Fenrir's Daughters: Helen Chartreuse

The sky was deep indigo rich with thunder, yet no rain fell. A hardened storm ready to burst.
Miles away flashes of light flickered.
"Oh no, it's going to be a really bad night," sobbed Tia, who held the baby's hand.
"We're safe under here," said Malcom, who wanted to reassure his terrified sister.
The baby wailed.
"She's hungry again and we've run out of milk!" Tia said.
"The bus won't be long and we'll get some more from the kitchen."
Then lightning tore across the sky above them. Followed by deafening thunder. It startled them all and the baby screamed. Tia lifted the baby from the pushchair and rocked her on her lap. Malcom stared anxiously towards the avenue where no lights were visible. They were shielded by a canopy over the bus shelter. The rain began in bucketloads and it sounded even like thunder itself.
Time passed.
"There isn't any bus coming now!" Tia shouted. "We're late!"
Malcom patted Tia's shoulder and said "It's coming soon."
Tia knew that it wasn't. Malcom said the exact same thing ages ago.
As the rain ceased, thunder melted away.
"The bus might've been delayed because of that storm," Malcom said.
The baby cried. Tia could not help but to give the baby a small droplets of water. It wasn't the same thing. Baby was very ill. With ma and pa gone, all they had was the orphanage now and big dreams of their distant rich uncle taking them in.
Yet it was worrying for them because their baby sister was constantly hungry now.
A woman appeared, and she was holding an umbrella and then closed it. The woman was dressed in a pretty black coat, white skirt with dark beads, Oxford wedged shoes and a feathered hat. She turned and faced the children and smiled.
"Hello," she said.
"We've been waiting for a bus for a very long time," Tia said, rocking the baby.
"I guess you must be hungry?" the woman was right.
She had amazing eyes, both Tia and Malcom thought as they looked at her. Her eyes were pale blue that glowed emerald as she turned. Eyes like a cat or a dog. The children were not frightened but in awe of her.
"My name is Helen," she told them. She opened her flower shaped purse then took out two small bars of chocolates. Then she removed a little carton of milk.
The children were astonished and grateful.
"Thank you ever so much, kind lady!" Malcom said.
Tia wiped her tears and thanked Helen.
"You can all eat now," Helen reminded them and she gently kissed the baby's forhead. "It's time for you children to go home."
"There's no home for us," Malcome told her.
"Our ma and pa were killed in the war," Tia sadly added.
"And we're waiting and waiting for our bus," Malcom reminded Helen.
Helen looked around and then she said, "there isn't going to be a bus now. I can take you home."
Tia looked at Malcom feeling puzzled.
"We can only trust her, Tia. We've sat here for so long now that it must be time to move on." The children all got up and let the woman kiss them on their heads as though she were their mother. All had felt calm. The children were going home and they could sense it.
Hours later, the children were returned to their parents.
Helen sat alone under the canopy of a former busstop in an abandoned street. She realised that the three child spirits should be now at peace and it saddened her to think they spent the past 70 years here all by themselves. She knew that spirits had to trust her to give them freedom to cross over. However, she could not be trusted if she were to appear in her natural form: A wolf.
Once the spirits of the three children entered into the light, Helen was transformed into her own self. She was noted as one of the fewest natural wolves with an ability to reach out to spirits and help pass them on into the light. Such a thing was with her since birth. None of her siblings could communicate with spirits this way. And she was able to project herself into human form so that spirits could talk to her. She was a medium wolf and here this night one job was done.
She bounded away on all fours, satisfied that once again she had given more wandering trapped spirits some final peace.           


((The Fenrir's Daughters fiction stories belong to author Rayne))
All rights reserved. 
Copyright © 2016 Rayne Herbert.

Fenrir's Daughters: Chen Tiangou

It was a chilly Summer morning as I returned home. My little white house between two lacebark trees glowed in the dawn. That twilight sunrise breeze is very cold. Violet clouds were settled across the hills and forests. A herd of antelopes visible on the slopes in the distance, but I'm not going to chase after them. It's much too late and I'm far to tired and old now for such hunting games.
I've been leaving animals alone for most of my life. I'm not interested in killing them for a full moon's thrill when the following day I can buy food from the market. For me, the great hunt is barbaric and unecessary. We, as in, us werewolves have never moved forward in the evolution time period as we're all stuck in the primitive hunter stroke gatherer ways. Some of us few werewolves desire to be civilised, to farm and accept what we are. Being a werewolf is not about hunting and killing. This is how I think, and it was drummed into me by my father, who passed away when I was twelve. He was against the idea that werewolves are just interested in killing.
He was an animal lover and he was an activist too. He campaigned to end the slaughter of domestic dogs for meat. He was arrested for things like that. My mother is a sickly werewolf, who is constantly unwell and bed ridden. I care for her, I shop and work. I act as a nurse.
Werewolves are much more creatures of the moon. We're warriors, healers, artists and thinkers.  
"Your dreams are wild Chen," Mother said to me as I gav her breakfast of soup and she could hardly lift herself up. I know that during a full moon, she becomes a wolf that is very tired and sleeps on the floor. Her yellow eyes are becoming more misted and eventually she'll go blind.
"One day, werewolves will become better understood," I said.
I went outside and watched an air balloon high above wisteria trees and from that balloon were coloured paper. I vanished into the forest. The big cats wouldn't harm me. I've got my abilities to defend myself from danger.
I found scattered pieces of colourful paper and these were fresh and came from that balloon. I noticed they were fliers for a parade going to happen in the haunted and empty Fengmen Village. That was a place best to avoid. Ghosts are really not worth dealing with.
Later my boyfriend Jian came with a bunch of fresh flowers for my mother. It was a really nice thing to do. He's such a gentleman. He took my hand and offered to take me out on a fantastic adventure. I accepted. We got into his car and drove all the way to... yes.
Fengmen Village.
"I don't really want to be here," I said, hoping not to sound too ungrateful.
"Chen, it's going to be cool!" Jian smiled. "I'm going to take pictures."
"Of ghosts?" I asked in shock.
It isn't going to be a fantastic adventure for me.
The whole village gives me the creeps. I noticed a lot of toursist were there with cameras and EVP recorders. Sorry but I'm not going to wait anymore.
The place had its moments. I heard voices and sensed spirits. Most of them were hiding, afraid of me and Jian because we're both werewolves really in our human forms. The bad spirits had to be sleeping.
"Let's get out of here," I said. "I'm hungry."
"We've only been here two hours," he said.
"I prefer to eat a steamed bun that walk around these dead houses. Please let's go. Think of the spice and sugar smells of the food at the market."
I convinced him. We left and had the most delicious snacks in the town market. We had egg rolls, bean icecream and tofu pudding. Jian took me home later.
Tonight is the full moon and he promised to visit me next month so we can explore the forest together as wolves. He promises not to hunt any animals.
But that night, long after Jian went home and mother was still sleeping, a gentle knock on the front door made my heart skip. Who was that?
I looked between the shutters of the window and gazed down to see a girl on the front porch.
The pink lanterns made her illuminated and her hair was long and covered in feathers.
She seemed frail, ill and I couldn't let the poor thing stay outside so late. What if big cats sense her out in the night? Or what if other werewolves come across her and those may not be so nice?
I had to go and answer the door.
And when I did, she was gone. I went out looking for her and couldn't find her. There was unusually no scent either. My wolf side picked up nothing. It was as if she had never existed.
Then inside the house, I noticed a blue figure hovering near my sleeping mother. I went into attack mode, and scared it away. I was sadly too late. Mother was unconsious.
I called for an ambulance straight away. I went with her. The doctors said she had just passed away.
The ghost took my mother.
I shall hunt for this ghost. I don't hunt animals but I shall certainly look for spirits and will get my revenge.        


((The Fenrir's Daughters fiction stories belong to author Rayne))
All rights reserved. 
Copyright © 2016 Rayne Herbert.

Fenrir's Daughters: Emily Mustard

There were long shadows across the lawn of the massive garden. I chased wild rabbits as a child playing here. It had memories locked in the pools and stones, decourations that scattered the landscape for centuries. The wealthy Amber family were obsessed with statues.
These statues recorded memories, and absorbed emotions. It felt so haunted, with their shadows criss-crossing and their castle looming like a big giant skull. Tall poplars made it feel colder in the stately garden.
I am the daughter of people who've been working for the Amber family for years. My grandfather was a butler. My mother is the secretary. Father is a driver. My brothers are guards. My little sister Bev is a trainee fashion designer, who Lady Amber is fond of.
The Ambers are a wealthy beta family of werewolves. I come from a lineage of gamma werewolves.
The betas treat the rest of us like their servants, nothing else. We're nothing to them. They want us to obey them and work hard. Yet the betas are afraid of the alphas, obviously, and second in command to the alphas and subordinates. The alphas are not nice werewolves and I find them scary.
As I chased a white ghosty looking rabbit in circles, I felt my heart tighten and I was in pain. I had to stop. I can't run anymore, since I was treated for cancer two years ago.
"You're not giving up now, Emily!" said Max, who was timing me. He let the rabbit go.
"I give up," I panted, clutching my chest. I sat on the grass. It was so hot and my mouth tasted of blood.
"Someone help!" Max shouted on his phone.
Next, people came running into the garden and lifted me on my feet. I was ushered onto a wheelchair, pushed along the garden path into the back of an ambulance. The Amber family had their own private ambulance and their own hospital. This is where I went. I was treated there for cancer.
I was rushed there with Max and mummy inside, looking worried.
I was sent into the emergency room, examined and had my blood tested.
"She's losing blood," a nurse told Max and mummy.
I could see their faces pull in distress.
The cancer ravaged me internally so that I was always hemorrhaging with the slightest bit of exercise. Blood dripped from my mouth and nose. It was always little problems one after another. A mere cold virus sent me into hospital for bleeding and twisting my lungs and heart a few months ago.
Werewolves suffer cancer just as anybody except the heart donation they gave me was from a dog, not a human. The Amber hospital provided it for me two years ago. Such a thing would be dangerous for regular humans, and not many tried on other werewolves.
I went into shock that first night in hospital. Max and mummy waited in the relative's room and the nurse gave them updates. "Her human side is rejecting the dog's heart," the nurse told them.
I was operated on during the rest of the night.
By morning I was recovering in a small room with flowers and pink curtains. All I had was a machine beeping to keep me company. Max and mummy left hours ago when I was asleep.
Nurse came into the room with a clipboard, plastic smiles and a white uniform. She gave me a food menu and a strong pill. Another nurse in a red uniform took a sample of my blood. Another in green came in a few times to check my blood pressure and IV. The needles in my arms stung if I looked closely at it.
It's been ages since being in hospital. I need to tell you why.
The doctors have been experimenting on me and others. They replaced the dog heart with a synthetic heart, they call it SI, working as the organ itself, pumping blood efficiently. My body didn't reject it and they're watching me round the clock. Sometimes they wheel me outside. During a full moon, I am either stuck in my hospital bedroom or allowed to roam the small corridor outside. I'm like an animal that is lonely because I howl for my family and for Max.
They come to visit once a week. Doctors orders.
It's not just the synthetic heart that they've given me but a new level of being as a wolf. Since I've had this synthetic heart, my wolf side is physically different. I used to be shaggy with grey and black striped fur with yellow eyes. Now half of my body is luminous and my eyes are red. I've noticed that my human hair is slightly darker and my skin tone is off colour. The human side of me looks like death warmed up.
"Hello darling," Mummy said bringing me biscuits and flowers. I've been here for three weeks.
"Where is Max?" I asked.
"Oh, well, your boyfriend is quite busy this morning so I came without him."
Oh I bet he's moved on.
"How is the heart?" she asked me.
"You know about it?"
"Yes," mummy answered. "I wanted them to give you a special new one that is a machine."
"So you're involved in making me a test subject?" I asked feeling so betrayed. She could've asked my permission. I am eighteen. I didn't want to see her ever again. How dare she!
"No, I didn't. It was Lady Amber."
"What?"
"It's for the best."
"You never asked me!"
"Your opinion doesn't matter, your life is important to us."
So you see. A girl raised in a gamma werewolf family is exposed to forces outside of her control. I've written to others and want to bring to attention that gamma girls are like slaves and toys to mess around with. We're living sentient beings. We're people. We're not monsters. We have some wolf DNA. That's no way to treat us like dirt.  

  
((The Fenrir's Daughters fiction stories belong to author Rayne))
All rights reserved. 
Copyright © 2016 Rayne Herbert.