NitLO Oct 26
He was big, bigger than me, wolf-sized.
"Larry?" I called. "I've been looking for you."
"Yes?" came the reply.
"You're not Larry," I said.
"No."
"Why were you following me?"
"I just wandered by a few days ago, and I was thinking of spending the winter in this wood. This is a very strange place, though. The people in the area do peculiar things - often to each other. I followed you when I saw you, to ask how safe it might be for me."
"Some of them are getting ready for something that will be happening at the end of the month," I said. "Lie low till it's past and you'll probably be all right for the winter, if you exercise a little discretion when you take a sheep or a pig. Don't leave carcasses in plain sight, I mean."
"What's going on at the end of the month?"
"Weird stuff," I said. "A little specialized craziness. Stay away from any human gatherings that night."
"Why?"
About then, a little moonlight reached us through the branches.
"Because it might get you killed - or worse."
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to," I said, and I turned and got out.
"Snuff! Wait! Come back!" he called.
But I just kept going. He tried to follow me, but Growler'd shown me stuff that even the fox would have been proud of. I lost him easily.
In the moonlight I'd recognized him from his likeness in the ward-screen as one of the prowlers who'd been snooping around while we were in London. Maybe he'd just been checking things out, as he'd said. But put that together with his knowing my name when I hadn't given it to him, and I didn't like it a bit.
Overhead, growing in strength, the older, wiser moon paced me. I'd give her a run for her silver.