Page 107 of Moon Tamed

“As I have heard about your tendency to give people animals and they’re tricked into keeping them, I will accept this bribe. Please include my status as bribable in your report.”

“You were coerced, but that’s close enough. I know me, so I am well aware of how dangerous the threat of being gifted with many baby peacocks is. And you would be expected to love them unconditionally. If they’re anything like their father, they’ll be loud.”

“I am concerned the peacock might win the election,” he admitted. “He’s quite the charming fellow. Your brother has been sharing videos of him showing off, and he has many fans, especially among faction leadership. Endorsing Lucky the Doom Bird as our feathered leader with a secondary vote for the human running the show behind the scenes might prove an interesting endeavor. It would certainly encourage people to become more involved with our politics and voting on important issues.”

“And you could have animals for the various districts, too. It need not just be Lucky the Doom Bird running. He can just be the leader over all furred, feathered, finned, and scaled representatives of our city-state.” I giggled. “You could turn Moonriver upside down with the election.”

“It would be a good morale boost. I think we’ll start with Lucky for the first day, and if the response is positive, we’ll start having all the factions recommend pets to fill other elected positions. It wouldn’t be difficult to add an extra slot to the election forms and allow for one animal write-in and the standard vote.”

“Can something like that be pushed through in time?” I asked, unable to keep the puzzlement out of my voice.

“We do it every time there’s an election. Don’t worry yourself over it. As soon as you have your preliminary report done, I’ll steal it, and you can spend the next week or two getting settled. Should you shift, there’ll be someone here qualified to check you over and keep Calden from panicking. And he will.”

“Because of his mother.”

“Because of his mother,” Kirkland confirmed. “There’s a lot of trauma there, and while I realize it’s not something you can realistically control, if you could just shift during your sleep so he wakes up with an armful of fluffy wolf, that would minimize the general amount of distress he suffers. I’ll be honest, Coraline. It’s not you I’m worried about. You’ll be fine. Calden, on the other hand, might not be quite so fine. But in this case, once you’re safely shifted, the problem will resolve itself.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’m sure I am. Allasandro went through the same thing with his Hunters after his wife passed. I’m always honest with him on if I think there are problems, so when I tell him you’ll be fine, he believes it now. Calden doesn’t have his father’s experience. Just let him hover and work through the emotions. He’ll be fine. It may take a few hours, but he’ll be fine.”

TWENTY-SIX

I have nothing to worry about.

I worried myself straight to a severe case of wolf, and Kirkland Marchandle refused to stop laughing at my misfortune.

“This hadn’t been what I meant, but this works. The wife will even forgive the fur in my office as it prevents a great deal of trouble. I’ll make certain Allasandro understands you’re a worrier.” He made a few notes in his journal and came over to the armchair, looking me over. “Interesting. You’re not a standard canis lupus lycaon. Did you know Earth had caught and sent over as many packs of canis lupis lycaon as possible after the British Isles succumbed to the ocean? Before canis lupus lycaon came over from Earth, we only had canis lupis baileyi. You have disproven one of our conceptions already. We’d always assumed the new shifter would pick up the same animal genetics as the original shifter, in this case Calden or his father.” With narrowed eyes, Kirkland went to one of his shelves and plucked down a somewhat thin volume, flipping it open and staring at me before referencing his book. “I would have thought magic would take a more sensible approach, but no. Tell me, Coraline, do you like fish?”

I drooled at the thought of fish, something I didn’t get much of, despite the city-state having a river teeming with edible fish.

Fishing licenses and gear cost a great deal more than my sling, and the regulations on fishing were much stricter.

I bobbed my head.

“Ah, then perhaps the magic isn’t lacking in sense, then. I’ll have to take a blood test to confirm this, but the closest match I’m seeing in this book is to the canis lupis crassodon, or the sea wolf. The species is now extinct, as far as I know, unless Earth managed to rescue more species. But there are many things we don’t understand about the nature of the universe, and for all we have been here for hundreds of years preserving one state of Earth’s past, we once came from Earth. Perhaps there are things we simply don’t know locked away in our genetics. A history of a lost world.”

I could always trust a member of Legacy to delve into the mysteries of life and death. As wolves couldn’t talk, I settled with a rebuking glare.

“Well, we may as well get to the anxiety portion of our day. You’ll need Calden’s help to shift back to human after he’s satisfied you’ve had a chance to settle and adapt. You are not suffering from any pain, correct?”

I glared, as nodding could be interpreted either way, something about our language I found annoying on a good day and positively vexing most of the time.

“Nod if you’re not experiencing any pain.”

I nodded.

“Excellent. This is how it is supposed to be. In good news, you took your clothes with you, which you will appreciate down the road. This is good data, as it’ll let us determine if there is a specific gene allowing for that bit of magic to be stronger. I recommend you make use of a purse any time you may want to shift, as purse straps are simple enough for a wolf to manage.” Kirkland gathered my bag, and he gestured to the floor. “Take care with jumping down. You will find walking with four paws a little awkward to begin with. Your body is the shape of a wolf, but you do not have a wolf’s experience. You must learn how to move, much like a young child learns how their body works as they age. You’ll catch on quickly. This is part of why the Hunters give new shifters a week to adapt.”

Rather than attempt a jump, I oozed off the armchair. Working with four paws instead of two feet would take some getting used to, but I’d run around on all fours enough as a child I caught onto the general idea within a few minutes of prowling around the office and sniffing at everything.

The world smelled strange as a wolf.

“Cleaners will become your bane, especially the stronger lemon scented ones. I’ve heard that complaint enough from the wolves, I try to use something a little gentler when I know they’re coming to visit in their animal forms. You’ll get used to that, too. So, on the nature of anxiety. I can’t tell you how Calden will react. He might take it in stride, he might become overprotective, or he might have a complete meltdown. He hasn’t had an attack in many years. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if this wakens old trauma for him.”

Having heard Calden’s side of the story, I understood Kirkland’s concerns. Unable to communicate I understood, I picked my way to the door and waited for him to let me out of his office.

“I see you have already figured out the air of expectation. Are we humans just servants to all canine kind?”

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