Chapter 16

Aklag and I started back to our families. We had morphed to werewolves and were moving at a fast trot. Suddenly, both of us fell to the ground with a tremendous pain in our heads. We staggered to our feet and asked simultaneously, "What was that?"

It was as if a blow from a large fist had impacted our minds. We were both feeling a wonderful sense of bliss, with only a minor note of light pain in the background. We set off as fast as we could run toward our families, because we could tell that was the source of the feelings. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the carts, and, by then, the feeling had receded to the point where we could detect it only by straining.

We reached our families and immediately morphed into humans. I ran up to Trudy and asked what had happened. She looked at me kind of blankly and then said, "Nothing that I know of. Oh, wait, about half an hour ago Tarsy bumped her head pretty bad, and it took me quite a while to calm her down. Other than that, I don't know of anything."

Dammit, could it be that what we had felt was Tarsy's pain? Shit, if she could broadcast pain like that, we would have to protect her from serious accidents until she could learn to control herself. Aklag needed to report this to the mentors and get their advice. It was still over a week before I could talk to them directly.

Wait a minute, maybe I could learn to do what Aklag did. I was sure as hell going to try. Maybe the only reason that I had not been able to talk with them was simply because I had never tried.

I took Aklag aside and told him what I wanted to do. He was not sure, but he was willing to try. He and I went into his cart and got comfortable sitting next to each other. He had me do some meditation exercises to get me in the right frame of mind. I had some trouble relaxing and focusing my mind, but finally I caught on to what he was trying to get me to do. We worked on my training for three days until I was able to get my mind focused into a "communication" groove. Aklag was amazed that I could learn so fast, since it had taken him almost two months of intense work every day. Aklag said that I was ready to start trying to make contact with the mentors, so I decided to give it a try right after supper.

I shooed everybody out of my cart and lay down on the bed. I began the mental exercises that Aklag had drilled into me, and I was able to slip into the appropriate trance. I tried to visualize the spokesman for the the mentors and send him the message that I wanted to talk to him. I kept on trying to get through, and, suddenly, the man's face changed subtilely and seemed to come into sharper focus. "Vilkatas, I am amazed. I did not expect this from you for years from now! How did you do it?"

"I had Aklag teach me how to do what he did to contact you. I practiced intently for several days until I got it right. I am not sure why, but this is the clearest that I have ever seen and heard you. Have you perfected your thought communication machine?"

"Oh, no. We are not even using that machine. You are broadcasting with such power that I, too, can hear and see you better than I have ever done, previously. I don't know where your power is coming from, unless you are somehow tapping directly into your werewolf powers. Well, no matter. I am very pleased at what you have been able to do, and I must congratulate you on all your abilities.

"Have you stopped the war between the fairies and the goblins?"

"Yes, the whole thing was almost comic. A foolish fairy had been able to depose his cousin, the king of the fairies, and had tried to start the war. As it turned out, the goblins did not take the war threat seriously, so the whole affair was quickly settled as soon as Aklag and I restored the proper king to the fairy throne. The situation has been smoothed over, and peace reigns in this neighborhood.

"May I tell you why I wanted to contact you before our regularly scheduled meeting?" I was told to go ahead, so I told him about the sudden pain in my head which coincided with the time that Tarsy bumped her head. He was just as amazed as I was with Tarsy's mental strength.

He said, "We had assumed that you would start developing mental powers after about 25 years of experience as a werewolf. You are close to that, so maybe our estimate was just a bit too conservative. Some people, such as Aklag, naturally have more of the mental ability than most, so they are able to develop their abilities ahead of most people. We just don't have enough data to know for sure.

"As for Tarsy, we certainly don't have any data on children whose parents are both werewolves. We will keep an eye on Tarsy and Herlo, but I don't know what to tell you right now. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, there is one last thing. On a whim, while I was in the fairy stronghold, I morphed into the shape of a fairy, though not the same size."

"WHAT!?! You should not have been able to do that for at least another 200 years. How did you manage it?"

"I'm not certain. I simply visualized myself in the shape of a fairy and concentrated very hard. After about two minutes of concentration, I had completed the shape-shifting. I made no effort to change my size. When I changed back, the shift was instantaneous, or so nearly so that I didn't notice any lag."

"I am truly amazed! You are progressing much faster than we had expected you to. You may be able to morph into any shape you like, but I suggest that you wait before you try to change size. Please keep me posted on any other things you discover that you can do.

"I must discuss these developments with my colleagues, so I need to cut off this contact at this time. I'll get back to you if and when we come up with anything useful. You should also feel free to contact me using the technique that you used this time. Goodbye for now."

I went to the door and announced that I was through with my meditation, and anybody could feel free to come into the cart whenever he wanted to. Only my wives came in, and they were ready for our evening sexercise. Who am I to argue with such good sense?

Over the next few days, Aklag and I experimented with trying to communicate with each other using our minds, only. The fourth day was the charm, I was able to "hear" a simple statement about the weather from Aklag and was able to send a thought to him later that same day. This was while we were in human form; we switched to wolf form and tried again. Success! This demonstrated something very important: if we worked at it hard enough, we would be able to talk to each other while in werewolf shape. Aklag and I devoted every spare minute to developing this ability, and we had it in workable form within two weeks.

Meanwhile, we had developed quite a rapport with the gnomes and they welcomed us into their tunnels at any time. It was on one of these visits that I discovered that I could talk to the gnomes when I was in wolf shape by using the mental contact. This was getting better and better! Furthermore, Aklag and I found that there was no practical range limit to our ability to communicate by this mental contact.

Once we were comfortable with the mental communication, we started teaching the technique to everyone else. Some had an easier time learning than did the others, but every adult learned to talk this way in six weeks, or less. Now we had a way to coordinate our efforts when we were in wolf form; we could also communicate with each other over any range.

We had played the part of tourists over the last couple of months. We had ridden our carts around the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, looking at all of the interesting things and people that we could find. One group of people that we visited told us about a long peninsula sticking out into the big southern water. It was reputed to be a paradise, so we thought that we would visit it if Are'le'roo was willing to take us there.