#my personal favorite is the wolves walking Jonathan out of the forest

[serial-serializednovelreader]

Any ideas how Jonathan is managing to survive despite the heights he has to climb and the Carpathians he has to walk through and all the wolves?

Ooo love this question!

I have a few theories:

1. Pure adrenaline — I imagine during the climb down the castle, Jonathan used up a lot of adrenaline in order to climb at a good pace while avoiding falling — he probably needs this boost due to the stress of the day’s events and making the decision to scale the castle wall as a means of escape. If Jonathan climbing down the castle wall successfully seems improbable (and it kind of is!!), consider there have been many cases of adrenaline allowing people to accomplish feats they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. Still, an adrenaline kick won’t last long, which brings me to my next theory….

2. Dracula’s bite — That’s right, folks! If I’m connecting the dots correctly, Jonathan had just gotten fed on the night before his great escape by Dracula, and in my mind, this would give him a tiny bit of Dracula’s abilities. Not much, mind you, just a little bit. If my theory is true, this would give him a some supernatural strength, speed, and (likely) endurance. This would definitely help him through his lizard climb, the forest, and then the long trek through the Carpathians. It might even help his balance, let him go for a while without food and see better in the dark (my own personal speculations). However, that’s not all Jonathan has to face on this dangerous journey. He has also has to face…

3. The wolves — I have three ideas for how he might be successfully dealing with these!

The first theory is that he doesn’t even have to deal with the wolves at all. Here’s how:

If Jonathan was able to finish his climb down the castle around mid-morning/early afternoon, let’s say (a generous assumption, I know), there’s a possibility the wolves are sleeping at this time (despite them being nocturnal, this article states they actually do most of their sleeping at night with short naps during the day — those who know more about wolves, please feel free to correct me on this!). Therefore, he might be able to make it out without alerting them to his presence at all. Assuming Dracula as the carriage driver really did drive in circles that first time, it might not take him as long to get out of the forest by the castle as his first time around.

However…Jonathan won’t be going for subtlety here. He is trying to get out of this place as fast as possible. I’m almost certain he’s running for it….and wolves are light sleepers. It’s highly unlikely none of them would hear him traipsing through the woods with all the grace of an elephant (not that I blame him).

So, how does he survive if/when the wolves wake up? Let’s move on to my second theory:

They’re not under Dracula’s influence anymore. Now that he’s has been carted away from the castle, his influence on the wolves surrounding it has diminished. This would make sense, as Dracula likely can’t focus his power on them from that far away and also store up his power for the journey ahead (if that’s how his power works — there’s also the possibility they’re constantly under his control, but I’m not sure about that one. He still has limitations). Plus, he would assume Jonathan would be accepting his fate right about now, not attempting to escape. There would be no need to keep the wolves on guard for him. Furthermore, wolves are not usually dangerous to humans unless provoked/very very hungry or the wolf in question has rabies (source: this article). While these wolves have killed humans before and would likely have no problem doing so again, there is the possibility that they don’t remember doing it. We don’t know how the wolves experience his influence or if they can remember what they’ve done under it (like Jonathan with the vampire sisters) or if they don’t remember a thing (like Jonathan with Dracula’s feeding). Most notably, they haven’t done anything unless Dracula has called them to do so (which is their normal way, they don’t tend to get in human business). If they don’t remember what Dracula has made them do, it’s likely they wouldn’t naturally attack a human and would just leave him alone.

However, if they do feel compelled to attack Jonathan even without Dracula’s influence (or if they just somehow have constant orders to attack anyone who tries to go to or leave the castle), we’re onto my next theory…

Again, Dracula’s bite. What if his bite gave Jonathan a fraction of Dracula’s ability to control wolves? This likely means he can’t make them do much of anything, except maybe summon them (if he knew how to — he doesn’t) or, instead, they follow him until he reaches the edge of the forest (which, if you’re wondering how Jonathan feels about a pack of wolves calmly following him as he walks out of the forest, it’s going about as well as you’d expect…not great).

This would really be the only feasible way I could see Jonathan surviving the wolves if they were in “attack mode” because…he can’t really outrun them (sure, he likely has a bit of vampiric speed, but they would be coming at him from all angles) and he doesn’t have any weapons on him. How else is he going to escape the pack if they decide to attack at once? I just don’t see another way.

That’s about all for my theories. From there it’s just a matter of finding rest/food/water where he can, staying vigilant, and not letting the HorrorsTM get to him.

I could be missing something obvious, so please feel free to point out anything I missed. Or, if you have your own theories, I’d love to hear those too!!