The train rattles hard against the tracks waking me up. Blanton sound asleep in the seat next to me. Looking out the window to see it already dark out, I take the opportunity to use the bathroom and eat something. Thankfully I brought some snacks to eat on our trip there.
Blanton woke up with me fumbling around in the overhead compartment.
"Did we make it yet?" He groans as he rubs his eyes letting out a toothy open mouthed yawn.
"Thankfully we're about ten miles away, we slept for most of the way anyways. You want water or chocolate?" I offer.
"I'll take the chocolate." He says and I pass him one while grabbing a joint out of my pocket.
"Tell me you're not going to smoke that now." He sighs.
"No. I'm saving it so I have something for when we get started. I've already went ahead and put in an order of the supplies we need. For now we just have a bit of time to talk, and get to know each other."
"It would be inappropriate since I am a professor at the university." He says taking a bite of the chocolate.
"I'm being fair with you Blanton." I say leaning beside his seat as I capture his gaze with my own. I could see that Blanton had been on this living plain a while. Probably a couple of centuries but I couldn't be sure.
GrimFather could tell how old someone was just by listening to them talk. He never got it wrong either.
"My job is excessively strenuous and I will need your help to do it. It won't seem like much but depending on how many casualties are there, you might change your tune on professionalism. This job is also extremely emotionally taxing, you are simply volunteering so I have to treat you delicately. It helps if I know something about you, anything so I can distract you and you can still do what you came here to do."
"Why would you need to distract me?" He asks looking at me with skeptical and critical eyes.
"Death isn't easy for everyone. And my GrimFather is the one to place his bets, but I'm not."
"I've heard of your GrimFather." He says, no fondness or admiration in his words. "Kendric is his name?"
"I was surprised to hear Joaquin call him that. GrimFather never had many friends, or none he thought of fondly." I wiggle passed him into my own seat but Blanton gives me a growl of disapproval.
"Is this how you wolves are?" I ask but he ignores my question.
"For future reference it's beneficial to pay some respect to someone's title, at least in a group setting." He says and I laugh at him leaning back in my seat. "Alpha Joaquin and I are not wolf." He says it like it's a threat.
"Do you think I care about titles and political power when I'm burying someone six feet into the ground?" I ask rhetorically, before flagging down the train attendant and asking for a mini bottle of tequila. Or a couple.
"Titles matter. At least while we're alive." He defends sitting up in his seat. "I am beta of Alpha Joaquin's pack, I am proud of how far I've gotten in this life to get that title."
"Hmm? Are you?" I question.
"Excuse me?"
"People have to do very degrading things to get what they want. Did you ever have to degrade yourself to get what you wanted? a title like beta has to be desired. People in this life fight for that kind of shit." I say, turning my gaze on him, he stares back at me mouth open but no answer there to combat it.
"You know I'm only twenty years old." I say thanking the attendant as she delivers the little bottles of alcohol. I continue on as I snap the tiny bottles open. "But, I've been around long enough to understand that the true nature of someone depends solely on their self preservation, nothing more."
YOU ARE READING
Grave Digger
WerewolfElias spent years as a grave digger putting loved ones to rest. It's the only thing she's ever known ever since she was a kid. Over the years she's learned about other people's grief, their pain, how six feet can seem so far away for so many people...
