Raven: Chapter 3

Chapter 3:
         We began walking down the path where the two of them had reappeared. We hadn’t gone very far when Jinn came up beside me. He smiled quickly and brushed a wisp of dark hair out of his eyes.
         “Sorry,” he said, as we continued walking. “About before.”
         “What do you mean?” I asked. So many things had happened to me in the last day or so that I wasn’t sure what he could be referring to.
         “Back in L.A. At Sunrise Industries.” He paused. I’m sure he expected me to realize which particular event he was talking about. I shook my head. He sighed. “For scaring you so bad when I told you to get out of there.”
         Oh, that was Jinn.
         “I just didn’t want any innocents to get hurt.”
         I stopped in the middle of the path. Jinn turned to look at me, his dark eyes reflecting the light from the setting sun. The others continued moving.
         “Then why did you kill the night watchman?” The details of that night came flooding back to me. It had only been last night, but it felt like it was forever ago. “What were you all doing there?” At this point, I had everyone’s attention. “You weren’t there for me since you’ve all expressed surprise at the fact that I even exist! So what then?”
         They all stood around me, staring, their sharp eyes expressing a certain degree of panic, or at least alarm. Slowly, they turned to Whit.
         “This isn’t the time,” Whit began.
         I interrupted him, “Are you always this mysterious? I’ve been with you guys for a day and I’ve already had it up to here with this ‘we can’t tell you anything important’ bullshit!” My hand was held steadily above my head, indicating just how irritated I was with them and the situation.
         “We understand, and we’re sorry for that,” Whit said after taking a deep breath. “But the situation is… Delicate.”
         “I know we’ve asked a lot of you,” Ethan said. “And believe me, there’s a lot more that we’re going to ask. But we just need a little more time to be able to explain it all. Even though we haven’t told you why yet, we need you. And we need you to trust us. I need you to trust me.”
         My brother’s voice echoed in my mind. That sounded like something Evan would say. Evan. I suddenly wanted to talk to him.
         “I need to call my brother,” I blurted out. When I caught their suspicious looks, I added hastily, “To let him know that I’m safe.”
         “After the Gathering,” Whit said, running his hand through his black hair. “We’ll take care of all the loose ends after the Gathering is over.” His exasperation with me was painted across his face. “Let’s go.”
         Not far from where we had stopped, the path opened up into a clearing where a temporary stage had been erected. As we approached, I was amazed to see hundreds of people milling around. Some were finishing setting up metal folding chairs, while others were testing the sound equipment. Humans stood side by side with nine-foot tall monsters and feral wolves. The people looked as though they came from everywhere in the world and from every lifestyle. Men, women, children, lawyers, businessmen, potheads, homeless; they all stood together. I couldn’t believe that all of these hundreds of people were all like me. I glanced at the pack that had just taken me in. Like us.
         Whit ushered us over to some chairs and we took our seats. After a few moments, a wizened bag lady hobbled her way onto the stage, followed by a hulking man, no older than thirty. She stepped up to the microphone which had been lowered to just her height. She was short, dressed in rags, and her dark skin showed signs of both her old age and the wisdom earned from it. She had barely cleared her throat when the entire crowd fell silent. Standing there in front of hundreds of werewolves, the bag lady seemed out of place. And yet, with her tattered housecoat and her matted hair sticking out from beneath a soiled kerchief, she apparently commanded an enormous amount of respect. The man standing behind her was at least double her size. He crossed his thick arms over his chest and stood unwavering.
         Lara leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, “That’s one of the Elders. If you remember one thing from this Gathering, remember that if she talks, you listen. Do you know what I mean, love?”
         “We have,” the old woman began, interrupting my reply. Her voice was surprisingly powerful for coming from such a small frame. “A very precarious situation. We have learned that a den of Unravelers has taken over a nearby warehouse.” A murmur wafted through the crowd, but it was quickly silenced as the Elder continued, “As cliché as it is, it still presents a great danger to us. We must eradicate these… creatures before they grow enough in strength and number to reach us here. I fear we do not have as much time as we would like to deal with this. Unfortunately we have little choice.” She paused, surveying the crowd of warriors that were before her. She barked off a number of names, Whit’s among them. “These alphas will lead their packs in the destruction of this den. The other packs will remain to defend the park from the Unravelers should a retaliation occur. That’s about forty warriors for one den. As far as our intelligence teams have gathered, the den has no reason to suspect an attack, so forty warriors should be sufficient given the element of surprise.”
         I wasn’t entirely sure what all of this meant, but it really didn’t sound like something I wanted to be involved in. But I was. Whit had just been commanded to lead his pack, and me with them. And judging by the somber expression on his face, I had the feeling that there was no way out of this. An order from the bag lady was apparently not something that could be negotiated.
         After her brief announcement, the bag lady hobbled from the stage followed by her body guard. Others stood and began to make announcements of less importance, but no one was paying much attention any more. Whit stood and began to move through the crowd. Tyra took a step to follow, but he held out a hand to stop her. An angry grunt manifested in her throat as she sat back down in her chair. I shifted uncomfortably where I sat beside Lara, and tried unsuccessfully to follow what was taking place on the stage.
         A few moments later, Whit returned, leading the bag lady over to us. The pack stood as she approached, and I quickly followed suit.
         “Mama, this is our new pack mate. Raven. The lost pup.”
         My spine straightened instinctively as she stepped toward me, peering at me over broken reading glasses.
         “I would say that it’s nice to meet you, pup, but I think that under the circumstances such pleasantries are a moot point, don’t you think?”
         “Yes, ma’am,” I said, straightening even more. She nodded as she turned her attention back to Whit. I was thankful to be free of her stare. Standing in front of Whit, she seemed even smaller than she had on the stage as he towered above her. And yet there was a sense of humility in the way he spoke to her.
         “Whit,” she said. “As unfortunate as it is that you have such an inexperienced pup with you, I still need you focused on this.”
         Whit nodded. “I know. We all must be at our sharpest for this raid to succeed.”
         “No, I don’t think you understand. I need you focused on this because you know more about this den’s leader than anyone else does. Whit, this den is headed by Bïren.” At the mention of this name, the pack stiffened, all except Lara who sunk back into her chair muttering something under her breath. I looked at Ethan. He was staring at Mama, not moving, not blinking. As Mama walked away, I stood there silently wondering who Bïren was. Whit sighed heavily and glanced at us, his pack and me. His pack who were standing before him ready to follow him wherever he led them.
         “Ok,” Whit announced, clapping his large hands together sharply. “The raid happens tomorrow night, so we better get to work.” He looked at each of the werewolves in front of him. “We still have a lot to teach our young pup.”
         “Why tomorrow?” Tyra asked, looking anxious for a confrontation. “Odma bi ja to stvore ubila!”
         Lara rolled her eyes. “Tyra, love, we don’t speak Transylvanian.” At catching Whit’s glare she added, “Or Croatian, for that matter.”
         “I said, ‘I want to go kill those things right now.’”
         Whit shook his head. “Mama sent for reinforcements to help with both the raid and securing the park. They’ll be arriving by midday tomorrow. Ethan, take Raven and teach her what she needs to know.” He turned his light grey eyes to me. “Here. Mama wanted me to give you this.” Reaching into his jacket pocket, he produced a small, round pendant on a black cord. The pendant was silver in color with an imprint of a snarling wolf head. “Don’t lose this,” he commanded, placing the necklace around my neck. “Don’t ever let it leave your sight. Keep it on you at all times.”
         I nodded, not fully comprehending why this coin-shaped piece of metal was so important. As the cord slipped over my head and the metal came near my skin, I felt a surge of something; power maybe, or energy. Something I couldn’t place or describe. This new feeling was just one more to add to the myriad of emotions and experiences that I’d had in only the last twenty-four hours. Regardless, my surprise must have registered on my face because Lara threw her arm around my shoulder.”
         “Feels a bit off, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, love. It’ll go away in a minute.” She was right. It did. She smiled broadly. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve all got one.” Looking at those standing around me, I could see black cords disappearing beneath shirts and jacket collars. Lara’s, however, was out in the open, resting on her chest just above the line of her sage-colored blouse.
         “But what does it do?” I asked, looking down at my new piece of jewelry.
         “Something pretty nifty,” Lara replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
         Whit turned and headed back through the crowd the way that Mama had just gone. “I have some business to take care of with the elders. Ethan’ll look out for you until I get back,” he called over his shoulder. “Tyra, Jinn: come with me.” He hesitated. “Lara.” He considered her for a moment, standing there with her hands innocently in the pockets of her flaired jeans. He sighed. “Try to keep out of trouble.”
         Lara’s expression changed instantly to imply mock sincerity as she stamped her feet, heels together, and saluted him.
         “Now if you’ll excuse me, loves,” she said, turning toward Ethan and me as the others walked away. “I’ve got to go see a man about some beer. These Central Park wolves make the best ale in the whole Nation.” With those parting words of wisdom, Lara was gone, weaving her way effortlessly through the throngs of people.
         Ethan gave a wry smile, his dark eyes shining. “Let’s get going.” The two of us wandered back to more or less where we had started my new life lessons earlier that day.
         “Wait a second, Ethan,” I said, as a sudden realization struck me. “Was that Whit’s mother?”
         “What?”
         “Well, he called her ‘Mama.’”
         “Oh, no!” He laughed deeply. “Everyone calls her that.”
         “Oh. What’s her real name?”
         Ethan laughed again. “It’s… Actually, come to think of it, I don’t know. In fact, I’m not sure that anyone knows. We’ve all just always called her ‘Mama.’ Unless she’s mad at us, of course. Then we just say, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”
         “So, what’s next?” I asked cautiously. I almost didn’t want to know.
         Ethan thought about it for a minute. “Next,” he said. “I think we should go over Changing and how to control it.”
         I felt my face get hot. “But… I…” Not able to voice my embarrassment, I glanced nervously down at my clothing. I didn’t want to end up naked again.
         “What? Oh, right! No, that won’t happen any more. That’s what these are for,” he said, pulling his necklace out from under his shirt. “Whenever we Change our bodies create something like a mutable field. What these babies do is magnify and enhance that field to just above our skin so that anything we are wearing or carrying Changes with us, becoming part of us for the time that we are Changed.”
         I was astounded that such a small trinket could carry that kind of power. “How do they do that?”
         Ethan looked around to see that no one was coming. When he was satisfied that we were alone, he leaned in, right by my ear and whispered, “Magic.”
         “Really?” My voice was thick with amazement.
         He smiled at me and winked. “No, I’m just messing with you. Actually, we have a few guys who are some of the top researchers at MIT. It always amazes me what kind of shit those guys can come up with. Anyway, on with the lessons, right? Right. We’ll start off with the wolf form, seeing as how that one’s a little easier to explain.” He looked at me, sizing me up. “When you were a kid, did you ever pretend to be a dog?”
         I nodded slowly. I mean, what child doesn’t play pretend?
         “Ok,” he continued. “Well, it’s kind of like that. You want to imagine yourself as being a wolf. Picture your teeth getting longer and sharper. Your body getting leaner, you hands and feet turning into paws. Now concentrate on that image.”
         I closed my eyes, focusing on the images Ethan was describing for me. I was about to declare that nothing was happening when my tongue brushed one of my canine teeth. It was indeed a canine’s tooth at that point, and my eyes shot open in surprise. As I stared at Ethan, I could feel my bones shifting and my joints popping. It hurt. It hurt a lot, in fact. The bones in my fingers compressed themselves into wolf paws before my eyes. My hips thrust forward, sending me to the ground. The sound was nauseating. My jaw snapped as my face elongated into a snout. A thick coat of white fur sprouted over my body, and my nails grew into claws which dug into the soft grass of the park as I cringed from both the noise and the pain.

Continued