Dear Fellow Traveler,
With a low growl the blond stretched his body awake as the sun started to rise above the mountain peaks. The sky turned colors as the stars hid away, and the sun's light darted about the land, bathing everything in it's glow to wake up the world.
Including the mated pair.
The two wolves had eaten their fill the night before, and had a peaceful rest on the cleaned and dried deer pelt, not caring about being out in the open. The makeshift camp site was small, but manageable for the two. Looking to his side the blond man could see that his mate was still deep in his dreams, his long black hair spread every which way. So the blonde just smiled and kissed his black covered head.
Must be his turn to make breakfast.
He gave another yawn before going to get dressed and heading down to the river. The nature that played in the sun was still waking up, while the creatures that lived for the moon hid away for their turn to rest. Jesse and his mate were caught between the two sides.
This time, they would travel under the sun.
Down close to the edge of the river was a cooler with where the two had stored away the remaining meat from a recent hunt, the liver was already eaten, along with the heart. The head had been buried with the other organs the two couldn’t properly process by hand, so they returned to the earth what couldn't be eaten.
It had been a few days, so they had managed to finish off enough of the small buck for its remaining meat to fit in a medium sized zip up cooler rather than being wrapped in the tent tarp.
“Pity we aren’t near a shop, we could have made sausages,” Jesse sighed slightly before going to grab a nicely sized bit of meat to use in their breakfast.
Throughout the years they had visited shops that would process the meat from hunts for them, especially when selling some of the meat. Deer meat sausages were one of Jesse’s favorites. But it was back to salting the meat when it was time to move on.
They could sell the hooves, hide and antlers for a bit of money later, they only had a few eggs left, and just enough veggies for sandwiches later, at least from what Jesse could tell from looking over the separate zip up section of the cooler.
Even after making the walk back and forth, Blue was still fast asleep. The blond smiled, his mate insisted he wasn’t an old dog, but he certainly slept heavy like one. But Jesse loved him.
Starting up the fire again, the blond cut the slab of mean into strips enjoying the nice amount of fat the rump had, and no doubt the smell would finally wake the native man. He unbent the compatible cookware, and started to make venison and fried eggs. Jess liked his scrambled with pepper, and Blue liked a soft yoke with sunny side up. Next to the pans, he hung a kettle for coffee, and the campsite filled with the smell of a fresh breakfast.
Sure enough the black wolf started to stir, and he wasted little time draping himself over his mates back with a sleepy yawn. “Good morning sweet pea.” Jesse chirped, pecking Blue on the lips lightly, “Good morning, treasure.”
In truth, the two supernaturals didn’t need to cook their food to be able to eat it safely, more often than not, that's how they ate a majority of their prey, but it was still a nice change of pace to prepare their food.
Times had changed in 50 years though, and it made things a bit more difficult to sell parts of their hunts, but like everything, they adapted best they could. Hell Jesse even had a license to legally sell and hunt, but some areas were a bit harder than others.
So moments like this, where the two could choose to be wolves or men and simply love each other were always precious, without the outside worlds interference. This was how they lived and loved.
Once the food was finished the two mated wolfmen started eating happily. They had stayed in that area long enough, so it was time to move on.
The campsite was cleaned up and their possessions packed away quickly before they moved on. They dressed for the walk, put on their sunglasses, to cover their eyes, and slipped on their coats. With their bags packed and the cooler on wheels retrieved from the river, the two men made the hike to the road, to follow it to their next destination.
The only thing left behind was the deers grave, the bone scraps they buried for the next time they passed by, and the deep scratch marks in the trees.
·[❇]·
Their day had started out so peacefully with it only being the two of them, but the peacefulness was interrupted once they had an unlucky encounter. Well.
Unlucky for the other guys at least.
You see-
After 50 years of living together, they had experienced a lot, though Blue had experienced much more than Jesse. Despite all the bigots, drunks, and generally rude people in the world, the most obnoxious group they would encounter, were always the greenhorns that tried too hard to take a nip at their elders.
Looking in from the outside, to anyone else, the pair looked like normal people who were either drifters or hitchhikers. To other supernatural beings though, they could at least glimpse at their true nature.
But maybe that was too complicated for a trio of supernatural teens to understand. While it wasn't to say adults, or even older creatures didn't start conflicts, at least they weren't so needless, or after so quickly.
For example-
As Blue popped off the cap of the bottle of beer, he was coming down from the jolt of adrenaline, his pelt under his free arm, and his foot pressed down on the teens back.
The older wolf let out a sigh after downing half of his drink before looking back down at the now docile pup, a Caucasian boy who was still partly shifted into his true nature. There were three of them all together, a trio of “wolf children” who hadn’t yet grown into their paws, let alone their fangs.
Blue took a moment to take a good look at the pup below him, then glanced over at his two friends who were lying about groaning, Jesse keeping them pinned by the scruffs of their necks. Brown pelts to match their hair, no distinct or extravagant markings other than darker brown paws and ears, so it seemed they were blood of the same pack. The one under Blue was the largest, the one in Jesse's right hand a clip in his ear, while the one on the right had a blackened muzzle while wolves.
Though in their hidden forms, the three were distinct enough in overall appearance to not be so unified. Maybe they were cousins.
Before the attack started, the wolf pair had taken notice of the three as they drove passed in a beat up pickup truck, as they walked along the road. The two were aware enough to feel the 3 sets of eyes watching them closely for quite a while as they walked. They were keeping the would be prey insight, and seeing as neither men could hear chatter, it was obvious this had been planned to some sloppy extent.
The three pups were just learning to hunt, and had plenty to learn from this.
They knew to keep their distance for a time, however children could be impatient, so the adults took the first step, turning into the forest off the road, to give them a push to speed things up. Blue loved playing with children, but the two had somewhere to be, so this time, it would need to be cut short.
While they atleast had the state of mind to not yet to show their true nature out in the open, both men soon saw just how inexperienced or rather, just how full of themselved, the trio were, once the chase really began.
Presuing them deeper beyond the trees, the forest was lively with foreign noise and uproar as the three started to sprint towards the pair, unaware how quickly things would be turned on them.
Whether the trio meant to kill, or just wound, it didn't matter, because regardless, their actions were still considered clumsy by an experienced adult. They had been too loud in their race through the trees, and could be heard laughing from a mile away, giving away which direction they were "attacking" from.
Once the presuit stopped in a small clearing within the trees, the three pups showed their true nature as they leaped from the brush, to began their attack. Normally, wolves hunted in a pack, spread out and circled their prey. They were careless and sloppy, even for beginners.
They snapped their jaws and took low prowling postures at failed intimidation attempts, the circle becoming smaller with each cycle, the illusion of them being wolves having long been broken. They had done a decent job of circling the two, but instead of acting like wolves on a hunt, they were over excited and giggling like school children during a game.
Revealing themselves was a harsh blunder.
They had broken all the natural rules of a supernatural within minutes, and hadnt even noticed the two men's lack of reaction. Both men had seen enough, they needn't let this game go on much further, now it was time the pups were properly taught.
A thick, repulsive musk flooded the air, it smelled of death himself. The musk was usually used as a warning, but this time it would be used to put a trio of unruly brats in their place.
The pair watched as the wolves jaws fell open, their pale gold eyes widening and their ears curling back as the pair of skinwalkers grew taller, and taller as their fur spread across and melding to their bodies. Their joints popping and cracking as their bodies changed shape, even though it was a relatively quick change, but horrifying to watch nonetheless for a trio of first timers. They watched frozen in place, as the two forms took unnatural shapes, limbs growing until they were long and lanky, necks extending to be far longer than any canines. Their faces had stretched into oddly shaped muzzles with mouths full of uneven, jagged teeth, their hands adorned with long, almost spider-like, boney fingers and thick black claws.
The bodies too the shape of mismatched bones with a wolves pelt being stretched thin over them just to barely fit without tearing. By all means, the two looked like they shouldn't have been able to stand, let alone move as fluidly as they did. Their heads were like lollipops on crooked sticks, their mouths stretched into permanent unsettling smiles. The glow of their blue eyes made all the more haunting with the blackened eye flesh surrounding the unnatural vivid color as it stared deep into the three wolf children.
It left the three frozen in fear at the sight of the 10 foot tall supernaturals in front of them. It was time to teach them to pick smarter fights, and perhaps learn self awareness.
Their moment of hesitation gave the two a long enough chance to swing back their unnaturally long almost whip like arms, and swung with enough force to send two of them flying. To their credit, the teens didn’t back down easily after the attack, so the pair had to take care not to kill them by accident.
The one Blue had later pinned, the largest of the three, put up the most of a fight, the pup lunged at him, his large paws and strong legs helping to climb the skinwalkers tall form while he had the chance. He had aimed for Blue's long out stretched neck with eager fangs, and was fast enough to snap his teeth down like a bear trap.
While even an adolescent wolf child could have powerful jaws, Blue’s skin was too tough, and the teens bite was too shallow to even be called a kill shot. He was too green for that. The larger teen's hesitation to sink his fang didn't leave him enough grip, as the long bony fingers entangled him in a iron grip, with a hard tug, Blue yanked the pup off him and tossed him to the ground like a ragdoll. The wolf landed with a loud thud, and the black skinwalker could hear the air get knocked out of him.
The other two weren’t as tough as their assumed alpha, while they were smart to aim for Jesse's ankles and tendon, attempting to bring him down from below, their jaws weren't strong enough to even tear the skin. The two thrashed their heads around trying to dig in their teeth, loud snarls escaping as they did, but it was pointless.
All it really took was Jesse snatching the two by their scruffs and giving them a good slam to the ground to daze them into submission, before giving them both a bite on their shoulders, just enough to leave a light scar later.
A little reminder of their screw up.
Although, the fight might not have started, if the two had given off their musk as a warning during the prosute, every so often, unruly pups needed to be reminded not to act too big for their pelts. Doing that would get them killed if they couldn't even detect other supernaturals within a mile of them.
It was a painful mercy, but a mercy none the less. Blue wanted pups of his own but they were shown to be such handfuls.
At that point, the three had either realized they were beaten, or too sore to get up, so they laid on the ground watching the two giants to see what they would do next.
Reaching up and around to where the neck and shoulders connected, the two skinwalkers started peeling off their pelts, the monstrous forms almost deflating like balloon toys as they returned to their hidden forms. The pups looked on in abject horror once again as the two practically removed their true nature like how someone would take off a costume.
Instead of bloody or even slimy, like peeling off a cocoon, the two men were sweaty, but relatively normal looking as the pelts pooled at their feet. Minus a few after affects (mainly enlarged pointed ears and the black eyes) that were slower to melt away.
Aside from the shoes they had slipped out of while turning, both men were fully clothed and the pelts that had once been their skin morphed to look like a pair of normal coats. "Heavens to betsy," the blond man started as he leaned down to pick up his now broken sunglasses he had been wearing, "Looks like I'll need to get another pair again." Jesse sighed as Blue picked up a beer. Neither looked dazed or even a little bit tired, even after their bodies made such drastic changes. They were sweaty, but that was basically the extent.
It was a sharp contrast to how the three teens had changed, at least they looked like normal wolves when their true nature showed, it was unsettling enough to make the larger one try to crawl away. He was quickly pinned as Blue slammed his foot down on the teens back, ripping a loud "YIPE"out of his throat.
“Careful Blue, he’s still a pup,” Jesse reasoned as he grabbed the two other pups, who, despite being scared shitless, were now docile as they were grabbed by back of their shirts and hoisting them to their unsteady feet.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t break anything important.” Blue laughed before taking a moment to pause and look over the three. The larger teen made a gulping sound as his instincts warned him not to provoke the man futher.
Blue chuckled before taking his foot off and picking the wolf child up by his arm. “Okey boys, let's get you home, so me and my mate can let your mothers’ know what you runts were up to.”
That was the scariest thing the two did during the whole “fight”.
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