Moonscorn

Chapter Eleven

"Raven," Dr Saturn said in a deep, level voice. "Please control her from inappropriate comments."

"I shall do my best, sir," he replied.

"Do better than your best. It's your job."

Raven bowed his head in acknowledgement. The meekness of the man, who had come in earlier in such a whirlwind of confidence and authority, was like a punch to Hysteria's gut. Nobody spoke to her handler like that, and especially not now that he had shown a sign of thinking about going shopping for a pair of balls. Her head began to turn to Dr Saturn but Raven kicked her under the table pre-emptively and shook his head. She scowled, but as a wolf does when it recognises a superior, bowed her head. Sipped the coffee to distract from it.

"Let's begin. We are here to discuss incidents recently arising in the town of Whaterly and its neighbouring village of Leppis Down. Those in attendance are Dr Saturn, Persephone, Raven, Hysteria Scorn, and Derek Cub, who is acting as secretary and minute-taker."

"Let us begin by presenting a narrative of events as we know them. Persephone, if you please?"

Persephone cleared her throat and began to read off her laptop. "Initial evidence gathered by Watcher Team 4 suggested the possible presence of lycanthropic activity in Whaterly roughly a week ago. Myself, Raven, and the werewolf, Hysteria Scorn, were sent to investigate. Upon arriving, we discovered a lycanthrope in full transformation. In order to more swiftly pursue the target, Hysteria Scorn underwent voluntary metamorphosis, and tracked down the wolf. On the road leading out of the town, the wolf was shot dead and Hysteria Scorn tranquilized to keep her under control. The wolf had a body part in its hand, which is currently in Evidence Room 5 in deep freeze. DNA has yet to determine to whom the hand belonged.

"After returning to The Conservatory, Raven expressed to myself, Persephone, that he felt he had been watched whilst in Whaterly by person or persons unknown. Whether he had or not, and whether this presence, if it was real, had supernatural connotations, was unknown. Having had his regular psychiatric testing only a week previously, I felt confident enough that it was not a vision through stress or other mental abnormalities. As a result, he was sent to Whaterly to discuss with the cleanup team and begin an undercover investigation to attempt to substantiate his eyewitness testimony.

"A member of the cleanup team, Jack Cold, not present at this meeting, took Raven to Leppis Down to see Mrs Delia Purse, grandmother of the deceased lycanthrope, Master Taylor Purse, sixteen."

A shudder trickled down Hysteria's back. She had known the wolf hadn't been old; she had smelled that when she was next to him. Had understood it subconsciously through the wolf's stance and body odour and the colour of his eyes. To hear that he was only a teenager, the same age as Fluffy, nonetheless hammered the truth into her harder than she thought it would have done. Am I getting soft? Please no. Anything but soft.

"Raven, seeing a lycanthrope outside the window, pursued the wolf but lost him in the woods at the bottom of the hill. He has added in his report, submitted in the early hours of this morning, that his prototype tracking device showed only a faint outline of a lycanthrope. He adds that he isn't sure what this means, but, in his words, 'it was like it was a ghost.'"

Next to Hysteria, her handler nodded. Dr Saturn's continued to look down at the table as he assessed the report. Derek Cub typed away on a laptop.

"He tracked it to the edge of a fence at the bottom of land belonging to what we now know is Leppis Hall. Raven describes having the same feeling looking at the hall as he did when he felt the presence in Whaterly, that of being watched by something unnatural. He was then met by Jack Cold, who took him back to Whaterly. He sent his report to me at 11pm, and I sent it to Dr Saturn shortly after. The current meeting was then called for at 6am today, after Raven had driven back to London."