome—as a man and a wolf.

“And after they are married, he takes her away to go back to his village. There, the were-hyena, or were-jackal, turns back into the animal and eats her.” He shook his head gravely. “If you know this man is a wolf, you should run far from him. They are always handsome. They always seem wealthy. But they are death.”

She nodded, seeing the witchdoctor give her an affirmation as Luis translated. By instinct, that felt correct. And yet Rick was not trying to marry her. Quite the reverse. He had always been avoiding her to protect her.

“You know,” Juma said, thinking while Akachi whispered to Sefu. “If you call him to Africa, I can have him