Chapter 4

Holly continued to improve as the weeks passed. Her hearing had reached the point that it was normal in both ears, and her eyes were able to see motion of dark bodies on a light background. We all hoped against hope that she would continue to improve. Sagro and Elger were certain that I had caused the miraculous change that Holly was showing. The had nearly convinced me when I thought about what I had done. Could my saliva have been the cause of Holly's remarkable recovery? I did spend a lot of time licking her, but I was frightened at the thought that I might have screwed up and started her conversion into a werewolf. Dievs (Supreme God), what might I have done?

I was caught in a bind. I couldn't stop now. What if I stopped and she did not turn into a werewolf, but did not get any better. Would she be any better off than she had been before? My thoughts ran around my head in circles. I didn't know what to do. I decided that I had gone too far to quit now, so I licked her eyes as much as she could allow. Whenever her eyes began to hurt, I would stop licking; otherwise, I would lick almost continuously.

At last, Holly began to see normally! She was delighted to be able to see, and we were equally delighted for her. I had stayed longer than I had originally intended, but I couldn't bring myself to leave until Holly seemed to be cured. Sagro delayed his annual trip around his trading circuit because he could not bear to leave until he knew what Holly's fate would be. At last, Elger pronounced Holly as cured as she could be, so Sagro and I left on our separate journeys. I told Sagro that I could not promise anything, but I would try to be back to check on Holly in a few years, if not sooner.

I left, headed due east. I knew that I had done the right thing, because I did not feel any unease as a result of my delay as I halted my journey east while I looked after Holly. I left the family with a light heart and a general feeling of having justified my existence.

I had traveled about 300 miles when I got a sudden urge to turn south. I was moving along looking around as I usually did. I suddenly came to a stop as I saw something that I had never heard of before. It looked like a half man-half horse. I had seen horses, but they had been used for food when there was nothing else available. I stopped, frozen in place in surprise. When in wolf form, I had developed abnormally good distance vision, so I did not have to show myself as I watched this remarkable sight.

I continued to stare at this strange apparition, but who was I to judge? After all, I was a werewolf! I kept watch for another half hour, then I realized what I was looking at. It was almost as remarkable as a half man-half horse, I saw that it was a man sitting on a horse's back. Now that I knew what I was looking at, I could see that the horse was doing whatever the man directed it to do. This was fascinating, but I suddenly noticed that the man had the red aura—he was an evil man!

I had to investigate. I moved closer and transformed back into human form. I deliberately made sure that the man saw me. He looked at me for a few seconds, and he suddenly urged his horse to run toward me. I now could see that he was holding a lance in his right hand as he rode toward me. He appeared to be holding the lance in preparation for stabbing me. Why, I asked myself?

I was doing nothing but walking on a public road. Why would he attack me? I decided to find out. I let him get close enough to try to jab me with the lance before I reacted. He had no idea that I could move so fast. I stepped aside at the last moment and grabbed his arm as he raced by. He was pulled forcefully from his seat on the horse and broke his leg as he fell.

I easily wrestled the lance from his hand and stood over him with a foot on either side of his chest. He groaned in pain and stared at me with fear and anger in his eyes. I spoke to him in the common trade language, but he ignored me. I dropped my knees on his arms and he screamed in pain.

I spoke to him again, and again he ignored me. This time, I said, "If you don't talk to me I will cause you even more pain." I knew he understood me, even though he didn't say anything, because he spit in my face. I took a moment to wipe the spittle off my face and reached around behind me. I grabbed his balls and squeezed as hard as I could. This got his attention as he screamed as loud as I have ever heard from a man.

"I know that you can understand me, so I will say it only one more time. Tell me why you tried to kill me."

"You are scum, and it is my duty to kill you. You are an offense to the eyes of the gods."

"What makes you say that? I have done no harm to you or to your gods."

"You are not one of the chosen ones, so you must be killed. All right thinking people know that."

"How do you know that I am not one of the chosen ones?"

"I can tell because you walk along the ground like a common animal. If you were one of the chosen ones, you would be astride a horse!"

"I am not scum, and to prove it, I will set your broken leg for you." I got off the man and stood up to look around for something to use as a splint for his broken leg. The moment I turned my back on him, the man grabbed for his lance and tried to stab me. This made me so mad that I reacted without thinking. I shifted into wolf form and tore out his throat. Normally, I might have regretted my action, but not with this cretin. He was too stupid and set in his ways to recognize that someone was trying to help him.

I now felt a relaxation of my urge to journey on, so I must have found what I was looking for. I didn't know the source of the feeling, but I recognized that it was something that I could not ignore indefinitely.

I figured that I should find out what it was like to ride a horse, so I shifted back to human form and ran down the man's horse. The animal did not want me to mount him, but I managed to get aboard in spite of the horse's determination to keep me off. There was a blanket across the horse's back that the man had been sitting on. I could not see any way to direct the horse, so I just sat there on his back and considered the situation.

The horse shifted position, and I instinctively squeezed the horse's sides with my legs to keep from falling off. When I squeezed his sides, the horse started to move forward, and I started to fall off his back. I squeezed harder to stay on his back, and the horse sped up. I now began to bounce uncomfortably and to pinch my balls almost every time I came down on a bounce. The pain got to me and I grabbed a handful of mane to hang on and relaxed the grip with my legs. When I relaxed, the horse slowed down. I released my grip with my legs and the horse came to a stop. I thought about this for a moment, and it dawned on me how the horse knew when to move and when to stop.

To test my theory, I pressed lightly with my knees and the horse started to walk. I leaned around to look behind me, and this caused me to press harder on the horse's left side as I leaned. When I pressed on the horse's left side, he turned right. Aha! I leaned the other way, and the horse turned left. Now that I had the basics, I was able to guide the horse wherever I wanted to go. This was very clever, but I preferred to travel on my own feet as a wolf, though I could see the advantage for a man who could not shape shift like I could.

I didn't enjoy riding, as I said, but I thought that it might make a suitable "disguise" for finding out what was going on. I rode back to where my attacker's body was lying and picked up his lance to further my disguise. I hoped to look enough like the other men on horseback to forestall attack long enough to gather some information.