Chapter 6: Chapter 4 – Furballs

After being cruelly abandoned by my family even after swallowing my pride and crying like a baby, I was surrounded by a whole bunch of bouncing, screaming furballs who were probably trying to say something to me. Unfortunately, I can barely understand when my parents or brother are saying when they are speaking clearly, so when twenty are speaking at once, all I hear is a cacophony. I tried to make myself inconspicuous by curling up into a ball and wished they would leave me alone, but like moths to a flame, they swarmed around me. I ignored the screaming and poking as best as I could, but the screaming only got louder and the poking only got stronger. Eventually, I could hear some of the furballs walk away, except I got my hopes up for nothing, as it turns out they left to grab things to throw at me. I was pelted with leather balls and wooden blocks, which actually hurt. That being said, I couldn’t start reacting now, otherwise they would likely keep throwing wooden blocks at me to get my attention.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the furballs finally began to leave me alone for real and continued their normal play. I tiptoed to the walls of the tent and observed what they were doing. Some were throwing a leather ball around, some were dodging said leather ball, some were building something with the wooden blocks, some were chewing on said wooden blocks, some were chasing each other, and some were sitting around and talking to each other.

While looking at my fellow werewolves, I realized I couldn’t tell who was a female and who was a male. Wait, I thought. Is that sibling of mine a brother or a sister? And more importantly, how am I supposed to differentiate genders? All the werewolves have fur long enough to cover their genitals, so unless I deliberately look closely and move the fur away, I can’t tell the difference! I guess it doesn’t matter for now though. At this age, no one will assume ulterior motives for being friends, even if they are the opposing gender.

Another thing I realized was that all the other werewolves were larger than me. Although that isn’t surprising to me. I assume that once werewolves reach a certain age, they get abandoned introduced here, so given that it is my first day, I should be the youngest, and therefore the smallest. Oh well, I guess I should start making friends, especially if being dumped here is a common occurrence.

Not surprisingly, I headed toward the least active group, which would be the group sitting around and talking. Quietly approaching them from behind, I listened in to the conversation, only to realizes one big problem: I don’t understand more than half of what they are saying. I mean, I’ve only known this strange language for a few months, and it requires having perfect pitch to understand. Why couldn’t I have a language cheat or at least reincarnated amongst humans?

 Plan ruined, I headed to the next preferable group, which would be the werewolves playing with the blocks. Upon closer inspection, the wooden blocks were mostly misshapen and crudely made, and all of them had bite marks all over. Not only that, many of them were glistening in the moonlight, like nose hair after a sneeze. As there were no towels or tissues around, I surreptitiously wiped the blocks on the fur of the nearest werewolf.

That’s not actually impolite, right? I mean cats groom by licking themselves, and this is basically the same, except with a wooden block as the middleman. Uh, let’s ignore the fact that these are werewolves and I have never seen my parents or sibling do that. Also ignore the fact that when they wash me, they use a tub of water. Yeah… good thing the werewolf didn’t seem to notice.

With the newly cleaned blocks, I started to build a tower. Part way through, the other werewolves that were also playing with the blocks noticed and started to watch me. Eventually, one of them started adding blocks to my tower, which caused it to tumble down. Looking carefully, said werewolf had some patches of oddly shiny fur.

That wasn’t revenge, right?

It turns out it probably wasn’t, as the werewolf apologized and then tried to build another tower. I also joined in the effort. The biggest problem was that since all the blocks were misshapen, it is really hard to build a stable structure, so the tower kept falling.

After a lot of tries later, the werewolf remarked to me, “$%@#$ young #@$#@ well. I’m GabaIf you haven’t caught on, all the lupo names correspond to the musical scale..”

I didn’t understand more than half of it, but since I heard the words for “young” and “well”, I assumed it was supposed to be a compliment.

“Thanks? I’m Sofare.”

“I know. Your mom @#$#@% %#$% $%@#$%@#$. Why %@#$#%#$% % #$ % #%#?”

It’s easy to guess the first part, since I do remember my mother saying something to everyone in the room, but I have no idea what Gaba is trying to ask me.

“I no understand question.”

“Why $#%# #$ @#$ #@$ @#$%@?”

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“Sorry, I no understand new question.”

Gaba looked at me incredulously, and then asked, “How old are you?”

“Six months?”

Gaba continued to look at me in disbelief as it said, “Really? But at that age, you % #$#$ #% # $%#$ #@$! Also, $###$ $##@$ small $#$ #$ %#$ #$ # @$!”

“I no understand that too.”

“It’s okay. You $# %#$% $% stupid #$#$ small $#$, but #$# cute $#% #$%$%# $%,” Gaba said as it started petting my head.

I’m pretty sure I got insulted there, but can’t really deny the stupid part if it normally takes werewolves a lot shorter to learn to speak. Hopefully they just think I’m a late bloomer instead of being mentally challenged.

After a while, Gaba stopped petting me and resumed playing with the blocks. Since I was bored, I left and wandered around the tent, wondering what else I can do to pass the time away. What I did notice was that there were no adults around.

Having no one looking after a whole bunch of children seems weird. Aren't they afraid that some will wander off or get into nasty fights? Oh well, that works in my favor. I guess I'll just step outside and go explore a bit.

The full moon was peeking through the canopy of leaves, illuminating the forest around me. Looking around, I saw some tents and campfires dotted here and there. I’ve never really thought too hard about what was around me except my immediate home and family, so seeing numerous signs of other werewolves made me think.

How many werewolves are in this village? Come to think of it, are we even werewolves? I haven’t seen anyone transform. Hmm, oh well, until I know the species name, I’ll continue to think of myself as a werewolf. As for my original question, although the tents are still sparsely scattered, they extend in all directions as far as I can see, so maybe 100? 1000? 10000? I guess I should just ask my parents, except I wouldn’t know how to ask that questions. Language barrier strikes again! Maybe I should hold off my curiosity until I learn the language well enough. Well now I guess it’s time to go back home?

I set off towards home, hoping my memory was good enough to not get lost. It shouldn’t be too hard, even though all the paths were just more worn out grass or dirt compared to the rest of the forest floor. Unfortunately, all the trees and tents looked rather similar and there were no road signs, so after walking along the trail, I had no idea if I was on the right path or not. Despite this, I decided to push on, thinking that even if it wasn’t, exploring seemed like a nice way to pass the time.

About 15 minutes later, I finally spotted my home. I peeked my head through the leather door and saw my family staring at me. I ran at my mother, hugging her while wailing in the saddest voice I could muster.

After gathering enough tears in my eyes, I unglued myself from her and cried, “Why you leave me there?”

My mom gently lifted me up and stroked my back to calm me down, while I continued to wet her fur with my tears and snot. After about a good five minutes, I had enough of acting. I still had to pretend I was upset though, so when she let me down, I took off and ran into my room.

Now hopefully, my little stunt there is enough to convince them. I already struggled with babysitting my cousin a while back, so having to deal with a whole horde of hyperactive furballs that I can’t understand is a big nope. Especially when everyone is bigger than me. Also being called stupid by a little kid hurts a lot. Maybe I should put in a lot more effort trying to learn the language.

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