It was cold, and the grass in the meadows crunched under her feet, but Sofia hardly felt it. In fact she liked the cold as much as the rain, it made her feel alive again and it was also one of her greatest allies. The winter weather, especially on that side of the mountain, kept people cooped up in their homes during the dark hours. Away from the prying eyes of humans Sofia felt free. The night had always been her domain, first as a hunter, and now... now she was a stateless person who had no land, who was not a hunter but was not prey either, and neither did she belong to the human specie. Before going deeper into the forest she stopped and looked down, towards the village that rested in the valley. The pulsing lights shone pale, covered by a thin film of mist that barely allowed their brightness to escape. Sofia sighed. She lived between the three worlds and belonged to none of them.
With a sigh, she turned her back to the human world and looked at the forest in front of her. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the night, what was an impenetrable wall of blackness thinned like a dissipating fog. The trees were drawn before her as if she were admiring the interior of an imposing cathedral. The trunks were the columns that, together with the enormous canopies, created before her arches of blue and gray. As if they were the decorative images and the parishioners' bench, at the foot of the trunks were several prominent boulders and the bushy vegetation. Sofia should not be able to see all that with such clarity, as if it was a cloudy dawn instead of the dark hours of the night. In fact, she was not always able to, it depended on the moon cycles. The full moon was about to rise.
“I wonder if I will eventually find my place, or if I will always be stateless.”
At least there was one place where she felt good, where she didn't feel left out, and that place was the very forest in front of her. After inhaling a long breath of air, because even though she was calm she also felt terrified, she began to walk and plunged into the silent giants. The energy that she always felt coiled inside her chest woke up and began to flow through her veins, filling her with a powerful and vibrant strength. It was a sensation that always made her feel alive, and it also frightened her because she suspected that this was what drove the change. A part of herself tried to contain it while the other wanted to embrace it.
As she walked she breathed deeply, inhaling so many aromas that for a moment she felt overwhelmed. It was the smell of pine, of fern, of damp earth, of moss, it was the smell of freedom, of tranquility and of silence broken by the wind whispering through the branches of the trees. With her lips curving into a smile Sofia looked up and opened her arms, letting herself be enveloped by the cold of that autumn night. Through the gaps in the latticework of the treetops, a silver rain began to fall onto her face. The full moon embraced her and began to whisper in her ear. She was calling for her daughter to let go and join her. There was no denying that it was a hard to resist temptation.
It would only take a moment. She only had to let herself be carried away by the lullaby of the moon, by the flow of energy she felt coursing through her veins, by her desire to howl, and everything would change forever. Once she accepted her true nature she could dive into the forest and finally escape from her mother, from the hunters' guild and from a human society that would never accept her. Then she could finally disappear, live as her ancestors did, walking among the trees with nothing to worry about but survival. For an instant she visualized herself running on all fours through that same forest, free, completely free. It was hard not to long for that freedom.
She opened her eyes again, finding herself face to face with the moon, its perfect sphere drawn in her bright pupils of a nocturnal predator. The silver rays caressed her face with the loving gesture that a mother would have with her daughter. The energy continued to flow through her veins, stoking her instinctive impulses and fueling her urge to howl. Yet that night it didn't happen either, and not because Sofia was trying to resist with all her might. She was afraid, yes, and she kept a tight grip on her behavior because she knew how hunters worked and was truly terrified of them. Maybe that's why the change didn't come, because she was so afraid of becoming prey that she was unconsciously not letting herself be carried away by the full moon’s lullaby.
“Maybe if my father hadn't abandoned us now I wouldn't have all these problems.” She curled her lip and growled. "Fucking bastard!”
As she walked through the forest, ruminating on her bad luck in life, she heard a commotion not too far which made her stop and quickly seek shelter in the bushes. Yes, her mother had told her that this was her territory and other hunters would not come, but Sofia knew the guild and there was not always honor among thieves. The wisest thing she could do was either hide, or try to flee. They wouldn't hunt her in human form, the hunters wanted fangs, pelts and claws to sell on the black market. Of course, what really made the hunters so lethal was that they learned how to be absolutely silent, and whatever was out there was pounding on the ground and breaking bushes with its unbridled pace.
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“Wait a minute,” she said to herself as a hoarse bellow reached her ears. “That's not a hunter, in fact it sounds like....”
The next thing she heard was a bloodcurdling, high-pitched yelp of pain, a yelp that unmistakably belonged to a canid. Then the clatter of four large hooves hitting the ground in desperate flight began to grow louder.
“Oh, shit!” exclaimed Sofia.
Just in time she threw herself to the side, using the trunk of a huge Valsaín pine as a shield, and rolled on the ground. An enormous stag, with antlers with so many spikes that it could only be an experienced adult buck, galloped right past where she had been hiding, tearing through the bush with his frantic pace. In his wake he left a scent trail of blood that was not only his own, since in addition to the wound on one of his hindquarters, one of the tips of his antlers was dripping with a viscous crimson liquid. So frightened was the animal that he soon disappeared into the vegetation, without even noticing the girl who had been less than two meters away from him.
“Attacking a deer in the middle of the rut. Are you insane?”
After shaking the mud and dirt off her clothes, Sofia looked around and noticed the damage the deer had left behind in its flight. Biting her lip, she looked back to where it had come from. If that had been the work of a cinanthrope, as it seemed, she would have to be careful when approaching him, not because he was dangerous but because she would most likely scare him and he would run away. The best strategy would be to try not to let him see her, at least until she could find a way to let him know that she meant no harm. Cinanthropes were very elusive, and they had more than enough reason to be.
Using everything she had learned from her mother, though Helena was undoubtedly much quieter than her, she followed the path of destruction through the forest until she came to a small clearing. That was the spot where the deer had been ambushed, but there was no one there. The cinanthrope had left, but surely he had left a trail of footprints, so Sofia went into the clearing and scanned her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the broken earth churned up by the deer's hooves along with a nibbled patch of grass. Some of the broken blades were still on the ground, having been spat out by the deer as it felt it was being attacked.
“The animal was eating when the cinanthrope ambushed it, probably from there. Did he manage to get within such close range of a deer without being detected?” she said to herself, biting her lip. “But he attacked an adult buck in the middle of rutting season, a very large one. The buck fought back, managed to shake the cinanthrope off and skewered him before running away.”
With a slow, methodical pace, taking care not to step on anything that might be a clue, Sofia approached the place where the cinanthrope had fallen. The ferns were crushed under his weight and the leaves were stained with blood. With two fingers Sofia took a sample and rubbed it between her fingers, appreciating its viscosity. Then she put her hand to her nose and sniffed carefully.
“There is no trace of other body fluids. It probably didn't touch any organs. It was a wide tear, but it only hit muscle. I don't think he lost too much blood, but I should make sure.”
Carefully she studied what seemed to be the tracks the creature left when it stood up, but they were too blurry to be reliable, as if he had tried to erase them. In fact, he had soon left the soft ground to walk across more settled earth, where his paws left only a faint and practically imperceptible mark. Sofia knew he had walked that way not because she had any special gift, but because of the drops of blood he had left on the vegetation. Fortunately for them, cinanthropes healed extraordinarily quickly, so Sofia didn't get to walk two steps before she completely lost the trail. However, it had been enough for her to recognize the place he was headed for; the creek. Surely he had gone there to relieve his thirst and clean himself after the failed hunting attempt.
“I don’t get it. A cinanthrope that attacks livestock is usually a pup with little control, and chasing an adult deer in the middle of the rut isn't very smart either. What is exceptional is that he managed to ambush it. He knows how to use the terrain, he knows how to move in silence. He is a hunter, he likes to hunt and feed on his prey, the hunt excites him,” she said to herself as she walked carefully towards the stream, watching for any tracks she might find.
It didn't take her long to start hearing the murmur of water flowing down its course. Before she reached the stream, she looked for some bushes to hide behind, and only when she was sure she would not be seen did she peek out. The moonlight fell on the clear surface of the water, and seemed to reflect on the cinanthrope's dense white coat, highlighting its color, as well as the crimson spot on his side. He was sitting on the rocks, in a very human-like posture no dog would ever adopt, and was gazing thoughtfully at a stone he was holding in one of his humanoid hands.
For a few minutes she remained silent, unable to take her eyes off him. He was a very handsome creature, well proportioned, with strong legs, a dense white mane over his shoulders, and well-toned chest and arms. His muzzle was somewhat shorter than a wolf's, and his features were pleasant. His tail was thick, and had a slight curvature that let her know that, at rest, it curled over his back. She was so engrossed in watching him that, when he suddenly moved, she almost jumped. The male, however, did not notice her. He simply let out a deep sigh and threw the stone into the stream, where it sank with a dry splash. Then he ducked his triangular Samoyed ears and looked up at the sky, at the full moon hanging overhead.
Sofia's heart broke when she saw the sadness in those blue eyes. Biting her lip, she thought about going over to talk to him. That creature seemed to be as lonely as she was, and Sofia knew that behind all that hair and that canine appearance there was a person just like her. They were not monsters. Whether they were in human form or dog form, the person inside was always the same. The only thing that was different was their appearance.
A slight movement of her leg spooked a rabbit that had been hiding in the undergrowth, unnoticed by both her and the cinanthrope. Startled by the dashing creature, Sofia jumped back and fell to the ground, where she remained seated in full view of the cinanthrope, who had turned at the sound of the commotion. When he saw her, the sadness suddenly left his blue eyes, and in them arose fear, not of her, but of being discovered for what he really was. With the fur on his back bristling and a whimper in his throat, the weredog stood up on all fours and dashed towards the forest's depths.
“Wait!” Sofia shouted, holding out her hand to him.
It was no use. After leaping across the stream, he ran until his white fur disappeared in the thick undergrowth. The sound of his footsteps, which were surprisingly quiet, soon faded as well. For a few minutes Sofia sat there, staring into the shadows of the forest, and bit her lip. She understood why he had fled, but she only wanted to help him, especially after seeing how sad and lonely he was.