John Wolfstone-The Book

High Stakes Experiment

“Today,” he said. “We are going to talk about what makes something a person, or an animal. Now, who can name some possible differences? Anyone have any ideas?”

“Um, people are intelligent compared to animals,” said one.

“That’s a good possibility," Mr. Wolfstone said. "But I’ve known of people who couldn’t tie a simple overhand knot, despite the fact that they were physically capable of it, and I’ve known of wild predators coming up with amazing attack strategies, and those that were their prey came up with very effective defensive tactics. Will the next person speak?”

“Um people can speak and animals can’t,” said another student.

“Brawk, parrots can speak,” Mr. Wolfstone said, in a parrot sounding voice.

Then he made a few movements with his hands.

When the class looked at each other in confusion, he said, “For those of you who can’t understand Sign Language, I said, ‘and there are people who are unable to speak a word.’ Now, does anyone else have an idea about what is the difference between animals and people?”

At this, Justian raised his hand, slowly.

“Justian, do you have an idea?” Mr. Wolfstone asked, with a knowing smile.

“Um, people can think about what they have done in the past and try to improve themselves?” Justian said, in a questioning manner.

At this, Mr. Wolfstone, who had been walking around, slapped his hand on Justian’s desk, waking everyone up, and said, “Now we are getting somewhere. People are capable of thinking of their past deeds so that they can improve themselves. Admittedly animals will work on improving themselves on things, like being better hunters. However, people can realize what is wrong with them selves and try to get help in fixing the problem. Of course, this is not the answer to the question I asked, but it is very close to it. Can someone improve on his idea?”

At this, Tawna raised her hand.

“Tawna," said the man. "Would you care to elaborate Justian’s idea?”

“Yes," the dog-like werewolf said, in a confident manner. "I think that while both people and animals have instincts, people are capable of controlling them, and not necessarily acting upon them.”

At this, Mr. Wolfstone snapped his fingers, pointed at Tawna, and said, “That’s what I’m looking for! For instance, if a male dog detects a female one in heat, he will rush over to her so he can mate with her. A man and a woman can decide to either do it at another time, or locate a better and more private spot. Also, an animal will usually eat the food that is given to them. A person on the other hand can say, ‘I’m not in the mood for that,’ or, ‘That’s not very good for me now,’ or even, ‘I can’t eat that, not anymore.’ Animals act on urges when they do things. People though can control them, and not necessarily act on them. Now, let’s perform an experiment. Did any of you not have breakfast?”

At this, a stomach growls from the back of the class. It is coming from an eighteen year old, male, crocodile-like person.

“Ah, Daniel Leathertail, I guess breakfast ran a little fast on you this morning,” John said, with a sly smile.

“No it didn’t," the young man said. "Something distracted me.”

At this, John smiled, broadly.

“Let me guess,” he said. “A huge werewolf started chasing you.”

“Yah, how did you know?” the crocodile-like person asked.

“Simple really," John said, as he looked at him. "I know a twelve year old human boy, a couple of fifty foot tall giants, and someone who hates it when people call him a two-bit illusionist.”

“You, you set me up,” Daniel said, angrily, as he stood up from his desk.

“And I’ve told you, and your father, to stop trespassing on my property to try and hunt those working on construction on my land. Next time, I won’t have my friend stop at the edge of my property. Next time, I’ll let him catch and eat both of you,” said Mr. Wolfstone, with a deep growl in his voice.

“Now let’s conduct the experiment," he said. "I will have someone sit in a chair, tied up, at the front of the room. You will stand in the back, with a clear area between you and the person in the chair. The challenge is this: Can you control your hunger, or will it control you? Know this, depending on what happens, you will either cause the rest of the class to fail or pass this year. So here’s the deal, if you control your hunger until class is over, everyone in here will pass, but, while I will allow you to grab the person, and maybe take their clothes off, if so much as a drop of saliva lands on, or touches the person, the entire class will fail, and it will be because you couldn’t control yourself. So Daniel, do you want to take a challenge that I face daily, for the rest of the class period, or will you refuse, and just cause yourself to take the class next year, which would be embarrassing considering that you are in the twelfth grade and you probable have collages dueling it out for you to go to them.”

With that, everyone looked at Daniel, some telling him to go for it, and others pleading with him to not, and a few telling him to not.

However, he just grinned and said, “You’re on, teach. This will be as easy as eating a human meat pie.”

“Ooh, poor choice of words, Mr. Leathertail,” said Mr. Wolfstone. “For the person that will be tied up in the chair will be human, and I know it is human flesh you seemed to be particularly fond of, if I recall correctly.”

With that, John walked up to Julia’s desk, and kneeled down to talk to her.

“Are you sure you want me to do this Mr. John?” she asked, nervously. “The idea of being tied up scares me, especially after what happened to me.”

“I know child,” said John. “But sometimes, we must confront our fears, so we can deal with them. For a long time, I was afraid of what would happen if I lost control of myself. Now, I know what will happen, cause I have friends that will take care of me, if or when it happens again. If you think you can’t do this, you better let me know now, cause once this starts, I cannot interfere on your behalf, no matter how much I’ll want to, because, I won’t be in the room. Basically, I’m going to be locked out, so there will be nothing stopping Daniel from doing whatever he wants to you.”

At this, Julia looked behind her and looked at Daniel. He was easily as tall as John in his werewolf form, and he had a wicked grin on his face as he looked hungrily at her.

This look scared Julia, as it looked like that of the kitsune that did that thing he did to her. She then looked at John and saw that he was slightly nervous himself, as there was a little bit of a scared look in his eyes.

“I’ll do it,” she said.

“Okay, but know this, no one, except Daniel, will be allowed to stop Daniel,” John said, as he gave her a light kiss on her cheek. “You’re braver than I was, that’s for sure.”

Then he stood up and said, “Come on Julia, let’s get you tied up.”