Wolf 3.0

Arrival

It is so good to get out!

My name is Talleyrand and I am a standard poodle who lives with his master in a third-floor walkup apartment on the upper West Side in Manhattan. My master is single, in his twenties, and a graduate student at New York University in New York City.

I am a large friendly shaggy standard poodle the color of intense black ink with a few grey flecks starting to come in. I am a bit of a coward when I meet a smaller dog. Then I sit on my hindquarters and shrink into myself. I guess you could say I lack social skills.

But let me tell you a secret: I watch television and look over my master's shoulder at his computer. Please don't tell my master, but I understand and read English.

I don't get out much because my master is in school. Those long days at the apartments are really boring.

Recently my master wanted to take me on an outing to the country so we drove to a wolf preserve in northern New Jersey. In a very large enclosed space we saw a pack of wolves of varying sizes, color, and ages. I was kept on close leash most of the time so we did not get that close initially, but once when we went closer for examination, an older wolf with grey hair lunged out of the pack. As he pushed forward against the fence he fixed me with a fiery stare and then fell back.

It stayed with me the rest of the day during the drive back. At the apartment I was put to bed by my master with a bowl of food. Tired, I am sleeping quietly on the master's bed . I am dreaming that I am running with the wolves, and in real life my legs are running.

I wake up, and there's a voice softly calling to me from the closet. There's a light shining from inside I haven't seen before, and a person I recognize from somewhere, a tall man with a dark ponytail, beckoning me in. Talleyrand. I hear that voice inside my head. Talleyrand.

I look at my sleeping master and then cautiously go into the closet and into the light. Talleyrand, come here. I'm going to take you away from here. You'll be back tomorrow. I hear the voice in my mind but not in my ears. It is from a man who is looking at me, a man's voice.

I am a friend of your master. It's ok. Everything is ok. You are only staying a year and will come back. It will be just be overnight as far as your master is concerned.

I speak to him from inside my head: Where are we going?

You will become a wolf for a year and then you will come back and your master will only remember it for a day. You will get to run and have a wolf family and live a life you never had a chance to. Come with me. Come here, Talleyrand. It's alright.

A picture comes into my head. I am in the woods and running and running.

My mind is taken over by a moving picture now: A forest glade, a wolfpack running to outrun an elk running for his life. I am running with them. The elk is overtaken and they and I leap on him and take him down.

I am afraid.

And suddenly I know his name, he's Joe, and he's from "The Hand of Time", like somebody from a story, and he's saying: Come with me. It's your only chance. Come with me, Talleyrand. Talleyrand --

Now I fall truly asleep and am running with the wolves. It's like a preview. Yes, my legs are running. We're coming home to the den and we have the spoils from the hunt.

I'm thinking this is a trick.

Is this for real? Something's wrong here. What if I can't come back?