#[TTOU and my naturally busy mid-to-late October pls don't cause any more personal delays in this]

[nehswritesstuffs]

The Scottish Werewolf of Hackney - Part X

Got sidetracked again--ONWARD!

Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V

Part VI - Part VII - Part VIII - Part IX

FFN - AO3

With Adrian now in the mix, are there any more surprises in store for Clara and Basil out in the Cairngorms? [2246 words; Whouffaldi werewolf AU]

Morning came and the trio decided to wander around the nearby wood in order to search for more firewood. Three trips and a nice pile in the bothy later and Clara and Adrian went out for an extra walk, leaving Basil to double-check some bits of the ward that was around their temporary home and seeing what he could do to patch and strengthen it. The two brought a thermos and snacks with them, taking a rest on the edge of an outcrop of rocks when the sun was at its highest.

“Could you imagine chaperoning a class trip out his way?” Adrian mused, staring off into the distance as he mulled over his tea. Clara shook her head with a chuckle.

“They’d have all run away before they got on the bus to the park limits, and by now would’ve broken off and formed their own independent state where they dab to salute and have outlawed mandatory literature courses.”

“Sounds like we’d be out of our jobs in such a bleak world.”

“Maybe; maybe we’d just be the lucky ones.” She handed him an apple and procured one of her own from the pack she had been carrying. Taking a bite, she watched as a few backpackers traversed the landscape before them in the distance. “Isn’t it funny what difference a year makes?”

“This time last year you were barely back at Coal Hill after Danny’s accident, and this time next year…”

“…I will be a bride in Bristol, with a new life spread out ahead of me. All new students, neighbors, coworkers… it will be like another adventure.” She took his silent offer of more tea from the thermos and sighed. “You will visit, won’t you?”

“I will if you will,” he replied.

“Of course; the kids will need an uncle figure and I highly doubt Basil’s secretary would be a good match—the man has all the pleasantries of a hand pie with a soggy crust and not enough filling.”

“That bad?”

“He’s a faun, apparently.” Adrian spat out his tea and pounded his chest with his fist, attempting to not choke on the rest. “I’m not entirely sure I believe it myself—he didn’t seem particularly goat-like.”

“You’ve met him? When?”

“Before Basil began working at Coal Hill—he brought over his stuff. It’s why you haven’t seen him wandering around in Danny’s old things.”

“Ah,” Adrian coughed. He took a wee sip of tea, careful to soothe his throat and not aggravate it again, before putting his cup down on the rock next to him. Shading his eyes with his hand, he squinted as he tried to see something far away. “Are those people getting closer?”

Clara turned her attention off towards the other hikers and frowned. “Yes, and it doesn’t look like they’re normal hillwalkers either.”

They waited in silence as the people came closer, with realization hitting both the friends at the same time: they were park rangers—or whatever it was the Cairngorms area in general had—and they were specifically coming right towards them.

“Shit—act normal,” Clara muttered. She took a sandwich from her bag (made with the very last of their bread, meaning that she was ready to hike back to the nearest village just for that) and pretended to not know what was going on. Adrian followed suit and before long they were approached by a trio of park rangers, all three women looking very tired and cross.

“Pardon me, but you two better get out of here while you have the chance,” the shortest of the rangers said. She seemed as though she was the leader of the group, with the other two merely hanging back a couple steps each. “We’re doing a sweep of the area; it’s not safe.”

“Not safe?” Adrian wondered. “What do you mean?”

“There’s been reports of wolves,” Tallest replied. “We were unable to confirm anything until early this morning, but there are definite wolf tracks, as well as tracks from a large, unknown animal running about. While we go around examining the tracks, we’re letting people know so that they can leave before nightfall.”

“Yes; if you need it, we can call a coworker that’s going around with a quad bike and a trailer picking up hikers,” Shortest said. “We cannot kick you out, but we can heavily suggest that you leave before things potentially get dangerous.”

“Potentially?” Clara asked. “Before it wasn’t safe, now it’s only ‘potentially’. Which is it?”

“We’re literature teachers; we put stock in the meaning of words,” Adrian explained, seeing that the rangers were a bit put-off. The middle-heighted woman stepped forward, holding her mobile out for them to see.

“These are some of the scenes we’ve been finding in the park,” she said, voice soft and accent broad. She cycled through a bunch of photos, with the bloody, mangled bodies of foxes, squirrels, and even large deer, all accompanied by oddly-shaped footprints in the dirt. “It’s not eagles or owls that are doing this, and this is more than what competitive foxes and wildcats are normally capable of doing. We don’t know which animals are causing these things, nor why, and we’d rather people leave before it’s their body we’re taking photos of.”

“Why are we talking about photos of bodies?” Everyone was torn from the conversation and looked to see that Basil was walking up to them, a curious look on his face. He greeted Clara with a quick kiss and examined the photo on Middle’s mobile.

“The three of you are in the same party?” Shortest asked.

“My sister’s fiancée,” Adrian cut in, motioning towards Basil. Both his coworkers gave him a quick glance—they heard and were ready to play along. “You know, just a family holiday during a bit where we could all take off work. Is it that weird?”

“No, not really,” Shortest said. She watched Basil hand her coworker her mobile back, looking at him critically. “Why weren’t you with them before?”

“I let them go ahead as I finished sorting the burnables and took a lengthy, private dump, thank you,” he said. The other park rangers stifled a snicker, along with Clara and Adrian, as Shortest attempted to not cringe in embarrassment. “If they’ve been siblings this long and haven’t murdered one another and left the body to rot in the middle of nowhere, I’m fairly safe in assuming they won’t do it now.”

“Alright…” Shortest said, unsure of the rather frank admissions. “Try to be out of the area by dark. If you can’t make it, then at least don’t stray too far from your shelter at night and do your hiking as a group. Until we know what it is that’s out there, we are going to be as cautious as possible—two hundred fifty years is a long time to not have carnivores wandering around and this needs to be properly documented.”

“Then I’d suggest you get back to work before the sun sets on you three,” Basil said. He waved sarcastically as the park rangers left, waiting until they were far from earshot before turning towards his fiancée and their coworker. “They know something’s wrong, but they’re not certain who or what to blame it on. The leader-one is especially attempting to find an answer and I get the feeling she suspects me.”

“Not shit, Sherlock,” Clara deadpanned. “You saw those photos��what’s out there?”

“It seems more consistent with a large cat, more of a tiger-large, but I doubt it was, as I didn’t think there was a zoo nearby with any wild-caught…” Basil trailed off, gnawing on his pointer finger as he worried over an answer. He then slowly furrowed his brow, his concerned stare hardening into a glare that he directed towards Adrian. “You.”

“What about me?”

“You led them here.”

“I led who here? I don’t understand.”

“The conceit of pards, you idiot!” Basil snapped. “Why would an escaped animal that had been bred in captivity kill for fun? Who would be stupid enough to release a large predatory creature in the Cairngorms without clearing it with the National Trust and the rangers who work these lands? No—these creatures were led here.”

“I didn’t even know what a pard was until Clara explained it last night!” Adrian defended. “For all you know they followed you up!”

“I would have smelled them had they followed us.”

“With that beaky thing? I’ll believe it when I see it, ol—”

“STOP!” Clara shouted. Both men looked at her and recoiled slightly at her furious expression. “Let’s just pack up and get back to the bothy and finish up the arguing there. The longer we’re out here, the more likely it is that we’ll be attacked, and I’m not going to die from a pard attack just because you two have your knickers in a twist.”

Agreeing to that, Basil and Adrian helped pick up the rest of the picnic and rush towards the bothy fast as they could without causing suspicion from anyone possibly watching from far off. They made it back to the bothy without incident, though after the door was shut the peace vanished and Basil had Adrian by the scruff of his neck again, holding him against the wall.

“Basil!” Clara snapped. “What is wrong with you!?”

“Nothing,” he growled, an undertone of the wolf inside tainting his voice. “All I want is to make sure that you are safe, Clara, and now this is twice in twenty-four hours where I’ve found my doubts lay on the same person.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Adrian said. “Strength in numbers, yeah? You might not need me around as much as I need you, but you still need me if you want to have a better chance of scaring away those pards.”

“No, you don’t get it,” Basil snarled. He let Adrian go, though did not step away. “Pards are not afraid of humanoids; the only reason they do things at night is because it is more convenient—therefore easier—for them to cause mischief.”

“Killing a bunch of animals for fun is not just ‘mischief’.”

“It is when you don’t know any better.” Basil glanced over at Clara, who was still looking rather upset with them both. “We’ll get out of this, don’t worry.”

“It wasn’t just pard prints out there,” she mentioned. “The rangers said there were wolf prints as well. Care to explain that?”

“Pards have evolved to mimic other animals’ footprints as part of its camouflage—it would not surprise me if one conceit left more cat-like prints and another nearly canid in appearance.”

“That sounds like a lot of talk from someone who we just have to take their word for it,” Adrian mentioned. He nearly continued, yet stopped when Basil directed his sharp glare back towards him, making him silent again.

“We need to be on our guard, coblynau, because we’re now in a large heap of danger and I’m the only one who can effectively get us out without much incident,” Basil stated. “Now are you going to shut up and listen, or are you—”

Suddenly, a large thud against the door cut the werewolf off, making all three of the bothy’s occupants jump in surprise. The locked shutters rattled as well, the noise enough to make Basil push Adrian towards Clara before stepping between the both of them and the door, ready to make a stand.

“In broad daylight,” he snarled. Basil took off his sweatshirt, coat, socks and shoes as the noise continued, using the opportunity allow his body to slip into the hybrid form from the night before. He barked at the door and shutters, letting whomever was outside know that he meant business.

What met him was a deafening chorus of roaring, with there being at least five or six pards outside the bothy, waiting for them to leave. Basil howled angrily, a loud and long proclamation that he was not going to be intimidated. Admit he was scared? Of course, if the admittance were to Clara. To tell the pards he was bested by them? Not a chance in all of Hell.

The conceit left as Basil howled, scampering off with near-instant speed. He then allowed himself to become human once again, picking up his clothes discarded to accommodate his partial wolf form, and sitting down on one of the chairs wearily.

“They know where we are,” he said quietly. “They know, and they’ve been out in the daylight. Nothing is going to frighten them away.”

“All they’re doing is acting like a bunch of bullies,” Clara said. She went to her fiancée’s side and put her arm around his shoulders. “Don’t you worry—they’ll have to get through me first before they even can think of getting to you.”

“Same here,” Adrian added. He was still shaking from the fright, even though he seemed more resolute than ever. “One of my best mates is going to marry you and while I may not like it, I respect that you’re the one she loves. I might get used to you, in time, but you need to be around for more than a few weeks for that to happen, and you might not be around for more than a few days without help from the both of us.”

“Good,” Basil said while pulling on a boot. “It’s time for us to go into survival mode.”