Once A Wolf Ch. 01

“Then, youare an actress.”

The tiny smile reappeared.

“I suppose I am.”

She had transferred her belt knife to him, until he could acquire a more suitable weapon. Then again, he wasn’ttrained, as she was. She would have to attend to that as well. It would not be possible to bring him up to her level in so short a time. She had trained five years in Japan with the Togakure Clan – after Mike… well, it was still difficult to think about. She and “Ajax” (his Dad had nicknamed him that) had been as close as two humans could be. He had been her inspiration, had given her everything that was his to give – including his sense of purpose. It had all been about two little words:Never again. Mike had been gone a long time. Now, Geoff was here. If she could instill in him even a small part of what she had learned, they would be doing well.

She went over the background of how they would approach this ‘mission’. They sat on the floor of the cave as they talked He sat very near her. She didn’t want to say anything, but she wished he would move back a bit. She found the nearness of him… unsettling. His smell was disturbing as well. No; “smell” was not the right word. Hisessence was disturbing, and seemed to permeate everything around her. Unbeknownst to the statuesque blonde,he was experiencing the same disquieting feelings abouther.

She then ran him through some basic exercises with the sword and knife; proper stances, grip, some basic movements, offensive and defensive. In the case of the hand knife, which would be his weapon for now, she admonished not to hold it blade-forward. A quick opponent could knock it out of his grasp or take it from him. Instead, he should reverse the knife, shielding the blade along the underside of his forearm. Then, he would sweep the blade outward when he was slashing at his opponent.

They set off for a ‘sweep’ of the area in the late afternoon. The sun had already lost much of its mid-afternoon intensity. She wanted to take him on a nice, easy patrol, just so he could get acclimated to the routine. Perhaps they could even pick up some good intel on their opponent. She worried the Golganthan – who would undoubtedly havehis teammate by now – might also do the same. She didn’t really want to get Geoff involved in actual combat just yet, but they couldn’t hole up in the cave and outlast the bastards, either. As it happened, the Golganthans were the last of their problems.

As the sun dropped further, the sound began. It was a chirping sound, almost like a squeaky wheel. More precisely, it was like a thousand squeaky wheels, ten thousand, all chirping at once. The sound emanated from everywhere, and nowhere. Whatever it was, it was gettinglouder. They both looked around, trying to spy the source. Geoff climbed a little rise to get a better view of the surrounding terrain. Both swept the area with their eyes. Then the smell hit them. It was sharp, slightly metallic, and acidic. It had already become so strong she could actuallytaste it.

Geoff was behind her. She turned to face him. She could not believe her eyes. Her companion was sprouting a pair of antennae, one from each shoulder. As she watched in fascination, the antennae rose higher and higher over his head. They waved back and forth animatedly. Yet, he seemed completely oblivious to their presence. He simply gazed down at her, perplexed at the look of astonishment on her face. In horror, Giselle realized they weren’t risingfrom him; they were risingbehind him!

She was on him in a flash. In one fluid motion, she planted both feet, grabbed his rugby shirt in her right hand and yankedhard. Geoff sailed over her right shoulder, tumbling head-over-heels down the embankment. Her left hand was a blur. Steel glinted brightly in the late afternoon sun. In six fluidbattojutsu strokes, the towering blonde sliced through the antennae, mandibles, and front legs in order. The beast dipped forward and down, blind and crippled but far from helpless. All it had to do wasfall on her and the game would be over before it had truly begun. On the seventh stroke, she whirled clockwise to her left, raised the sword over her head and slashed down, left to right. The massive, reddish-brown bulk and severed head collapsed as one - and were still. The corpse gushed dark green blood that brightened as it oxygenated.

Her entire response, from first move to last, had taken five seconds.

She wiped the blade clean with the cloth at her belt, and re-sheathed the sword. Then, she turned to her companion. He sat, sprawled, at the foot of the incline, staring up at her dumbly. He picked himself up, dusted himself off, and returned to her side. He stared down at the mass of … whatever it had been, then back at her in open amazement.

“What is…was it?”

The words came to her then, as though she had just heard them for the first time. This was a different species, but she accurately identified the beast in the same matter-of-fact inflection Edmund Gwynne had used fifty years before.

“Solenopsis invicta,, of the orderHymenoptera. A fire ant.”

Geoff just stared at her as though she had said: “Howdy Doody”.

“No. No, no, no, no,NO! Iknow ants. I haveseen ants. I haveNEVER seen an ant eight feet long.”

“Ten. We were lucky; this looks to have been aminor worker. The major workers would be bigger still.”

Geoff snorted.

“Oh, well, thank the Lord for small favors! I feelso much better now. Do antsalways bleed green blood?”

She had been puzzling over that very question since she beheaded the monster.

“No, theydon’t.”

The sound continued, more frenzied than before. Giselle looked up at her companion, then slipped her arm through his.

“Let’s go. We won’t accomplish anything more here this afternoon and it would be a really bad idea to stick around right now.”

“So? What about tomorrow?” he demanded. “What will we dothen?”

She was stunned by the sudden appearance of this particular beast, in this place and under these circumstances. A thought occurred to her - more likeintuition. More than anything else, it was the green blood that had convinced her. She believed she already had the answer to that one.

“Nothing. They won’t be here.”

She avoided his gaze – and expression of utter incredulity. He almost missed the single word she utteredsotto voz.

“Cupraglobin.”

They returned to the cave and slaked their thirsts. The Praetor appeared to them. It was the first time Geoff had seen the holographic transmission. The young man spent a good three minutes ranting to the Arcturan about the ant, why they hadn’t been apprised of the Arena’s indigenous threats, his lack of substantial firepower, and how unfair it was for Giselle to have to shoulder the entire burden. Not once did he evenimply it was unfair of them to have placed him there, in jeopardy, in the first place. In the end, all of it was for naught. The Praetor completely ignored him, in favor of his female companion.

There was food there, the Arcturan intoned. Additional non-combat supplies would be available on request and more advanced weaponry would be forthcoming as they racked up more points. All of Arcturus had been utterly stunned at the speed and skill with which she had dispatched her first challenge.

“What do you mean?” asked Giselle. “What ‘challenge’?”

“Ah, yes, the Challenges….”

To make it more interesting for the audience, the Praetor droned, the contestants would also face additional ‘challenges’, above and beyond those posed by their primary opponents. These challenges could, and would, pop up at any time and take any form. The jeopardy was exactly the same; if a ‘challenge’ killed you, your opponent won by default.

He “regretted wasting her time on a task that was so obviously beneath her advanced skillset.” They would attempt to find others more worthy of her talents. Although the words, at face value, were high praise indeed, she somehow felt they had been intended as a rebuke.

The ‘food’ was similar to, and as bland as, the average granola bar. Still, they were plentiful and the pair was famished. As she chewed, Giselle reflected on the events of the day, as well as their somewhat dubious dinner. This was one of those few moments in her life when anMREwould have been a welcome substitute. She would do better for them tomorrow, she vowed. In fact, anMRE might not be a bad idea….

The trembling began later. It was nothing new to her; she had dealt with it for a most of her adult life. In the heat of combat, you cannot afford the luxury of emotions. You shut them off, lock them away, so you can do the job you know you have to do. If you get hit in the meantime, oh well. If one of your team gets killed, tough luck; keep going. Eventually, the job is over, the day is done. You have to face the uncomfortable proposition ofunlocking that which you locked away – anddealing with it. Bullets and bombs were one thing; monsters from her childhood, monsters that had taken on physical, flesh-and-blood form were adifferent story….

He watched her, sitting on the opposite side of the cave, hugging her knees tightly and rocking back and forth. She looked… small; nothing like the strong, confidant woman he had accompanied on patrol – the one who had so nonchalantly carved up the monster ant and saved his life before he even had time to react. Now, she sat alone, forlorn, and shaking like a leaf.

She jumped at his touch. He had sat down next to her, closer than he had been that afternoon, and put his arm around her.

“In all the fuss this afternoon, I completely lost my head – and manners. Thank you for saving my life. What you did with that sword wasamazing. I don’t know why I am here in the first place, but if Imust, I am glad it is with you.”

She was confused; wanting him to be there, yet wanting him to get away from her. This was a complication she didn’t need right now. He wasright there. She could feel his heat – and it feltgood. She gazed up into those blue eyes, losing herself in them. At that moment, she was vulnerable. She lowered her gaze, fixing her sight on that beautiful, sensual mouth….

He was tender and she needed that. He caressed her in a gentle, sensual manner that belied his youthful countenance. She had never trulyneededa man before, but she needed this one now. She needed his kiss, his touch, his warmth. He was special.Being with him was special, too.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” she thought,“but he is SO good. It’s just like I thought it would -”

Her eyes flew open as a terrible thought occurred to her.NO! Dear God, they can’t be! She pressed her hand to his lips.

“Please, we have to stopright now.”

The visibly shaken young woman retreated to the opposite side of the cave. She collapsed in a heap and sobbed uncontrollably. When Geoff approached, attempting to console her, she swatted at him with one hand, warning him with her glare to stay away. He returned to his side in misery. He vowed if he lived to be one thousand, he wouldnever understand women.

The anger burned deep within her.You Bastards! I hope you are enjoying the show!

Theywere enjoying the show. Initial reaction to the female’s stunning dismemberment of the giant insect had been overwhelming. The interplay between her and her companion was shaping up nicely, too, although her sudden refusal of him at the last moment had been a disappointment.

This looked to be much more promising than the last outing with a Human. That event had dragged on for almost two decades; two bumbling nits flailing away at each other ineffectually, day after day, year after year. That had beentoo funny. Finally, the Human’s opponent had died of natural causes.Boredom, if you asked the Praetor. The “winner” had been sent home, a laughingstock in the eyes of the Arcturans.

In a routine follow-up, the Praetor had discovered the man’s own people had murdered him upon his return, nailed him to a wooden cross – and they had not even had to endure his drawn-out, lackluster effort. During the contest, there had been no shortage of Arcturan ‘volunteers’ demanding to put the contestant out oftheir misery.