Wolf

I
All seven feet of him darkened the doorway, his hair—the color of dried blood with the tips died orange—fell around his face in unruly tufts like a lion’s mane. His eyes, as orange as the tips of his hair, swept across the room, over drunken men and loose women, through the cloud of smoke and pipe dreams over to the bar. The bartender, having been flirting with a giggling woman, stopped dead in mid-sentence; his doltish grin melted off his face, and the woman, noticing the bartender’s worry, quickly slid off her stool and stumbled off into the smoky depths of the pub to a rail thin man with protuberant eyes and a bad comb over.
         “Sir…?” the bartender asked, gazing up wide-eyed, unconsciously stepping back. “We…we can’t….” He faltered.
         The red-haired young man sat down on a stool directly in front of the frightened little man behind the counter. The bartender was new, and didn’t know how things were done around here; he needed educating. So, the red-haired man spoke quietly, saying, “My name is Wolf—and you will refer to me as such.”
         “O-ok… Wolf,” the bartender nodded, “but I—I can’t serve you, you’re too—”
         Wolf leaned across the counter, his eyes burning through the smoky haze and into the man. “Absinthe,” Wolf snarled. “Straight.” The bartender seemed about to protest, but when Wolf’s eyes narrowed, cutting into him; he turned immediately and disappeared into the back. He returned moments later with a mug of green liquid. He set the mug in front of Wolf, who picked it up and proceeded to head for the door with it.
         “A-aren’t you gonna pay for that?” the bartender’s voice quivered slightly as he called this, and he wanted to retract the words at once. Wolf turned around, his eyes sharp—if it were not for the protective layer of smoke in the air, it might have stopped the bartender’s heart that instant. Wolf growled, “This backwater town and thus this ratty little pub is still here and more or less operational because of me, and you want me to pay for a drink?” When the man behind the corner failed to answer out of petrifaction, Wolf turned and continued out of the door, bumping into a young woman in some sort of uniform.
         “Hey! Watch it, jerk!” she spat, but he did not seem to hear. Already, he was drifting away, letting that green liquid wash away his sins and bitterness even if only temporarily. He disappeared into the night, his red hair the last thing to fade from view. The young woman sighed and stepped into the bar, dreading the idea of starting her mission—and a piddling one at that—in a bar. 
         “Alright, where’s the mayor?” she hollered upon entering. “He’s not home and there ain’t nowhere else to go in this town but here.” When no one spoke up, she pulled out a little notebook and a pen from one of her many packs. “I hope you know, you’re nice little town here is getting my bill whether or not the mayor speaks up, and for holdin’ me up you’re racking up the charges. Or mayabe I should just write this bill for the mayor personally.”
         The skinny man with the large eyes and comb over stood up from amongst a group of women. “Sorry,” he said, stepping through the gap the women had made for him. “I did not hear you. You must be Hunter Jade Opaline.” The mayor approached Jade almost nervously, his eyes darted around the pub expectantly. When everything seemed safely in order, he relaxed enough to speak somewhat comfortably. “It’s great that you’re here. We need you to talk to our main attraction.” His eyes darted over to the door and lingered there as he continued to speak. “He’s been getting a little testy lately, and there’s been people disappearing—especially around his area. Something’s not right with him. We want you to investigate for a bit.”
         Jade crossed her arms, glaring at the nervous man in front of her. She wanted so badly to be anywhere but here in this smelly bar and in front of this odd man. Her patience dulled her tact. “I don’t have time for this. You’re being vague—I don’t even have any proof of your suspicions, nor have you even told me this guy’s name.”
         The mayor blinked back at her incredulously, his mouth hung open and his eyes grew even larger. “You can’t mistake him for anybody else; big fellow with red hair—”
         “That guy,” Jade grumbled, a look of grim recognition settling on her face. “Not a very friendly guy. Oh well, tell me his name and where he lives and I’ll start investigating immediately.”
II
         The mayor had given Jade a backstage worker’s badge which proved unnecessary. Word of her arrival had already spread throughout the backstage crew, and she was greeted with a nervous fervor and plenty of warm towels having been drenched by rain on the trip here. A round little woman in her fifties scurried up to Jade, nearly knocking down several workers who had all come to welcome the younger woman.
         “Glad you’re here, glad you’re here!” she said breathlessly as she took one of Jade’s hands in both of her own and shook them forcefully. “Oh, don’t listen to that son of a cheatin’ dung beetle mayor—whatever he told you. If you want any information it’ll come from me! I’m Betty by the way.”
         Jade introduced herself, instantly taking a liking to Betty. For what she lacked in height, she most certainly made up for it in presence. She whirled around and barked out orders, hollering, “We got ourselves a show to put on here!” Each member of the crew hurried to their duties rather pleasantly. Betty returned her attention to Jade.
         “See that room, there?” Betty pointed to a door on which hung a crooked star. It held onto the door by only one lose screw and was covered with a patina of age and neglect. “That’s Wolf’s room. He’s the town’s main and only attraction. He’s always been a sullen kind of young man, but it’s gotten even worse lately. People suspect him of all the crimes goin’ on lately, but I just don’t think it’s him. People always start findin’ shortcomin’ when it looks like you’re about to stop being useful. Do what you have to get to do what you do, but just be careful. He’s got some serious power and nobody really knows what he’s capable of.”
         Jade nodded, assuring Betty that she could do her job, but noticed something else behind the woman’s eyes. They had been strong and determined up until the conversation. The woman looked down at her chubby feet bound in strappy sandals. She looked up with renewed vigor and found Jade gazing curiously at her. “Go on, go on, now,” she shooed. “You’ve got work to do.”
         Another door beside Wolf’s flew open and bright-eyed young man with a crooked grin and a silly face hopped out of it. Dancing to some song in his head, he jigged toward Jade executing a sidestep and a shimmy around her. He continued on his way, turning a corner toward the sound of a restless crowd. Jade followed after him and peered around a corner. The dancing young man took stepped through the curtains, One of the crew members who controlled the curtains waved to her.
         “Ladies and gentlemen!” the young man’s voice filled the air around her, charmed to be projected stereophonically. The crowd quieted down. “This is a story about a boy who becomes a man—no—a legendary warrior!” There were cheers at this point. “My, friends, you will witness the life of Wolf, the most powerful warrior of our time and even the next who…” He continued speaking overdramatically about Wolf’s various feats from rescuing entire villages to defeating dragons. When the crowd was sufficiently excited, he ended his spiel with, “…and now I give you, A Warrior’s Tale!” Jade could not help but feel awfully disappointed with the title after all that advertisement, but she immediately forgot it when a little boy in a bright red wig with orange tips, scurried past her onto the stage with a wooden stick. An older man followed behind him, sauntering majestically. The silly dancing young man stepped back through the curtains and took a spot off to the side just out of the audience’s view. The curtains opened and a hush fell over the crowd like a blanket.
         Jade watched as the play went through scene after scene with the dancing guy as narrator. Each scene featured a different boy, getting successively older with each scene, sporting the same red wig. Jade looked on in horror as the plot degraded into more and more unbelievable events that could never have happened. It was all she could do not to run out there and demand the audience’s money back for the load of obvious lies the troupe was spoon feeding them. And then a door creaked behind her. She turned to find Wolf step out of his room in long deep violet robes. His hood cast a deep shadow over his face, leaving only his eerily keen orange eyes to pierce through the darkness. He was careful to close his door back securely, then swept past her, leaving a chilly breeze behind him. His motions were fluid and effortless, but there was a slight hitch to his gait that Jade could not figure out. She could hardly connect him with the angry young man who had run into her at the local pub. He glided into the center of the stage and audible gasps of awe filled the theater. As if in response, the rain, which had temporarily let up, had turned into a storm; thunder rumbled and, through a small window in the back where she was, Jade noticed lightening streaking the sky. Several men lined up behind the curtains on the other end of the stage, each carrying replicas of various weapons.
         The silly dancing young man spoke up. “And the great hero Wolf fought of droves of enemies.” the men ran up and Wolf “vanquished” them with a small shower of physical and magical prowess. “And he destroyed the evil lord and his terrible reign!” A large man—wide and tall—lumbered onto the stage with his heavy armor clanging. He raised his sword, and Wolf fell into a fighting stance. Outside, thunder rumbled ominously and rain battered the theater. The evil lord’s sword began its descent and Wolf clenched his fist and reared back for a powerful blow. The crowd gasped as the two came face to face. Jade watched with awe as Wolf thrust his fist forward and an eruption of violet power exploded out of him. Screams filled the theater and the silly dancing young man fell backwards as the blast from the power sent a powerful shock wave through the entire building. When the commotion settled down, Jade regained her footing wiped her eyes, blinking several times to clear them. She looked out onto the stage and found the evil lord lie crumbled on the stage, his limbs bent in obtuse angles and Wolf writhing on the floor, grasping his left leg, barely able to contain groans of pain. People in the audience climbed over each other, screaming, crying, trying to escape. The braver members of the crew raced onto the stage as did Jade. Two groups formed, one around the evil lord and another smaller, more hesitant one around Wolf. Jade pushed her way through the crowd to the previous, crouching down beside him. Someone ran to get a Healer. She laid her hands on his chest and felt no pulse. She let a stream of power enter him, but there was no response. He was lost.
         Several more gasps and screams caught Jade’s attention as the people surrounding wolf scattered, frightened. Wolf was snarling, demanding that he be left alone. Jade hurried across the stage to him, but Betty grabbed her arm. “Don’t go near him, now, honey.” Jade watched as he slowly, with grunts of pain made his way to his feet, nearly crumpling again as he steadied himself. His hood had fallen from his face, revealing a visage warped by pain and frenzied anger. A long red scar snaked its way down the left side of his face like a bolt of lightning. Breathing hard, he snarled, wiping away the perspiration that had dripped from his face. “Absinthe!” he roared. “If I don’t have a straight mug of it in the next five minutes, you will regret the day you were ever conceived!”
         Already a crew member had gone and returned with a large mug of the green liquid, but was too afraid to approach him. Jade took the mug and waited for Wolf to gimp over to her. He approached her, boring down on her with pure anger, but Jade did not back down. She needed to talk to him, figure things out. “Once you’re feeling better, can I talk to you?” she asked. He grabbed the mug from her, growling a, “Leave me alone,” and pushed past her nearly knocking her over. She went to follow, deciding to use her authority as a Hunter over him when Betty grabbed her again. “You’ll have plenty of chances to talk to him, later,” she said. “Now, he’s not fit to be around nobody.”
         “Yeah,” another crewmember piped up, “and I wouldn’t even go near his room if I was you—he guards it like his life depends on it.”
         Betty saw it—that look in Jade’s eye. Betty would have to teach that crewmember to keep his mouth shut from now on. “Don’t do it,” Betty warned.
         Jade pulled free of the woman’s grasp. “You said yourself: do whatever I have to. Standing around backstage won’t get my job done.” Jade glanced at her watch. The performance was not scheduled to end for another half hour. She would wait until Wolf left, which would hopefully be soon. That room was key in figuring out more about Wolf and his connections with the happenings around town. Besides, she was not eager to return to the rain. Betty, however, backed away, looking up at Jade with horror. “None of us can help you, if you get caught. I’ve done all I can here, but I guess this is your job after all..” She opened her mouth and closed it several times, words sat at the tip of her tongue, but refused to be uttered. She closed her mouth one final time, pursing her lips. She turned to the crew and congratulated them on working so hard tonight. One of the male crew members and his girlfriend offered to walk Betty home since it was on their way and she obliged. Everybody left for home, glancing tentatively over their shoulders at Jade as they left her behind.
         Once they had all gone, Jade slipped into a supply closet; she could hear the cleaning crew and Healers on stage as the last of the Healers arrived. She could hear the tone of their voices as they spoke about the poor man who had played the evil lord. Jade felt a twinge melancholy threaten to overtake her. She stifled a sniffle and instead let the rumble of thunder outside distract her. Figuring it would be a while before Wolf would be calm enough to leave his room, she settled down on the dusty closet floor. Through the crack in the closet door, Jade watched the Healers carry the evil lord away solemnly. The cleaning crew, having finished their job left soon after. And still, Wolf did not leave his room. Jade began to wonder if he had escaped out of a door in his room—that is, until his door swung open and he passed right by Jade’s closet, gliding as smoothly as he had before any of the commotion had happened. Jade waited several minutes before venturing to slip from the closet and into his room. She heart skipped a beat when she saw his door closed back; expecting it to be locked, she tried the knob and found it turned and freely.
She pushed the door open and found a small room only twice as big as the tiny closet in which she had hidden. There was a full length mirror with cracks webbing through it, fracturing anything it reflected. There were several empty mugs piled neatly in a corner that still give off the sweet smell of anise—absinthe. Little coughs surprised Jade, and she instinctively turned to find the source. She noticed two pairs of large watery eyes gazing back at her from two little handmade cots.
“Who are you?” asked one of the owners of the eyes, a little boy no older than six. He doubled over in a coughing fit and the owner of the other pair of eyes—a girl around the same age—leaned over to pat him on the back, wiping her running nose all the while. Their hair was messy—not dirty—and they were on the thin side, but they seemed cared for somewhat, for there were rags soaking in chilled water and bottles of elixir stored on shelves above their little beds.
Jade kneeled down and gently laid her hand on the boy’s forehead then on the little girls. They were burning up! The poor things, Jade thought sadly. “How long have you guys been sick?” she asked. The two shrugged gazing expectantly up at her. Jade held out her hands. “Here, take my hand.” The two did. Jade closed her eyes and let energy flow from her to the two of them. She opened her eyes when they uttered little gasps. They looked excitedly at each other, then examined themselves. A healthy glow had returned to their complexions and vivacious energy coursed through their veins. They squealed  with pure ecstasy and they leapt out of their beds, spirits soaring. Jade’s own heart felt lighter—lighter than it had in quite a while. She could not help but smile as she looked on at the epitome of youthful bliss. And then the two, who had been frolicking through the small room together suddenly raced for the door, their arms outstretched.
“Lookie! Lookie!” They cried in unison.
Jade followed their gleeful gazes and froze, finding Wolf standing in the doorway, eyes bloodshot and sharpened so that they sliced into her like blades. He dropped the large bundle he had in his arms and it crashed to the floor vibrations through the room. The myriad of medicine bottles on the shelf clinked ominously and the mirror rattled. A chunk of mirror fell to the floor and disintegrated into a million tiny pieces. Wolf rounded the two children in one fell swoop and one arm. He deposited them gently back in their cots, murmuring furiously in another guttural language. He then stood and snatched Jade up by the collar of her uniform. His lips curled back, revealing very even white teeth—the teeth of a superstar, except for the razor sharp eyeteeth. 
Jade smacked his hand away, pulling out her gun and flashing her badge. “I wouldn’t mess with me. I may not be able to use offensive magic like you, but I am trained in almost every weapon and form of hand-to-hand combat out there!”
         These words changed nothing in Wolf’s expression. If anything, they might have aggravated him more. “Get out,” he snarled, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. Violet power sparked from his hands. He was summoning every ounce of will not to fling her bodily out of his room. Why couldn’t she have been a man? He most certainly would have flung her out then.
         “I just need you to answer some questions and I’m as good as gone,” Jade insisted, tightening her grip on her gun, hoping things would not go to the worst possible solution, especially in front of the children. She could hear the two children begin to cry. Jade watched noticed his expression soften ever so slightly as his eyes slid down toward where he had set the two.
         “Wolf,” the little girl sniffed, and continued speaking through sobs in that other language. Wolf’s expression suddenly changed from that of pure wretched anger to baffled surprise. He raced over to them and examined them, turning them around and feeling their little foreheads. He picked each one up and held them out at arm’s length and up to the light. Finally he set them down, and approached Jade, pushing her gun out of the way. “Holster it or I will not hesitate to throw you out of here,” he growled through gritted teeth. Jade did, keeping her hand on the gun. “Raven here tells me you healed them.” He spoke slowly; restraint tinged his every very carefully picked word. While he spoke fluently, there was something odd about his cadence, and the way he formed his sentences. Jade nodded. There was a long awkward silence during which Wolf merely glared back at her, those orange eyes seemingly probing Jade’s for any traces of trickery or ill intention. “That’s something an entire town of trained and seasoned Healers could not accomplish.”
         “You’re welcome,” Jade snapped. She wanted so badly to get her job done and get away from Wolf. His presence was heavy, depressing.
         “What do you want?” he asked flatly.
         “I’ve been sent here to investigate you,” Jade replied bluntly.
         A cynical smile spread across Wolf’s face and he turned and poked the little girl—Raven—with a playful finger. She giggled and Wolf returned his attention to Jade. However, his eyes were glazed over, distant. According to the information the mayor had given Jade, Wolf was not even of drinking age, yet he looked much older, tired and haggard. Like the children, he his hair was messy—not dirty—but in terrible need of a cut. He had the air of a wild animal forced into domestication; there were still traces of a raw energy buried deep down beneath a fairly short, but hard life.
         “Go ahead,” he said. “But you’ll find nothing, and I will not open up my life to you. My privacy is all I have left, besides Raven and Talon.” His face hardened again. “And you will never speak of them—whether or not if it’s for your job.”
Jade shrugged. “As long as you agree not to hinder my investigation, you have my word.”
Wolf nodded solemnly. “Fine,” he said.
“Thank you, lady!” Talon said coming up and hugging Jade’s leg. “Will you stay with us?”
“No,” Wolf cut in before Jade could speak. “In fact, she was just leaving.” Hurt, Jade glowered at Wolf who slowly got to his feet. He glided over to the door and motioned toward it. Jade crossed the small room and stepped out, her hurt decaying into anger. She paused just outside of the doorway and glared Wolf down—or attempted to. His expression remained infuriating neutral. “Thank you,” he said quietly. He closed the door back quietly, leaving Jade to stand staring stupidly at the door with the star hanging on desperately by just one nail. For some reason, “thank you just did not make sense coming out of Wolf’s mouth. Jade trudged dazedly through the mud, in the rain to her hotel, realizing that she had not even considered that the subject of her investigation was much more than just that. He was alive, dynamic, and possessed his own story. He was a human being just like everybody else, and nobody else—including Jade until then—even realized that.