Driving back to the campus that night, the moon was lower in the night sky and much less full. The students in Becky's car could not stop talking about the lone wolf which saved their male colleague from great bodily harm and possibly death. All right before their eyes. They expressed with emotion how the larger males in the pack had knocked the student down and seemed determined to attack him. Becky raised the issue that the wolf they had witnessed stepping in to save their club member looked in size and characteristics to be similar to the wolf she had seen in the still frames of CCTV footage earlier. She was referring to the maverick wolf which had shockingly entered the outskirts of Vancouver several days before, causing a panic among the residents there. To Crissa's mind, these two wolves were one in the same—and yet not entirely a wolf at all. She knew the following day she had to get back up to her cabin to look after David, and hopefully, oversee and assist his return to human form.
As the group pulled into the parking lot, Becky told them she would pursue her theory of the two rogue wolves and try and analyze why this large male they had witnessed that evening would have been rejected by the larger clan and then behave so altruistically toward the species' natural enemy, Man.
Returning to her dorm room at one-thirty AM, Crissa could see Trisha had still not returned from the party. Though she knew she had been invited by new friends, she worried about Tory in particular, and his obvious designs upon apparently any attractive girl on campus. Though she was understandably concerned, Crissa tried also to convince herself that Trisha was not a child and capable of making her own decisions.
As she changed out of her hiking clothes and into her pajamas for the remainder of the night, her mind was on David and how he would be spending what she hoped was his last night as a wolf on the mountainside. She knew that somehow in the morning she would have to be with him during the transition—this a change back to humanity which, as she had experienced, could leave him dazed and vulnerable.
* * *
Waking early that Sunday morning, as the sun had just risen, and daylight was illuminating the campus outside her window, Crissa looked across the room and to her shock could see that Trisha's bed was still empty. Her roommate's things were lying around as they were when she left for the party the night before. This gave her a serious reason to worry, much more than before when she had not seen her arrive safely at some point during the long night. She thought about calling down to Veronica and causing alarm at the front desk, but for the moment refrained from this, so as not to draw attention or cause undue concern about Trisha's reckless ways. There were mannerisms Crissa did not approve of in Trisha, but these were things about her she also had to tolerate. She understood the right to give the girl her freedom to do as she pleased, but also in the end simply understood she might have little or no influence over her actions.
Yet to be safe, Crissa's nurturing ways and stubborn ethos got the best of her, and she decided to pick up her phone and call Trisha's number. After five rings the voice on the other end answered it, slowly and whispering.
"Yes? . . . Crissa?"
The girl had obviously been asleep.
"Yeah, It's me, Trish. So . . . you OK?
"Shhhhhhhh . . . Yeah. I think I am . . . Just can't talk now. Don't want to wake up Troy."
"Oh. Alright then . . . Sorry."
"It's OK. You understand, right?"
"Yeah, I do. Just go back . . . to sleep."
In a moment the line went dead and Crissa felt angry with herself for intruding. But she also felt a wave of justification thinking for the moment what Trisha's unexpected absence all night could also have possibly meant. There were some responsibilities, she accepted, which would have to come with the territories of being a roommate.
After her shower, Crissa felt better able to handle the day. She dressed for her trip to the mountains, and being it was Sunday, she knew her parents would be home the entire day. It was important to get to the cabin as soon as she could and check on David. Heading out as she had done before with a taxi, she arrived within forty-five minutes at the neighborhood of her parents and decided to walk from the corner bakery to her house, giving her time to think of what she would say to her parents. Her plan was to borrow the car.
Walking up to the front door at around ten o'clock, Crissa carried with her some pastries to offer to her parents, hoping to make quick small talk and combine the food with a thermos of hot coffee to take with her up the mountain. The urgency of locating David in whatever condition he was in had become foremost in her mind as her mother opened the door.
"Well, Crissy! What do we owe for this surprise?" her mother said, her voice full of delight. She then reached out and pulled her daughter close for a hug.
"Yeah, mom. I've kinda missed you guys. School is still pretty great. But there's something . . . I don't know, special about home."
"Of course, there is darling! Now, I know your father will be glad you've come home for the weekend. He was just saying how much . . ."
"Well Mom, I don't know about the whole weekend,"
"Sure. You can stay! I want you to see what I've done with your room, sweetie. Come on inside and take the tour. New colors, new drapes . . ."
Criss followed her mother into the house and back to the kitchen where the sunlight was streaming warmly in, onto the counter tops and chairs.
"Let me see what you've brought us here." Her mother took the bag of sweet rolls and assorted fresh baked cookies out of her hand.
At that moment, her father entered the room from the back door and put both his garden-gloved hands up in the air as a gesture of surprise.
"She lives!" he said in jest.
"Hi, Dad . . . Yeah, I live . . ." She smiled and went over to hug him.
"So how was your week?" he asked, taking off the gloves.
"Fine. Well . . . harder than I expected. But I'm keeping up, OK."
"That's our girl."
Crissa's mother set out the kitchen table for the three of them. Coffee and little plates for the pastries Crissa had brought.
"You know, we heard those damn wolves again last night," her mother said, sternly. "They were louder than ever! Seems something was really bothering them."
"Yeah. Sounded like they were fighting," her father weighed in while taking a chair across from Crissa.
"So . . . are they really still such a problem out here, Dad?"
Apparently so, Crissy. I talked to Bill this morning. He thinks the whole male population of wolves up there has reached a tipping point. They're overly aggressive and dangerous to people right now. Says he wants to organize a hunting party. A few expert shooters to go up take some the males out. Says it will bring some kind of . . . balance back to them."
"But Dad, that's totally stupid. The wolves regulate their own balances. All nature does. Don't people get that?"
"Seems right what you say, Crissa, but I know I've never heard them behave like that. There's something going on out there."
Crissa held back her anger and comments in the interest of precious time.
"These cookies are delicious," her mother said, obviously trying to change the subject.
"Thanx, Mom. You can't get cookies like those on campus."
Crissa strategically bit into one of the cookies and swallowed it.
"Dad, I need the car for a few hours. I promised Diane, my friend, I'd come to see her. On her day off."
"Well . . . tell her hello for us dear," her mother responded cordially. "Such a sweet girl."
"She's not a girl anymore mom. Works as a realtor in town. I told her we'd meet over in Hallston Park to talk about old times. And hopefully, share a few of those cookies. If there not all gone, Dad."
The three of them laughed.
"Oh, and mom? . . . Can I take a thermos of your great coffee, too?"
"Sure, Hon. There's a fresh pot there. Let me get the thermos."
"So. You're leaving now, Crissa?
"Yeah, Dad. Diane has a full day ahead . . . like everyone. Been trying to meet up with her since Germany."
"Alright then. So, wear your belt, OK? The tank's half full. Don't empty it."
"No Dad. Just over to Hallston Park and maybe somewhere further out in the city for lunch."
"You're the boss, Kido," he said, chiding her.
"OK, so . . . I guess I'm outa here," Crissa announced hastily, checking the tight lid on the thermos of coffee. She then stood up and put the remaining cookies back in the bag with the sweet rolls. "Sorry, people . . . but these treats are for Diane and me later."
"OK, Cheapskate," her father laughed. "Just watch out for the Sunday drivers out and about." He reached into his pocket and threw her a set of car keys. "I think I'd rather deal with the wolves than those drivers out there today."
Crissa smiled back, whimsically.
"Yeah, Dad. Me too. Thanx, Mom. Don't wait around all day for me."
* * *
When Crissa had driven out of the community and up the mountain roads to the dirt turn-off, she passed onto the gravel roadway at a considerable speed. It was not the same road she had traveled with Becky and her club the night before, but somewhat parallel to it. Within another fifteen minutes she was on the rough road which was nothing more than a long rustic driveway to her family's isolated cabin.
When she pulled up to the front of the dwelling and got out of the car, she could see the front door was ajar. This alarmed her, but then realized it had to be that way for David to enter if still not transformed yet. Approaching the cabin with her bag of food and thermos, she walked cautiously toward the open doorway. As she approached on the narrow gravel pathway, she could see something like a brown coat or torn blanket laying in a heap to the side of it. As she neared the curious object, she began to understand immediately what it was—the half-eaten carcass of a deer! There below her was a bloody mess of deer hide, flesh, a small set of antlers, and bloodied white, shattered bones. All these remains of the animal were in an amorphous pile, with most of the flesh missing or, as Crissa realized, consumed.
As before when she had come to see David, Crissa nervously called out his name. She repeated this loud enough to be heard both inside and outside the cabin. With no response she walked slowly through the doorway and into the main room. Nothing significant had changed there, thought there hung in the air a gamey smell, She then continued cautiously back further into the dim building, to the bedroom. As she pushed the partly opened door forward with anticipation, she could see a figure lying silently and still on the bed—a heavy blanked covered the body completely.
Moving forward still, she saw the outline of the person beneath the wool covering.
"David?" She whispered. "David? Are you . . ."
Still no movement or sound, Crissa's heart was pounding as she drew nearer and reached down to pull the blanked carefully back. As she did so, the dark, long hair of the young man whom she loved emerged. And attached to it was David's dirty but handsome head and face in repose. She now could detect from the closeness to him that his chest was gently rising and falling, indicating he was breathing and alive—though perhaps in the familiar sleep-trance he and Julie had exhibited during their initial transmutation from wolf to human in Germany.
Pulling the blanked back further, Crissa could see that David was completely naked, his body soiled and stained with dirt, and for the most part also covered with superficial scratches and small bruises. Looking down at him in total, his nakedness and fit physique gave the picture of a healthy young human who had just spent the past four days and nights running with the full impact and intersection of Nature itself.
* * *