Eyes of the Serpent

It wasn\'t until the faint scraping of glass on a track woke Josie up. Immediately, her eyes snapped open from the blackness, and found the source of the sound in a matter of milliseconds. The same black colored lab were was opening the door, and had his eyes focused on his own paw, which opened the door. It smelled like the woods, and blood, and dust. There was also a distinct other scent she couldn\'t place; a scent that unique, and was almost like a foreign dialect. She didn\'t really stop to think about why she could smell these things, and simply stood up as tall as she could. They had stuck some dumb muzzle shaped gag on her mouth; some stupid sick joke. Silently, she stared that the new, small and scrawny were that opened the glass door she\'d been sealed behind. As the glass slid open, she caught a whole bouquet of scents she hadn\'t noticed. Millions of scents she couldn\'t place. They were everything and nothing at the same time.



"Helloooooo human, I\'m here to show you-" he cut off, and slid to a stop. His eyes widened to the size of saucers, and he began to back up slowly. "Ohhhhhh god. This isn\'t happening....Oooookay, stay where you are..." his voice reeked of worry, and she could smell the stench of sweat and something else she couldn\'t quite place. It reminded her of dark alleys, of horror movies, or of the dark as a child. She tipped her head, and wore a confused look on her face as she quietly watched the scrawny little lab wolf shut the glass door again.



"Don\'t leave me in here again!" she spoke in reflex, starting for the gap. Her voice was loud and gruff sounding; she probably needed a drink of water. Her hand reached out, and snatched the glass in hand - much to her surprise, it shattered in place, and she was left with a piece of the sheet within her palm. Her eyes flicked down to the mass, and instantly it dropped from her grip - a paw. A white paw. Did they stick her in some whole wolf suit, just to make fun of her, to tease her that she couldn\'t ever become a wolf?



"P-please...Stay in here....He\'ll kill me otherwise..." shivered the small black wolf, and attempted again to shut the door. She didn\'t want to be locked in here again for who knew HOW long. She got a foot in the door, but as she moved to exit, she was shoved back in, and as she tumbled backwards, she heard the glass door click and lock into place again. "IRONPAW, SIR!" the lab wolf shouted, turning his head both ways down the hall. "IRONPAWWWWWWWW!"



The familiar black mass slid into her vision from the hallway a few seconds later.



"What the hell do you want? It\'s not a hard job to--" the Alpha wolf stopped short like the other one had, the moment he saw her. "You\'re fucking kidding me. You\'re FUCKING kidding me. Generations have FLOWN by, and we not only find the ONE human that resists the DNA but has a genetic makeup SO FUCKING PERFECT that THIS happens. And she\'s WHITE for the love of FUCK what\'s WRONG WITH me! I should have KNOWN this would happen. Get in there and KILL her, before she realizes it." he turned to walk away, and vanished from sight. Josie scrambled to the far side of the room, as far from the glass as possible, and pressed her back on the dirt wall. A few curious noses arrived and stared at her silently through the glass, muzzles open and aghast at the sight of her. What the hell was wrong with them? She was no threat to any of them!



"You can\'t. You know the law." spoke an ever too familiar voice, as it carried from down the hall. Remmy. The moment of silence that followed was torture; even if it lasted but a few seconds.



"...I don\'t care about the law. LET the other packs come and challenge me. We will take them down one by one. LET THEM try."



"The very law that keeps us all loyal to you? The very law that prevents us from turning tail and turning on you the very same way it prevents the Alphas from simply raping and killing whatever human they feel like? Do you really want to shatter the thin glass webbing that ties us all together? The web that makes us BARELY strong enough to resist the mildest attacks from the enemy? Are we just going to sentence her to death because she\'s perfect? We\'d have a better shot sending her over as a double agent than to break the laws and destroy everything the elders have put in place."



"...You\'re absolutely right...That\'s exactly what we\'ll do with her. She will become a double agent. Pack her up and send her off."



Remmy released a vicious growl, and stormed past the glass. Josie scrambled closer for a glance at what was happening, but only caught the blurred image of three wolves running along after Remmy and around the corner. What were they talking about? What was even remotely perfect about her? What enemy, what double agent? What was going on, where were they sending her? She tried pushing at the glass door, and jumped slightly as she felt a quick prick on her arm. She recoiled just in time to see a syringe clatter from her arm and onto the ground.



"Sorry about that, love..." the lab wolf spoke apologetically, lowering his head out of what looked like fear. Suddenly, she felt dizzy, and slowly, all the scents were going away, and everything was growing larger, and more brightly colored again. She didn\'t understand what was happening, and as the strength in her legs gave way to let her fall backwards onto the ground, the lab wolf was upon her. She tried to flee, but none of her muscles were responding to her. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Josie was terrified; she couldn\'t move anything or talk, even though the white muzzle gag had fallen off somewhere along the way.



Then, finally, it dawned on her. The vision, the light, the smells, the fur, the nose - she wasn\'t human any more. Everything began to swirl around and blacken, as whatever it was that was injected inside her took hold over her consciousness.



* * * * *



"Poor little thing..." the lab wolf muttered, glancing over at the naked form that lay limp and unconscious on his frame. "Doesn\'t even know what\'s going on. Sir, do you want me to drop her personally, or are you sending someone else now that Lightfoot is being sealed for a while?"



"You can, I suppose. They won\'t think twice if a were like you dumps a failed on their land. Just act dumb in case they see you. They\'ll take her in on chance she knows about us. Make sure you tell her exactly what she\'s supposed to do, and what she isn\'t. Make sure she knows we will come back for her in a few months once she knows enough about them. Go, while you still have the moon, and while she is still out and impressionable. If they do kill her, its not my fault, and the elders won\'t kill us. Get back before daybreak; you still have to be present for the pack meeting."



* * * * *



A lone figure stood upon the cliff, staring down at the field below, bathed in moonlight. A black canine stood at the edge of it, on the very border between lands.



"DAMN JUNKER!" he exclaimed, pretending to stagger about. "YOU\'RE NOTHING BUT FEED!" he flopped Josie down on the grass, in the field. Healfang\'s eyes darted about; this was the closest he\'d ever been to their land. Would they see through the ruse? "MASTER wanted me to kill you but this seems like a BETTER fate! Yes, maybe you\'ll kill them, make them SICK when they eat you! Haahahaha!" he exclaimed, then ran off. He\'d done all he could for her, whispered what information he could, and prayed it would be enough. Lightfoot would kill him if his woman wound up dead.



The steely eyes watched the stupid wolf run off as fast as he could. Not very swift of him to leave one of their failed ones on their land; she might know the kind of information they\'ve needed for centuries. Corbin would be quite pleased with him - if he could keep the others off her neck. Jumping silently from the overlooking cliff, the black-haired mystery man easily plucked up the naked and unconscious human girl. He would have gone after the werewolf, but this prize tantalized him with large rewards and many women to favor his bedside. Into the darnkess he vanished, carrying the unconscious rejected human girl.