Werewolf by Knight
Chapter 3: Werewolf by Knight
It was late at night when Sir Perry heard a knock on the door. He and Randall both got out of got out of bed to answer it.
“Sir Perry, Sir Randall,” the man at the door said. “My name is Mr. Hicks. I’m sorry to bother you so late at night, but we desperately need your help. You see, a wolf is terrorizing our neighborhood. We were hoping you might be able to capture him.”
“We will do our best,” Perry promised.
They strapped on their armor, shields and swords and set off, their visitor leading the way.
“We’ve reached the neighborhood,” their supplicant said at last. “I do not know where the wolf might be. I only know he is somewhere around here. And now I will leave you to your work.” And with that, he was gone.
The two knights heard a howl in the distance. “We’d best begin our hunt,” Sir Perry said. “Who knows what trouble this wolf may cause.” Sir Randall agreed, and they set off.
They followed the sound of the howling. Soon, they came upon the creature sitting on the ground, howling at the moon.
Sir Perry struck at it with his sword. It turned and lunged at him. Soon, he, Sir Randall, and the wolf were locked in a fierce fight. Every time they thought they had the creature down it would spring up and attack them again.
Until, suddenly, it sprung forward and knocked them into the lake. They managed to seize it by the throat and drag it down with them.
A long struggle followed, with Sir Perry slinging his arm around Sir Randall’s waist and desperately trying to swim for the surface. At last, they made it. Sir Perry dragged his brother to shore. RoRo wasn’t moving. Marc shook him. Kicked him. Slapped him. Tugged him to his feet by his hair. “RoRo, wake up!” he screamed.
RoRo jerked awake, coughing. Sir Perry breathed a sigh of relief. Just then, however, the wolf lunged out of the water. Sir Randall seized it by the paw and snapped it. It fell to the ground, and Sir Perry slammed his shield into its head, knocking it unconscious.
. . .
It took them some time to find Mr. Hicks. When they did, however, it was with the wolf tied up and still unconscious.
“Oh, thank you!” Mr. Hicks exclaimed. “Here, help me put it into this cage.”
They did. To their amazement, though, just as the sun came up, the creature turned into a human being, a boy about Randall’s age.
“He’s not a wolf!” Sir Randall explained. “He’s a werewolf!”
“Yes,” Mr. Hicks who they’d helped lock the werewolf up agreed. “But he’s still quite dangerous when he turns into a wolf on nights with a full moon, so we must keep him locked up all the same.”
The two knights exchanged looks. “Couldn’t we just lock him up on those nights, and keep him free the rest of the time, then?” Sir Randall asked.
“Oh, no,” Mr. Hicks said. “No, we must keep him locked up all the time. We can’t wait until night. He’ll change by then, and then getting him into the cage would be quite difficult and dangerous.”
Perry and Randall exchanged looks again. “Couldn’t we just lock him up just before night comes?” Randall asked.
“Oh, no,” Mr. Hicks said. “He’d never agree to it.”
The other two looked at each other a third time. “How do you know?” Sir Perry asked.
“Would you want to be locked up every night?” Mr. Hicks demanded.
“I would, if I was a werewolf who might hurt people,” Sir Perry answered. “I bet he would, too. He probably doesn’t want to hurt anybody. I’m going to go in there, and wake him up, and talk to him.”
Mr. Hicks moved in front of him suddenly. “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” he said.
The two brothers traded looks a fourth time. “You know,” Sir Perry said, “you didn’t seem very surprised when he turned into a human. I think you knew he was a werewolf.”
“What if I did?” the man demanded.
“Why didn’t you tell us that?” Sir Perry demanded. “Also, he wasn’t hurting anyone when we found him.”
Mr. Hicks lunged at both of them suddenly and seized them by the collars. Then he flung them into another cage and slammed the door. “I can’t have you interfering with my plans,” he said. With that, he stalked out of the room.
Just then, the werewolf began to stir. Then he opened his eyes and sat up. “Where am I?” he asked. He looked at Sir Perry and Sir Randall. “And who are you?”
“We’re the guys who captured you,” Sir Randall said. He looked confused. “Mr. Hicks told us you were a wolf who was terrorizing his neighborhood,” Sir Perry explained. “He asked us to capture you. We only found out you were a werewolf after he’d already thrown you in that cage and you turned back into a human.”
The werewolf turned pale. “Oh, no,” he said. “He wants to use me to kill people.”
“How do you know?” Sir Randall asked.
“Mr. Hicks has been hunting me for a long time,” he explained. “He has lots of people he wants to kill, and he thinks using a werewolf would be the perfect way to do it without having it traced back to him.”
Sir Perry and Sir Randall looked at each other again. “What’s your name?” Sir Perry asked.
“Ryan,” the werewolf said.
“Ryan, I’m Perry, and this is my brother, Randall,” Sir Perry said. “We’re knights. We made a bad mistake – mostly me, since I’m older – but don’t worry, we’ll fix it. We’ll help you get out of here.”
“How?” Ryan asked.
Sir Perry touched his sword to the lock on his and Sir Randall’s cage door, and it swung opened. Then they went over to Ryan’s door, and Sir Perry did the same thing again. “Now let’s get out of here,” Sir Perry said.
“I can’t let you do that,” a voice behind them said. They turned, and there was Mr. Hicks.
Sir Perry and Sir Randall lunged at him, swinging their swords. They struck him in the face at the same moment, knocking him to the ground. Then, with Ryan’s help, they drug him into the cell where he had locked Ryan, and locked him in. Then they left.
. . .
They took Ryan to the same nice faery-woman who had given them their weapons. She healed his broken hand and his head injury, and promised to try to fix his being a werewolf.
The best part, though, was reuniting Ryan with his family. They were all very glad to see him.
Ryan stayed their friend forever after that.