Creatures of God

These Canine Hands

The crippled jackal yipped and yapped, as he was led by two guard dogs down a crude, stone and timber passageway deep within the Canine HQ. Although crumbling rock and dirt fell atop his shifty head, he didn't care. He had returned, survived his dangerous mission, and so these rough surroundings didn't matter to him; the flickering, fluorescent lighting; the musty smell of stagnant drain water; the amplified sounds of wood creaking and pebble crunching. It was all temporary anyway, he thought. Instead, he walked with his chest thrust forward and his head held high. His limp notwithstanding, the jackal walked like someone who'd just won a lottery and was on his way to claiming the prize.

At a particular point, the guard dogs stopped to knock at a large, metal door, and promptly entered the mysterious lair with the jackal in tow.

In the shadowy room, the jackal searched and squinted, and at first could not see anything at all. Glints of light from low-lit sources provided contrast to the outlines of objects within the space: a large table and chair, oversized drapes hanging over apparently fake windows, a dramatic canopy bed with a large, treasure chest set on the floor in front. In the corner of the room, piles of rectangular objects were stacked, overflowing haphazardly.

Are those books? the jackal wondered. He blinked a couple of times.

Scanning further, the mongrel next made out what he thought were a pile of clothes thrown on the floor.

Wait, is that ... ?

The amorphous shape lying on the floor was a human, unclothed, partially covered with a blanket. It appeared to be sleeping or unconscious, motionless as it was. Quite possibly, it was dead.

The jackal squinted further, his nose pointing forward, sniffing...

Another presence in the back of the darkness began to move; something massive, threatening.

It was Gevaudan the Grey Wolf King, standing over the human body like a black shroud.

The jackal gulped, bug-eyed.

The King, too, was without clothing, revealing a shocking but naked truth — the King's body was without fur. His torso and pelvis appeared closely shaven over much of his body, so down to the skin, disclosing a smooth and muscular build, chiseled like a Greek statue. Only the King's distal extremities and massive head were covered in their natural grey fur. The aftereffect was that of some kind of unknown, half-wolven creature.

The jackal gawked with partial scowl. He tilted his head and dropped his jaw. The usually gay mongrel retched at the unexpected scene.

The Wolf King stood up, fully exposing himself to the lesser mongrels. He growled at the Canine guards escorting the jackal spy. "Do not enter my quarters unless I say you may enter."

The King put on some soft gold-colored trousers and then pulled a large red shirt over himself. He moved to an over-sized chair, which he filled compactly.

"What news do you have for me, Jackal?" the King asked gruffly.

The stunned yellow mongrel stared at His Majesty, but brought his senses back to the present quickly.

"Master, the humans hide a monster in their infirmary."

"A monster? Hmph!" the King said. "What kind of monster?"

"I smelled him!"

Gevaudan squinted his eyes. "Ah, that monster, the monster with a disease. I have smelled him as well."

"I tracked him down into a basement! Ha-ha!"

"A basement? In the infirmary?"

"Yes, Master! Ha-ha! Yes!" The mongrel nodded his head, rocking back and forth.

"Go on," the King said. "Continue."

"I smelled him! Ha-ha! I smelled him! Ha-ha-ha!" His eyes became glazed, and he started to salivate.

"Easy, you fool," the King said, trying to calm the jackal.

"Ha-ha! Yes, I smelled him! I smelled him!" the jackal repeated.

"Yes, yes, and did you find the monster?"

"Ha-ha-ha! I found him! Ha-ha! I found him!"

"You found the monster?"

"Ah, ha, ah, ha," the jackal slowed in his laughter. "I found... a human, ha-ha!"

"A human?"

"Yes! Ha-ha! An old human! Ha-ha!"

"An old human?"

"Yes, ha-ha, yes!" the mongrel snickered, "As old as dirt! Ha-ha!"

"The monster is an old human?" The King murmured to himself. He leaned forward in his chair. "What happened next?"

"I killed him! Ha-ha!" the jackal laughed and screamed, his head thrust back in ecstasy. "I killed him!"

"What!" the King exclaimed and stood up. "You killed the monster?"

"Ah, a-ha-ha, ha-ha... ha-ha" the jackal slowed in his laughter.

"Did you kill the monster?" Gevaudan repeated.

"Ah?" The jackal wrinkled his forehead and raised an eyebrow, confused. "N-no, Master. I killed the human... "

The King's eyes became blood-shot, and his hair stood up on end. "You stupid animal!" He pulled out a gun and pointed it at the jackal's head.

ZmzzzZzzz!!!

The shot smashed the far wall behind the guards and jackal.

For a moment, the canines cowered. The blast could have killed any one of them. Except that it hadn't. The shot hadn't come close to hitting any one of them.

Was that a warning shot?

The jackal stared at the blast mark on the wall, then looked back at the King.

"Ah-ha!" The jackal's eyes widened. "Ha-hah-ha-ha-Aaaarrraghhhh---!

Whhummmppp!!!

The Grey Wolf swung hard, gun in hand, pounding the laughing mongrel and nearly separating his head from his body.

The King roared and stood over the fallen mongrel, huffing and puffing, ready to take another swing.

The jackal's blood spread slowly over the ground.

The King turned and snorted.

The guard dogs stepped in to dispose of the dead jackal.

As the guards worked, Gevaudan stood aside, his back to his servants, examining the gun he had just fired.

Damn these Canine hands, the Wolf King thought.

The human weapon was not easy to handle, the trigger not so easy to pull.

Gevaudan looked up and straightened his back. He drew a deep breath and expanded his neck and chest. He knew the jackal would've had to have been killed anyway.

No one is allowed to see me like this.

The King glanced back at his two guard dogs. He did not have to worry about those dim-witted mongrels talking. They'd have to have tongues to talk.

Gevaudan walked to the corner of his room and stared at his stockpile of human literature. He noted a novel that had fallen from its perch and now sat at his feet, a favorite of his, "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. He picked the book up and stared at its reddish brown cover with gold title print. He flipped through the pages, looking at the illustrations.

What would Akela have thought about all this?

Akela was a fictional character from "The Jungle Book," a wolf leader whose pack decides to adopt a lost human boy named Mowgli.

What would Akela have thought of me?

Gevaudan slammed the book shut and held it with a crushing squeeze, as if to control its contents, to prevent his own secrets from escaping. He took a deep breath and exhaled, his face becoming stern with resolve. He gritted his teeth.

"A human plague is at hand," Gevaudan concluded, "and it's being concealed in a basement. It's time for me to investigate this matter myself!"