The valley was the same as it was when he left it. The trees were in their proper place, and he knew where he was. He was about a mile down the mountain side from his burrow. He was curious to see his home. He started up the mountain. The work of the climb felt good and the wind on his naked back was wonderful. He pushed himself to run. His human legs felt a little weak, especially since he had gotten used to being a werewolf over the past two days. He was happy to be human again, but he wouldn’t have minded if some of that werewolf strength remained in his body. Shaking the thought aside he pushed himself to run up the mountain.
He remembered every tree. He passed the familiar clump of pine trees to his left. He ran past the solitary Douglas fir on his right. He had always liked that tree. For some reason he always felt a little like decorating it and having his very own Christmas Tree in his forest. He never did, of course, but just the thought of having something pure from civilization with him out here in the wilderness was always a comfort.
He approached the familiar place in the forest where his burrow rested. The mound of mud and clay looked the same as it had when he had been forced to leave his forest. The thought of being driven out of his home still stung.
He studied the outside of his burrow and it looked exactly like it had when he had finished building the thing. It looked sturdy and well built. He walked around to the portal and opened the door. The inside was dark, but he could tell that everything was in its proper place. He walked over to his bed and flopped down on the soft skins. Being in complete darkness surrounded by soft, warm fur was euphoric. He lay there and let his eyes close. He wasn’t concerned about anything right then. At this moment he was just happy to be home and he was going to enjoy it for as long as he could.
His eyes shot open as a howl ripped through the still night. He knew that howl. It’s the old grey. He started to get up then he realized that he was in his human form. I can’t go out there like this, they’ll rip me apart. The old grey’s howl echoed out through the forest again. He was calling out to him. The thought of the old grey calling to him was something that had never happened before. Maybe it had and he just hadn’t understood what was going on. There had been several nights when he would be lying in his burrow, and he would hear the wolves call out to each other. He hadn’t been sure of what they had been saying but for some reason he understood the language of his pack now. The old grey was calling for him to join them on the mountain.
The urge to get up and answer the call was instinctive. He was lost in the song of the call, and he found himself getting up and exiting his burrow. He realized that what he was doing was crazy, but he didn’t care. Besides, he could always change back into his werewolf form if he needed to. He made his way up the mountain. The wind brought the subtle and almost invisible scent of his pack to his nose. He knew that if he was in his werewolf form, he would be able to tell a lot more about his pack from the scent, but he couldn’t, so he didn’t dwell on it.
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The old grey’s howl broke out into the night again but this time it was answered by the other wolves of the pack. He dug into the mountain side and pushed his body up the moderate slope toward the meeting place.
He broke through the tree line without thinking and saw the whole of his pack mingling on the moon bathed rock of the mountain. He was so happy to see them he walked toward them. The old grey was the first to see him and a growl issued from deep within his throat. The rest of the pack was quick to turn and issue challenges of their own to this newcomer.
William was a little shocked to see his whole pack issue a challenge to him. He looked at them and his eyes hardened. He responded to the growl with one of his own. Hearing himself his eyes opened in shock as he suddenly became aware of the fact that he was still in his human form. He tried to transform himself.
His pack started to approach him. He knew that the look in their eyes meant death and he was having a very hard time concentrating. He tried to close his eyes and calm his body. The sound of wolves growling at him drowned out all other thoughts and instead of surrendering he was filled with a dread that he had known only a few times in his life. He wanted to run but knew that would mean his death, just as surely as standing here doing nothing would end in his death.
He started to back away from his pack. He tried to remember the feelings of what it was like in the underground lake. He would have loved to have the last few minutes back to have the time to figure all this out without his former pack closing in ready to kill him. He moved backwards but the pack was moving toward him. The old grey was in the lead and the rest of the pack followed him.
Whether it was the growing panic he felt at the thought of being ripped to shreds by his former pack, or not having a clear grasp of changing from human to werewolf form, he was not changing. He was still very much human, and his pack still very much looked like they were going to kill him. He didn’t know what to do, but he was not going to harm his pack. Just when he had decided to make a break for it and run down the mountain, he heard another challenging howl ring out into the night.
His former pack turned toward the sound and William saw what it was that had made the sound. The form of a werewolf was silhouetted against the pale white of the semi-full moon behind it. He couldn’t make out any coloring on the werewolf at all. For the moment it was nothing more than a huge shadow, colorless with no definitive markings that he could make out.