Why a Wolf Cries, Julie Steimle [ebook reader macos TXT] 📗

this case it is everything they do to him. So anyway, the kid goes home and….”

“Would wolves come into this camp?” Skyler asked his grandfather.

He peeked to Audry who was in the middle of her storytelling. “Well, according to your aunt, no. It is not likely. There are packs around Yellowstone, but wolves are naturally shy. As long as they have enough food, there won’t be a problem.”

“… the gang is upset with him when they find out where he had been all those hours. His brother starts to beat him up, but… you know the curse. All the punches and hits just hurt the guy punching and hitting. He even lost a tooth.”

“Oh!” Maris gasped.

“… The other gang members even got in on it—until one guy stabbed the kid. But you know who got hurt?”

“The guy with the knife!”

“That’s right! It just bounced right off and….”

“But wasn’t there a drought this last winter?” Skyler said. “The ranger said they did not have as much water this year, and they said not to feed any wildlife.”

“That’s just the camp rules.” Grandpa Bruchenhauses rubbed Skyler’s head. “If we stick to the rules, we’ll be fine.”

“Which animals in the park are the most dangerous?” Skyler asked, pushing himself to be scared.

His grandfather rubbed Skyler on the head again. “Don’t you worry about it.”

“But which?”

“…made the other guy bleed. But those guys in the gang were really stupid, because they did not learn from that. They kicked at the kid and threw stuff at the kid, and they got hurt by it….”

“Bears, I suppose.”

“So if bears and the other animals got into a fight—”

“Well, wolves travel in packs. A bear would back away from a pack of wolves, but with all their fur and fat, they would be harder to kill. Then, of course, are the cougars.”

“Cougars?”

“…So in the end they threw him out. The kid ended up begging on the street, starving. People who tried to shoo him away only got hurt trying to shoo him away.” Audry shrugged. “In the end, the gangs kind of killed themselves off by attacking the kid.”

“That’s spooky,” Maris murmured. “What happened to him after that?”

Audry shrugged. “Well… according to the guy telling the story, he said the US government picked him up and put him into a private institution to keep everyone else safe….”

“Yep. You know, pumas. Mountain lions. Same thing. But they hang around rocky places. Not places like this. Like they told us. This is bear country.”

“Oh.”

“Aunt Audry?” Maris asked, as others perked up to listen. “Is this story true?”

Audry shrugged. “I don’t know. But the guy who told me the story said it was. In fact, he said he was the kid.”

Maris drew in a breath. “No way.”

Skyler came up. “Are you serious?”

Nodding with another shrug, Audry admitted, “I’ve met a lot of weirdoes in my lifetime—all in New York City.”

“Which is why you left,” Doug reiterated, confirming it.

Audry laughed. “Which is exactly why I left.”

“Tell us another scary story,” Skyler said, coming up to her.

She eyed him with one eye closed. “Are you aiming for nightmares?

He shook his head. “No. But I heard you know lots of crazy stories.”

“Oh, really?” Audry angled a side look at her brother, Doug, who most definitely heard her gripe about certain weird things she had gotten entangled in. “Like what?”

“Well,” her brother said, grinning. “Tell us the one about the werewolf.”

Moaning, Audry, looked to the tree cover. “He’s not a werewolf! That’s just a stupid rumor!”

“Well then, tell us the rumor.” Doug grinned mischievously at her.

With a dirty look, Audry adjusted in her seat. “Fine. I read about this story online first, then later I heard it told to me by Silvia—”

“Your old witch roommate,” Maris chimed in.

“Yeah.” Audry nodded to her.

Sighing, she tried to muster up her storytelling voice to remove all contempt for the story itself. It was all nonsense, and it had caused a world of trouble for the people who it gossiped about, including some near-death experiences for them being shot at monthly.

“Ok, I’ll tell it how Silvia tells it. She says it comes from her hometown. And, by the way, it is also about a witch.” Audry paused as Skyler emitted a short moan. “This witch really hated this one priest who apparently had slighted her. And so she decided she wanted him dead. But to prevent the murder from being traced back to her, she had to make an unusual assassin.”

“Ooh, this is better than the last witch story,” Skyler declared, hunkering down to listen.

Maris nodded, though Audry had a feeling she was just agreeing to agree.

“So, she decided to catch a wolf to use. There was a pack in near forest.  So she set out a lure using a live chicken tethered to a peg as bait.” Audry paused. “When she caught one male wolf, she used magic spell that required to be done on the full moon, using honey, garlic, and a silver knife. She drew her magic marks with the honey, and I don’t know what she did exactly except that she transformed the wolf into a man who looked a lot like the man she was targeting.”

“Oh…” Doug let out without meaning to. He bit his lip apologetically, letting Audry continue.

“After giving him some clothes, she sent him to Boston to kill the priest.” Audry drew a breath and sighed. “And because he looked so much like the priest, no one stopped him.”

“I thought this was about a werewolf,” Skyler said. “This isn’t about a man who becomes a wolf. This is the opposite.”

Audry shrugged. “This is the story. But I’ll get to that. You see, the man-wolf found the priest, who was deacon in the Catholic Church, and stalked down him down then killed that in the cloister—as a wolf. In fact, there actually are police reports of this priest being mauled to death by a wild animal. I swear that part is the truth.”

“No way.” Skyler gasped.

Maris drew in a breath.

“Now, here’s the thing,” Audry said, “after the man-wolf killed him, he washed his face, put back on his clothes, and walked out of there—unsuspected of the crime that had just taken place. As he was wandering the world, he also discovered that he liked being human. But witch’s magic spell called him back home. He was supposed to go back once he was done with his kill. Problem was, the man-wolf figured out she would either turn him back into a wolf, or just kill him. So, when he went back, the witch was waiting for him with a silver knife covered in garlic oil and honey, prepared to stab the wolf to end the curse upon it.”

She paused for effect.

“Well, the man-wolf saw her, and he knew he had to kill her or he would die. And he didn’t want to die. So the wolf pounced. The witch stabbed. But she failed to get him as he bit into her neck.” Audry eyed the kids as she said, “Do you know how wolves kill big prey? They go for the neck—the jugular vein if they can. And they bite down and hold on until their prey has bled out and dies.”

Everyone drew in a breath.

“So he killed the witch and was now forever a man-wolf. I don’t know all that it entails, but that is supposed to be where werewolves start.” Audry raised a finger. “But that’s not the end of the story. Because being human is extremely complicated, and as Silvia puts it—all the perks come with a price. He had to get a job. People can’t just go out and kill food to eat it like a wolf can. He has to go buy it. He had to have a home, as he no longer had fur. And he needed a bed, as he could not live in a hole in the ground anymore. So after a while, the man-wolf went back to the scene of his first crime, kind of drawn there. Also, being human gave him a human conscience. And he realized that what he had done was murder—a crime. In fact, so distraught, he confessed to the local priest—whose name is suspected to be Lemuel Gulinger.”

Doug drew in a breath. She nodded to him. He understood the connection.

“Well, the wolf-man expected to be punished, but instead of turning the wolf-man into the authorities, the priest forgave him.”

Maris gasped.

Looking to her, Audry said, “He knew the wolf had been used by an evil person. But he still had to make up for what he had done, so the priest decided to get the man-wolf a new life. He even gave him a job to start out. But the most important thing the priest did for him was that he gave him a name. And do you know what his name was?”

Both kids shook their heads. However, Doug nodded slowly.

She winked at him. “The name was the flip of the priest whom he had killed. The exact opposite. Are you ready for it?”

Both kids nodded, entranced.

“Howard… Richard…” Audry paused for effect. “Deacon. In this case… the First.”

Meaning of Hunger

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Two

 

Howard Richard Deacon III had just parked his car in the Yellowstone Canyon Village parking lot not far from where his father parked his. Both of them had decided last minute to use that territory for their monthly full moon hunt. It would take three days—so that was three days of official ‘hiking’. They had already spoken with the rangers, merely asking about the weather conditions that year and its effect on the small wildlife. The rangers’ replies were a little disheartening. Small wildlife might be scarce. However, and this was always good news, since this was Yellowstone, hunters would also be scarce.

Getting out of his car, Rick pulled off his jacket, tucking it into the backseat. He would not need it. He gazed over the top off his car to his father, sighing. “So… drought conditions, huh?”

His father shook his head, going to his trunk to get his camping equipment. “It rained recently, so we don’t have to worry about dry tinder. But there will be campers about and other large animals foraging for food. Yet it should be fine. You know the drill. We’ll hike out and find a good place to set up camp. Then we can go from there.”

Rick nodded. Gazing to the blue sky overhead and the lovely view of the canyon area, he sighed. He went to his trunk to get his backpack.

Camping was a family tradition—even before Rick needed to go out on the full moon for his monthly kill as a werewolf. But they always tried hard to do it away from human beings so there were never any accidents.

Truthfully, Rick had not even known he was a werewolf until he was thirteen. A late bloomer, he had assumed, until later he learned it was more than that. He was an especially rare sort, the kind with genes other werewolves oddly envied, known as a mingled-soul wolf. That meant his human side and wolf side were so much a part of each other that he could be either one at will, without much effort at all. For most werewolves, transformation took a degree more effort and