2021 Story Request #3 (Patreon)

"Say," began Christine, still chuckling. "This may be a dumb question, but can we, like, talk to wolves or have some special power over them?" Yvette shook her head. "Melinda and I went down to the zoo a couple months back. We went to the timber wolf exhibit and, well, they seemed more interested in us than the other visitors, but that's about it." She hesitated. "Of course, we weren't transformed at the time. It might be worth while stopping by again some evening." "Well, if you do count me in," said Christine, reaching for the piece of meat she had spat out. She began chewing on it. "'Dhat wood be so coo'."
-Travis Sebastion

The confluence of odd and revolting smells hit Melinda even before they entered the parking lot. Melinda wrinkled her noise and turned to roll the passenger side window up only to realize it was already shut. Yvette noticed this out of the corner of her eye and smiled.

"A bit overwhelming, no?" she said as she turned the wheel.

"Yeah," said Melinda. She lurched slightly in her seat as their car rolled over a speed bump.

"It's only going to get worse," said Yvette cheerfully.

Yvette tapped the breaks and began scanning the lane ahead for empty spots. Behind them, a car slowly backed out of its place. Yvette saw this in the rearview mirror, frowned in annoyance and kept looking.

"You think any of the other animals will notice there's something...different about us?" asked Melinda suddenly as they reached the end of the first lane.

"Mm, that's a good question," said Yvette thoughtfully. "I mean, animals are naturally afraid of humans, but these animals are probably habituated to us. Then again, we will probably smell like a predator-"

"Will we?" said Melinda, gazing out the window at a large family ambling along the sidewalk.

"Well...of course. We can sense each other, no?"

"Yeah, but do we actually smell different - like, we give off special pheromones - or is it more like..." Melinda waived her hands vaguely "We can sense each other on some other level? And it just comes across to us as some kind of scent?"

"Um...that's another good question."

At last, Yvette spied an unoccupied parking spot with no-one ahead of them. She drove up and turned into the unoccupied space. She shut the engine off, opened the door and climbed out of the vehicle. Melinda followed her.

"Ooof!" exclaimed Melinda as she stepped out onto the pavement. She pinched her nostrils shut. "Worse than I thought," she said nasally.

"Very stinky, yes," said Yvette, locking the door behind her. Her ordinarily sunny smile had turned a bit waxen since she had emerged from the car.

"No so much the animals as the food, the people and...grime," continued Melinda, grimacing, looking around the crowded parking lot. "It's almost as bad as that burger joint off of Madison avenue."

"That place got closed down a few months ago," said Yvette, adjusting her purse's strap. "Health violations." She pocketed her keys.

"Hah!"

With that, the two teenagers made their way through the lot - maneuvering between cars and other pedestrians - and approached the main entrance.

A long, open archway with an elegantly flared tiled roof stood before them. The archway's roof was continuous with those of a pair of buildings (one on each side of the archway). Raised concrete garden beds packed with ferns, palms, fronds, cycads and other lush greenery flanked the entrance as though to foster the illusion one were venturing into a dense jungle. Four ticket booths sat underneath the archway along with a larger windowed stall that, presumably, served as some kind of office and/or auxiliary sales booth. Short queues of visitors - mostly families with small children - stood at each booth. A few other visitors loitered around the entrance, tapping away at their phones or talking. The words 'Pinebrook Zoo' written in shiny metal letters were affixed to the front of the archway along with large metal silhouettes of an elephant and a tiger on the left and right, respectively.

After a brief wait in one of the queues, Melinda and Yvette purchased day-passes and stepped through the archway, which led to a sprawling plaza with an enormous fountain centerpiece. Numerous small stands, booths and kiosks dotted the center and periphery of the square, some selling souvenirs, food and beverages; others offered information, brochures and guides. A signpost beside the fountain directed visitors to various exhibits. It was not particularly crowded; most visitors seemed to be going somewhere rather than lingering around the plaza.

"Okay," said Melinda, surveying the scene, "I think I'm getting used the smell." She sniffed the air. "Not all of it is bad. What's that...weird ammonia-y sugary smell? Never smelled anything like it before."

Yvette glanced at the signpost. "Well, going by the direction it's coming from, it's either giraffes or zebras," she said. "Or maybe just ammonia and sugar."

There was a pause.

"I haven't been here since I was six," said Melinda with an odd, almost wistful tone. "I used to love this place. I begged my parents into taking me almost every other weekend."

"Why did you stop coming?" asked Yvette.

"Just...lost interest," said Melinda, shrugging. "You know, most kids love Barbies and dinosaurs until they turn thirteen."

"I still like dinosaurs," said Yvette.

"But do you still buy dinosaur models and coloring books?"

"No, not anymore," said Yvette, chuckling.

"Let's get down to business," said Melinda. She checked the signpost. "Gray wolves, that way," she said, pointing north.

The two turned and started walking along a wide boulevard. They passed a giant anteater pen, a grizzly bear exhibit and a large rectangular building that turned out to be an elephant barn. Melinda looked up at a tall cage draped in a sort of thick net. It housed a troupe of guenon monkeys. The road they were walking curved, narrowed, and then split into two paths. After briefly consulting a nearby map, they took the left route. The crowd intermittently thinned and thickened as they ventured deeper into the zoo.

"There," said Melinda suddenly, pointing ahead.

Yvette stood on her toes and peered over the crowd. She spied a waist-height wooden fence a couple dozen meters ahead, beyond which appeared to be some kind of artificial ravine. A placard posted on the fence read 'Gray Wolf (canis lupus).' The teenagers hurried towards the exhibit. As they grew closer, both noticed an odd yet vaguely familiar scent wafting in the air. Neither commented on it. Once they reached the fence they looked down.

A slow-moving creek wound its way along the bottom of the ravine, eventually emptying into a small pool on the far end. The opposite side of the creek was dominated by a grassy hill about half the height of the ravine dotted with several rocky outcroppings and a dozen or so pine trees and bushes. A steep stone cliff - one engineered to look natural but clearly engineered - stood on the far end. The whole exhibit was about the size of a football field.

And sure enough, a pair of wolves - one entirely black, one dark grey with white legs and a whitish-brown face - could be seen lounging on the hillside. They looked surprisingly like big huskies, until one noticed their narrow snouts, sharp eyes and tremendous size.

"Here we are," said Yvette. She turned to Melinda. "What now?"

Melinda said nothing at first. She gazed down at the grey and white wolf and then the black one. Neither of them reacted in any way to their presence, if they noticed them at all. Melinda sniffed the air.

"That smell," she said softly. "It's...a bit like..." she trailed off.

"Us," replied Yvette, nodding.

"But not really," said Melinda, sounding strangely disappointed.

A minute passed. Melinda and Yvette stood at the fence peering down at the wolves. Other visitors passed by or stopped at the exhibit for a time to gawk at and/or take photographs of the animals. Eventually, the black wolf rose and padded off to the other side of the ravine. The gray-furred one remained on the hill.

"We came all this way," said Melinda, folding her arms. "Any ideas?"

"Not really, sorry," said Yvette, shaking her head. "I mean, we could ask the zookeepers if we could get a closer look..."

"Let's call that plan Z," said Melinda. "I don't think they'd just let some random visitors into the pens."

Another minute or so passed.

"Maybe...maybe they might react if they got a good whiff of us," said Melinda. "The wolves, I mean. They can't smell us from up here and there are all these other smells around..."

Melinda leaned over the fence and looked around the exhibit. There didn't appear to be any way of getting closer to the wolves short of actually descending into the ravine. She absently brushed back her hair as a gentle breeze passed through the park.

"Where's the wind coming from," she asked suddenly, stepping back from the fence.

"Huh?" said Yvette.

Melinda wet a finger with her mouth and raised it into the air.

"Oh...oh! I get it." said Yvette.

"Yeah. It's coming from that direction," said Melinda, pointing southeast. "If we move over there," she gestured at the far end of the exhibit "We'll be upwind of them."

"Worth a try," said Yvette.

The pair made their way to the spot Melinda had indicated. Once there they looked back down at the remaining wolf. It hadn't moved since they last checked. They waited and watched.

"How many wolves are there?" asked Yvette absently.

"Um..." Melinda sniffed the air "My guess is five? Maybe six?"

The wind kicked up again, this time stronger. The grass in the exhibit below rippled and the pine branches swayed. As though prompted by the breeze, the grey-furred wolf lifted its head and looked around the ravine. Then, it turned and gazed up at Melinda. Their eyes met.

Something stirred in Melinda. It was not a feeling she could describe. And as soon as it had passed, she found herself questioning whether it had happened at all.

"Whoa," breathed Melinda, stepping back.

The wolf rose and padded closer to Melinda, still looking up at her and Yvette. Another wolf - also grey but with a lighter complexion - emerged from behind an outcropping and joined its pack-mate. It too seemed intently focused on the two teenagers.

"Okay, that's something," said Melinda, still shaking off the bizarre experience. "They're definitely interested in us and, uh..." She glanced over at Yvette "Yvette?"

Her companion was still staring down at the pair of wolves. Her eyes had glazed over as though she were in a trance.

"Yvette? You okay?"

Yvette did not respond.

Melinda snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Earth to Yvette!"

Yvette blinked. She shook her head, seemingly in a daze.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," mumbled Yvette.

"What happened?" asked Melinda, suddenly concerned. "I mean, I felt something...weird when they looked at us. Like, weirder than usual. Did it happen to you?"

"Mm? Uh, maybe," said Yvette, managing a pale smile.

Below, the wolves had been joined by two more of their fellows. One of them had trotted over to the side of the creek and seemed to be looking for a way up the cliff. A group of visitors nearby Melinda and Yvette watched the wolves' odd behavior with interest.

"Yvette, you're kind of scaring me here," said Melinda nervously. "You were out of it for a couple seconds there. Tell me what happened."

Yvette hesitated.

"I looked into its eyes and, well, I felt a sort of...connection with it," said Yvette, shrugging. "I don't know how else to describe it. It was...really cool."

"A connection?" said Melinda.

"Maybe? I'm not sure," said Yvette. She looked back down at the wolves. "It's not happening now," she said.

Melinda reluctantly turned and gazed at the wolves. They were still eying them. Their ears were erect yet their hackles were not raised nor were they showing their fangs - an expression of intense, neutral curiosity. This time Melinda felt no sensation apart from a tingle of awe when she looked upon them.

"Alright," said Melinda. "So...they seem interested with us, at least. That's something worth knowing."

"Yes," said Yvette, nodding, still looking down.

"Not sure what else we can do here," said Melinda. "If we want to get up and personal with some wolves we'll have to find another zoo with a more...close and personal exhibit or go find some in the wild."

"There are... sanctuaries where you can go out and actually interact with them," said Yvette, somewhat distantly.

"Yeah, I looked into that before we left," said Melinda. "Closest one is over a hundred miles away. Maybe we can plan a trip. We'll need to get our parents on board, though. Something for the future."

"Yes," said Yvette.

Melinda gave her friend a look. "Come on," she said, patting Yvette on the shoulder. "We might as well get our full money's worth? Wanna check out the giraffes?"

Yvette turned, smiled and nodded. The odd, unfocused expression she had worn since the wolves noticed them had faded. Still, there was something ineffably different about her now, Melinda noted.

Melinda opened her mouth to say something, shut it, and - somewhat uneasily - returned Yvette's smile.

* * *

Night had fallen. The Pinebrook zoo was still and quiet save for the occasional growl, squawk, screech or snarl from the animals and the chirp of crickets. The zoo's doors and gates were locked and a collapsible fence had been extended along the main entrance.

A hulking shape emerged from the empty parking lot. As it neared the edge of the zoo grounds, the dull orange light cast by street lamps lining the sidewalk caught its form. It was an enormous white-furred wolf with glowing amethyst eyes.

The creature padded towards the iron-wrought fence surrounding the zoo. It reared back and leapt. Though it did not clear the fence it managed to grip the top with its forelegs. After a second or two of scrabbling it managed to pull itself up and over the barrier, landing on the other side. The fence's spear-like tips left deep cuts in the beast's stomach yet its wounds healed in seconds, leaving only patches of bloodied fur.

The beast peered through the darkness and sniffed the air. Then, it bounded off. Various animals looked up in alarm or interest as it passed their enclosures. Several cried out in alarm. Eventually, it reached its destination - the gray wolf exhibit.

The creature stood up on its hind legs, resting its forelegs on the wooden fence surrounding the pen, and looked down into the pitch-black ravine. Its noise twitched. Then, it lifted its head and howled softly - a beautiful, haunting ululation. Several seconds passed. Then, its call was answered. A chorus of muted wolf howls emanated from the far end of the ravine. Once they had faded, the creature leapt over the fence and down into the ravine, falling into the pool.

A loud splash filled the air as the creature plunged into the water. Several seconds passed. Then, something emerged. It was not the creature. Rather, a petite naked teenage girl with dark brown hair with a white streak crawled from the pool. She stood and started walking along the exhibit seemingly undeterred by the darkness or the cold, water dripping from her body.

Eventually, she reached the artificial cliff-side on the far end of the exhibit and approached a rectangular recess in the stone - a door. Though not visible in the nearly nonexistent light - at least to a human - she reached unerringly for a doorknob in the recess and turned it. The door swung open. Soft, whimpering calls came from within.

The girl knelt at the threshold of the doorway.

"Hey there," whispered Yvette.

Her greeting was reciprocated with a sort of growling yelp from the darkness.

"Sorry, I can't let you out," said Yvette, shaking her head.

There came a few yips, followed by a deep growl.

"I already have a pack, thanks," said Yvette. "And I won't take over yours. Don't worry. I'll be going soon."

There was silence. Then, a soft whine.

"I'll tell your keepers you aren't feeling well," said Yvette. "They'll help you. You can trust them."

Another whine.

"I'm glad you like them too," said Yvette, smiling. "Is it okay if I visit you again?"

She was answered by a friendly bark.

"See you later," said Yvette.

With that, she shut the door, turned and walked away.