Phillipe waited more than another hour before he gave a wave and turned Wolf, he was not as smooth and efficient as Hazel had been, but he was a little more accomplished than were Christoph and Nichasin. Anton smiled to himself as he watched them transform; Hazel was far more advanced.
She was waiting on the opposite side of the camp; all four joined her and moved in behind the boy’s cage. He did not make a sound as he stood on hearing them approach. Phillipe went around to the door of the cage. He looked at the padlock and decided that it was a flimsy and simple lock to break. He was just about to take hold of it when Hazel stopped him. He shook her paw from his and growled.
Hazel whispered, “If you touch that lock, you will be scarred for life Phillipe, it is made of silver.”
Phillipe was astounded, more so at Hazel talking to him than the fact that she had just saved him a terrible injury. Christoph and Nichasin glanced at each other and shrugged. Anton, however, moved to the side of the cage on wheels and took stock of the bars. They were not made of silver, but they were sturdy and would make a lot of noise if they were to be torn out of their holdings.
Then Hazel went back to the cage door, the hinges were not so sturdy and they too were not made of silver. She gestured to Anton and he came around to her and saw what she was trying to tell him. He also realised that she was well aware of the fact that every time she said something, Phillipe grew angrier. Hazel went back around the side to occupy the boy. Anton was talking to Phillipe and then Hazel heard a quiet creaking of wood as the hinges were parted from the door. Then the boy left her side and with extreme caution stepped from the cage. He shied from the male Wolves and scampered to Hazel. She did not miss the knowing look that Phillipe gave to Anton but she ignored it.
The boy was led away from the camp to where they had hidden their clothes and it was only here that they dared change back to human form. The boy reached to Hazel and took her hand. They all walked fast and then as one, started jogging. The boy kept up quite well considering he had only had a few minutes per day to exercise. Soon however, he was tired.
“Oh you poor boy.” Hazel said trying to comfort him.
“Madame, I am not a boy, though I look to be one. I am more than thirty-five years old and I have been sold more times than that. Each time has been just after a full moon when I have not been able to be in complete command of my Wolf instincts.” He said with as much gentleness as Hazel had spoken to him.
“You are a throwback I presume? And please, your name?” Anton said.
“I am sir, and I know full well why you have released me. You will release me again this night and for that I am grateful. And my name is Sebastian.”
“Please, before we do, I would ask of you questions regarding my studies of this nature. May I?” Anton asked.
“If I can help you then I will.”
“Where and when and to who were you whelped? Do you remember?”
“Ah, I remember but I am unwilling to tell you that secret. I would protect my mother for she did not know what was happening and could not do anything for me other than give me life – miserable as it has been for the past twenty years, my childhood was a happy one.”
“I do not mean to go looking for your mother or your father, I mean to chart your malady along with the others I am studying in order that we may help or prevent such troubles occurring in future.”
“Is that true? You are trying to prevent such as my affliction? How could that be?”
“Your mother was not wolf I take it? She could not give you preparation for your Wolfing?”
“No, I learned all I know at a later date, after I was persuaded that this would be the best life for me, where I would be prevented from injuring more innocents.”
“Please, I would like to hear your story in its entirety.”
The boy looked at Anton, searching his face for signs of deceit. When he was satisfied he nodded and began his tale.
“As I said, I had a very happy childhood.” Sebastian said, “We did not have much as a family but we had a mother who adored us and worked hard in order to keep us fed. I do not know what she worked as but it kept food on the table – wolves from the door so to speak. I am the youngest of three children, the older two remembered a man they called father but he had long gone before I can remember; indeed if he was still around when I was born. We played happily through long summers as I recall until my elder sister got married. My brother also went away; I think he went to war.
“My father – the one who sired me – was the wolf. I do not know how or when, or what circumstances because my mother never spoke of him to me. The first I knew was when I was fourteen years old or thereabouts. I remember the moon, it looked at me and enchanted me from an early age, but the year I was fourteen was when I changed first. I do not recall much of that first night, just my mother crying over me the next morning. I lay in our home, blood-streaked and naked and she was washing the blood from me, as much with her tears, it seemed, as with water.
“That next night, she locked me in a room, I broke out of course and again, come the morning, I awoke to find her crying and washing me. That evening she tied me up and left me on the floor. I howled in pain all night long. The next day we fled from the village.
“The following full moon was not so bad for me. I didn’t seem to be affected by it, I was bad-tempered but I didn’t change to Wolf, I don’t know why. Over the next few months we moved often, winter was hard and mother was at her wits’ end. I tried to find work but because we were strangers and I was so skinny, farmers were not wont to give work to two vagabonds. I found out what my mother worked as however. I am ashamed to say it; she sold herself. It was the only way we could eat; otherwise I am sure we would both have perished that winter.
“I do not change to Wolf on every full moon, only four times a year I think. I killed at first, sheep and other smaller farm stock. That seemed to satiate the wolf in me. When I was getting older and we did not move so many times, I started to be interested by the pretty girls I noticed. I was keen on a particular girl but she was betrothed to a Farmer’s son and would only talk to me in order to make him angry. He liked to beat me; she liked to watch him. My mother was angry with me for allowing that but I could not explain it, I seemed to relish the beatings, it was a punishment I felt I deserved for being as I am. Mother did not understand that and began crying so I never tried explaining to her again.
“One afternoon, the girl I liked was paying more attention to me than usual; she was being nice to me and touching me, playing with my open shirt and touching my chest. I started to feel a fluttery sensation in my stomach, and lower. My heart began beating harder and my breathing was quicker. She bid me sit beside her and I did, but I didn’t touch her, though she asked me to, I couldn’t.
“Then she was angry with me suddenly. I tried to ask why, but she stood and screamed at me to leave her be. I was shocked and amazed that she could turn so completely from being kindness and light to a screeching banshee. Then I felt a kick to my ribs. Her betrothed had discovered us, and he beat me worse than he ever had. I barely made my way home; I was broken and bleeding. Mother cried more at this than she had cried when I killed. ‘I only make mother cry, I bring no joy’ I thought as she bathed my cuts. I healed quickly and mother seemed upset at that too. Then there came a moon that wanted to change me. I can feel them now; they make me restless.”
“But you did not change tonight Sebastian.” Hazel interrupted.
“I know Mademoiselle. I have not changed for many years now, but I will tell you that soon enough. I did change at that moon though. I had the moon and the anger and jealousy raging through my blood. I found that man; that Farmer’s boy and I tore off his head. Then I went to the girl’s house and I dragged her from her bed. I gave her the head of her lover and as she screamed, I tore out her throat. I ran from the house, I did not know where I went. I ran for days and days. I stole clothes from where I could and my feet were bloody because I found no boots. Then one day I came upon a man sitting at the side of the road. He said “Hello Sebastian” and I was not surprised that he knew my name. I sat beside him and he talked to me. He told me I was Wolf but not pure wolf and that eventually I would kill. I told him that advice had come too late but he said “I know about those two, but I did not mean those, I mean you will kill someone close to you, someone dear to your heart and your heart will break because of it.” I knew he meant my mother. So I asked what I could do to prevent this. He told me I must go to the river just a little way from where we were sitting. There I would find a pretty purple flower, I was to pick one stem, roots and all and bring them back to him. I went to find this flower and when I returned he had another man with him. He promised he would send a sum of money to my mother but I would never be able to see her again. I was distraught but I agreed. I was to keep the purple flower with me for all time, if it disintegrated I was to find another, I would know where. Then for years the stranger, his friend and I wandered throughout countries, one was a juggler, the other was a singer and I was a wolf-boy. The purple flower seemed to stop me from changing. I don’t know how, but I keep one with me always.
Sebastian sat down suddenly and began to cry, like the lost and lonely child he resembled. Hazel comforted him but Phillipe snapped at her: “Leave him be. I have warned you that you get too close to him!”
Hazel stood and said with a calm but menacing tone, “Do not presume to give me orders whelp. I will do as I see fit, if you don’t like how I behave then come and stop me.”
That seemed to shock Phillipe for a short time and that gave Hazel a chance to go back to ministering comfort to Sebastian. “But that sounds a good life too Sebastian. You were harming no-one then.”
“That is correct dear lady. I harmed no one, we made a living between us and life seemed good. But one day the stranger who knew my name left us. I don’t know where he went nor do I know why. It became clear that he was not going to return to us and then our partner also left me. I was at a loss. I didn’t know what to do or how to make a living on my own. I stayed where I was camped and waited. Lady, I could have been twenty and five years old by that time. I don’t know where the years had gone. My erstwhile partner, whom I had all but given up for gone, returned but he returned with another man. They had a new idea for travelling further. They had a cart for us to use when roaming. Which meant we could sleep somewhere at night and carry ourselves by day. I delightedly and naively got aboard the back of the cart, where I was locked in. I roared and snarled for days on end, lashing at people come to stare and gawp at me until I realised that was exactly what the two evil men had anticipated. And so I stopped. I sat quietly and calmly until they were harried from one town or village for falsely proclaiming a wolf boy when I was just a poor lad who had not been allowed to wash or shave.
“Then one awful day came when I realised my purple flower had gone, it had shrivelled and dried until it was dust and the dust had blown.
“I managed to keep the pretence that I was still a normal boy until the next moon. The devil brought that moon to plague me. I was restless as I had not been for many years. Then I changed, but as I did, the man who had brought the cage got too close and I grabbed him and pulled him close. I held the back of his neck and I went up through his throat with my teeth. At the same time, my other hand was ripping open his belly and I hauled his entrails through the bars. I had lovely offal to dine on, a better feast I had never had. I had never ever eaten my prey before. But that, I think was the beginning of my ruin. I had tasted human meat and though I have never since, I remember what delight it holds for me.
Sebastian paused to wipe his chin; he was salivating.
“The next day, whilst I was still drowsy, the surviving man sold me as a Wolf-boy. The next owner was kind at first, but when again I changed and became ferocious, he too sold me on.”
Hazel was staring at Sebastian and he mistook her expression as a question.
“Ah lady, I do not know why I grow younger with each moon, but if you delay my release until morning you will see I am younger yet than ever I was last night. Tomorrow night I will again be the savage you calmed and the next morning I will be yet younger. Still, though, I am only affected by one moon in three, which is a blessing or I would be a babe in arms now – with teeth too sharp to want any mother to suckle me.” He laughed at his own joke.
Hazel stood and walked over to Anton. “I wish to see this thing happen. I want to see this boy get young.”
“It is not a matter of what you want, Hazel.” Phillipe took her arm and pulled her sideways, away from Anton. Before Anton could react, she had changed to full Wolf on her hind legs and had Phillipe by her terrible jaws around his throat. She eased a pressure onto his throat and their companions saw droplets of blood stain his shirt.
Through semi-clenched jaws Hazel growled “Unless you give me your word that you will never touch me or command me again, then Lycaeon heir or no, I will end your life here and now and be damned to the consequences.”
“Hazel, let him go.” Anton said with calmness that he did not feel.
“No Anton, I will not and if you move to stop me he will be dead before you are Wolf, you know it.”
“Yes Hazel, I do know. I give my word, I will not intervene.”
“Grandfather…” Phillipe choked.
“Phillipe, you have a choice, I don’t think you have two choices for there is, in reality only one you can make if you are to survive. You must give your oath and mean it. I suggest you do it now!”
“Hazel, I promise I will give due respect to you from now. I will never touch you or command you to do anything again, but please, you are killing me.”
Hazel dropped him like a stone and then in less than an instant, changed back. Sebastian was not the only onlooker who was astonished by the scene and he shrank back from her when she approached him.
“You sadden me Sebastian, I did not intend for you to be frightened. I am sorry; I promise I will not hurt you.”
“Ah but you will. You will be the one to kill me.”
Hazel looked at him in amazement, then she looked to Anton and he nodded. “It has to be you.”
Hazel sat with Sebastian all night, she told him of her Wolfing and they both sat together and wept a little for each other and themselves. The others were well away and not intruding, realising Hazel had to get this out for both their sakes.
Just before dawn, Anton came to wake them; Hazel had curled around Sebastian protecting him in the night, her body keeping his warm. “Hazel it is time.” He said as he touched her arm. She sat up with care and woke Sebastian with a kiss to his forehead. He looked up at her with innocence that only children have. She stared in amazement. He had indeed become younger, but younger than she had imagined. He could have been eight or nine. Sebastian said nothing but he smiled at Hazel, she thought that he was trying to give her his reassurance, and tipped his head back to offer his throat. It was over in a second. Clean and quick, she gave him his longed-for release.
They buried his body deep in the woods, where it was damp, near to where his purple flowers grew.
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