Worries of a First-time Werewolf

Graham stared. He wasn't interested in Juniper's bust, though she had one--but she was also old enough to have been his mother, which put her distinctly out of the range for any lust he might have felt. Rather, Graham was intrigued to have met another werewolf, and he hungered for more information. "Who... are you?" he asked slowly.

Juniper smoothly zipped her coat back up and leaned back against the rocks again. "Juniper McWestin, as I said before."

"And you're a werewolf."

"Yes."

A concerning thought occurred to Graham. "Yesterday, the rest of that wolfpack--were... were they all werewolves?" He used his paw to gesture towards Sticks as she lay resting against his side. "Is... is she a werewolf too?" he hissed.

Juniper chortled loudly, and she slapped her hand against her knee. "Hoho. No, they're not. It's only you and me who are werewolves. The rest of the wolves who live in this forest are just wolves... mostly."

"Mostly?" Graham prompted.

"They aren't purely wolves. I'd say they're a mixed breed. Living this close to the city, there is the occasional crossover between a wolf and a stray dog," Juniper explained. "There is also a little bit of dire wolf in the ancestry of these wolves, from deeper in the forest, and maybe even a little werewolf ancestry. You're definitely not the first lycan to mate with a wolf, of course."

"Uh...!" Graham twitched, which made Juniper laugh again.

"Hahaha. I'm not the sort to judge what you want to do with your free time." Juniper gestured towards herself. "I do love coming out here to the forest, just to get a feel of the wild. I've certainly had my own fair share of wild romantic conquests, so I say you can do what you want."

Graham awkwardly glanced around, avoiding eye contact. He spotted his water bottle that had been partially buried in the snow since yesterday, and he dug it out. Busying himself with trying to unscrew the cap with his paws, he hurriedly tried to change the topic away from what he and Sticks had been doing last night. "You don't live out here in the wilderness?"

"Oh, no. Not at all. I live in Tiwani, and I work at the docks as a senior custom inspector. But once or twice every year, I like to come out to the woods to take a little vacation. The local wolf pack knows me and they tolerate my presence, especially because I bribe them with some food when I first arrive." Leaning forward, Juniper took the water bottle from Graham and helped him to open the lid, before giving it back to him. Her human fingers had the manual dexterity that his paws lacked.

"So you're a werewolf, but you can still live a normal life. That's... that's encouraging," Graham murmured. He stuck his tongue into his water bottle, but all the water inside had frozen into ice. Calling up the power within him, Graham use a flame spell to begin melting the ice back into liquid.

Seeing him using magic again made Juniper look curious. "It's your turn to answer a question now. Who are you?"

Graham had a brief, mild existential crisis as he glanced over himself. "I'm... Graham Morgan. I'm a senior apprentice magician at the Royal Academy of Magic. I... I don't know why I'm a werewolf. Just a few days ago I finished my exams when suddenly my hand started to change. I don't know how that happened. I don't ever recall anyone biting me."

Juniper tapped at her chin thoughtfully. "Are you an only child?"

Graham nodded. "Yes, why?"

"You might want to ask your parents about your family history. If only one of your parents was a werewolf, normally the children don't inherit lycanthropy. You need both parents to be werewolves for that to happen, but then it becomes very difficult to conceive, so werewolf siblings are quite rare. Even still, children from werewolf parents usually don't immediately exhibit lycanthropy. You might be a late bloomer."

Graham tapped his paws against the snow. "I don't think my parents are werewolves? They're normal people."

"Who are your parents? Do they live in Tiwani? I might know them if they are werewolves," Juniper said.

Graham shook his head. "My parents live in the capital, Kadrin. My father's a magician, and my mother works in the mayor's office." All this was true, but was also an understatement. Graham's father was a magician, and he was a member of the magician's council that directly advised senior imperial leadership on magic-related topics. And Graham's mother worked in the mayor's office because it was her office. Overall, Graham's parents were busy civil servants but also loving parents, and in all their mundanity he couldn't imagine them as being werewolves. At the very least, he would have expected to have heard some political gossip if there were werewolves in high governmental positions. "I don't... think my parents are werewolves?"

"Well either someone turned you into a werewolf, or you were born one. But if I had to bet, I'd say your parents are werewolves and they've been procrastinating on letting you in on the family secret, just in case it turns out you didn't inherit lycanthropy." Juniper looked thoughtful. "There are other ways to identify a werewolf. Have you ever seen your parents eat chocolate?"

"No, my mother's allergic to it, and my father prefers vanilla so... uh..." Graham's voice trailed off and he tilted his head. "Wait. Werewolves can't eat chocolate? Does that mean that I can't eat chocolate anymore?"

"You can eat chocolate, but only while in human form. And then you have to wait a few days for it to be flushed from your digestive system before you can turn into wolf form, otherwise the cocoa will poison you."

Graham was disproportionately dismayed to learn about this limitation. "But that sucks! I like chocolate."

"You'll get used to it. There are other things you shouldn't eat--grapes, onions, milk--just to name a few. That's one of the most obvious trade-offs for having two forms--you need to accommodate the needs of both." Juniper shrugged. "Then what happened next? You discovered you were a werewolf, but why are you out here in the forest?"

Graham was still wondering if his parents really were werewolves, but he mentally shelved that line of inquiry and continued his explanation. "My friends gave me some telanium-silver to try and suppress the transformation, but it couldn't reverse it. Then I... I came out here so that I wouldn't harm anyone if I lost control." He paused as another question occurred to him. "Is that a thing? Can werewolves lose control and become violent?"

"No, that's just a stereotype. The old tales and legends of people being attacked by werewolves are actually just stories about people being attacked by normal wolves." Juniper pointed at Sticks, who was still snoozing beside Graham with her chin resting on his back. "Because wild animals are normally not as friendly, intelligent, or tolerant as this. It's only because we have a sizable werewolf community in Tiwani that the wolves in this forest have some familiarity with humans. But as I was saying, no, werewolves don't lose control and become violent. All the werewolves I know are excellent, upstanding members of society."

"And... you know a lot of werewolves? There's a community in Tiwani? How many of us are there?" Graham asked.

Juniper looked thoughtful, and she briefly counted off numbers on her fingers. "In Tiwani, including all the outskirts and surrounding areas, the number is fifteen. There's the Admanza family and the Thompson family, along with a handful of other individuals like myself. And we werewolves usually do try to keep in touch and look out for each other. It's good to keep a pack."

"Fifteen werewolves in the city. That's... more than I expected, but still not that many," Graham murmured. He started drinking from his bottle, since his magic had now melted enough of the ice for there to be liquid water.

Smoothly snapping her fingers, Juniper pointed at Graham. "Sixteen werewolves now, if we count you, living in your magician's academy." A concerned look crossed the woman's face. "Maybe seventeen, depending on whether you managed to turn your friend over there."

"Aaahhkkk!" Graham almost choked on the water he'd been drinking. His coughing made Sticks grunt as she kept resting her head on his side with her eyes closed. "Wait, what?! Is that a joke? You mean wolves can become werewolves too?! I thought it was only humans!"

"Nobody told you anything about werewolves, did they? It works both ways. Humans and wolves can both become werewolves," Juniper said.

Apprehensively glancing at Sticks, who was still napping against him, Graham swallowed nervously. "I never bit her."

Juniper sighed. "This is a prime example of why turning someone is considered a huge responsibility. You need to have things explained. How should I put this? Biting is the most widely known method of transmitting lycanthropy, but it also can spread via sexual contact. Especially if you mate during the full moon, which was last night."

"Oh," Graham murmured soberly. He didn't know how to feel about this.

"The chance of spreading lycanthropy is quite low." Juniper gestured between Graham and Sticks. "If you only had sex once, then odds are almost negligible that you turned your wolf friend into a werewolf just like us. But then you two are young and frisky, so it wasn't just once, was it?"

Graham said nothing, and his silence was enough of a reply. Sticks was still snoozing peacefully, completely uncaring even as Graham worried about the possible long-term consequences of what they had done last night.

Juniper had an amused, though still concerned smile. "Ok, don't worry. Even though you two tried your best, it's still a modestly low chance that you turned her into a werewolf. In fact, it's far more likely that you only got her pregnant."

"Puh?!" A panicked, choked sound came from Graham's throat. "What? What, now?!"

"You didn't know that either? Right now is the time of year for it. The middle of winter is exactly mating season for wolves."

"Oh." Graham stared into the fire, feeling increasingly worried. "Oh, no," he repeated.

"I know your magician school is good for teaching magic, but surely they also taught you basic things like sexual education? Did no one ever teach you what happens if you have sex without using any sort of protection?" Juniper frowned at Graham. "Are you even of age?"

"I'm a senior apprentice magician! Not some junior, not even a midclasser," Graham replied exasperatedly.

Juniper threw up her hands. "That means nothing to me. I don't know how magician training ranks correspond to age, and you do look young to me. So, you're an adult?"

"Yes, I'm an adult! And... and yes, obviously I do know about... about sex and how it's important to use a contraceptive like a protective charm if I'm having sex with another person, but I didn't think that applied last night. It just seemed... wolves don't wear condoms, right? And... and I'm not even a wolf, I'm a werewolf, so I thought I couldn't... I thought that between a werewolf and a wolf, it wouldn't work," Graham sputtered.

"If you're in human form and you fool around with a nice young lady, then you can knock her up. Similarly, if you're in wolf form and you mate with a wolf bitch in heat, you can breed her too. Congratulations on your possible parenthood, because you might have put a whole litter of puppies into your wolf friend there. Your potential offspring would just be normal wolves though, not werewolves."

Graham's ears flattened back against his skull, and his fur puffed up from nervousness. "Oh, I didn't... I did not think that was a possibility. That's... uh..." He sat up straight, which made Sticks grunt as she could no longer use his butt as a pillow and was pushed onto the snow. Graham ignored her grumbling and he waved a paw towards her. "Let me get this straight--there's a good chance that I've turned this wolf into a werewolf, and... and even impregnated her?!"

Juniper nodded. "Yes. It'll be one or the other, though. Not both. For some reason, two werewolves mating with each other usually isn't a fruitful pairing--of the two werewolf families who live in Tiwani, it took them years or even decades to conceive. So, if you happened to turn your friend there into a werewolf, she probably isn't pregnant."

"Which... is better?" Graham asked slowly.

"That depends on your preferred choice of responsibility." Juniper tapper her chest. "Me personally, I've never turned anyone into a werewolf, or had children, because of all that responsibility. That was a deliberate choice I made many, many, many decades ago, and I stick to it even in my advanced age."

"You aren't that old," Graham replied.

Juniper laughed warmly. "Ahaha. You do know how to flatter a lady." She winked at him. "Werewolves undergo magical transformations, so we regenerate from injuries or disease quickly, and you also gain considerable longevity. How old do you think I am?"

Graham shifted his weight, tapping his paws against the snow. "Uh... since you ask, I'd say you look, maybe, late forties? Middle-aged, but not elderly."

"Hahaha. Not even close, though thank you for that. I'm not going to tell you my exact age, though I will say that I did attend the coronation of the current and previous high emperors."

Graham did some quick mathematics in his head. That would make Juniper at least a hundred years old, though she easily looked half that age. And now that he thought about it, all throughout his two decades of life Graham could always remember his parents as looking the same age--was that just because by comparison he had grown far more through his childhood, or were they actually aging slower?

"Regardless, as I was saying, you've got responsibilities ahead of you now." Juniper gestured at Sticks. "Honestly between your two potential outcomes, neither is easy? I'd say you'd better be hoping she's pregnant. If you turned her into a werewolf, that is a heavier responsibility."

"How so?" Graham asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to take care of one werewolf, instead of a whole bunch of wolf pups?"

Juniper folded her arms. "Not necessarily. Graham, you need to grasp how significant it is to make a werewolf. Spreading lycanthropy, turning someone into a werewolf, is universally agreed by everyone in the werewolf community to be a very big deal. The powers you have now with two forms--the regeneration, the transformation, the longevity--they change how you must live and who you are. For a human to adapt to the werewolf life is already major enough, but for a wolf to become a werewolf? That's almost never done because of how much trouble it is! Except in this case, you two didn't know any better."

"That wolf and the rest of the wolves in this forest, they are smart, cunning hunters. They have limited experience with human hikers, stray dogs that roam from the city, and even werewolves like me, which makes them more docile or tame than a truly wild wolf, but they are still wild animals." Juniper gestured to Sticks, who was still napping beside Graham. "By turning her into a werewolf, if that has occurred, you've taken a wild animal and added human-level cognition. A natural, beastly mind has been uplifted and granted sapience."

Pushing into a stand, Juniper took a few steps forward and bent down to tap a finger against Graham's fur-covered chest. "You have the body of a wolf right now, but in there, you have the mind of a human. Do you know what that means? Think about all the advanced features of a human mind that we possess, and then know that you might just have shared that to her."

"Intelligence?" Graham asked.

"It's not only about intelligence. I'm talking about... advanced planning and analytical skills, understanding abstract concepts, or having an imagination. Language processing--the ability to hear speech and comprehend that it means something. Or to see written words and understand that they are text patterns that convey meaning. What about social skills, meaning the ability to process emotions or empathize with another person? Children have to learn all these things, but as humans their brains are fundamentally wired so they can develop all these mental skills and fit into society. And now, just maybe, that wolf can do all that too."

Graham had been holding his breath, but he let it out slowly. "But that... is not a bad thing?"

"It's not morally wrong, it's just a huge responsibility." Juniper sat back down beside the campfire, and she again raised her hands to warm them against the fire. "And it's your responsibility. You've put the spark of society in her mind, so you get to integrate her into civilization. If she turns completely and transforms into a human, come the new moon? Then good luck teaching your wolf girlfriend to wear pants."

"Haha. Heh... Uh... Ehh..." Graham chuckled nervously, but then he sighed. "I... I don't even know how to control my own transformations, but now I need to take care of another new werewolf? And here I thought getting mauled by a bear was going to be the highlight of my adventure."

Juniper raised an eyebrow. She stared at Graham for a moment, then at Sticks, then she simply spent a minute staring into the fire, watching the flames flicker. "You're not alone. You're part of a pack now." Leaning back against the rocks, the older werewolf shrugged. "Any more questions?"

"Yes. Uh... how do I change back to human?" Graham asked.

---

Graham held a small rectangular card in his hands. He flipped it around, rubbed a finger against the printed ink, and even sniffed at the thin material, but as far as he could tell it was just a normal business card. "Juniper McWestin, Senior Customs Inspector, Tiwani Port Authority" read the card, along with an office address and the official emblem of the imperial government.

Graham had kept talking with Juniper for an hour more, asking all sorts of questions about werewolves, but eventually what he needed was not information but instead time to take it all in. Juniper had offered to walk him back to the city, however Graham had declined--his fellow senior apprentice magicians would be coming back for him, and he wanted to wait for them. Instead, Juniper had offered him her name card and told him to get in touch with her when he was back in civilization, and then she'd headed off back to the city first.

It had taken Graham another hour of pacing around the forest clearing before he'd managed to transform back to human form. He didn't have full control over his transformations, but like trying to sneeze on demand, once he felt that inner power started to take hold he could either resist the change or speed it forward. Now the young magician was fully human again, as much as was possible for him now.

Pulling a boot onto his left foot, Graham did up the laces tight, then he snapped a telanium-silver alloy bracelet around his calf. "Hopefully that keeps me in human form, at least for now."

Sticks was awake again, and the wild wolf was sitting in the snow, curiously watching as Graham moved in and out of the tent to find all his clothes and put them all on. Aside from his apparel, Graham also put on the telanium-silver bracelets around his ankles and wrists. He secured the belt around his waist, then also put on the necklace when something else occurred to him.

Crouching down, Graham squinted at Sticks. "Sticks, you... you're still the same, right? I didn't accidentally transform you...? You're just a normal wolf, not a werewolf?"

Scampering forward, Sticks put her paws on his knee and licked at his face affectionately. When she stepped back, her gaze seemed different--there was a comprehension that Graham noticed as she stared at him. Her feral intelligence seemed perhaps just a little less feral than before. She sniffed at Graham's coat, then she nosed curiously at the telanium-silver bands around his wrists.