only thing I understood from our dialogue is that a woman with a dog is to blame for your strange condition. I do not know which of them is a brunette and which is a blonde, but they scared you well.
– «You’re right. With an idiotic laugh, I said after my departing father.
– The first sleepless night in the parents’ house. I have always slept well on my favorite couch. I considered this sofa my own, because no one else slept on it except me. The moon shone through the curtains, and despite the heat in the house, I felt chills. I wanted to get up and run to the forest, to the place where she, my wolf, was waiting for me. I thought she was an owl. I was sure that no one else had seen her. Maybe it was, but I wanted to make sure of it. I have imagined her image more than once, if it were a girl, she would be cheerful, always laughing with clockwork eyes. Of course, I would like to see this girl in human form. I did not doubt for a second that this wolf was a young girl. I could tell by her beautiful, mischievous walk. I fell asleep with these sweet thoughts.
I slept more than usual. My mother did not wake me up, she still surrounded me with parental care, as if I was not forty years old, but four years old. As soon as I left the room and appeared in the kitchen, she immediately began to set the table. The breakfast was so varied and hearty, it could even be called a gala dinner. – Mom, why such abundance?
– You tell me who she is.
– Who are you talking about?
– About your wolf.
– That is what a broken phone means. There is no wolf.
– Don’t tell me if you do not want to. Eat, eat. The mother went into the room. I realized that she was offended.
– That is what it means to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations. I thought, finishing a pancake with sour cream. After a delicious breakfast, I left quickly, without listening to lectures, and without letting me pack food with me.
– What happened?
– I will come back later. I have things to do. My father waved his hand. The mother was standing with her arms crossed on her chest.
– I wish I had pancakes. She squeezed out through her tears.
– Mom, do not start. Pressing on the gas, the car screeched away from the house.
I was not interested in pancakes and my parents’ speculations about a certain woman with a dog who appeared in my life. I needed to find historical data about the settlement of the ancient Tambov Mordvins. Five hundred years ago. This is exactly what I need. This wolf fang is about the same time. Having crawled the Internet, I did not find anything suitable. Not a big article formed not a big essay in my concept of my hometown before the arrival of civilization: from the very beginning of Russian history until the XVII century, our region was called the Meshchersk side. He occupied the lower reaches of the Tsna and Moksha with all the small rivers flowing into them. This swampy, «koltun» polesie was inhabited in ancient times by Mordovian tribes: Moksha, Muroma, Meschera. The last two are rarely mentioned in the chronicles, but Moksha villages are found throughout the vast expanse from Oka and Tsna to Penza and Insar quite often. I realized that during the raids of the Tatars, Tambov was one big forest. There were no roads, villages, there were villages, and these villages lived near the river. Having formed a picture of ancient Tambov in my imagination, I was interested in the following question. In what century did all this happen? Transformation from a girl into a werewolf. Wondering this question, I did not notice how I believed in her transformation. That I believe in a werewolf.
CHAPTER 2
November 4. The day spent at work distracted me from the thoughts eating my human consciousness. The spirit of the forest beckoned me to visit with terrible force. I suppressed this feeling in myself, because the feeling of fear and the feeling of curiosity were uniform. I did not want to involve Mikhail in this story, considering that this story belongs only to me. Of all the above, the sense of ownership outweighed. This fantastic collision belonged only to me. The wolf, the wolf’s fang, my reflection in the mirror, but most of all I was driven by a feeling of jealousy. I was afraid that my friend would squeeze into our invisible connection with my wolf. Maybe he will be able to establish contact with her ahead of me. And what if she likes him more than me. I could not bear to even think about it. I was already preparing for a fight to some extent, just not with her, but for her. My fang and my wolf. This I have firmly decided for myself.
November 5th. Evening. My trip to the forest in the middle of the week. I did not tell anyone about it. This hike, like all the subsequent ones, was no longer connected with the love of the forest, instilled in me from childhood, but with the desire to see a she-wolf. Before her appearance in my life, I loved the forest as my home, or even more at home. I cannot say that I stopped loving the forest; it just faded into the background. His inhabitant displaced him. I walked purposefully, that is the very place where we met for the first time. I was sure I would see her. After standing in the clearing for about half an hour and nervously shuffling the leaves, I waited for her appearance. But she didn’t show up. Realizing that she would not come, I did not give up, and continued on my way deeper into the forest. I walked for about an hour, and I could not figure out where I was. The vanity of vanities is left behind. There was no city noise, no cars passing on the highway. Silence. Humid air. Dirty foliage underfoot. I was waiting for her. Like the first time, she crept up not noticeably. It seemed that she was walking through the air without touching the ground. Hip swaying. Pink tongue. White teeth. Grace itself. The white shaggy wool swayed with such beauty, it was like a fashion show of fur coats. I whispered. The she-wolf came close to me, stood up on her hind legs, and looked down into my eyes. Her height on her hind legs exceeded mine by three centimeters.
To be alone with a predator and look into his eyes is certainly something, and it is not a little important if this predator is a female werewolf. A small child lives in every person, when this child falls asleep, a predator wakes up. These two raging flames periodically replace each other. When the beast wakes up, he is ready to sweep away everything in his path, subsequently a person gets tired of the war and a truce comes, that is where the child wakes up, who wants to be pitied, to indulge, to attract attention to yourself. Being in the arms of a predator, I did not feel fear, I was looking for it, I came voluntarily, and I found what I was looking for. Looking into each other’s eyes, we made contact. There was a close connection between us. The human eyes of the wolf-girl said that she was glad to meet, and trying to say something, she wagged her tail amiably like a dog. This time she looked like a mischievous dog. I briefly examined her adorable canine body standing on its hind legs, and from the wolf’s fang, hanging from her neck could not escape my field of vision. A shot rang out. My white and fluffy friend has disappeared. – What is it? The shots continued and I had to hide in the truest sense of the word. I pressed my back against the aspen tree.
– She ran away, a wolf. I heard a man’s voice swearing. What I saw horrified me. Four men in camouflage clothes were wandering through the forest. I immediately understood who they were and why they were doing it.
– «Are you hurt?» One of them shouted at me.
– No. I answered in an annoyed voice.
– «Have you seen her?» Where did she run?
– Who are you talking about?
– Buddy. Don’t you know that
