HOWLING HALLOW

Chapter Eighteen

Liu took the Doctor and Rose to a small opening and led them into a small cave like room. Liu asked them to wait and he and Shen left with the others. Rose looked around. There was a mattress in the corner with a white duvet and pillow. Next to it was a small wooden table with a lit candle, a few books and some papers on it. Other than that, there wasn't much.

"Reminds me of Fraggle Rock," Rose said, looking around. "The Fraggles lived in cave rooms like this."

"I wonder how long they've been here," the Doctor said. "The walls are smooth for the most part. I'm wondering if they carved these cave rooms out of the rock. Seems too smooth to be natural."

"Doctor, about Liu. I'll vouch for ya if they say anything about you using that pelt. You didn't know it came from one of their own people," Rose said.

"Thanks," the Doctor said, smiling. "However, I'm sure they'll make the argument that if I was able to change, I should have known it was a genuine lycan pelt."

"All the same, I will convince them that you meant no harm. You were just trying to join us," Rose said. "I would have done the same if you were a natural lycan and I had the pelt. Brat is the enemy, not you, and I'm going to tell them that."

"Thanks," the Doctor said. "Perhaps Shen will speak up as well. She seems to like me."

"Too bad you can't stay here," Rose said. "You'd make a good lycan."

"Says the woman who hasn't been a lycan that long," the Doctor teased.

"It's instinct. I can think like a lycan now and I know that you'd make a good one. I think that's why Shen likes you so much."

"On the other hand, maybe I'm just a likable bloke," the Doctor said.

Rose smiled at that and drew near to him. The Doctor smiled when she put her hand on his cheek.

"I won't let them hurt you if they plan to punish you for the pelt," Rose said.

"Will you throw yourself in front of the lycan and plead for my life?"

"Um…if I have to. Why? You want to see me do that?"

"Might be interesting. I've never seen you beg for anything, let alone me. I wanna see if you get all soppy and melodramatic and cheesy as you plead for mercy."

"I'm doing it to save your life, not entertain you."

"Why can't it be both?"

He sniggered when she swatted his arm. He stroked her hair while he looked around the room. Then he walked over to the table, picked up the stack of papers and studied them.

"What's that then?" Rose said, walking over to him.

"Nothing much, just letters," the Doctor said. "Someone named Laura is living here and these are love letters from her boyfriend."

He set them back down on the table. Rose looked over at the doorway and the Doctor followed her gaze. He smiled when Shen entered the room and walked over to him.

"Aha, my bestest buddy has come back for me now," the Doctor said as Shen gave him a shy smile. "See, I'm loved. N'yah, n'yah."

Shen tugged on the Doctor's hand and walked back towards the door. The Doctor followed her and Rose followed behind him. She led the Doctor through the corridor to a larger room where Liu and several others sat behind a long wooden table. The pelt was spread out on the table in front of them and Rose sighed.

"I have a feeling you're here to explain that," Rose said, coming up beside the Doctor and pointing to the pelt.

Shen let go of the Doctor's hand and walked over to her father. She sat down beside him and he patted her head before he and the three men and two women focused their attention on the Doctor.

"This is a friendly meeting to determine what has been going on," Liu said. "These people are the leaders of the lycan community."

The Doctor nodded hello to them and Rose stepped forward.

"About the pelt. He didn't know it came from one of you," Rose said to them. "He wore it to be like us. He wouldn't have put it on if he'd known where it came from."

"We surmised as much," an elderly man said. "I am Nicodemus. I am the head council member. You are not like the other one, we have guessed that much. You came here in order to bring Councilor Liu's daughter back to her, not to murder and enslave us as the other one has done. We are not here to condemn you, only to learn the truth. Where did you purchase this pelt?"

"From a vendor at a funfair. Shen was one of the attractions in the freak show that was a part of this fair," the Doctor said.

"I'm sorry, you are…" a young blonde haired woman said.

"I am the Doctor and this is Rose Tyler."

"I am Sylvia. These humans were not part of the village then?"

"I think they were a traveling fair. Brat said that he took Shen off world for a time before bringing her back," the Doctor said. "We found her in a cage near the back of it."

The councilors talked silently amongst themselves for a moment before they turned their attention back to the Doctor.

"Shen has been missing for nearly five months. The murder of David occurred around the same time," Nicodemus said.

"The pelt was a part of David?" the Doctor said.

"Yes. We were driven underground by the non-lycan and we sent out scouting parties from time to time to keep watch over them. David was on one of the scouting missions when he disappeared. We found his naked body in a field several days later. We saw bruising on the flesh but we had no idea he'd been skinned. The gods only know what happened to the rest of the pelt."

"But the pelt actually has the power to change people into lycan?" the Doctor said.

"It seems so. We're still not completely sure how the change occurs but we do have the ability to change at will. Liu told us that your friends can't do that, that their change is lunar based. We've heard tales of lycan who can only change with the full moon but we'd never met any until now. Are you sure that the pelt only changes you during the full moon? Or did you just put it on and assume it would do that?"

"Um…not sure, really. I just assumed that since it was the full moon that the pelt was changing me into the wolf," the Doctor said.

"Put it on and try it again," Nicodemus said, gesturing to the pelt. "The moon isn't visible down here so can you change into your lycan form using just the pelt?"

The Doctor glanced at Rose and walked up to the table. Everyone watched while he picked up the pelt and tied it around his waist. He then stepped back from the table. He wondered how he was going to do this and then decided that perhaps the desire to become a lycan was enough to start the change. He began to think really hard about becoming a werewolf. He heard Rose gasp seconds after he started to feel the change.

"Oh my God," Rose said while she watched the Doctor change into a werewolf in front of her eyes.

The Doctor finished the change and walked around in a circle while he looked at himself. He finished his inspection and looked at the council.

"You see, this proves that it definitely belongs to a lycan," Liu said, pointing to the Doctor. "Someone, either with the fair or the villagers, hunted David down and skinned him so they could take the pelt. The pelt ended up with the fair and they sold it to the Doctor. Shen here was treated like a freak and a slave. That's how the humans see us. We're either pets to be displayed or beasts to be skinned and sold. I'm surprised they didn't sell all of David off for medicinal cures."

The Doctor looked at himself while he tried to figure out how to change back. He tried wishing to be himself again and breathed a sigh of relief when his body began to change back to its normal self.

"I'm jealous, wish I could do that," Rose said.

"I wish you could do it as well. That comes in quite handy when you can control the change," the Doctor said as he untied the pelt. "However, I don't want to be disrespectful and wear the skin of your fellow lycan, so here you go," he added, laying the pelt back on the table.

He stepped back and frowned when the council members gazed at him quietly.

"Honestly, I meant no disrespect when I wore the pelt," the Doctor said, trying to guess what they were thinking. "I thought it was rubbish at first until it worked and then I used it so I could run with my fellow pack members."

"And yet, you chose to stay non-lycan. You did not want the change?" Sylvia said.

"Well, to be honest, in my line of work, it could be a bit risky changing back and forth," the Doctor said. "I'm already hoping that Rose doesn't wolf out on me at inappropriate times."

"Your change is lunar based?" Nicodemus asked Rose.

"I think so, yeah. Actually…the person that changed me was alien; he was possessing a young boy."

The council members were shocked at that and conferred silently for a moment.

"The lycan was inside the boy?" Liu finally said to Rose.

"Yeah. Somehow the alien possessed the boy and was living inside him and when the moon came out, the alien changed the boy into a werewolf."

"We've never heard of a species of lycan that can possess someone's body," Nicodemus said.

"Well…" the Doctor said. "It could have also been a shapeshifter, pretending to be a wolf. The people who brought it to the house Rose and I were staying at worshiped the wolf, so perhaps it was shapeshifting into one and using the humans to his advantage."

The council members glanced at each other.

"People who worship wolves?" Sylvia said. "I've heard of humans killing us but not worshiping us. How intriguing. You must tell us more. But for the moment, we wish to speak to your companions. We wanted to speak to them separately since they're also asking to live among us. If you don't mind going back to your quarters, we will send for you when we're ready to speak with you again."

"Shen, will you take them back to their room?" Liu asked his daughter.

Shen nodded. The Doctor smiled when she walked over to him and took his hand. Leaving the pelt on the table, the Doctor and Rose followed Shen out of the room while the councilors spoke in hushed voices about what they had just learned.

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