Woke up this afternoon in
my bed… yes, I do sleep in a real bed, believe or not. In fact I do it quite
often. I only sleep in the ground when my body needs certain nutrients that can
only be found in the soil.
I’ll sometimes wake up to find my little sister Isabella curled up next to me.
She has her own room and bed of course. When mom and dad were still
alive (back in the 1860s) she used to sleep with them on cold nights or when she was feeling poorly (which
was fairly often after her bout with Scarlet Fever) in their room, which is now mine. And of course, since we’re the only actual family
each other has these days, I don’t mind having her with me on those nights when
she’s missing them. I can’t blame her. Even after one hundred and sixty years wandering
this Earth, I still miss them myself. So having her share my bed once in a while can
be a great comfort for both of us.
Anyway, from the looks of
my sheets and blankets, it’s a good thing she hadn't joined me. Oh, they
weren’t torn or anything, they were just all over the place, as if I’d had a
very restless sleep. Mind you, I felt well rested. Which is surprising since I
did have some rather active dreams. I was back in Alaska, out on the tundra
with the stars and the northern lights above, and a pack of wolves all around
me.
This is nothing unusual.
Whenever I go up there, I usually head for the woods and take one of my animal
forms and roam the land. It’s one of the few times I can just let loose with my
powers and experience nature in ways no human being can really appreciate. I
enjoy the enhanced senses of my nature forms and experiencing the world as they
do.
And one of those forms I
take is that of a wolf. Whenever I take this form, I like to seek out a pack to
run with. When I find one, I’ll use of the greenish mist I can exude and allow
them to ‘breathe me in’ so to speak. Once they do, I have access to their minds
to a degree and can ease any misgivings they have of my presence and can even get
them to let me join them for a few nights. We’ll huddle together, roam, and
even hunt.
I rather enjoy those
hunts. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a cold-blooded killer or anything like that.
It’s just that my Sangui-Sapio half (the slime mold-like creature that fused
with me in the Para-Earth I landed up in so many years ago) had bonded with a
number of other life forms in that reality long before it found me.
Now, in addition to
giving me my vampire-like abilities and needs, it also gave me incredible recall of all
the things I’ve ever experienced in my life. People, places, events, you name
it. I have perfect recall of all of it. Even little things I glimpsed
ever-so-briefly, or heard in passing, I can remember as clear as day. But I don’t
just have access to my own memories, I also have access to the Sangui-Sapio’s memories
which includes those of the other creatures it had fused with before we met.
While this might sound as
if my head should be pretty crowded, or that I might have a hard time holding
onto my identity with all those memories, I don’t. I’m the most complex being
the Sangui-Sapio has ever bonded with before, and I have such a sense of self
that it isn’t a problem. Furthermore, my other half makes sure it doesn’t let
itself or those other memories try to ‘take over’. Our relationship is very equitable.
However, I do sometimes get cravings to
explore my… I guess you would call it, more primal side. Which is part of the
reason why I head to places like Alaska, Norway, the Black Forest of Germany or
any other place remote with woods and open spaces.
Last night I dreamed
about being on a hunt with a pack of wolves I met earlier this year. I’d spent
New Year’s Eve up in Fairbanks Alaska to welcome the new year with some old
friends. On New Year’s Day I bid them goodbye and headed into the Boreal Forest
where I could cut loose a bit. As I hoped, I eventually encountered a pack of
wolves. After the usual sizing each other up and exuding my mist, we became quite
close and I wound up spending an entire week with them. I was almost sorry to
leave. Maybe that’s why I dreamed about them.
Anyway, in my dream we
were on the hunt once more, but for some reason there was a nervous tension in
the pack. And as much I hate to say it, this feeling seemed to be directed at
me. There was no outright hostility, but I was noticing how some of the pack
kept eyeing me or moving slightly away as we ran. Sadly, I couldn’t blame them.
Even I could tell something was off about me, but before I could really figure
out what it was, the scene changed. I found myself alone and on the outskirts
of a town and being shot at by some of the townsfolk. I was still in wolf form
at the time, which in and of itself was weird because I never go where there’s
people when I’m shapeshifted. Yet it felt like I was having trouble keeping my
form. I could feel my limbs stretching at times, throwing my balance off as I
ran.
I kept calling out to the
pack as I ran. I could sense they were nearby, yet none of them answered. Eventually,
I finally spotted them way off in the distance, but I could tell they were not
happy to see me. They weren’t exactly hostile, but they weren’t welcoming
either. If anything, they seemed frightened and confused… then I woke up.
It’s weird. I’ve dreamt
of the pack a few times in the last couple of months, which is something I’ve
never done before.
After dismissing the
dream, I fixed my bed, changed clothes, and left my bedroom. I noticed the
clock in the hallway and saw it was mid-afternoon. Risking a quick peek out one
of the windows near the stairwell, I saw it looked like rain was coming. That
made me smile. I wouldn’t have to contend with the sun or load up on extra
blood. I might even be able to head outside for a while. The estate, which is
just over a thousand acres, contains swaths of virgin woods that have never
known the blade of an axe. Maybe the dream was simply my brain’s way of telling
me I needed to get out a bit and enjoy the ‘nice’ weather.
With that thought in
mind, I headed down the stairs with a little bounce in my step.
TO BE CONTINUED...
