Haddock
waited a week, a fortnight, and a month and still Isolde did not return. In the meantime, Grant and Miss Huntington’s
wedding was drawing closer, and he didn’t want to be around for that particular
event. Mrs. Haddock was understanding
when her son came to her to tell her he was going to go abroad for the next few
months.
“Well I’ll make sure to send you a
very long letter detailing The Wedding then.
It won’t be the same as it would if you were there”—she gave him a sly
look but Haddock only smiled back—“but I suppose I can’t force you to stay and
attend considering your initial reaction to the attachment.”
At least she was at the point where she could make light of the incident
now. She resumed as she put the
finishing touches on her latest knitted piece:
“Do you know how long you will be gone for? You were off traveling for such a long time
last year…it would be nice to know when to expect you home.”
“I didn’t really put much thought
into it since the whole trip was a sudden idea, but I would like to say I’ll
return to Broadburn around the beginning of summer,” Haddock replied.
“Pack accordingly and send me as many letters as you can,” Mrs. Haddock
said as she folded up her knitting project. “It’s a pity you can’t paint,
otherwise I would have asked you to send me some watercolors. Oh well.
Anyways, this is for you—”
She handed him her knitting, a
very long scarf that would have seemed big even on Grant.
“Thank you,
Mother,” Haddock said as he kissed his mother on the cheek. She waved a finger at him.
“I expect you to wear that and not
just pack it away at the bottom of your trunk now.”
“I would be
remiss in doing so with such an excellent piece of work.”
He wrapped
the scarf around his neck until it completely covered the lower half of his
face with length to spare.
“At least now when I commit criminal
acts no one will recognize me.”
“Don’t be facetious. It doesn’t become you,” she chided as Haddock
removed the scarf with a laugh. She then
pulled her son in close for a hug and whispered in his ear:
“Don’t give up on her just yet.
I’m sure she’ll be back soon, and I’ll let you know when she does come back.”
Haddock’s smile left him while his mother hugged him tighter.
“I would
appreciate that.”
*
Haddock
walked down the street of the small village as the early spring sun caused snow
to drip off roofs and puddles to form on the ground while the locals went about
their everyday business. The pleasant
clime and friendly surroundings didn’t seem to affect him in the slightest. A little girl ran up to him with a basket of
flowers and nervously asked if he would like to buy one. Haddock smilingly replied in the affirmative
and paid the child more than the flower was worth. He watched as she excitedly dashed back to
the flower stall manned by what appeared to be her mother, proudly brandishing
the money for all to see. The smile
faded and he continued down the street.
He had been a week in this village,
the same length of time he had been in the previous village, and the one before
that. Constant movement helped to keep
his mind occupied, as he found that when he sat down and let his mind settle,
it returned to Broadburn. And he had
left Broadburn with the express purpose of not
thinking about the place. A full
moon was expected that night, which meant that he would be sleeping under the
stars. He hadn’t come across any other
lycanthropes in his travels yet. All the
wolves he had encountered when in his Other Form were just that—wolves. They immediately sensed that something was
off about them when he encroached upon their territory, so they kept their
distance, whining and growling their confusion over this wolf that smelled like
a human. Haddock didn’t mind. He had gone on this trip to be alone anyways.
He shouldered his pack as he began
to head out of the village proper and into the surrounding rocky
wilderness. He would spend most of the
day hiking, and then figure out where he would set up “camp” to await the
transformation and store his new clothes for the following morning. The rest of his time before the moonrise
would be devoted to writing a lengthy letter to his mother, reassuring her that
he had made it safely to his destination and giving her a requested description
of the locale and scenery.
*
Haddock
didn’t run into anyone else on his trek and easily found an abandoned den that
he shoved his things into. The sun was
sinking quickly as he hastened to write his letter. The ending was rushed, and he hoped it wasn’t
too unintelligible as he stowed it and his boots in his pack and waited for the
moon to make her appearance. The minutes
seemed to drag by as he sat barefoot in the grass. Night creatures announced the moon before the
silver disc emerged from behind the mountains while countless stars winked on
in the charcoal sky.
Haddock shook his brown coat from
head to tail and scooped up the discarded clothes in his jaws to deposit them
into the den. No need leaving them out in the open to get ruined by dew and whatnot. He had packed sparingly, so he couldn’t
afford to leave a trail of clothes across the continent. When the forest floor was no longer littered
with his garb, he snuffled the sky and trotted deeper into the woods. The wind ruffled the trees and sent his fur
rippling, conveying a medley of scents to his nostrils. Haddock picked out a particular one and began
to track it. It didn’t take him very
long for the smell to lead him to his prey.
A warren of rabbits roamed in a moonlit meadow, shuffling around and
brushing their faces with their forepaws as they fed on the greenery. Haddock’s movements became very calculated
and slow as he surveyed the animals, deciding on which one to go in for. He spotted an older buck limping along as it
grazed and narrowed in on it.
Body tensing, he sprang forward into a full gallop. Rabbits scattered in all directions as
Haddock burst into the meadow. He
noticed another shadow coming at him and his buck moments before he ran into
it. He and the other creature tumbled
end over end and landed in a furry heap as the rabbits made their escape. Haddock jumped up with an annoyed growl to
inspect whoever had cost him his supper.
A dark grey she-wolf with a white chest stared up at him. He could have sworn she was scowling at him
too—
Oh!
The she-wolf
was a fellow werewolf. She got up and
eyed him in a manner that was definitely more human than wolf. Haddock wagged his tail low, pricking his
ears forward to show he wasn’t a threat.
The she-wolf’s ears raised and she stepped closer until she was almost
touching noses with him. Her eyes were
studying his, and when she saw that he was similarly afflicted, she stepped
back and gave a small bark. Other
shadows diffused from the trees and came into the meadow. Haddock had to work hard not to bristle as
this felt very much like an ambush. The
other wolves all bore the same golden-eyed look and an anthropomorphic
aura. An older wolf separated from the
pack and scrutinized Haddock the same way that the she-wolf had. He snuffed when he was done and left to
consult a few similarly-looking grizzled wolves. The she-wolf remained by Haddock’s side the
entire time that the pack gave him skeptical looks. It occurred to Haddock that there might be
other werewolves in this forest who were not on friendly terms with this
bunch. When the older wolf returned
again, he looked a little more open. He
wagged his tail and swung his head in the direction where some of the rabbits
had gone.
Join us on this hunt?
Haddock nodded
eagerly. The old wolf bounded in the
direction of the rabbits, Haddock following close on his heels. The she-wolf kept stride with him as the rest
of the pack surrounded them, streaking through the shadows of trees and
panting. The old wolf led the hunt,
pausing a few times to sniff the sky before darting in a new direction. They eventually found some of the stragglers
of the warren in a scuffle that lasted longer than it should have if two of the
younger wolves hadn’t played cat and mouse with their prey. The pack resorted to feasting on the rabbits
much in the same way normal wolves would, some playing tug-of-war with legs and
tendons, while other jealousy hoarded their catches, growling at the younger
wolves that tried to edge in on their supper.
Afterwards, they took to play-fighting and running in the woods once
again, behaving more playfully than they had while on the hunt. The night was a blurred rush of adrenaline
for Haddock. He hadn’t run with a pack
since he was a child, racing about with his family on their estate grounds in
the moonlight. He lost track of the time
and forgot all about Broadburn for the first time in weeks, more focused on the
community of werewolves around him.
*
Sunlight
burning his eyelids caused Haddock to rouse from his slumber. He rubbed a dirty hand across his eyes and shivered. He was in the den, lying in a bed of leaves
and dirt with not a stitch of clothing on his body. He quickly grabbed for his pack and began
dressing while he promised himself a nice hot bath and a late breakfast once he
got back to the inn, ignoring the sticks and crisp leaves poking his bare
skin. Haddock crawled out of the den on
all fours, dragging his pack alongside him and stepped out into misty sunshine,
the heavy scent of dew on leaves and grass.
The only other living thing besides him were the birds twittering in the
treetops and the squirrels scurrying across the branches. He shouldered his pack with a grunt. A yearning for the memory of a quiet
breakfast with his mother touched upon him but he quickly turned his mind away. If he dwelt on it for too long, he would
think of her too. He set out through the woods and found his
way back on the trail.
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