Home is a place where one can be at ease, free and safe to be whom they truly are. Nowadays, it’s hard to find this place.
“There’s no place like home. I love this old hometown.” I can’t help but grin as wide as I can with the thought of being here. The only place where I can be ‘Me.’
Chur, the oldest city here in Switzerland, holds so many treasures from my past. I often come here to recharge. Well what can I say, the scenic view of humungous mountains takes all of my worries away. I used to live here with my Nana, we’re not related by blood but she loved me like I am her own child.
This place is like a fairytale, magical but at the same time like fairytales, I felt like my life was cursed here also.
We have a peaceful life back then, our small cabin in the middle of the forest was filled with merry making. Nana and I would dance together. Her grace often hides her toughness as a forest ranger. Life would have been brighter if she wasn’t murdered back then.
“Enough of the gloomy past Claudette!” I exclaimed pulling myself out from drowning to a sad past event.
Eyes closed as I sat on a tree top savoring the taste of nature, allowing my hair to dance with the wind. I raised my arms for a stretch then I started shifting my ears becoming that of a wolf while still in my human form. Then a fluffy snow white tail also came out. I love being myself and embracing who I am; and I can only do that in places like this —hidden and away from everyone.
I can be myself here in this deep forest, I can howl my lungs out, wiggle my tail, and grow my claws and my fangs. I can let out my werewolf and vampire traits all at once, perks of being a hybrid I guess. I took a deep breath and fully shifted to my true form, giving me longer range and high end vision.
“Wow! Breathe taking…Amazing!” I murmur with glee. I couldn’t help myself from giggling with my mesmerizing view.
The gigantic Alps touching the clouds while some part of it are enamored with tall green pine trees; and the steep slopes altogether are jaw dropping, making a magical picturesque. Feeling all nostalgic as I dive deeper in my thoughts, ‘indeed a great land, just like how it looks like when I was still five years old.’
I own no wolf spirit because I am the wolf herself. Although my physique is like that of a half-baked werewolf with scattered lock of white fur on both wrists, elbow, ankle and shoulders; I can be mistaken as a human going to a costume party. Just, don’t touch my skin though, it’s as cold as that of a vampire. Overall, I still label my real form as something decent.
“Well, except for these…but this is what makes me more unique,” I uttered as I looked at my hands growing claws made of silver. The reason why I am not affected by any wolfs bane and silver unlike full blooded werewolves —it’s because silver and wolfs bane is part of me.
In just a blink of an eye I transferred from one tree to the peak of another pine tree which is meters away from each other.
“I just don’t understand why I easily get exhausted every time I use my vampire skills, it’s draining my energy. I feel like an old lady trapped in the body of a twenty one years old,” telling myself as I gasped for air.
“I really need more alone time to explore and get to know myself more these days,” I sighed for a second before lifting my head to witness serenity.
The huge lake with calm blue and mysterious water washed away my exhaustion replacing it with tranquility and smile. Soon my admiration to the beauty in front of me gave me a gloomy face ready to burst in tears. At some point there’s that desire in me to be seen as someone beautiful for who I am. The desire to be accepted for who I am.
“Would someone actually smile in awe or giggle for seeing my hybrid appearance? Surely humans will give me a look of fear while werewolves and vampires would give me deadly eyes.”
I moved my gaze around, trying to hold back my tears. Every hair on my body shivered in fear and I stood stunned to see a pack of werewolves training meters away.
“They’ve infiltrated this area?” I felt my body tremble, chills crawled its way to my heart making it beat like roaring drums. My knees weakened at what my vision caught from afar.
Although there are children werewolves or pups as they refer and though they seemed to be jovial, still I can’t help the feeling of being in danger. Every time I use my power, werewolves and vampires nearby can sense my presence, I’m just not aware of the exact distance between us before they can feel my presence. Slowly I moved steps backward until I already found myself running away. I slow down, feeling relieved as I catch my breath. I’m scared as hell!
‘Something great is coming…I have a lot of tomorrows to live a better life. I know it. I can feel it. I just have to keep myself away from them…or maybe I have to keep myself away from this place?’ I tried to inflict positive thoughts on me to shove away my panic.
Goodbye to my way of tasting freedom, knowing that this place is no longer safe for me to roam around, I left with a heavy heart. I found myself standing steps away from the main road leading to the center of the city. My tail and even my ears are down as I bid farewell to my favorite hideout, I just have to. Killing the in between kind, us hybrids, is the only thing the werewolves and vampires have in common.
Their long era of feud was only controlled because of an agreement binding them to team up hand-in-hand to kill all my kind. Good thing I have the ability to conceal my presence away from getting detected by any supernatural being, I just hope I’m strong enough to hide my presence without hiding my real appearance. This is the reason why I was able to dodge all hunters tasked to eradicate me.
“It’s so unfair, it’s not my fault if I'm born out of a werewolf and vampire.” A lone tear fell as I utter these words of injustice. I took a deep breath trying to subside my pain. My power often gets out of hand whenever I’m consumed with emotions.
Hybrids like me should be eradicated before we can reach our full potential, mostly right after we are born, fate just turned to my favor, saving me from death when I was born. That’s a decree all vampires and werewolves agreed upon. No hybrid should live. There those creatures who have recessive mix traits from either werewolf or vampire kind, even them are subject to death.
"The new generation, like me... those who live in the present, pays for the mistakes of their ancestors. Why does it has to be like this?" I whimper at the thought of poor children, slaughtered despite being defenseless and innocent. They don't even know what the word ‘full potential’ means, be it predominantly werewolf or vampire, so long as you have a mix of difference in you, you are sentence to —death. I just don't understand why.
Full potential... that’s something I haven’t experience yet... even at my age. Concealing my power through the years had made most aspect of it dormant. For twenty one years all I did was run and hide, I don’t know the extent of my power. The reason why I dread the day when I won’t be able to control it anymore, making me prone to be found by my hunters. They will kill me if that happens.
When I was about to shift back, that’s when the unexpected happen. Rumbling ground, I bent and touched it. That's when I picked-up numerous paws running as fast as they can and — it’s headed on my direction.
“W-Werewolves…w-wait they’ve already detected my pre-presence?” I can barely hold my body as I quiver in fright.
They must have sensed me, their hunting skills have gotten stronger than before. They were hundred meters away from me when I noticed them. Before my rationality could kicked in, my anxiety got the best of me. Instead of shifting back to my human form, my instinct for survival rushed in, and in a blink of an eye…I found myself running for my life.
I ran and ran deeper into the woods, my thoughts clouded, and my heart is pounding louder non-stop, almost giving me a panic attack. I halted and look around, trying to find my way to the forest. I can’t focus, especially now where I could sense that almost four dozen werewolves are tracking me down.
“Which way?”
“Is it this one?”
“C’mon Claudette, think!”
I am way ahead of my hunters but my nervousness is making things worse, I can’t find my way out nor can I calm myself to conceal my presence. Although I’m a hybrid but the thing is —I don’t know anything about fighting!
I haven’t use my powers in combat. I also don’t know the extent of what I can do if I fight back. This is what I get for remaining mostly in my human form. Between the option of fight or flight, I always prefer to run for my life. Right now is my clumsiest state, I can’t even count how many times I stumbled. I can’t help but keep on looking back, hoping the claws banging the ground and drawing closer to me would disappear.
After hours of running like crazy, not to mention my lack of physical training, I fell down along the river bank. Unlike my hunters, no wait —hunter, I can only sense one werewolf following me now.
“Maybe it’s a really strong werewolf” I thought as I try to get back on my feet. It seems odd, why do I feel like I'm weaker than I was before, I'm slower now compare to the previous month I came here to shift.
With my exhaustion, I know that it will only take minutes before my hunter could catch up and kill me. Forcing myself up, I scan my surroundings. I found a very tall larch tree across the river, and it is only a few meters away from some human village.
Using all of my strength, I manage to get up and crouched on the widest branch hidden behind the bushy leaves. High up, I hid myself, took a deep breath and try to distract myself so I could calm down.
I caught a sight of happy villagers from afar picking up flowers and children playing. Somehow this made me come back to my rational state. I shifted back to my human form making my power concealed and allowing my scent to fade.
“I hope I’ll be safe here. I hope he won’t look up,” this filled my mind as I hear a ready to kill growl. Slowly I move some leaves aside trying to peep.
My eyes widened with what I'm seeing, a big bulky brown wolf running towards my direction. I closed my eyes, trying to stay calm as I hug my knees hoping to still see tomorrow’s sunshine. Leaves making rough noises, the wind blew heavily and so was my heart pumping like crazy.
After hours of tormenting fear, that’s when I realized that there’s no growling nor sounds from paws. ‘Is the werewolf gone…Did I lost him?’ I am leaping in joy deep within. Just when I was about to go down, I lost my balance but somehow I was able to cling on a branch.
“Aahhhhh!” my weight was too much for a thin branch to carry.
The forest was filled with my scream. Loud enough to send a flock of birds flying, so loud that it startled some deer. Most importantly so loud that it caught someone’s attention, someone who shouldn’t have heard my cry.
"I can’t shift back because I know my hunter will notice my presence I can’t risk my life. I don’t want to die in the hands of any hunter." I mumbled. Yes, I have a hand-full of time to mumble while falling. The height of the tree made my fall seemed endless, I hit many branches, got many bruises, but —still persist not to shift.
While in midair, my mind was troubled. I was anticipating a painful, bone wrecking fall, right now, all I can do is close my eyes and brace myself for the impact. But that didn’t happen.
The supposed to be rough and hard fall never happened as two strong arms caught me before my body touched the ground. A pair of hazel eyes and newly shaved face welcomed my sight. This man in front of me made me speechless and motionless, at the same time it made my body shiver. I shuddered in fear while a bit confuse.
‘I know I’ve seen him somewhere, I just can’t remember where.’ I can’t dismissed my thought of familiarity towards him.
“You almost died there,” he said, snapping me back into reality.
I definitely have no idea what to say to this man, I mean he’s good looking but I don’t like his aura. I can smell woods, the forest from his sweat and I can feel fur from his palms. Werewolves have hairy palms after they just shifted back to their human form.
It scares me that he gives me a very familiar vibe, not a good one though, no doubt, “he is a WEREWOLF.”
