The Silent Soldiers

by Travis Stinnett

a little privacy. I didn’t think with everything going on that I would be able to sleep, but it didn’t take long for me to drift off. I woke up startled because Uncle Charles was shaking me.

  “What are you doing? What’s wrong?” I asked in an irritated voice.

  “Luke, you howled in your sleep and I think we need to get outside before you change,” my uncle told me. But it was too late. My body suddenly began to shake uncontrollably, and I felt my bones begin to move and change shape. In a matter of seconds I realized I was standing on four legs on the floor looking up at Uncle Charles and Matt. Their eyes were both bigger than I thought was possible. Their gaze was fixed on me. Ok, I thought. Why were they staring at me like I had three heads or something? I know Matt is new to this, but had they not witnessed someone change into a wolf before?

  Suddenly my body began to shake again and I was standing upright again.

  “What just happened?” I asked as I tried to get my brain to wrap around it all.

  “You changed!” Matt yelled.

  “Well I figured that much genius,” I said a little irritated at Matt for stating the obvious. “I know I changed, but why were you two looking at me like I had extra heads or something?” I asked them.

  “Well, you didn’t have any extra heads,” Uncle Charles said like he was afraid to tell me the rest of what he was thinking.

  “So, what was it?” I asked wishing they would just spit it out.

  “Well, to be perfectly honest with you, we have never seen a white wolf before,” Uncle Charles said.

  “A what?” I asked.

  “Dude, you changed into a wolf, but you were solid white,” said Matt.

  “What does that mean? Are all wolves the same color?” I asked.

  “No, wolves are different shades of black, brown, and gray, usually,” Uncle Charles said, “I have never seen one that was white,” he continued.

  “We have to go tell Grandpa,” said Matt. Just then I could feel the heat start to rise and my body began to shake. I was again in wolf form looking up at them.

  “We can’t go down there like that,” Matt said giggling. The next minute I changed back to normal, and Uncle Charles said,

  “Let’s go.” We were out the door running down the hall in no time. We were down the stairs and running toward the dinning hall. Just as we burst through the doors, and everyone was staring at us trying to figure out what was happening, I changed again right in front of everybody. I heard the gasps, and saw the shocked expressions go around the room as I looked up at them in wolf form.

  “We should have kept him in the hall and brought Grandpa out, huh?” Matt whispered to his dad.

  “I guess so,” said Uncle Charles. A few seconds later as everyone continued to stare and whisper to each other about me, I changed back to my normal self.

  “If everyone would please go out and prepare for our full moon run, we will join you in a few minutes,” Grandpa addressed the crowd. Slowly everyone began to move toward the hall as we stepped aside. Everyone continued to stare at me as they went by, like I would change and bite their leg off as they passed me.

  When everyone had made their way out of the dinning hall, Grandpa turned around with a huge smile on his face and looked at me. He said,

  “Luke, I want you to know that you have just confirmed the prophecy that your grandmother fore told 14 years ago.” I had changed back to human form while Grandpa was talking.

  “How exactly did I do that?” I asked not knowing what he was talking about. The only thing I did was change into a wolf, and we already figured that would happen anyway.

  “Your grandmother told not only of the warrior born of two supernatural races. She also told that the form this warrior would take was, in fact, a magnificent white wolf,” Grandpa said with much excitement and happiness in his voice.

  “Oh,” I said. It was kind of dumb for me to just say, oh, but that is all I could really make come out of my mouth. Until that moment I guess I didn’t really believe the prophecy was talking about me at all. I didn’t know what to say.

  “You are truly a magnificent boy, Luke, and everyone here tonight has witnessed the prophecy come to pass,” Grandpa said.

  “Why do I keep spontaneously changing back and forth?” I asked.

  “Same thing happened to me,” Matt said.

  “It’s perfectly normal,” Grandpa said, "This sporadic changing will soon pass.”

  I began to hear howls coming from outside the mansion.

  “We need to go outside and prepare for the run,” said Grandpa.

  “This is going to be so awesome,” Matt whispered so only I could hear him.

  Grandpa turned and headed out of the dinning room. We then went into the great room and out the doors on the other side into the pool room. A few people were lingering here, but most of the crowd had exited out into the garden area that we saw through the glass wall earlier that evening. We continued to follow Grandpa out into the garden and wondered where we were headed. We headed out of the garden and across the lawn. I noticed we began to head up a hill that stood out in the light of the moon.

  Just as we reached closer to the top Grandpa stopped and motioned for me to continue on to the top of the hill. I slowly walked up the rest of the way alone and into the brilliant light of the full moon. I suddenly felt the change coming again. In seconds I was standing in full wolf form. As if I had no control over myself I lifted my head and let out an amazing howl at the moon.

  “Luke, my son.” I heard my grandfather say and looked around for him, “I am right here in front of you, Luke.” I heard Grandpa again and realized he was the wolf standing in front of me. How in the heck is he talking to me? I thought to my self. I kept trying to talk back to him but all that would come out were little yips and barks.

  “Don’t try to use your voice, Luke, use your thoughts.” I heard Matt say.

  “Matt, what in the heck is going on?” I thought.

  “We can’t speak in wolf form. We communicate with our minds,” said Matt.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yes, Luke, this is how we communicate. Are you getting the hang of it now?” Grandpa asked.

  “I think so,” I replied, “It sounds just like you guys are talking to me but it’s inside my head.” I realized there were wolves all around me farther down the hill. They were all down on their stomachs with their heads lying on their front paws.

  “What are they doing?” I asked nervously.

  “They know you are the one, Luke, the one that fills the prophecy. They are bowing to you,” Grandpa explained.

  “But I’m definitely no leader,” I said.

  “You are to them, Luke, we have been waiting for you for many years,” said Grandpa. I felt my head rise again as I let out another magnificent howl. Everyone around me joined in with their own howls. I could get used to this, I thought. In wolf form I felt important, and strong, and powerful. I had never before felt any of those things.

  I looked at Grandpa and wondered what was next. Grandpa must have known what I was thinking because he let out a series of yips toward the rest of the wolves and they all bolted in different directions to begin their full moon run.

  I noticed for the first time that while Grandpa, Uncle Charles, and Matt were all very dark colored wolves, Grandpa in particular was a dark gray color. Uncle Charles, on the other hand was dark gray, but nearly to the point of being more black than he was gray. Matt was completely black, and was nearly half the size of his dad.

  “Are you ready for your first run as a member of the pack, Luke?” I heard grandpa ask.

  “Heck yeah! I mean, Yes sir,” I corrected my self very excitedly. I saw Matt jump into the air. He landed on my back causing us to roll across the ground a few feet in a ball of fur.

  “Let’s go, man!” Matt said with a laugh. Matt took off running. I was close behind very easily keeping up with him. We were running at full speed into the darkness of
the woods. As we ran I could hear Matt say,

  “Let’s go hunting. I bet we could catch something if we work together. The adults say it takes a lot of patience and practice, but I think we can do it,” Matt said with great enthusiasm.

  “Sounds good to me, what do you want to hunt?” I asked. Matt suddenly stopped running and I nearly plowed into the back of him. I stopped myself just in time.

  “Put your nose to the ground and try to pick up the scent of an animal. Once we find the scent we can start tracking it,” Matt said. I saw Matt put his nose close to the ground and start moving around. I did what Matt was doing and started walking around smelling of the ground. It only took a second to pick up the smell of something, but I couldn’t ever remember smelling anything like it before.

  “Hey, Matt, I think I got something over here.” I said. Matt trotted up beside me and started sniffing around at what I smelled.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know, but it smells weird,” Matt said,

  “Let’s see if we can find out.” Matt and I followed the scent we had picked up a little farther. We soon came into a small clearing. We followed the scent out into the middle of it, not paying any attention to where we were going. I looked up, suddenly, and my heart sank. I quickly realized where we were. The urge to get the heck out of there washed over my whole body.

  “We have to get out of here, Matt, and we need to do it now!” I screamed toward him with all the force that I could. We both turned to run without any further conversation and