Sid Wood's Story

THUMP

Sid was jolted awake as the side of his head took a solid thwack from contact with his father's truck window. With bleary eyes he looked around before sitting up in the passenger seat of the vehicle and stretches as much as the small cab of the truck allowed for his tall frame, releasing a yawn that seemed to drag on for ages. When he finally settled back into his seat his father looked over and grinned.

"Sleep well, kid? Thought you'd be able to handle the trip better than your old man by now."

Sid chuckled. "Old man? You're just as fit as you ever where and you still made me carry most of the gear. Not my fault you use me like a pack mule."

Tyler laughed as well. "There are benefits to being the elder you know. And I plan on taking full advantage of them."

The two of them continued the banter as they neared the town, returning from one of their multiple night treks into the backwoods of no where, their packs in the bed of the truck along with some mountain climbing gear and various other artifacts that had collected over the years. Sid didn't remember a time when they hadn't used the same truck to go on their trips and he and his father had spent plenty of time fixing the old vehicle up whenever it had a problem, ignoring suggestions that they just get a knew one and always retorting with "If it can be fixed, it ain't broken." And so they continued to drive the old machine, all the creaks, clunks, and roaring that accompanied it a welcome sound to their ears.

The old shocks creaked and the engine's roar died down as Tyler pulled the old vehicle into the driveway of the pack house and let the truck idle. "Alright son, as usual its been a pleasure but if you make me pull you up one more ledge I might just leave you hanging."

Sid stuck his tongue out and laughed. "I seem to recall it was me that did most of the pulling but I've never had a very strong memory after all." Tyler returned the laugh and patted his son on his shoulder as Sid got out of the truck. He reached over the side of the truck and lifted his pack out of the bed and slung one strap over his shoulder, the heavy weight more a comfort than a burden, and with a jaunty wave to his father approached the front door of the pack house. his father backed out of the driveway and roared away in their clunker, heading on back to his own house as Sid entered through the front door of the large building.

As Sid closed the front door behind him he was surprised at the number of people that were already awake and moving about, and was most surprised by the sight of Gavin and his mother right there in the entrance way. With a poorly hidden grimace he sidestepped around the pair to try and make his way up towards his room, attempting to track as little dirt on the floor from his muddy boots as possible.

Kathy shrunk into her seat in the games room as she heard the energetic voices of the boys filling the hallway. It sounded like they were all up and at it now, but even for a normal Saturday morning there was an especially high level of noise. Even the front door was going and, was that, Gavin's mum? She paused the game and looked over the back of her chair. She couldn't see much from where she was, but everything seemed to be converging on the kitchen. She could hear Ray's voice as well, so at least one of the girls was around to make it safe. Safe? She could hardly believe she was saying that of the prank-meister-general.

Curiosity got the better of her, and she started to walk through the hall towards the kitchen, when suddenly there was the sound of raised voices. It was Evon, and she sounded very ticked off about something. It was actually a little scary, and she jolted sideways and made her way hurriedly up the stairs. At her pace she almost ran into the back of Sid and jumped in surprise once again.

"Woah!" she cried out, "Sid, you're back? Did you just get in? Did you see what's going on?"

She took a big breath out and slumped against the bannister. "I think the whole world's going insane."

Adrian was alerted by the raised voices downstairs, and finished buttoning up his shirt before hurrying out onto the landing. At the top of the stairs he ran into Kathy and Sid.

"Mornin' guys," he said, peering discreetly down the stairs to see what was going on. "Sid, how's the old man? Not coming in for a catch up today? Shame he couldn't have come last night, Jeff was there in a panda suit. It was priceless. Anyway, uh...I think I'd better check out what's going on downstairs."

He heard the voice that made his skin crawl...Evon Argentum. 'Knives on a plate' didn't even tell the half of it.

---

Calvin was having a hard time not laughing at the scene which was unfolding. Yeah, it was tragic, but in a pathetic kind of way. Aziel was being an ass of course, but hell there had been enough mystery about this situation already. He liked Aziel's way of dragging the facts out kicking and screaming. And there was very nearly some literal screaming going on too.

Things got a little uncomfortable after Tabby got visibly upset by what was being said, and Calvin decided to wade in as a distraction, but couldn't resist pouring just a little fuel on the smouldering coals.

"Hey Az," he said, "so far as I understand it there's gonna be two first timers with us tomorrow night. Seems Gavin and Jac 'took care of business' in the woods last night y'know what I'm sayin', and Lyra and Kiyoshi..."

The words caught in his throat as he almost broached a topic he didn't really want to think about...Lyra and Kiyoshi together.

"...well none of my business, but yeah, Jac and Lyra, they'll both be running with us. Got a feeling it's gonna be a wild one."

He looked across at James and gave him a 'here's lookin' at you' gesture, "Hey James I guess that puts you on the back-foot huh? Not gonna look good if the future alpha doesn't have his first lady."

Sid paused in his ascent as Kathy almost ran into him from behind and he reached an arm behind him to make sure she didn't end up falling over herself. He grinned at her but before he had a chance to respond Adrian came bustling down the stairs with a greeting.

"Afraid not today. We spent a little too much time goofing off before heading home so he had to hurry on to get ready for some survival class he's teaching the locals. But...a panda suit? Really? Someone needs to fill me in on what in the world I missed later today." he said as Adrian went on past and down the stairs. With a "Shh" sign toward Kathy he motioned that she should follow him on up the stairs to his room as he quietly made his way on down the landing, or as quietly as one of his size could manage. He didn't want to get dragged into the family excitement before he at least had a chance to clean off.

He bumped open the door to his room and set his pack down in the corner, once again promising to make his cluttered desk as more organized as the rest of his room...one of these days. He went over to the unmade bed and sat down to pull off his dirty boots, putting them aside to be cleaned later to avoid leaving boot prints all through the house. With a sigh he pulled his equally dirty shirt off and tossed it in the clothes hamper, silently cursing as he noticed the myriad of scrapes that had appeared from their most recent trek through the woods all over his upper body. He grabbed a clean undershirt from his dresser and gingerly pulled it on, attempting to not scratch any of the injuries so as to avoid reopening them.

With a sigh he finally turned to Kathy and chuckled. "The world eh? Nah I think its just our pack but for the most part they've been insane pretty much forever. Just ask my dad and he'll tell you some stories of what they used to get up to when he was in the pack house." Sid stretched out his sore muscles and laid down on the bed, eyes up to the ceiling. "That's probably part of the reason why my dad and I go on so many treks into the wilderness. Get away from the wild by going into the wild." he laughed to himself at that last bit.

Raising an eyebrow at James as he offered his hand, Tabby cocked her head and grimaced a little.

"Actually, I'm good thanks..." she declined, wondering who on earth James thought she was calling if he'd felt the need to suggest that he was 'better looking'...clearly he didn't realise that Lance was a guy twice her age who could quite plausibly be her uncle, as she had told Lyra and Tai he was even though that was't true.

But when Aziel began to laugh at her Tabby could scarcely get a word in edgeways with everyone seeming to pull her from pillar to post. She certainly had something to say to Aziel's insisting that she go with him to be shown something, except the trepidationg this time was far greater than last night when Gavin had told her he was going to prove his point. She could see there was a door in the kitchen which seemed to lead out of the house, and the idea of bolting was coming to the fore as the most attractive option...in which case Lance would probably have done her a favour by failing to turn up with her things, because she'd have nothing to leave behind! What was going on in this house, and how on earth had she become the centre of attention of it all?!

Then James came to the rescue, but his mannerism suggested a something less than altruistic motive. Even so, she was willing to use the guy as a buffer zone between herself and Aziel, and then Ray ran out of the room...perhaps to get Tai to come back and restore the peace? Actually perhaps not...Tai had already done her part by removing that French woman and was probably wrapped up in that.

Oh god... Tabby thought to herself, ...is this the sort of thing mom was trying to protect me from by keeping us seperate from the rest of town all those years?

---

Calvin's mood was taking a dip in proportion to the raising of voices, which were not doing his headache any favours. James' challenge to take Aziel outside was the last straw, and Calvin set his mug of coffee down on the side counter with enough force to make a loud bang...as well as spilling a little bit of the piping hot coffee onto his hand.

"Ow, dammit!" Calvin cursed, "For fucksake guys will you both just sort it out? I've got a hangover and I will personally shove your heads up each others asses and turn you into a wolf ying-yang if you don't turn the noise down. Az, come outside with me, I got something I wanna tell you."

The scene was quite something to behold, and even within his throbbing brain he was relating everyting that unfolded to what Jason had told him in the bar the night before. It compounded everything. Chaos. That was the inevitable outcome of trying to create a static type or order in a pack just stagnated and festered in a human-like existence. Which all sounded reakin' philosophical for a guy who was still half-cut from the night before, but the words had made such an impression on him that the confirmation bias took hold over his hangover and sent his mind into overdrive.

If it was to Calvin's advantage to sow seeds of discontent...well, Aziel was a grow-bag full of rich compost. He picked up his coffee again and walked over to the back door to the patio, and looked at Aziel to see if he could come.

---

Tabby looked at the ground, hoping that Aziel would follow the other guy outside and the gorilla chest-beating in the kitchen would burn itself out, when Ray reappeared with a phone. Thank god. Tabby held out a hand to take it with a grateful smile, but the smile dropped slightly when Ray did not immediately hand it over, but instead unexpectely implored her to believe that there was truth to the werewolf business. But coming from Ray it was different. There wasn't a hint of malice, mischief or bravado...or even pretence. Tabby didn't doubt that Ray believed what she said, and that she didn't want her to be frightened by it. She was also the first person to intimate the slightest hint of sympathy that such a claim would be hard for Tabby to accept.

So Tabby took a deep breath in and nodded, took the phone and hesitated before dialing, looking across at Ray and wondering how to respond. It didn't matter how genuine she seemed. Tabby didn't believe in werewolves. Or ghosts. Or fairies. And no amount of sincerity was going to overcome that. Even so, it was obviously important to these people. Hell, Ray had said 'it's our life'...Tabby had no interest in trying to challenge or rock the foundations of that if it was such a big deal to them.

"That's cool." was all she could think of to say, "I get that. Who am I to say it isn't real...thanks."

She gave a weak smile and stepped out into the hall with the phone, struggling to remember Lance's number. She couldn't even check it on her cell phone because the battery was dead...damn...what was it again...?

---

"Too bad." Adrian said to Sid with a nod. No worries though, I'm sure I'll catch up with him soon enough. And yeah when you see Mr Dean on Monday be sure to make a Panda joke, it was a classic moment. And make sure you tell your dad about it, he'll get a huge kick out of it!"

He chuckled to himself as he began to make his way down the stairs. Of everyone in the entire Khöller pack, Sid was the pup who'd turned out most like his father. It was sometimes like having Tyler back in the house all over again. Which for the most part was an awesome thought...but that said, Adrian and Tyler had been through some pretty rough stuff together. The fact that there was one bedroom with a much newer window and decor than the others was testimony to that...

Kathy followed Sid in silence, wondering what he might have seen to justifying the shushing. She obligingly lingered in the doorway of his room, blushing and looking away momentarily as he changed his shirt, but noting that he was pretty roughed up. Which was nothing unusual for him really. It was a shame that he too had not been around the previous day, just like Calvin. The two most practical and forthright males in the pack hadn't been around to help out! Even Adrian had been strangely preoccupied, and Tai seemed to have taken charge for the most part.

"Really..." Kathy replied with some scepticism, "...I wonder if they ever had anything as weird as what's going on now. You know there's a girl downstairs who doesn't know she's a werewolf? And I heard Duncan saying that other strange wolves have been around town yesterday. Maybe it's all nothing, but everyone seems to have gone doolally with the full moon coming. Some people have found their mates and...gah I just feel like there's a tornado passing and I just want there to be a bunker I can hide in until it's gone!"

Sid blinked a few times before sitting back up and looking at Kathy, letting the news of current events sink into his head. "Sound like I missed one hell of a party last night. And are you sure you're not still drunk or something? How can someone not know they're a werewolf? And wait did you say people found their mates? What in the world HAPPENED last night?"

Sid's expression was a mixed bag of confusion and surprise along with a little bit of disbelief. Just that little bit of information was more than he had been expecting to hear his first day back. "Maybe I should stop going on trips now. Seems when I do things go to hell in a handbasket." Sid chuckled. "So who are the lucky pairs? And how come a good looking one like yourself hasn't matched up yet? Thought you'd be one of the first if not the first." The mention about strange wolves in town totally passed by Sid in his interest in the pack's more personal events and the ever increasing volume from downstairs. Sid shook his head at the state the house was in currently. We used to never have shouting matches in the main area but here we are with half the pack down there yelling at each other. Ugh what a mess.

Kathy thought back to last night and suddenly realised exactly how out of the loop she'd let herself become. She actually had not idea what had really happened with the various people who'd paired up, or why it was that Tabby didn't know she was a werewolf. She knew that she'd come in from out of town and was only staying overnight.

"You know," she answered, "I actually don't know what really happened last night. Someone spilled a barrel of loopy-juice I think."

Her eyes smarted and she blushed at his second comment, although in her mind it was obvious he was pulling her leg. But even approaching the question of whether she ought to know who her mate was yet made her stomach feel quite queasy, and she found it much easier to divert back to his first question.

"Lyra's with Kiyoshi," she answered, "I don't think anyone's very surprised about that. I think Gavin and Jac too. But definitely not me, I was talking to Reina most of the evening. And that girl Tabby. Who is also Gavin's long-lost sister by the way, just in case it wasn't complicated enough."

Glancing down the stairs she noticed that the noise hadn't so much reduced as dispersed. It sounded like something was going on outside. She shut her eyes and winced. All this noise and that was without her and Ray having executed their planned prank on Calvin!

Sid chuckled as he padded on his bare feet over to her. "Definitely not you? You sound like its never gonna happen." Sid comes over and looks over her shoulder down the stairs, putting a hand on her back as he slid past. "Guess I should go and let the others know I'm back and kicking. Besides it sounds like all the fun is going on down there." He started walking down the stairs, stopping about half way down as he called back, "Not to mention I'm starving. Any idea if we got any food lying around the house? I've been missing the pack's homecooked food while I was gone and even leftovers would be more than delicious."

Kathy laughed awkwardly and blushed a little, looking up at the ceiling and shaking her head. "If this is what starts happening when people begin to discover their mates, I hope I never do!"

Her eyes snapped back into position as she faintly heard the sound of James and Reina heading out of the house. The front way. Did that mean Ray was out for the day? Kathy guessed pranking Calvin was off the cards now, but by the situation downstairs that might not be a bad thing. The boys were obviously in no mood for being messed with. She followed Sid out into the hall and noted how things had gone distinctly quiet in the kitchen.

"Technically," she said, "we were all about to have breakfast before things kicked off. So there should be plenty of food down there. I'd go get some myself if I knew it was safe."

Sid grinned at Kathy before walking a few steps back up and grabbing her hand, pulling her down the stairs with him as he made his way towards the kitchen. "It'll be safe enough as long as you stick with me. People don't get between my and my food and most of them probably know that by now." Sid laughed as he entered the kitchen, still pulling Kathy behind him.

"Hey guys, long time no see. Sounds like I missed a hell of a shindig while I was gone but if you guys don't mind I have a bigger interest in grabbing myself some of the homecooking I've been longing for the past few days before someone fills me in on everything." he said to those few that remained in the kitchen as he made his way over to the cabinet to pull a plate out for himself and one for Kathy. "Now, where's the grub?" he asked with a smile on his face.

Feeling marginally reassured, Kathy followed Sid down the stares and into the kitchen, hunching slightly half expecting to walk in on a pitched battle even though the noise seemed to have died down. The smell of food was still in the air though, and a lot of breakfast food was laid out on the side where Tai had left it earlier. It was tempered only slightly by the smell of burned bacon left by Adrian before no doubt.

She let go of Sid's hand and scurried over to the side bar to grab a croissant. Or maybe two. She looked out of the window and paused, feeling nervous again at what looked a little bit like a wild west stand-off.

"Why do these things always happen when the boys get involved?" she said out loud wistfully.

Sid poked his head around the door frame and over Kathy's shoulder, a grin on his face. "What's this I hear about a party going on? I missed the last one so you'd better not be planning on excluding me from this one." He sidestepped around Kathy as she backed up and lifted the bowl of cereal he had made up and out of harms way so no one would tip it over. With a chuckle he went and leaned against the fridge door as he spooned a mouthful of the milk covered flakes into his mouth, his chewing temporarily cutting out all hearing only catching the last part of Calvin's sentence.

"Bail? Why would you bail? If somethings not entertaining enough all ya gotta do is make it more entertaining. That's normally easy enough to do, right? Although with it being a human gathering it does make it a little more difficult..." Sid chuckled as he placed another mouthful of the semi-soggy food into his mouth, attempting to talk around the mess. "Besides, if enough of us go we won't need much else to keep us entertained. We seem to do a dandy job of that on our own."

Kathy smiled and nodded at Sid's remark, hoping that Calvin and Gavin would be persuaded to join them.

"Sid's right!" she said, "If you think we're 'lame' them maybe you should be the solution. Maybe it's you who need to bring something to the table for a change?"

Her face fell as she realised she'd gotten a bit bold in what she was saying, and suddenly blushed a little. Perhaps, she thought, it was because she knew that her and Ray were supposed to have been pranking Calvin that day, so she was already accepting of the fact that by tonight he might have ended up being pissed off with her. But that dread fascination of the boy was still there pricking at her mind.

Calvin flicked his head to look at Sid...he thought he'd detected a slightly outdoorsy smell, even for a house full of werewolves! Would Sid be a good candidate for the grand plan? No, probably not...too loyal to the 'ways' of the pack. And even Gavin seemed to be finding his feet in the official channels more since he'd found his mate.

He was about to answer Sid when Kathy chimed in with her tuppence on the matter. His lips curled into a grin and he shrugged.

"Hey why not," he said, "if you need the boys around to champerone you whilst your throwing bean-bags at coconuts then I'd be honoured."

He laughed a mean laugh and slapped Gavin on the back. "Sounds like we have our heading for the day. We need to catch up about last night anyhows, right?"

---

"That's always the way." Adrian smiled, "Everyone under one room, but rarely in the same room."

His smile faltered for a moment as he recalled how that hadn't really been the way when he was rounger. It always seemed like everyone had been under each other's feet back then. Him, Jeff, Emmy, Lux....Bobby.....

He took a deep breath in at the memory of his deceased friend. The only person who hadn't lived to see how the Khöller pack had prevailed after the last incident. It reminded him also of Lux...perhaps today would be a good day to invite her out too if she felt up to it?

"Well," he said, forcing the smile once again and walking towards the house again, "no time like the present eh? Everyone get booted up and I'll see you at the car."

---

Tabby stared at her phone discontentedly, wondering what Lance was actually up to. The guy wasn't the single most reliable entity on earth, but to totally disappear leaving her stranded at some strange house (however friendly the inhabitants had turned out to be) just seemed irresponsible even for him. Still, Adrian's suggestion seemed to have some merit. Connorsford evidently wasn't the biggest of towns, and if there was going to be any sort of performance element to the fete, there was a strong chance Lance would be drawn to it.

"Alright I like the sound of that." she said with a smile, and turned to Lyra, "I think these clothes will survive one more day, but thanks for the offer...and if we don't find Lance today I might well have to take you up on that."

She put her hand to her chin thoughtfully as something else occured to her, "He probably wouldn't have had any reason to move the car. If it's still where it was yesterday I reckon my stuff is probably still there."