How Not To Be A Werewolf (Editing)

Tea With Mr. Gray

The world righted itself and I found that I was somehow in the forest from the magical window. Standing in front of me was the magician in the blue robes.

Holy crap.

My body felt stretched and compressed beyond its natural capabilities like I had been forced through a small drain pipe.

Of course being sucked into a magical picture was never going to be fun.

As soon as I was just about in control of my body the magician pointed his wand at me once more. Before I could do anything, my arms were suddenly trapped at my sides by thick coils of rope that twisted themselves around my upper body. As I struggled to release my arms I felt more ropes tie themselves around my legs causing me to fall face-first onto the leaves and dirt of the forest floor.

God, this guy was seriously starting to piss me off.

"What the hell was that for?!" I asked him, spitting out a mouthful of dirt.

The magician smiled nastily as he assessed me, "The master isn't ready for you quite yet. I'm just keeping you occupied until he is."

Whoever this mysterious master of his was, they were not coming across as a friendly party. I mean, if you want to talk to someone you don't force them into a magical picture and then have them tied up. That was just unnecessary, and in my opinion a real dick move.

"You can't just leave me tied up down here!" I shouted up at the magician as I struggled unsuccessfully to free myself from the ropes. "I'll only end up hurting you, and I really don't want to do that!"

The magician walked around me and stepped into my eye line. His black eyes glinted with satisfaction as he looked down at me like I was an amusing little animal that he was holding hostage.

"You don't frighten me lycan." he said smoothly. "Your little problem is well controlled here. This is my realm. Think of it as no man's land. The middle of the battlefield, but not part of the war. Your consciousness is here, but your physical form is still back where it was."

Deep down I knew he was right. I couldn't feel any of the usual signs of my transformation that generally occurred whenever I was in danger, or a particularly stressful situation. My hands were not shaking uncontrollably, my blood didn't feel like it was boiling up inside my veins. In fact, I felt almost normal.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, giving up on trying to get my hands free. Those ropes were bloody tight. Instead, I focused on trying to keep the magician talking.

"I am but a simple advisor to my Master," the magician said. "Oh, I've advised kings and demons both over the centuries. You could say that I am the power behind the ones in charge. The kingmaker as it were. You may call me M."

Even though I was incapacitated and trapped, I had to really try hard to stop myself from laughing, "M?" I asked him "Like James Bond's boss?"

"It makes me sound more mysterious." M said dismissively, "And names carry more power than you can possibly imagine, boy."

Whatever else M might have said then, he was interrupted by a voice that was smooth, commanding and dangerously sweet to listen to. As glad as I was to not have to listen to M gloat anymore, I had a bad feeling about this new voice. It just sounded wrong, almost like it shouldn't exist.

"Let him go, M." the voice said. "The poor boy can't very well drink tea if he's tied up on the forest floor, now can he?"

M jumped to attention. "Yes, sorry Mr Gray, Sir!" he said before snapping his fingers. The ropes that had been holding me disappeared. I sat up and rubbed at my arms, they had started to go numb after being tied up so tightly. I looked around and saw the second man, Mr Gray, as he stepped into the clearing.