Chapter 2

I guess I developed a reputation among the women, because I never had to visit the women's house at night. I went over every day to spend a few minutes with my mother, whom I truly loved, but I sometimes had a waiting line at my bed in the men's house. There were no partitions in the men's house, so it was kind of embarrassing sometimes as I had women standing around waiting their turn to get at me. I don't know how much being a shape-shifter had to do with it, if anything, but I always seemed to be able to get hard again very quickly after finishing the previous woman. I don't know how many were mine, but there was a noticeable increase in the birth rate in our village after I moved to the men's house. Of course, I was too young at that time to care, but new lives in the village were always welcome.

The shaman we had was a very good man. He was constantly looking out for our interests. I had heard of some shamans who were scoundrels and spent most of their time stealing or otherwise mistreating the people in their care. One day, the shaman asked me to stop by his ceremonial hut—he had something to discuss with me.

I showed up at the appointed time, and he invited me into the hut. He said, "I am getting old; I must be close to 40 years old, and I feel every day of it whenever it rains. I asked you here, Vilkatas, because I expect you to live for a very long time, if not forever. During that time, I am sure that you will want a female companion; therefore, I have made another amulet just like the one I made for you three years ago. We need to test it so that I can fix any problems with it. Take off the amulet that you are wearing, and let's see if this one works as well."

We went through a set of extensive tests and found that the second amulet worked as well as the first one. He said, "Hide this in a secure place where you can find it when you want to use it. Make absolutely certain of your choice before you bite the woman you want. She doesn't have to be a child as you were, since you two will have the amulet to help in making the changes. The woman could be any age, even 30 or 40 years old, because the amulet will bring her physical age down to around 20 or so. It won't raise the age of a younger person, just as it didn't age you, but both of your physical ages will freeze at around 20 or so. Take the amulet and have a happy life."

"Thank you, Sir! You cannot imagine how much I appreciate these two amulets. I will be in your debt as long as I live. Call on me if I can ever do anything for you."

"You are already doing things for me. You are helping to feed our community, and I know that you will protect them when the need arises. Just keep that up and I will feel that I have been repaid many fold."

I left the shaman's hut to find a place to hide the amulet. Before I had found a place I thought was suitable, I had a thought. I could wear both amulets until I found the woman I wanted to share the future with! What place could be safer than around my neck? I ran back and discussed my idea with the shaman. He thought for a minute and then agreed with me. From then on, for many years, I wore two amulets.

I had reached my 20^th year and was quite handsome, I thought, and the women of the village appeared to agree with me. Even at this late date, I still had women coming to my bed every night. At first, the other men had been annoyed and jealous, but they had just given that up and relaxed, since they really did not lack for female companionship when they wanted it.

I was six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds, all of it muscle. My hair was a very dark brown, almost black, and I had brown eyes. My face was very pleasant looking without being pretty, so I didn't have other men teasing or chasing me. All of this did make me quite large as compared to most of the men of my time, and I think that this was part of what attracted women to me.

It was a beautiful spring day when my first real disaster struck. Despite warnings, my mother had gone into the forest to gather firewood. She was now in her late 30s and entitled to be taken care of by the rest of the community, but she refused to be "coddled," as she put it. The bears were back, and it was dangerous for a single person, even an adult hunter, to venture into the forest. But you know how old people are—they think that they know everything and often will not listen to reason. She had been gone for several hours, much too long for just gathering wood, so I went to find her.

I shifted into wolf form, since I could move more easily through the forest in that form, plus my senses were much sharper. I had her scent memorized, so I had no problem following her trail into the forest. I had only been searching for a short time when I came upon her body. She had been attacked and partially eaten by a bear. I knew it was a bear because I could smell it.

I went crazy! There was obviously nothing that I could do directly for my mother, but I could avenge her death and keep the bear from attacking someone else. I took off in pursuit of the bear as fast as I could run and still follow its trail. I found it sleeping in some brush and attacked it without pausing to think.

I went for its throat without making any warning sound. This was to be an execution, not a fair fight. I had learned a lot since that first fight I'd had with a bear. This time, I went for its veins and arteries, knowing that it could not kill me, no matter what it did. I didn't care which I tore open—it was going to die from loss of blood no matter which one I reached.

Naturally, I was too hasty and did not catch the bear's throat cleanly. I had to take a second bite, and this gave the bear time to react to my attack. It tried to bite me, but I was able to avoid its teeth; however, it also tried to gut me with its claws. Those I ignored, because it had no chance to penetrate my skin. The bear must have realized that, too, because it tried to squeeze me to its chest with its powerful front legs.

That it could do, and it was successful. The bear was able to break my back in two places and crush most of my ribs. Neither one of these things was sufficient to keep me from continuing to go after its major arteries and veins. Finally, I cut through its tough skin and muscles and was able to cut a major blood vessel. Blood spurted everywhere, and the bear was functionally dead. However it still had a few seconds to continue squeezing me.

When it finally relaxed its forelegs, I was unable to move. I could not breathe, and I could not move the lower part of my body. I just lay there for nearly two hours while my spine healed itself, and my ribs and internal organs put themselves back together.

When I finally recovered, I ran back to my mother's body and shifted to human form. I lovingly and carefully picked her up and carried her body back to the village. I gave her body over to the women to do the customary preparation for her funeral while I asked a few of my friends to return with me to salvage the body of the bear—I had plans for it.

It is our normal practice to burn the body of a deceased loved one, and I had something special I wanted to do. We skinned the bear who had killed and eaten my mother, and I took it back to the village. I wanted the bear's meat to make up the bulk of the feast served at the funeral. I wrapped my mother's body in the bear skin before placing her on the funeral pyre. It was my duty as her eldest living son to start the fire, and I did it with a heavy heart. I had loved my mother more than most boys did in our village, and it really hurt me to preside at her funeral. Finally, when the last of the obligatory actions were completed, I sneaked away to mourn on my own. I was alone for a week, and when I returned, I was not the same man I was before my mother's death.