Chapter Five: Candid Canidae

Leo awoke shivering. He wasn’t dreadfully cold, but Vela’s body temperature had certainly dropped a little as she slept. He contemplated a moment whether he could tolerate the chill he was feeling, blinking groggily. He couldn’t have been asleep for long at all, though he had no way of telling for sure underground. He lied still for another moment and then made up his mind that he’d get a better day’s rest if he was more comfortable. He wriggled out from between Vela’s breasts and shivered even more after freeing himself. It was relatively warm this far down, but it was still considerably colder than he was used to. He thought about his options. He could try to get underneath Vela... or even... no. Best not to mess with the sleeping vampire without prior discussion. Finding clothes was the simplest, safest option. He sort of wished he had been inside her stomach. He didn’t imagine the cool air would be much of a bother in there.

He turned to try and look at Vela’s sleeping face. With her glowing eyes shut, and her not breathing at all, he wasn’t even exactly sure if he was looking in the right direction. He wasn’t sure where anything was. He wondered where the clothes he was wearing had gotten to. Leo looked around in the utter darkness. He wouldn’t be able to find them easily. He settled on his change of clothes in his bag. They were in her pants pocket. Her pants would be a lot easier to find. They were much bigger after all.

He walked down Vela’s torso. It was relatively easy to navigate since she slept as still as stone. He thought her skin even felt a little harder and less responsive under his feet. As he reached her waist, memories from earlier flashed through his mind. What a night they had had! He never would have guessed in a million years that he’d make it with a two-century-old woman beautiful in every way. Body and mind. Outside and inside. He got goosebumps thinking about the love they had shared.

He hopped down from her body and began walking alongside her right leg. When he reached her feet, he found her trousers bunched up directly beyond. He felt around in them until he got a sense for their crumbled shape and finally located the pocket into which he had seen her place his satchel. In short order, he had pulled on pants and just sat down to pull on a shirt when a strange noise reached his ears. He paused momentarily to listen for it to happen again. There was nothing. He began to put his arms through the sleeves, then it was back. What was that? Scratching? It seemed to be coming from near Vela’s head. He slung his bag across his back and darted over to the suspected origin.

When Leo got past Vela’s head, his ears were better able to home in on the intermittent sound. He followed it until he bumped into the tube Vela had constructed for air. It was emanating a strange sound. He stood there and listened to it for a while, trying to make sense of the sound. Then, it dawned on him. It was... sniffing? He placed his head in the pipe for a better listen and was startled into brief terror. A deep, guttural growl made the whole tube buzz with the low frequency. Leo jumped away from the tube in fear. What in the name of heaven was that?

He stared blindly at the ceiling as if it would tell him the answer. Then, a new sound permeated his ears. It sounded like muffled, though loud, scratching. It was constant. And it was quickly getting louder.

“No. Oh, no!” Leo shouted. Something was digging them up! “No, no, no, no!” He repeated over and over again as he leapt onto Vela’s body and dashed up to her face. He began to press on her face, screaming at her to wake up. “Vela! Vela, something is digging for us! Wake up! Vela, for the love of all creation, wake up!”

He climbed onto her face and tried to lift one of her eyelids. He couldn’t even budge it. He hopped down and shouted into her ears. He knew it had to be pointless. She wouldn’t wake during the day. Perhaps it was impossible. Leo had to do something about this. He couldn’t let them expose Vela to sunlight. He couldn’t let anything happen to her. He would have to act on his own. He nodded. No one was going to hurt his Vela. Not while he still drew breath.

He reached into his bag and pulled on his extra boots faster than he ever had before. He would need boots to fight whatever it was up there. Now fully clothed, he sprinted back to the pipe and pulled himself inside it. It was just wide enough to accept his little body. It was snug and made climbing difficult, but he was fortunate that Vela had driven it into the earth at a slight angle, so it was a sloped climb instead of a struggle up a vertical shoot.

Leo was sweating and cursing his entire way up the tube. He had no idea what his plan was, but anything was better than just sitting down there and waiting for them to kill Vela. As he neared the exit, he noticed that light was shining at an angle into the end of the path, and he was doubly motivated to propel himself along.

He reached the end, grabbed the edge in either hand, and shot out the makeshift air shaft like a bullet, easily able to propel his little body over a foot into the air. He twisted in the light of the early morning and got a good look at their assailant. It was a beast of enormous proportions. Leo’s heart was filled with terror. He had no idea what he could do to such a monster. He landed silently on the hard ground and ran around behind it. It had already managed to dig what he estimated was three feet deep. There was no time to think; only act. He cupped his hands and shouted.

“Hey! You! Beast! Over here! Look at me!” He was shouting as loudly as he could, but the ghastly thing just kept plowing into the earth with its huge, clawed hands. Leo has to think fast. He noticed its tail was swaying just above the ground on the edge of the hole. Without thinking, Leo ran up and grabbed the beast by its tail and yanked as hard as he could. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the monster froze. Its big black ears pivoted, and then it twisted its body to look back at him with one, enormous, golden eye.

Leo’s heart turned to ice. He released the tail and began to back away slowly. The beast turned around and his blood ran cold as he saw its dirt-caked claws pull the thing up and out of the hole.

“Well, that worked,” Leo said in a pitiful, squeaky voice. Leo kept backing up until he tripped over a large root, and he just sat there, dumbfounded and terrified as the monster loomed above him. Its many, jagged teeth bared in a hideous snarl. It roared at him, sending hot air and spit flying at his face. He shielded his eyes from it. When it arrived directly in front of Leo, it brought its long snout down to bear with him. Leo was sure he was about to be shredded to ribbons. His wide eyes kept shooting back and forth between the eyes of the beast locked on him and its massive, dripping maw. He was surely going to die. But at least he had possibly distracted it from Vela. Leo closed his eyes and looked away, incapable of looking such a grim death in the face.

But nothing happened.

Leo opened one eye after the expected seemed to be transforming into the anticlimactic. The creature’s face was mere inches from his own. Its hot breath washing over him as it snorted out of its nostrils. Then, instead of devouring him or pummeling him as he expected, it began to sniff at him. Its curious nose probed at him cautiously, and then bumped into his face. It was cold. Then, the creatures mouth began to open once more, but instead of chomping down on Leo like a single, small scrap of meat, the beast licked him with its hot, wet, broad tongue. The lick lifted Leo off his feet for a second before he dropped to the ground and landed back on his butt. Trails of thick, viscous saliva stretched between them as the tongue separated from his face. Leo wiped spit from his eyes. For someone who had quite recently discovered how erotic and enjoyable a nice tongue bath could be, Leo was thoroughly grossed out.

“Disgusting!” Leo said, grimacing. The creature didn’t appear offended. It just stood there and panted happily. “Well that was unexpected. What on earth are you?” As if to answer his question, the animal stood up on its hind legs and released a blood chilling and deafening howl before falling back town on all fours. Leo suddenly understood what he was dealing with.

“My gosh. You’re the werewolf! The tension that had been building up inside of him began to subside. Vela appeared to be correct as she was about most things. The werewolf was no threat to a borrower. Once it, or ‘she,’ had determined he was no human, she had switched off of ‘kill-mode.’ Now, she seemed to Leo to be no more than a dog, albeit a massive, malformed one. He thought the creature must stand eight feet tall on her hinds like that. Her limbs were thin, but he could see the muscles rippling below the fur. And it wasn’t black as he had first thought, but a dark grey. That was easier to tell now that the sun was rising higher.

The sun! That reminded him. He looked at the sun. It was now wholly above the horizon. It was still early morning though. Then, it occurred to Leo as strange that the werewolf was still... well, a wolf.

“Shouldn’t you be back to normal by now?” Leo asked. She just eyed him without understanding. “Just a dog. Just a big, big dog,” Leo said. “Well, good girl. Uh... sit, or, heel or something. Just. Don’t. Dig. You’ll kill my friend.” He said aloud more for himself than for the benefit of the werewolf. She just sat down wagging her tail. Then, she did something Leo would have much preferred she hadn’t done. The wolf sprang forward and looked as if it was going to eat him after all. Leo yelped, rolling over, and tried to scramble away. He felt its mouth closing in at his back, but instead of snapping him up, its front teeth grabbed delicately onto his satchel.

Leo was hoisted helplessly into the air, dangling like a toy from the fangs of the werewolf. Then, the wolf began to run.

“Hey! No! Bad, bad girl! Dog! Bad girl-dog! Put me down! Are you listening to me! Drop me this instant!” Leo kept attempting to chastise the animal, but it was no use. He was being taken for a ride somewhere. He would just have to count on surviving the ordeal. Surely Vela would be able to follow this animal's stinky trail. He looked around as he was carried and saw the nearly full moon just at the edge of the horizon. It would set momentarily.

“Well that explains that. The moon and the sun don’t take turns. What rotten timing!”

Leo was thankful that his satchel was so well-made. He’d have hated for this to ruin it. Or to be dropped at such high speeds. After only a few minutes, the werewolf approached a shallow cave. It entered the den and lowered its head, dropping Leo daintily into the cold dirt. He dusted himself off and checked his pack. It was disgustingly saturated in spit, but otherwise unharmed, as was he.

“Well, so nice of you to put me down. Now, you listen— “Leo began. Then, he was stunned to silence as the werewolf abruptly collapsed onto her side and curled up. She appeared to be in pain. Was she hurt? She was breathing heavily. He cautiously made his way around her front, examining her wolf-body carefully. Sure enough, he saw the cause if her suffering. There was a dagger protruding from the quadricep on her left leg. The dark fur was matted with blood, and more seemed to ooze out before Leo’s very eyes. He wondered how he hadn’t noticed it sooner. He supposed he had been distracted by the rest of her too much to detect details other than her terrifying maw.

“Oh, gods. You’re badly wounded! W-what should I do?” He was at a loss. He just kept his distance. The wolf lied on her side and stared into Leo’s eyes pitifully. He began to feel terribly sorry for her. She wasn’t digging at them for murder. She needed help. She had probably exhausted the last of her strength returning to this den.

Leo felt helpless. So, as opposed to doing nothing, he approached the wolf’s snout and placed his hand on it. She shied away for a moment, then relaxed under his touch. Her breathing slowed a bit, calming down from the short run.

“It’s okay, girl. It’s going to be okay, Leo kept repeating. “I’ll help you. Just hold on. Don’t bleed to death.”

Leo stood there stroking her snout for a while. Eventually, the wolf’s eyes slid shut. He worried that she was succumbing to her wound, but then something else started to happen. Her body began to shorten. The fur was retreating into her skin. The snout became less pronounced. Her claws turned into fingers. She was transforming back into a woman! Leo backed away and watched the transformation with fascination. In under a minute, the werewolf had become an unconscious girl. Her body was pale and covered in scars. Her hair was light gray and struck a stark contrast with her otherwise youthful body. He wondered if gray hair was a symptom of lycanthropy. Then, Leo was struck by something else noteworthy about the woman. She was tremendously fit. Her arms were more muscular than most human men’s he had seen. Her whole body was built like steel cables. She looked incredibly strong.

Leo then realized he was, indeed, scrutinizing the body of a naked woman and remembered his shame. She wasn’t a specimen, no matter how intriguing her condition made her. He cleared his throat.

“Ex-excuse me? Miss?” She didn’t respond. “Miss, can you hear me? Are you alive?” The woman groaned painfully. Her eyes snapped open. They were still bright gold. Another striking difference from any human he’d ever seen. No wonder werewolves couldn’t blend in. She stared at him with no expression on her face, unblinkingly. Leo felt a little intimidated by her eyes. They burned with pain and fury. He thought the woman was more frightening than the wolf. He wasn’t deterred.

“Miss. You’re hurt. You need my help. What can I do?” Her eyes remained locked on him for a few seconds, and then they pivoted to a spot behind him. She kept looking back and forth between him and the other spot. He turned around and saw that she had been signaling him with her eyes. There was a pile of leaves. He ran over to it and forced his way inside the pile. The leaves were concealing a bag. He tugged on it, but it was too heavy for him.

Suddenly the woman croaked weakly.

“Lay... keht...”

“What was that?” The woman made a pained face. Closed her eyes and spoke very slowly.

“Blan-ket.” Leo understood. He found the clasps of the bag and quickly undid them. He squirmed into the bag and found that she had a big, wool blanket at the very top. Lucky break. He grabbed it by a corner and dragged it out of the bag with all his might. It took him many minutes, but eventually, he was able to cover the girl up and tuck the blanket under her as best he could. He left it loose around the dagger wound, not wanting to press on its handle.

“Thank you.” She said.

“Of course. Anything I can do. I’m afraid for that stab wound. I’m afraid you might bleed out,” he said.

“L-later. Little later. Still weak.”

“Okay. Okay, but how much later? I think you’ll only get weaker the more blood you lose.” Her eyes opened again, and she glared at him. Then, the fire seemed to go out of them.

“S-sorry... so much pain... poison... you’re right...”

“Poison?”

“Silver...” she said. Her eyelids fluttered and closed. She exhaled deeply.

“Well that can’t be good,” Leo said. He walked back to her right leg and hopped on it. He pulled the blanket up over the dagger.

“Should I remove it?”

“Can... you?” He didn’t know. He touched the handle, and the girl winced in pain. “No!” She said with more sharpness and strength than Leo had heard from her yet. “Too deep. Oh, hell...” she groaned. Leo thought that dagger was embedded in bone. He’d have no hope getting it out anyway. Best he could do was stop the bleeding.

“Your bag. Got any medical supplies?”

“Cloth. Alcohol.” Leo hopped down and went to work. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

After about an hour of dealing with her outbursts of rage and subsequent, apologetic pleading, Leo managed to clean and dress the wound. First, he took the knife from his bag and cut off many large strips of cloth he had found. Then he drank the remainder of his water and filled it up with the strong booze she had in her bag. He had used the knife to poke a hole in the cap and left it in as a plug. It took him many trips to clean her, and she wasn’t making it easy. Twitching and jerking her leg each time the stuff touched the wound. He finished by packing the cloth in around the knife edge. But this point the woman had become somewhat lethargic. He was worried for her life but didn’t know what else he could do.

Once he was satisfied that the bleeding was at least under control, he hopped down and made his way back up near her face. He sat down, exhausted. He looked at her tired face. Her eyes now remained closed. She appeared to be sleeping. Leo needed sleep too. His sleep schedule was wrecked, and he had been heavily exerting himself a lot. He considered making his way back to Vela but decided that she would have to find him. He collapsed onto the ground and fell asleep almost instantly.