This short story/musing hybrid was created originally as a short story in the middle of Environmental Management Class (gasp)... though the narrations are fictional, many of the messages are not.
My evenings rest ended with the chirping of some small bird somewhere � greeting the dawn with it�s enthusiastic territorial announcements. I released my breath in one long sigh and stared at the window accusingly.
A rustling behind me alerted me to the rising wakefulness of my mate and I rolled over onto my other side and whufted softly.
"Good morning, my love," he crooned softly, far to chipper in the early morning hours that I. His eyes glinted in wakefulness that I had always somewhat envied.
My grunt only urged him onward and he bounced on the mattress with pup-like enthusiasm, lowering himself into the well-known "play bow" and shaking me out of that warm place we all fall into when we�d rather not wake up. I groaned and buried my face into the nearby pillow.
Ack!
He had pulled it away. Grr!
Springing on top of him with a growl, I pinned him with my arms and buried my teeth into his throat until he yipped. But inside my mate was laughing, he had won. I was up.
Damn you, I glared at him with my eyes alone and released my strangle hold on his neck. His eyes danced in the early morning light. "Yeah, I love you too," I grumbled and in resignation nuzzled his cheek and licked his ear tenderly.
Had his form been blessed at that moment with a tail, it would have been wagging, and I flopped down beside him on the bed and rested my cheek against his chest, content perhaps at that moment to listen to his breathing.
It was in moments such as these that I would hold the blessings in my life the closest, for despite our often daily ritual of my mate�s desire to greet the dawn and wishing me to partake of it and my desire to stay in bed and fighting him tooth and nail to remain there... such routines were never serious fights. We never had serious fights. Mind you, we didn�t always agree, but we had enough respect for the other not to blow up in each other�s faces over an argument over politics or whatnot. It was in those pre-sleep hours of the night after real life and its flagship "work" had taken the energy away from our minds and our bodies and in the waking hours during dawn when I, at least, found myself the most fortunate.
Being lycanthropes in a world of humans is hard enough. And when I speak of lycanthropy I do not refer to the raging madman who runs around like a mindless beast stealing children and murdering the innocents for sheer pleasure -- being a lycanthrope is not inherently evil. Amongst those of our kind there are both "good" and "evil" as well as "light" and "darkness." Without such things life would not be balanced, but those such as we are not inherently good or evil. Living in a human�s world with the spirit or soul of something else is very difficult; living in a human�s world with the body of something other than human is difficult enough. I could probably find some humans amongst their own kind disenchanted with their fellow and/or their world. I refer to lycanthropy as a being those body does not reflect the spirit or soul within, specifically in case - a human body. Some of us are forced to shift more on a mental scale, allowing our bodies to act as it "should" regardless of the form it is in. Rarer ones still can shift their bodies to reflect their insides and reunite spirit and soul with the body that matches.
The humans have tales of our kind � were-beasts... werewolves � those creatures who wear the guise of humans but at the fullness of the moon turn into bloodthirsty beasts who want nothing more than to kill every human they come across. Stories. Superstitions. Tales to frighten young children to make them stay indoors at night. Mind you there are those amongst the lycanthropes who would prefer humans remained thinking this, but misunderstanding breeds that which starts with fear and changes into something far worse. Prejudice.
Now we are all guilty of grouping things together and affixing a label. Even the lycanthropes as we have all grown up in a world of human societies and cultures. Some humans call us animals, some call us monsters, fewer still call us friends - knowing who and what we are. And we, the lycanthropes, tend to group humanity together into one big pile of evil, forgetting sometimes that not ALL humans are inherently self-serving and uncaring for the world around them. But prejudice is rooted with misunderstanding and fear... and in today�s world we cannot afford to make enemies in masses without stopping some of that time to make allies as well.
I and my mate were extremely lucky to find each other. Very lucky.
Finding someone else who is as you are is difficult when one has only just begun to comes to terms with who or what they are. Finding someone one wishes to have a life-mates bond with who is also a lycanthrope... seems frighteningly impossible. One thing the stories seem to get right... those such as we are who try to have relationships amongst those who are not are doomed to fail, for deep inside our hearts we long for mate who can be with us in either of our aspects � who can understand that which is not human and embrace it with that which is still all too human.
We long for the warmth of our mate's body curled beside our own. We long for the feel of the earth under our paws as we pad around in the forests that call us home and the comfort of knowing our mates pads along with us. We long for the feel of the brisk chill in our nostrils as we scent the coming seasons. We long for softest touch of our mate�s mind as the understanding passes between you that you will never truly be alone in the world. It is within this heart of loneliness we believe ourselves to be truly alone but sometimes after this time we often believe will never end... it does, and it is after it in which we can achieve the greatest joy of living.