Alfie the Werewolf 3: Silvertooth

by Paul van Loon

  Mum, Dad and Tim remembered Leo. He was a cousin of Alfie’s and a werewolf too. A fairly fierce one actually, but he was fine once you got to know him.

  Grandpa clambered up on to his feet. ‘I’m off. As soon as I’ve found Leo, we’ll come here. Maybe tonight. Maybe not until tomorrow night.’

  ‘Tomorrow night!’ cried Tim. ‘Will we have to wait that long before we start looking? What if Alfie gets sold to weird researchers or collectors tonight?’

  Grandpa Werewolf put his hat on with a mournful look in his eyes. ‘I really am doing my very best, Tim, but first I have to find Leo.’

  Tim nodded. ‘I know, Grandpa. Sorry.’

  Grandpa growled a goodbye and hurried off. Dad stared at the closed door.

  ‘So all we can do is wait,’ he said. ‘Sh—’

  ‘William! There’s no need to start using language like that,’ Mum said.

  ‘Sorry,’ Dad said ‘I just wish we knew another werewolf. Then we could start track tracing straightaway.’

  A couple of hours later the front doorbell rang. Tim leapt up and went to get it. ‘That’s fast. Grandpa must have found Leo already.’

  He opened the door to find a girl with long black hair standing there smiling at him. She had brown eyes with golden flecks in them.

  ‘Noura!’ Tim said.

  ‘Hi, Tim, is Alfie home?’

  13

  Valentine

  The boy in the other cage sobbed softly.

  Alfie stood up and walked to the front of his cage. Complete darkness had descended over the forest, but suddenly the moon was shining like a white lamp. Alfie felt the wonderful feeling of its light on his skin. His cheeks were already covered with white hair, and white fur was growing on his hands too. He pressed his face up against the bars.

  ‘Hey, pssst! What’s wrong? Why are you crying?’

  The boy was sitting hunched up near his bars. He peered over his shoulder at Alfie and quickly wiped his eyes. His eyebrows turned into an angry stripe.

  ‘I’m not crying at all. Why don’t you mind your own business anyway, busybody!’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Alfie. ‘I was just trying to be friendly.’

  ‘Tssss! Friendly! What use is friendly? Where’s it going to get you? I don’t want anything to do with your kind.’

  ‘My kind? What do you mean? Aren’t you a werewolf too?’

  Immediately the boy hissed like a wildcat. He gripped the bars so tightly his knuckles turned white. ‘A werewolf? Me? You can’t be serious! What do you take me for?’ He spat at the ground through the bars, then suddenly bared his teeth. They were pearly white and perfectly straight. His eye-teeth were long and sharp.

  ‘I am Valentine. I am a vampire. Vampires are much nobler creatures than werewolves. We live for ever.’

  Alfie looked at the boy with astonishment.

  ‘A vampire? Yeah, right. Everyone knows vampires don’t exist.’

  A fierce look appeared in Valentine’s eyes. ‘Really? And what about werewolves? Or do you believe you don’t exist either?’

  Alfie blushed under his white hair. That was pretty stupid of him. ‘So … you drink blood?’ he said. ‘That’s what vampires do, isn’t it?’

  Valentine nodded. ‘A refined beverage for refined creatures. But that’s beyond the comprehension of brutes like you who prefer to rip everyone to shreds.’

  Alfie was shocked. ‘I … I’m not a brute. And I never rip anyone to shreds. I’ve never done anything like that. Well, except maybe a chicken or two, by accident.’

  Tears leapt to his eyes, but Valentine just gave a mocking laugh.

  ‘Of course not. Of course you haven’t. You werewolves are all the same. I don’t like werewolves. And I especially don’t like werewolves with funny glasses. Tssss!’

  Suddenly the terrible screeching started up again.

  It was coming from the box next to Valentine’s cage. The box juddered up and down with a sound of rattling iron. For a second a thin tail whipped out through the bars.

  ‘Who’s in that cage?’ whispered Alfie. ‘What kind of creature makes a noise like that?’

  ‘A Scoffle!’ replied Valentine.

  ‘A scuffle?’

  ‘Wow, you don’t know anything, do you? A Scoffle, I said. An extremely dangerous creature. As small as a cat, but able to strip an elephant down to its bones in two minutes flat. Fortunately it sleeps most of the time. Then it snores like a bear.’

  The box shuddered even harder. The wood creaked. The chain rattled. It seemed like the Scoffle was going to break free any minute.

  Alfie hugged Tim’s bear tighter. Valentine laughed scornfully.

  ‘Look at that, a werewolf with a teddy bear. You’re not a werewolf, you’re a werewimp!’

  Suddenly light swept over the trees and shone on the cages. Valentine hunched over and groaned. He wrapped his arms around his body. All at once he too was a scared little boy.

  ‘Oh, Silvertooth is coming back,’ he moaned. ‘What’s he going to do with me?’

  14

  Noura

  ‘What? Alfie’s living at his uncle’s from now on?’

  Noura was sitting on the sofa next to Tim, who had told her everything. Completely stunned, she looked at Tim and his parents.

  ‘Won’t we ever see him again? That’s not right.’

  ‘No,’ Tim said, ‘it’s not. That uncle isn’t even a real uncle. We found that out from Grandpa Were … Oops.’

  Tim quickly swallowed his words. He wasn’t allowed to say anything about werewolves, of course. No one knew Alfie’s secret.

  ‘Oh, you mean Grandpa Werewolf?’ said Noura.

  Staggered, the others looked at her. Noura smiled and scratched her head.

  ‘I know all about it, you know. Alfie told me that his grandfather is a werewolf.’

  Dad ran his fingers through his blue hair and looked at Mum. She shrugged. ‘And didn’t you find that a little strange, Noura?’

  The girl shook her head. ‘No. What’s strange about it? Alfie’s a werewolf himself, after all.’

  Tim and his parents’ mouths dropped even further.

  ‘So you know!’ Tim exclaimed. ‘Alfie could have told us.’

  Noura scratched her neck. ‘Maybe he forgot to mention it. But what happens now?’

  ‘We want to go looking for Alfie,’ said Dad. ‘We’re waiting for Grandpa Werewolf. He’s gone looking for a track tracer.’

  ‘A what?’

  ‘A track tracer. That’s someone who can sniff out Alfie’s track. Only a werewolf has a sense of smell that’s good enough.’

  Tim nodded. ‘But Grandpa Werewolf is too old.’

  Noura used both hands to scratch her head. ‘When will Grandpa Werewolf be here then?’

  Tim sighed. ‘Maybe soon. But maybe not until tomorrow evening.’

  Noura stood up and scratched her neck hard. She now seemed to be itchy all over. ‘We can’t wait that long. Shall we start searching now. I’ll help.’

  Mum smiled. ‘That’s very sweet of you, dear, but without a track tracer we’ll never find him.’

  Noura looked at Mum. Suddenly her eyes turned darker. ‘I’ll be the track tracer.’

  15

  Feeding Time

  The Jeep pulled up next to the wooden shack. Uncle Seb got out and strode over to the cages. He was holding a whip in one hand and carrying a big bag in the other. He cracked the whip.

  ‘Feeding time!’ he shouted, putting the bag down next to Valentine’s cage. ‘And I’ve got some good news, boys. I’ve got buyers. They’re coming tonight.’

  He reached into the bag and pulled out a bottle of something red. ‘Here, vampire, drink up. You have to look healthy later because a collector wants to buy you. Mr O’Navlon collects anything to do with vampires: books, films, dolls, paintings. But he hasn’t got a real vampire yet. He wants to get you stuffed and mounted. Nice, huh?’

  Valentine was sitting at the back of his cage. He had his head hid
den between his knees and didn’t look up.

  Uncle Seb slid the bottle in through the bars. ‘Drink up, bloodsucker. It’ll put a blush on those pale cheeks of yours. That will look cute when you’re stuffed.’ He turned around. ‘I’ve got a delicious little snack for you too, werewolf cub.’ He slid the whip in behind his silver belt buckle. ‘And a buyer too, most likely. No one less than Dr Cutter himself. He loves werewolves and he loves his research.’

  ‘Research?’ The word scared Alfie. ‘What kind of research? I don’t want any research. I want to go home to Tim.’

  But Uncle Seb didn’t answer. He opened the bag again and a frightened cackling came out of it. ‘Look what we’ve got here, a hensome chicken. Sink your teeth into this, werewolf. Dr Cutter likes his werewolves plump and tender. They’re easier to dissect.’

  Uncle Seb held the chicken up by its legs. It flapped and beat its wings. Feathers floated through the air as he rattled his keyring. ‘Get back, werewolf. I’m going to open your cage for a moment.’

  He brought his face up to the bars and bared his silver teeth. Alfie cringed back. The silver weakened him and made him feel sick. The padlock creaked.

  Uncle Seb slid the door up and pushed the chicken into the cage. It immediately started running round and round in terrified circles.

  Suddenly the Scoffle let out a blaring, ear-piercing screech. Uncle Seb slammed the sliding door and spun around, pulling out his whip and cracking it.

  ‘Shut up, you horrible creature. They can hear you out on the motorway. That screeching of yours is going to betray my hideaway. I’ve warned you, now I have to teach you a lesson.’

  He walked over to the Scoffle’s box and kicked it. Then he poked the whip in through the bars. The Scoffle screeched even louder. A bloodcurdling cry of rage. Suddenly its skinny tail shot out through the bars and wrapped around Uncle Seb’s leg. Uncle Seb bashed the tail with his whip.

  ‘Off, you cheeky monster!’

  The Scoffle screeched, pulled its tail back in and fell silent. Uncle Seb wiped the sweat off his forehead and rolled up the whip.

  ‘So, that’s that taken care of. That thing has to know who’s boss around here. And so do you! I’m going to have dinner and then take a nap. The buyers will be here in a couple of hours, so behave.’

  He strode off towards the wooden shack.

  Alfie sat motionless in his cage, where the frightened chicken was still fluttering around and banging its wings against the bars. Alfie didn’t even look at it. Every hair on his body was motionless. He stared at the wooden shack out of the corner of his eye, hoping that Uncle Seb wouldn’t stop or turn around.

  Uncle Seb went in and pulled the door shut behind him. A light flicked on inside the shack.

  ‘Wrow!’ growled Alfie quietly, his heart pounding with excitement.

  Uncle Seb had forgotten something.

  Alfie’s cage looked as if it was shut, but Uncle Seb hadn’t locked it. Because of the Scoffle’s screeching, he’d forgotten all about the padlock.

  All I have to do, thought Alfie, is slide up the door.

  16

  Not Fair

  Black hair started growing on Noura’s face. Her ears turned pointy and her hands changed to paws. Her nose stretched and transformed into a snout.

  Tim gasped with surprise. ‘Noura, you’re a werewolf too! So that was why you were scratching so much. You had werewolf itch.’

  For a second Tim and his parents looked like statues with gaping mouths.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ Dad said at last. ‘You too, Noura? You too? Everyone else turns into a werewolf just like that. And not me. That’s not fair.’

  Noura grinned. ‘But it is useful. Now I can be the track tracer.’

  Her voice had a funny little growl to it. Tim was so excited he couldn’t talk properly.

  ‘Noura, how come you’re … I mean … Why? When? What happened? Who?’

  Noura gave a friendly growl. ‘Because of Alfie of course. He bit me by accident during the school trip. At full moon. I found out the next night when I suddenly got all hairy. Before I knew it, I was walking around on all fours.’

  Tim nodded. ‘So Alfie already knows?’

  ‘Yes, of course. And Grandpa Werewolf knew too. Even before I did.’

  ‘Wasn’t it a terrible shock?’ asked Mum. ‘Weren’t you horrified?’

  Noura shook her head. ‘I thought it was fantastic. I came straight over to see Alfie so we could howl at the full moon together. It’s so much fun!’

  Dad sighed deeply. ‘I’d like to do that too, howling at the full moon. Fantastic.’

  Mum glanced at him lovingly. ‘We know that, William. But right now we don’t have any time to waste.’

  Noura nodded. ‘That’s right, we have to look for Alfie. And find out whether I’m a good track tracer.’ She hesitated. ‘Um, you’ll have to drive. We don’t know how far it is and I’m a very fast runner. Ordinary people can never keep up with us.’

  Dad groaned. ‘Bah, ordinary people. I don’t want to be ordinary. Ohhh, if only I was different.’

  ‘Stop moaning, William,’ Mum said. ‘I like you just the way you are. You act weird enough as it is. Now put on a coat and get the car.’

  A little later Tim and his parents were sitting in the car. Dad had a green diving mask on his forehead and an upside-down flowerpot on his head. He was wearing an old fur coat with an enormous collar that had belonged to Mum.

  Noura sniffed around the garden.

  ‘Do you think she’ll find Alfie’s track?’ Tim asked.

  ‘I’m sure she will,’ said Mum.

  Suddenly Noura froze. She pressed her nose against the ground, then stuck her head up in the air and sniffed. She stretched her neck and howled at the moon. ‘Woohooo!’

  That was the signal. Noura had found the track.

  Her wolf’s howl went up once more and then she shot out of the garden like a rocket.

  ‘Go!’ Tim shouted. ‘She’s found Alfie’s track! We mustn’t lose her. Soon I’ll see my friend again.’

  Dad slid the diving mask down in front of his eyes and pushed the accelerator flat to the floor. ‘Passengers, hold on, it’s time for take-off!’

  17

  Werewolf Hunger

  ‘Shhh, be quiet,’ Alfie growled at the chicken.

  He sighed and sat down on the floor. The chicken was still cackling with terror. Alfie’s stomach rumbled. The werewolf hunger was enormous. He ran his tongue over his teeth.

  ‘No way,’ Alfie growled to himself. ‘I don’t eat chickens any more. I promised Tim.’

  The chicken was running round the cage in frightened circles.

  ‘Calm down,’ Alfie whispered. ‘I won’t hurt you. Really, I won’t. But you have to be quiet, otherwise Uncle Seb will come back.’

  The chicken wasn’t listening. Either that or it didn’t understand Werewolf. It cackled and beat its wings against the bars. Feathers floated through the cage.

  Alfie leapt up. ‘That’s enough!’ He curled his claws. He bared his teeth. Then he gave one very loud growl. ‘WROW!’

  The chicken shut up at once. It fell over backwards and lay there motionless in a corner of the cage as if it was frozen, with its feet in the air, its beak closed and its wings spread. It watched Alfie with big frightened eyes.

  ‘Good,’ he growled. ‘I’m sorry, but at least you’re quiet now.’

  He looked at Uncle Seb’s shack. Fortunately no one had come out.

  There was no movement in Valentine’s cage either. Maybe he was asleep.

  All the better, thought Alfie. He’s not nice anyway.

  Alfie reached out to the padlock. He hardly dared believe it, but it really was open. How lucky can you get?

  He unhooked the lock and threw it away, then slid up the door.

  The chicken was still as quiet as a mouse.

  Alfie looked left and then right. Moonlight shone on the trees. A small light was on in Uncle Seb’s shack. Uncle Seb didn�
��t come out.

  Carefully Alfie stepped out of the cage.

  Saved! he thought, spreading his claws, stretching and wagging his tail. ‘Freeeee!’ And now back home to Tim.

  He felt like howling at the moon at the top of his lungs, then getting out of there as fast as he could.

  There was still no sound from Valentine’s cage. The Scoffle was snoring loudly. It was the perfect moment to escape.

  No one could see him. No one could hear him.

  Then he remembered something important just in time. Tim’s bear was still in the cage. He’d almost forgotten it. He rushed back into the cage to grab it.

  And now he had to get away fast.

  He glanced at Valentine’s cage.

  No, he thought, I can’t leave like this. I have to help Valentine escape. After all, he’s a bit like me: not a monster, but not an ordinary kid either. Even if he’s as friendly as a rattlesnake with a sore throat.

  Alfie wavered, hopping from one foot to the other.

  How am I going to get his cage open without a key? he wondered. Can I break it open? Or bite through the bars?

  ‘Where do you think you’re sneaking off to?’ Valentine’s pale face appeared in the moonlight. In one hand he was holding the bottle Uncle Seb had put in his cage. There wasn’t a drop of blood left in it. Valentine wiped his mouth. ‘So you wanted to escape, did you, leaving me behind? Think again, werewolf!’ The vampire laughed. ‘I think I’ll just call Silvertooth. He’ll be very grateful. Maybe he’ll even let me go.’

  Alfie was so shocked he didn’t know what to do. ‘No, Valentine, don’t, I was trying, I wanted …’

  But Valentine had already started shouting. ‘SILVERTOOTH! THE WEREWOLF IS OUT!’ He smashed the bottle against the bars, sending glass tinkling to the ground. In the same instant the Scoffle started screeching, the petrified chicken started cackling again and the shack door flew open. Uncle Seb stormed out in his pyjamas, hair wild and gun at the ready.