Fang
Chapter 13: It's just a transport, 'Chill'

To prepare me for what I would soon face Ian showed me the rout he had travelled to his den in the past similar to the one we were on and more importantly what lay ahead. The whole explanation on transport was funny to me. I was baffled as he showed me humans climbing into or on top of big hollow wooden things that had horses tied to it.

“These are what the very first settlers used.” Ian had proudly explained.

“Where they sick or lame?”I asked focusing on the image closely.

“No. Why would you think that?” He was not happy that I was not impressed with the human ‘transport’ things.

“Why not use their paws then?” I scoffed noticing that the transport things where very slow.

Ian drew himself up and stalked off. Before night fall he was back with what he hoped would be a better explanation. This time he showed me humans climbing into even bigger things that floated on the water.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Humans must be very slow and lazy.” I concluded. Unable to swim and unwilling to use their own paws.

“We are part human. You are at least partly human…” He stalked off again muttering to himself.

Michael and Allison thought his behaviour very funny but tried not to laugh at him. I just didn’t get it…what if I never do? Not a very pleasant thought. If I could not understand what they tried to teach me I could never hope to make my pack proud and return home.

Michael did not like me thinking of returning home and I started to suspect that he was trying to keep my mind from thinking it. He would distract me with stories of his pack members or other fascinating images whenever he caught me reminiscing.

My life sure had changed an awful lot in a very short time. It was getting more and more interesting but also a whole lot more scary at the same time.

I was very anxious that I wouldn’t make it all the way to their den or The Compound as Ian thought of their den, in human form. I did not wish to behave badly. LongFang had told me to make them proud and I would do my best to do just that. It meant that I should follow their Alpha as my own but also that I should blend in and try and be as welcoming to them as they had been towards me.

It also worried me that the longer we travelled the more individuals joined in the mind connection. Could this really be only one pack? Already it was twice the size of my old pack. Would they all accept me? Was my biggest worry. It made me glad that although each new addition to the mind was curious about me none questioned my validity in their midst. Ian said they know better than question the Alpha and that they also knew him well enough to know he would explain at a better opportunity.

We reached a clearing and there to my surprise stood one of the transport things Ian kept thinking of.

“Finally.”Ian smiles.

I’m too torn between staying with them and going to inspect the thing to acknowledge his thoughts.

Michael and Allison changed to human form, strange that I only now realize Allison always seeks out a hidden area to change, they were having a long conversation using the human sounds. Some of them I understood a little but I couldn’t keep up with how fast they were making the words. I did notice that like wolfs their language too did not consist of only sounds but also using small signs. The Alpha’s twitching jaw made it clear that he was worried about something. The Beta’s soothing paw motions was not helping him calm down at all.

Ian motions for me to leave them alone and we head over to the human transport thing.

“Jeep.” Ian corrects my thought. “It’s called a Jeep and this baby is one super pimped out version if I have to say so myself.”

He is bragging but why I don’t understand. Ian and the new pack uses a lot of description’s like pimped out that I don’t understand but this one sounds good and I repeat it a couple of times so that I will remember it later on.

“Time to change big boy.” Ian smiles and changes into human form.

I don’t like this part of the journey. This new bigger stronger Werewolf version of me makes me feel more comfortable than I had since first killing Jenny. I want to explore this body’s limits the idea of being a human now after feeling what it was like to be Werewolf was really not appealing.

Ian waves a paw in front of my face to get my attention. “Jessie …...” He says and his tone implies it all no need for me to understand the rest of his words.

I sit up and change the way Ian had been showing me. Slower more controlled less painful. Ian had showed me another strange human thing while we were in wolf form called a headset and screen. I knew what he expected of me now that we reached the transportation Jeep.

First I would have to put on furs that was not furs called clothes. Humans wore it to cover up. Not sure what cover up is but he showed me images of what to do with the things he hands me now so I mimic them. The furs are very tight and uncomfortable.

To help me before we leave Ian changes back to wolf so I can understand him.

“In my defence I didn’t know we were bringing back a stray.” Ian laughs looking at me.

He thinks of the furs as too small for me. I move my limbs trying to stretch out some cramps and hear an awful sound. When I relax my arms the fur I had placed over my head falls away in pieces landing at my feet.

This only makes Ian laugh harder. His laughter draws Michael’s attention who stands still for a moment his paw in front of his mouth then he too does what go’s for human laughter.

Allison walks over smiling only and I’m thankful to her. I feel like they are laughing about something I had done but can’t phantom what it is this time. She tosses the fur away and walks around me looking at me from head to paws and back up again.

“Hold on he is just a pup.” Ian scolds her but she can’t hear him and finishes her walk around me.

Ian is mad at her but for the time being she has my full attention and I think I might be in trouble. There is a sudden sent about her that I had not notice with her having kept her distance from me up to now.

Then it hits me, she’s in heat. I try to get back from her respectfully. My wolf pack had very strict laws about what to do when a female goes into heat. You treat them with the utmost respect and stay out of their way at all cost.

My thoughts and actions send’s Ian into a laughing fit. He is choking he is laughing so hard. Michael is not doing any better lying next to Ian on the ground holding his human stomach as if he is in pain.

I feel over whelmed and anxious and change into my wolf form. “Enough.” I growl frustrated turning and dashing off into the woods to go and calm down.

Michael comes and replaces me giving me enough space to cool down first. “Jessie please forgive me. All of this must seem very strange to you and not to mention our behaviour in human form.” He sighs laying down next to me.

“Yes.” I agree simply whishing again I could just open my mind to him so things will be easier in one small way at least. Keeping secrets from the Alpha is one of the things weighing heavily on my mind.

“We have asked much of you in the last couple of day’s and expect more still in the months to come.” There are too many emotions warring inside him to really pin down the dominant one. “Ian is wise and you will do well to dwell in his shadow for now. I know there are things he knows that he has found recently about you and your mother that he does not want to share with me yet. And I have made the choice not to delve for those things because I trust him as no other. He is my son he will not steer us wrong. You are my grandson first and foremost whatever else you are or become is second to this never doubt your place at my side.” He touches his nose to mine and I feel it like shock going though me.

I know he has not delved as he calls it I would have felt it as before but it’s like he sooths my unspoken worries.

“Now Ian’s humour on the other hand leaves much to be desired but in time I think you will come to depend upon it as I do.” He laughs lightening both our moods.

Together we head back to the clearing Michael sharing moments from Ian’s past as a very young pup with me. I have a feeling he shows them to me only and it makes me feel good to know my Alpha grandfather’s mind is as strong as LongFangs mind.

Earlier Ian explained that the thing he was placing on my lap now where I sit in the ‘back seat’ of the Jeep is used like a pack memory. Instead of keeping it in your mind you put it in the mind of the thing…device…and then you can look at it and hear it again later on.

While I had been calming down in the woods he had been busy putting memories on it that would help me with the human way of talking. I very nearly throw the thing down and bite it when it starts making human noises in my ears and I can’t see or sense the one they are coming from. Ian has his paws on my shoulders saying the one human word I have managed to say over and over. “Chill….chill…”

It means to be calm and looking into his eyes I become as that word. He is very pleased and turns to the other thing on my lap. “Laptop.” He mouths and I repeat it. As he opens it I see the human making the noises in my ear. I still can’t sense them and its disorientating.

Allison,who seemed to be avoiding me at the moment must still be mad that I mentioned the unmentionable. She turns and screeches at Ian and myself from time to time. I nod and smile hoping she will forgive me my blunder.

They do that sometimes the ones in heat it is to be expected and ignored. Eventually Ian climbs into the Jeep too and keeping his eyes on mine and his paws on my shoulder murmuring our word for calm nods to Michael.

A roar from a fearsome beast vibrates through my whole body. If not for Ian’s steady gaze I would have turned and fought my way to safety. He does not seem disturbed by it at all. The beast is making the transport vibrate as well. Cill….cill…cill… I repeat after Ian. When nothing happens my muscles relax slowly and Ian nods to Michael again this time the transport starts moving.

I had expected the transport to move but wasn’t prepared for how fast it would go. Maybe humans were not so lazy thinking up something like this I concede. Even though I can hear everyone talk human, not understanding is almost as bad as being in silence so I do what I think Ian is urging me to do. I focus on the female talking to me on the headphones looking at all the odd images she is showing. After a time the fact that she wants me to say what she is saying, like a mother with a cub learning for the first time I try to repeat.

“A is for Apple.” What I don’t understand is that if p is for Pineapple why not say Applepineapplepinepapplelemoneel. It would make the same amount of sense. In this way, with me listening to the non-female staring out of the opening in the transport as much as possible we pass from one moon to the next only stopping along the way to make water.

There are a lot of things I would like to ask them about the things I see while we drive but without words I have to wait. Sometimes I forget and reach for Grandfather knowing he would be able to answer in the pack mind even though he is in human form but Ian said not to use the Alpha voice since I am not an Alpha so I wait and wonder.