Wolves

"You..." I cocked my head to the side, "Believe me?"

"And I'm going to let you slide for now," Goliath nodded slowly, "But the wolves won't let you go that easily."

"Wolves?" I straightened out my head, "What do you mean wolves?"

"The werewolves that come after evaluations each year," Goliath pointed at Ethan, and then the door, "I doubt they'll let you out of here alive."

Ethan took the hint, and went to get me some clothes to wear.

"Wait, werewolves are real?" I laid down slowly.

My interest in what he was saying overruled my fear of him for the moment.

"I thought they were just a rumor," I cocked my head as it all sunk in.

"The military treats them like shit most the time," Goliath nodded slowly, "But they're an Earthborn Archaic species like you, and they're the only ones who can easily detect when disguised Archaics slip past us humans."

"Is that why you're letting me slide?" I leaned forward interested in his answer.

"A werewolf saved my life once," Goliath looked off to the side as if he was thinking about something, "If an Archaic can save my life then they can't all be bad."

Goliath then walked up past me, and went outside. I switched to infrared, and I could see him standing outside by the door. Ethan came back a few minutes later. I jumped down into the arena, and stretched properly for a few minutes while I had the room to do so.

"So now we have a new problem," I chuckled despite the grim nature of the situation.

I definitely needed this kind of space. It put me in a playful mood. I couldn't believe Goliath was letting me slide, but evaluations started Friday, and would be done by the end of the weekend. So in a little over a week I would have to deal with werewolves. They probably had a lot of the abilities werewolves were rumored to have.

"We'll have to talk about the werewolves in more detail later," I stopped and frowned at Savannah when Ethan came down to the arena with my fresh clothes.

"Oh right," Savannah went outside, and stood next to Goliath.

I took the clothes from Ethan carefully, and stared at him with my head cocked to the side.

"Right," Ethan turned around.

I switched forms, and got dressed quickly.

"Let's get out of here before he changes his mind," I jumped up over the railing easily.

It didn't seem to matter that I was at half strength. I just was that strong now. It really made me wonder how strong I would become if I lived long enough. I gave Goliath a quick nod before heading back to the dorms. This was going to change the way things were between us. It would surprise me if it didn't change things in one way or another.

Goliath had gotten us out of classes so we didn't need to worry about that anymore today. We went straight to the dorm, and pulled up everything we could on werewolves. Werewolves had all the same abilities as wolves, but several times stronger than an average wolf. Then you had to add the human intelligence that came from their human half. They were going to be difficult opponents to get around.

My main problem was how could they tell the Archaics from the humans so easily.

"I think they can smell the difference," Ethan spoke up quietly.

"That does make the most sense," Savannah was deep in thought.

"Do I smell different than normal people?" I couldn't help, but ask as the tip of my tail circled slowly.

Ethan leaned over, and got a good whiff of me. Then he seemed to think about it for a few minutes.

"You smell like..." Ethan trailed off for a second, "Rain."

"Do I smell the same in human form?" I looked at Ethan funny, "Did you really just smell me?"

"Not much choice in the matter," Ethan looked at me.

He was a little embarrassed. My wings twitched slightly as I pretended not to care.

"That means tomorrow," I pointed at Savannah, "You get to smell my human form."

"Hell no," Savannah turned red.

"Ethan's already smelled me once," I snorted, "It would be kind of mean to make him do it again."

"Yeah," Savannah stuttered, "But Ethan sniffed a dragon. You're making me sniff a person."

"Ethan took the initiative," I argued, "So now you get the worse job because you didn't."

"Then..." Savannah frowned at me, "... Why don't we get it over with tonight?"

"I've already transformed twice today," I snorted, "I might pass out if I do it again. You, and I both know that backlash from my transformation spell would be catastrophic if it were to happen now. We won't get a second get out of class free pass from Goliath. We're lucky we got the first one."

I didn't have the luxury of arguing with her about this. She could throw a fit all she wanted. Later. I snorted as I tensed up my muscles. It was almost as relaxing to tense my muscles as it was to stretch them.

I let the tension go slowly, and shifted back into my room. Nudging the door closed quickly with my nose, and settling in for the night. It was pretty early even for me, but I could use the sleep. There was stuff I needed to do this week, and one of those things was learn how to control my strength. I needed to get enough control over my muscles so I could pretend to be slightly stronger than I was the first time I took the test.

I wanted to stand out as a sniper. Not in a way that would make them suspicious. Plus I needed to test out how much mana it required for me to refill Savannah's mana reserve. If was cheaper than expanding her reserve than I would only need to get her reserve big enough to cast some dangerous spells, and then I could fill her reserve in case of emergency. I already knew I could send her mana without being in direct contact with her. I just needed to know for sure if giving her one mana cost me one mana.