A TAIL OF NINE

CHAPTER FOUR: The Amarok

After crouching down, I close my eyes and think about Kon. The last thing I want to do is to lead those wolves to the beach house. What if they corner me there? Maybe it's a good thing that Kon can't feel that I'm scared, or she'd run to me. And right into a trap! I don't know if the guys that were after me are gone ... or just wanting me to think that they're gone.

I wish I could use telepathy the way Kon does!

Glancing to the left and then the right, I scan the shadows. Still nothing hairy and four-legged. There's only an old lady in a floppy hat walking a labradoodle and two dachshunds.

When I'm sure no one's following me, I'm extra careful and take the long way back to the beach house. Kon isn't back yet, but she will be. Soon.

Why am I so worried? If Kirby actually manages to find her, then she'll run circles around him.

After about an hour or so, Kon shows up at the beach house.

<<Did the crows find you?>>

"Worse."

She takes one look at me and shuffles me off to find another house. This is the first time we haven't cleaned up a place we've stayed in or left something for the owners.

After we finally settle in at a new place and I grab something to eat, I sink down onto the couch. Kon, in fox form, pads after me. Instead of curling up, she sits and stares out the big glass doors.

"At least we can be pretty sure who sent the crows after us," I tell Kon.

<<We need to talk about the Amarok ... the creatures that pursued you today.>>

"Why? They're idiots." Then I say what I'm more interested in, "I say we worry about how we're going to stay away from them."

<<Not all Amarok are like the ones that mistreated you today.>>

While I'm looking out the window, she transforms and is a lady in a simple blue dress sitting next to me. "There are things you haven't told me about what happened."

Um, yeah. I'm not about to tell her that they said she was a whore and a coward, AND I didn't punch them for it. That is a conversation we are NOT gonna have.

"Whatever they are, they're full of shit."

One of her eyebrows arches.

Not giving up on this one, I add, "They are."

"Koto," she warns. Then she continues, "They can take human form and that of a wolf."

"So Amarok is a fancy word for werewolf." Great. Pretentious werewolves.

"They are not werewolves," she corrects me, as she brushes back my bangs. "They are the opposite of lycanthropes."

"What do you mean?"

"There are foxes that become humans," she says. There's a gleam to her eyes. "And wolves are creatures that can do the same. And running from wolves rarely ends well."

There's no way I'm handing her over to them.

"Running worked okay for me last time."

"Wolves can find a scent faster if there is a fresh trail. Also, if they have the crows as their scouts ..."

"We're just going to sit in here?"

"We have more things to discuss." Then she goes on to say, "The Amarok lost many fighting against the Glass Man and his army. Many packs were destroyed and scattered. Now they are left picking up the pieces. Time means little when a wound still bleeds."