As the sun rose over the tor signs of the pre-dawn fight could be seen everywhere across the stony ground. Uprooted plants were scattered between patches of claw-furrowed earth. Anthony held Karl in his arms. He watched the sun rise but said nothing. He just held him close as dawn painted the landscape in vibrant greens and browns. The distant forest stretched as far as the eye could see.
“It was a near thing,” he said at last. “I … I almost killed you.”
Karl nodded.
Quissit came from around the base of one of the trees with his vest in his hands. It was full of tiny, green apples. They were sour and far from ripe but staved off hunger. Nearby a tight tangle of vines and shrubs still protected Rosa.
“How did you know that would work?”
“I didn’t. But it was the only thing I could think of. At first I thought that maybe I could just talk you down but, well, after seeing you rip into the others—”
“Please don’t say that.”
Karl nodded.
The two had sat together beneath the moon and stars until the sun had come up. The beast hadn’t spoken but it had been Anthony’s mind had been behind those eyes. As dawn’s light melted away the fur and wolfen shape, the two had breathed sighs of relief. The night—and the nightmare—had ended.
Within an hour, tired and bruised, they were ready to depart. Emerging from her cocoon, Rosa only bore the faintest of scars. She said little other than she hoped she’d atoned for her crimes. Anthony just nodded, once, and she seemed satisfied with his answer. By noon they made their way back to Meripone’s glade. The naiad, still looking shriveled and dour, scowled at them from behind the waterfall. At their approach, Auntie Willow materialized from her tree.
“I’m surprised,” Willow said. “You not only found him but seem to be in one piece as well.”
Anthony frowned. “Then it’s true what Karl told me: there’s no cure?”
“None of which I am aware. But be of some cheer. The curse only shall effect you at night and, even then, only on those with the five fullest moons in the sky.”
“But what about when he goes back home?” Karl asked. “We don’t have werewolves, there. He’d be arrested or thrown in a cage.”
She looked unsure. “I cannot say. The lycanthropes of Kellen are bound to the moon and change with her power. I do not know what effect the moon of your homeland will have on him.”
“We’ll have to test it,” Anthony said.
“Are you sure you’ll want to?” Quissit walked up to Anthony, looking him up and down in his tattered clothes. “Perhaps you should stay, Champion Tony, and not put those of your clan at risk.”
He smiled thinly. “You know, Quissit, when I was a kid, I ran away. I ran so far that I ran clear out of my world and into this one. I never felt freer.” He stretched slowly and looked around the glen. “This land, this NeverEarth: it was the ultimate escape. It offered me things I thought I couldn’t find back home. And y’know what? It was true.” He put an arm around Karl’s shoulders. “But I went home again. No matter how many times I came here, I always went home. Sometimes you don’t want the exotic; you want the familiar. Without it, I think you stop being yourself. Maybe, someday, I’ll want to settle here. But, really, for now all I want is to get back to my crappy little dorm room, kiss my boyfriend, and get some Chinese take-out.”
Quissit nodded; the sentiment had struck a chord.
“Well, my family will no doubt be thinking I’d been eaten by fox if I don’t get back soon enough. Will you be needing a guide back to where you came?”
“They have one,” Rosa said. Quissit just nodded and bowed.
“Well, then, I guess it is time to bid you my farewell.” Quissit shook both their hands and then bowed to Auntie Willow. “Thank you for your protection, lady,” he said. “I shall spread word of your fairness and generosity throughout the wood!”
Auntie Willow arched an eyebrow but said nothing.
Then, with energy that belied the long hikes, fighting, and stresses of the last day, Quissit jogged off into the woods.
After the elder dryad gave them her assurance that she would tend to Meripone, the two mortals and rose bush dryad said good-bye and began the long walk back to Anthony’s dorm.
They took their time as the day moved towards evening. The sun set and the full moon rose; the change took Anthony once more. This time, though, he held his boyfriend’s hands, keeping his eyes locked on Karl’s. He felt all the rage and brutality welling up within him but focused on his name; his human name—the name Karl had used to call to him. It kept the wolf at bay.
Wolf and dryad and human, they finally came to Anthony’s dorm room door. It was where it always was: set between a thin birch tree and moss-covered boulder.
“Time to test the change?” Karl asked.
Anthony nodded.
“I’m sorry, you know,” Rosa said, stepping forward. “For listening to Meripone, for stealing your coat, for … for everything.” She looked up into Anthony’s wolfen eyes. For the first time since they’d met, they saw a sheen of a tear on her cheek. “If not for my impetuousness you would not have this horrible affliction; if I’d only been more—”
Anthony growled deep in his throat and tried to manage words.
“What you did … is done. I … forgive you.”
It was hard to speak the words when, as of yet, he didn’t fully believe them. But he was already fighting the urge to fight and hunt and slash and kill. He wanted to get home before those urges got any stronger.
Rosa seemed to understand his unspoken reservations and just nodded. “If ever you need me, you have only to call. I’ll be forever in your debt.” She bowed, her leaf green cloak catching the rose petals that had fallen around her ankles. Respectfully, she handed Anthony his winter coat. Then, turning, she began the slow walk through the night back to the glade.
Left alone, the human and the werewolf looked at one another and then at the dorm room’s closet door sprouting from the forest floor.
“I’m going to forget all this, aren’t I?” Karl asked.
Anthony nodded.
“And there’s no way around that?”
“Not … that I’ve … found,” he growled.
“I … I don’t want to forget this place,” Karl said after another long moment. “I don’t want to forget what happened.” He looked up at the towering werewolf and smiled. “Look, I don’t know the future—or even if we have one, together—but I’d hate to think that all this will be … forgotten.”
“On some level … you’ll know,” Anthony managed.
Karl nodded.
The wolf reached out and rapped on the door four times. He closed his golden eyes and channeled all his rage and hunger and passion into thoughts of home. He took several deep, shuddering breaths. Then, hoping against hope, he turned the knob counter-clockwise.
The door opened onto his darkened dorm. His roommate was nowhere in sight; Karl and Anthony had only been gone for the better part of a day. His breath fast in his nostrils, he glanced once at Karl before stepping through into Anderson Hall.
It felt like a shower washing over him.
Even though he could see the full moon light in the parking lot beyond his dorm room window, the fur fell from his body like rain.
His form flowed like wax, pulling in on itself and becoming human once more. He took several stumbling steps forward and collapsed onto the floor, naked as a newborn. Karl rushed forward and knelt at his side. He held out his hand.
Karl smiled and took it, holding Anthony’s fingers tight for several minutes. Then, quietly, he rose. Karl walked back to the closet with its forest on the other side. He looked through the frame with a wistful expression before closing the doorway leading from the ordinary world of college life to NeverEarth.
The End
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