The Devil's Backbone

2. The Things We Lost In The Fire

The things we lost to the flames

Things we’ll never see again

All that we have amassed

Sits before us, shattered into ash

Jason

I was hunting again; the family of deer that I had been following had been eluding me for several miles now. I let loose a deep growl from the back of my throat, I was in my wolf form and I was always prone to anger when in this form. The family of deer walked cautiously a few feet in front of me, unaware that is stalked them. I took a steadying breath and leaped from my perch, clamping my teeth down on the back thigh of the large stag. He struggled, attempting to loosen my grip but I persisted. A couple of seconds later, after his family had run off, I climbed over him and broke his neck. His lifeless body dropped to the ground and I transformed back to my human self, wiping the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand. I stretched my cramped limbs, transforming wasn’t painful but when I changed back I always felt a little weird. Like I wasn’t myself.

            I had always felt like my wolf was my real self and my human side was just a way of communicating with other people. I shrugged off the thoughts, knowing I had to get this food back before they got anxious.  I braced myself and hoisted the stag over my shoulder. I grunted as I began walking home, well not home but to our current camping ground. We didn’t exactly have a home anymore.

            It took me awhile to get the deer back, I could have dragged it, but that would have just made it harder to clean later. I heard the babbling creek and knew I was getting close. I knew they would be waiting for me but also looking out for intruders so I mind linked my family. ‘I’m home, and I have dinner,’ the second I finished my sentence a blur of brown fur ran into my leg. I looked down to see my little brother in wolf form.

Ever since he’d passed the involuntary transformation stage, you had to force him out wolf form. He barked at me happily and then changed. Because of our current living conditions, we were pretty used to seeing each other naked. It was awkward and weird and we tried to give each other privacy when we could but sometimes it couldn’t be avoided.

            I smiled down at him, “Hey Adam, you gonna help me bring this in?” He nodded and grabbed a leg hanging off my back. The little guy only came up to my waist so the leg didn’t get lifted very high, but I liked to give him the illusion that he was helping. It made him happy and who was I to deny my youngest sibling from something that would make him happy.

            Our camp was a hodgepodge of random things that we had stolen or bought at thrift stores. We had two mismatched tents, some ratty blankets, and a couple of sleeping bags that really needed to be thrown away soon. The girls had started a fire in preparation of cooking the meat. It was almost hot enough to cook with when we made it back.

            “You were gone for a pretty long time,” Alice, the oldest behind me, handed me some of my clothes to change into.

            “Thanks little man,” I told Adam, “I got it now.” He nodded, smiling, and ran off. I let the stag drop to the ground, stretching my back and shoulders as I grabbed the clothes from her. “Thanks Alice. It took a little longer than usual.” I went behind a tree quickly and changed into my clothes. “Alright girls, skin that and clean so I can get it on the fire.”