"FIVE HUNDRED???!!!" I howled.
"Like I said, I wasn't counting. It may be less," Gimmel belatedly tried to placate.
"Five hundred." I found myself breaking into ridiculous tears of self pity.
"Why do you keep shouting 'five hundred'?" I heard Maultner's snotty query from below. "Is that a secret code for 'help' or something?"
I rolled my eyes. The imminent possibility of having five hundred more wolves like Ara and Gimmel residing in my mind trumped the fact that I was being held hostage by a hot handsome stranger who wanted to use me on his premeditated quest for vengeance. I supposed it would please him immensely to know that nobody would come for me. No scout had been sent to to this side of the moon river like he had assumed. No scout had been sent here in a long time. I was a literal lonewolf.
"Does that make you frightened Maultner?" I taunted nevertheless.
"Frightened? I wish. I have been preparing for this day all my life. It'd take more than the number five hundred to frighten me."
I scoffed. "What are you? Some kind kind of samurai? If you make one more statement about your lifetime plans, I'll jump."
Maultner did not make a verbal reaction to my threat and the manual elevator continued it's steady crawl upwards.
"That's like the eleventh time you've threatened to jump," Gimmel chirped in.
"Wow, Einstein in wolf skin is counting," I murmured sarcastically. "I can't lead Maultner into the Sanctuary genius. I'd be considered a traitor."
"You told Ara that you didn't care about the pack. And that the pack has never made you happy."
"Maybe pack loyalty is an inbuilt trait. Maybe I just don't want to be a rogue. Maybe I don't want to be a bitter miserable toad like Maultner."
"Fair enough," said Gimmel. "Then we should perhaps start thinking of how to escape our bonds."
The elevator crawled to a final halt.
"You've got to take your weight off it all at once!" came Maultner's yell. "I'm sure you already know that but one can't be too sure this days. You look awfully slow."
I did not know. In fact, it was only now when Maultner said it that I realized the elevator was built in such a way that any shift in weight would cause it to crash right back to the ground. I jumped out and watched the elevator go down. Wouldn't it be nice if it just crashed down on Maultner?
"We have ten minutes," I told Gimmel after dispelling myself of wishful thinkings. "Quick find a sharp stone or something."
A decent distance off was the moon river, flowing down to that damnable water fall. Under my feet were stretches of loamy soil, and weedy lumps of grass. I became certain it was why Maultner had no prior qualms in letting me go up first. There was nothing in sight to assist in the liberation of my forelimbs and I doubted I could run very far if I tried. I had to be innovative enough to think of something else.
Werewolves had two modes of transformation: the shift and the morph. The shift could only be done on full moon nights when the inner wolf's form would assume control. The morph, on the other hand, could be done any time. It was the merging of the physical characteristics of both humans and wolf. It hurt like hell too. Not every werewolf could achieve the morph, especially not one in my rank. Ara and I had attempted it once and we had failed woefully.
Now, it was the only quick solution I could conjure. If Gimmel and I somehow succeeded in morphing, we could break out of the bonds Maultner put me in. And Maultner would be none the wiser until he reached up.
"Can you morph?" I asked Gimmel.
"Morph?" Gimmel repeated. "That's a pretty tall order."
"If you can, I'll accept your taking Ara's place and always look forward to our good intraexistential relationship."
"That's a pretty tall promise."
"Gimmel!" I reprimanded. This inner wolf was proving more difficult to deal with than Ara ever was. "Morphing is our only chance of escaping from Maultner and we have just under seven minutes."
"Have you ever morphed before?"
"No."
"Neither have I. I know it is an excruciating process and it's not something I want to jump into soon after my incredulous fortune of actually being able to talk to you and you to me."
"You only know these things because you've been hiding in my head so don't preach to me. I wish the circumstances were different Gimmel, I really do. The morph will be painful for both of us. Let's just get it over with."
"Fine," Gimmel sighed.
We closed our eyes, trying to garner my concentration into kick-starting the morphing process. It usually took more than than thirty minutes for a first time morpher to do so successfully. But I did not have thirty minutes and my whole being —principled by survival— seemed to be aware of the fact, because it was instantly that I dropped into the whiteness and came face to face with Gimmel, my new inner wolf.
Gimmel was nearly four feet tall. Her fur shone like burnished bronze against the white background. The muscles flexed beneath her skin and her fiery eyes bore into mine. It seemed surreal that I should be here, not staring at Ara but at her replacement. I moved tentatively towards Gimmel.
"Will I ever get Ara back?"
"I am as clueless as you but if we must get answers, then Christopher Maultner should not meet us here. We must morph as soon as possible." Gimmel urged me out of my hesitation and I placed my hands on her back.
A sudden pain ripped through me, blinding me to any other colour but white. I bit my lip to stifle a growing scream since I did not want to alert Maultner to my latest shenanigan.
My morphing had begun.
A feeling like hot fire seared me, enclosed me as I felt myself being pulled like metal piece to a magnet. I was fusing with Gimmel.
Suddenly, a barrage of images besieged my mind— of wolves! All kinds, all heights, all colours. It was for a fleeting a moment only, but the images branded themselves in my memory. Ara was there.
"Audeline, we are close, what are you doing?"
"I can't! I can't do this." I tried to push Gimmel away. I felt her impatience in my mind.
"We were about to make a morphing record."
"I don't care about morphing records. I want Ara back."
"Why are you acting like I deliberately took her? I did not ask for this either."
"Fuck you Gimmel," I snapped before I could stop myself. Ara had only been gone for an hour at most. What kind of werewolf would I be to just bond with Gimmel as if Ara was never there with me, through thick and thin?
I opened my eyes, dropping out of my total concentration. My hands were free from its shredded ropes and they were weirdly mutated. My hands were bigger, hairier, with red hair and sharp fingernails. My bare feet were in similar condition. It dawned on me that I had partially achieved the morph. Only seventy percent of Sanctuarians made that record and only about ten percent went further to fully morph. I should have been celebrating, trying to use this feat to gain myself some meagre popularity points, but I was just glad that I was free and I was about to have the upoer hand on Maultner.
"Audie?" I could sense that Gimmel was trying to pacify me.
"Call me Audeline," I said coldly.
"You'll have to accept me eventually."
"Don't jump to conclusions Gimmel." Scaling up to the nearest shady tree with the super strength that my morphed limbs afforded me, I broke off a heavy branch.
In about five seconds, Maultner would be up. I readied myself in position, holding the hefty tree branch over my shoulders. Poised to swing it like a baseball bat.
"Hey, what's going on…?"
Maultner did not have the chance to complete his question before I whacked his head with a resounding wham with the branch. The branch crumpled, and Maultner along with it. I could not tell if he was unconscious or dead.
"That's for calling me Flourescent asshole," I vindictively said.