Morning dawned clear and warm. The snow hadstopped and the sun was shining. There was only a few clouds in the sky. Themoment they stepped outside they were momentarily blinded by the light, leavingthem fumbling as they try to remember which pocket had their sun/snow glassesin. Geimhreadhwas waiting for them out front of the lodge. The creature looked similar to a Smilodonbut it was unlike any they had seen before. It was huge, at least six feet tallat the shoulder and twenty feet long. Its fur was the deep blue of ice coldwater with slightly lighter blue highlights. Strange mystic symbols of abright, blue glow ran down his spine all the way to his shoulders andhindquarters and then down to his paws. Similar runes covered his massiveteeth. Icicles dangled from the ends of his fur and on the ends of hissword-like incisors. It turned and looked at them with eyes the same color blueas that of long frozen ice. Those eyes cast a cold and menacing gaze upon him. “So,” Jonathan said slowly. Trying not topanic. “How does one greet a ten-thousand-year-old force of nature. I assume HiSpirit is out of the question?” “Be polite,” the leopard said calmly. “He isa fairly mellow person but our modern world confuses him.” “It confuses me too,” Jonathan quipped. “Alot.” “No jokes please,” the mage warned. “Humanhumor confuses him sometimes.” “Ok.” Jonathan responded. “Play itstraight.” He took a deep breath to calm himself. And stepped forward. The massive creature towered over him.Casting a large shadow. He could feel the cold coming off the massive entity. “Ohboy!” He uttered loud enough for the microphone he was wearing to hear. “It’slike standing next to a glacier. Reminds me of that time in Iceland.” He wassilent for a moment. “A block of ice broke off and almost hit me.” He bowed deeply. “Good morning. It’s apleasure to meet you. My name is Jonathan Williams from New York.” The large creature bobbed his head. “Goodmorning to you as well traveler,” he said in a deep, mellow tone. “Thank you for allowing me the privilege toexperience your world,” Jonathan said earnestly. “What do you think of our world?” Geimhreadhasked. “It’s exciting and so different,” heanswered. “Are you ready?” Geimhreadh asked. “Ready toexperience it even deeper?” Jonathan took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes Iam.” “You might want to remove most of yourclothes,” the Lioness commented. “Saves having them ripped apart.” "You want me to strip in thiscold?!" Jonathan asked. “You won’t be cold for long,” someone joked.But don’t strip all the way down.” “We have to keep the show PG rated,” thecameraman joked. Jonathan quickly removed his jacket and coldweather pants. Then he removed the pants and shirt under those. This left himin his underwear. The cold wind blew across and made him shiver. “Aren’t you glad you wore clean underwear?” “I know my mother will be,” Jonathanresponded. The massivecreature leaned close and breathed on him. The cloud of ice and snow thatenveloped him didn't hurt, it didn't even feel cold. It was like a coolfall breeze at first but it seeped into his flesh and bones. Thick, gray fur sprouted and raced acrosshis body covering all his exposed skin. His face started to elongate into asuitably lupin muzzle as his ears migrated from the side of his head to thetop. Jonathan could feel his body changing from human to lupin. He felt hiscenter of gravity shift and he toppled forward onto all four limbs. Which werenow all the same length. What amazed him was the total lack of any pain or evendiscomfort. Jonathan was closer to the ground now and thechanges seemed to have stopped. This gave him the chance to come to terms withhis new body. He looked at his front legs – he could nolonger call them arms. They were covered with thick, short, gray fur and endedin paws. Lifting up his right front paw he found it was actually a hand,complete with a thumb and fingers. He checked and found his left hand was alsothere. The new wolf stood up and walked around.Moving on four legs seemed perfectly natural to him now and he gave it no realthought. Everywhere there was a cornucopia of soundsand smells that overwhelmed him. It was several moments before his brainmanaged to absorb it all and adjust to its new wolf side. He could hear people nearby talking and hishighly enhanced sense of smell told him it was two humans. A man and a woman.Smells from the kitchen told him that beef stew was for lunch. A soft breezebrought with it the smell of pine trees and newly fallen snow. The most astonishing thing was that everyonehad a different scent. One unique to just them. Everything had a unique scenthe had never realized existed before and it all smelled interesting. The wholeworld was full of sounds and smells he had never known existed before. Nowonder his dog was always sniffing everything. “Allen,” he said to the camera man who wasfilming. He sniffed and caught a smell that was a mix of plastic, metal andhuman. He realized that the camera smelled like the man who used it and visaversa. “You smell like your camera,” the wolfjoked. “Well,” the man responded. “I AM acameraman!” “He goes everywhere with it,” Barbara joked.“He even sleeps with it.” “This is amazing!” The new dire wolfexclaimed. “All the new sounds and smells! Everything is so different! It’slike discovering a whole new world.” “Or rediscovering one long lost,” Philip added. “Anyone have a mirror?” Jonathan askedexcitedly. “I want to see what I look like.” “Here,” Fred pulled a flatscreen TV from apack and placed it carefully on the ground. It was a small tv, with a screen of barely16 inches. The entire thing was heavily winterized and shock proof. A longcable ran back to the camera. It showed what Allen was recording. Jonathan looked carefully at the wolf on thescreen carefully. It was hard to imagine this wolf was him. He raised his leftfrom leg and the wolf on the screen lifted his leg. It took some effort butafter a moment he managed to wiggle his ears. Jonathan gave a bark of laughter. “I canwiggle my ears!” “Try your tail,” someone commented. Jonathan looked behind him And became awareof the lang, bushy tail that was now there. “Great!” His tailed waggedenergetically back and forth of his own accord. “What am I? What type of wolf?” Jonathanasked. “It looks stockier than other wolves I’ve seen.” “Canis Dirus,” Aseem responded. The smilodonwas seated nearby. “The Dire Wolf. The ice age version of the timber wolf.” “And here is your new pack!” A trio of wolves came forward. One male andtwo females. She pointed to a pair of the wolves. “Thisis Galina and Nicholas.” The remaining female came forward. “My nameis Alisha Bennett.” Jonathan had met and been close to wolvesbefore but this was obviously different. The biggest difference was sound andsmell. Especially smell. One sniff told him an astonishing amount ofinformation about each; age, gender, where they had been and even what they hadrecently eaten. “Now that you are properly dressed,” thelion commented. “We need to get moving.” “We have a mammoth to hunt down and eat,”Galina added. “So you really intend to take down a fullgrown mammoth?” Jonathan asked. “We do,” Philip responded. “But we can’ttake him down alone. First we’ll stop off in town,” the lion commented. Jonathon looked puzzled. “Town? You have atown?” The lion paused for a moment. “Well, it’smore like a village.” “So,” Jonathan commented. “We’re going tomeet the Village people.” ************************
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