Cernunnos - 2. Chapter 2

His eyes. He could barely feel his eyes rolling under his lids. I’m...I’m awake. I’m...alive? But Cyn didn’t dare open his eyelids, dare he become deranged and uncontrolled in an unfamiliar environment. Did...did the herd make it? No...One of the wolves...went for one for one of the does. The other two after both me and Colman. They...were after us.

Thoughts of how the traumatic scene ended in the snowy forest. There...there were others. Lycans. But...one...saved me? Remembering the slightly smaller wolf drove off the silver one, then shifted in front of him. He...told me to shift...so I wouldn’t die. Wait! Focusing on his breath, Cyn realized he was in his human form. With his air coming from his nose, the warm breath blew down to his lips. I’m laying as a human. So...I did survive. But, I blacked out. How did I…

Inhaling a small amount of air from his nose, he recognized the powerful stench of cleaning substances. Hospital? Clinic? Either way, I’m being treated. Why? I’m cernunnos. None of our kind have this type of coalition to support a medical system like this.

“No need to play dead.” His body froze. I...I wasn’t alone? Taking another inhalation, he missed the scent. Bergamot...and black pepper. Soaps. There was someone here! Mentally cursing himself, he could only blame the fact that he had just woken up. Sneakily, he began opening his eyelids, letting his brown irises see the world he was brought to. “There you are. And before you get any funny ideas, there is no need to fidget or run away.”

Cyn’s vision was sideways as his head laid on the pillow. But he could see the person in front of him. Lab coat. Glasses. Doctor? Nurse? To Cyn, the man was very handsome. Buzz-cut blonde hair, light scruff along his entire jawline, thick brown plastic-rimmed glasses. Cyn wanted to smile at the man, but knew he needed to stay on guard.

“You gave us quite a scare, young shifter.” He...knows I’m a shifter? “I’m unsure of what you remember, but you were carried in here by three of your friends, and you were in bad shape. They say you shifted to heal some of the injuries, but your leg was very damaged. You should be fine in a few days.”

The cernunnos was processing a lot of information. Injuries? Yes...yeah, my leg! It was attacked by the silver wolf. And I shifted to heal. But...three...friends? “Can you speak? I make you this promise: I’m here to help you, not to harm. As a fellow shifter, do your instincts speak for me?” Cyn opened his eyes a little more, judging the medical man. He...yeah, I smell him now...he’s a shifter. But… Cyn’s eyes grew wide as he came to his senses.

The shifter in front of him...was a lycan. A wolf in human’s clothing. One of his most feared predators. The deer squirmed backwards in his hospital bed until his back touched the plastic guard railing. A dull pain coursed through his leg that laid untouched by the uncomfortably thin mattress. His instincts told him to run, but that option was out. The moment he landed his foot on the floor, he would collapse. He was only saved to be eaten for later. Sadistic devils. Am I some sort of gift that was delivered for this lycan?

As the lycan sat in his cheap and tiny office chair, he sighed through his nostrils. He pulled his phone out and turned his back to the deer. “By no means, am I giving you disrespect or ignoring you, young shifter. I want you to hear me with your human mind, and not your deer’s.” Cyn widened his eyes further, as he understood that the wolf knew he was a deer. This did nothing for the cernunnos’ emotions. But the transition from facing the lycan to the lycan’s back threw off the deer’s instincts. What...is he doing? He...turned from me?

“Your mindset is understandable, cernunnos.” Being referred to by his race name, Cyn couldn’t help but pay attention. “You are in an unfamiliar room, with an unfamiliar wolf. You were just brought in because you were attacked by, what I assume was a wolf. It’s unclear to me if it was lycan or non lycan. I examined your wound as our surgeon performed on your leg, and I’m waiting for traces of any lycanthropy or DNA to come back from the tests.” The mystery man leaned his head sideways to make the motion that he was talking to the deer, but never laid a glance towards the bed. “But I am turned away from you so you do not see me as a threat. I make this statement to you because you are not prey. Not here.”

That’s...a lie. He would. Lycan use lies to get their way. “Your emotions are all over the place, cernunnos. I can smell them from here. I don’t want to make you any more uncomfortable, but you need to calm down. Listen to your instincts, and listen to them deeply. I mean you no harm.” Staring down the back of the lycan’s head, Cyn waited for the man to pounce. But saw no such movement for several seconds. Seconds turned to a whole minute. Maybe...maybe he speaks the truth.

Coughing, attempting to clear his dry throat, Cyn knew he should speak. “There is a glass of water on the side table. Drink.” Darting his vision for a split moment, the lycan spoke truth once again. Cyn scooted himself slowly towards the table. He reached out for the styrofoam cup, and pulled it to his face. Sniffing it, he could tell nothing was in the clear liquid that would be poisonous to him and sipped. Truth again. The water was of room temperature, but welcome to his parched throat.

With an almost overwhelming fear in his vocal cords, Cyn knew he must speak to the lycan if he intended to get out of his situation unscathed. “Th...Thank you.”

“And he speaks. Good.” Tapping the small device in front of him, Cyn could tell the nurse figure was typing. A message? A note? He’s...taking notes? “I’m going to stay seated like this. Is that okay?”

“Y...Yes.” The words stuttered out of the deer’s mouth, almost without a second thought.

“Okay. Would you mind answering some questions for me? Since you were out cold, we had no way of finding out who you were.”

Cyn nodded, but realized the lycan couldn’t have eyeballs in the back of his head. “Yes.” The deer could almost tell that the medic smiled from the tensed muscles on the side of his head.

“Good. Could you tell me your name?”

“Cyn.”

“Sin? As in, an evil act? Is that your first name, or last?”

The deer almost wanted to laugh, but decided it wouldn’t be best to do so in front of a predator. “No. Cyn. C-Y-N. And it’s my only name. Cernunnos only have one name.”

Giving a bob of the head, the lycan typed more into his phone. Cyn could tell the lycan was unfamiliar with cernunnos customs and lifestyle. I should play more into his hand. Then I can make my escape. “You aren’t going to find me in any system. Our kind is raised in backwoods-typed towns with little to no Internet.”

“Interesting. I had always wondered how your race raises their fawn. Can’t have tiny children running around in the woods until their first shift. I think it’s safe to tell you that I’m no expert on cernunnos.” The lycan did his best to withhold his laughter, but a small chuckle was let out. Cyn returned to the side of the bed, feeling as if he was being fed for the slaughter. “That was a mistake on my part. I’m only trying to make conversation with you, Cyn. I hope you understand.”

Hearing the slightly comforting words, the deer inched his way back to the center of the bed and reached for his water again. “Well, there went most of my questions, seeing how you have little to no information as a person. How are you feeling?”

“Trapped.”

“You are most certainly not trapped, Cyn. I understand your thought processes must be running rampant, but you are in good hands here. Do you know where you are?”

“Wisconsin. Near the Kettle Moraine State Forest.”

It took a lot of willpower for the lycan to stop himself from turning around in his swivel chair. “For a cernunnos, you’re very aware of your location and surroundings. Very accurate. You are in Sheboygan. Your friends brought you to the small town of Campbellsport to their clinic and got you patched up. But your leg needed surgery, and they couldn’t provide that. So, here you are.”

Cyn shuttered at the thought of the lycan shifter in the woods and the other two wolves. “Those three...who are they?”

A look of concern came to the lycan and slightly bent his head back towards the deer. “You mean...you don’t know them?”

“No. I...was attacked in the state forest.” The deer thought it would be best to lay out the story. This lycan medical seems to be in the mindset to help him. And if I’m going to be eaten, let it be. I was prepared for death back in the snow. “A trio of wolves attacked my herd. But one went after the normal deer. The other two went after me, and another cernunnos.”

Typing furiously into the phone, the lycan made a head movement for the shifter to continue. “I was surely going to die. The silver wolf had me dead to rights. But another wolf knocked off the silver one. It was a blur, but...I think it was a darker wolf. I couldn’t make out much.”

“Can you describe the silver one?”

Wait… “Why?”

The lycan could hold himself no longer. He slowly turned in his chair, but stopped halfway, allowing his side to be viewed by the deer. Cyn grew more anxious as the lycan made a form of advancement towards him, and the deer began his rescinding movement to the bed’s guarding wall. “This is an incident. And part of my job as your primary doctor is to report such incidents.”

“In...incident? I’m a deer. They were wolves. It’s nature’s way.”

Shaking his head, the lycan stroked his buzz cut blond hair. “It is not. You are cernunnos. And two wolves attacked each other. This is, in fact, an incident. I do not envy you, or your kind. Your animal counterparts are always a prey for our kind, and to watch your cousin-like species be hunted in such a manner...well...I can say that you understand death and its consequences better than I do. You may see it differently than me, but our government has laws, and two of them were broken. As of now, you’re the only person that has come forward, so to speak.”

Laws? Government? How...how deep is my involvement? I was being hunted. Plain and simple. Survival of the fastest. And the wolf was faster. It was right for him to slay me. “I...I don’t get what you’re saying. It’s the way of life. The wolf was faster than me. I couldn’t outrun it. He earned his prize. I was...I was supposed to die!”

Swallowing his saliva, the lycan took a deep breath and removed his glasses, setting them in his lap. “Cyn. I can’t expect you to understand, or for me to come right out and bring you up to speed on governing law changes, but I need you to calm down. Calm, and rest.” His phone buzzed, and buzzed again. “Excuse me, I need to take this. I’ll be right back.” The lycan slowly turned his back on Cyn once more and rose from the puny office chair. “Hello?” A serious tone hit the doctor’s face and he scurried towards the door, closing it behind him.

The deer was alone once more, and he was drowning. With the realization that he should have been fed to the dogs, the almost certain loss of his brethren, and now learning that he was a part of some sort of lycan investigation, Cyn closed his eyes and cried. He should have died. But despite being given the chance to live and try the game of life again, he was wrapped up in the intricacies of lycan’s take on humanity. When raised in Texas, he was encouraged by his mother and father to avoid it at all costs, should he lose his sense of instinct, becoming prey much easier.

Cyn took in his surroundings for the first time. It was a small room with beige walls and a few different plastic medical posters. There was one window, but Cyn quickly determined it had no means of opening, along with one door. A door that, surely, had more lycans behind it. The question is...are they nice like the doctor, or ravenous like the silver one? He settled on the latter, and confirmed with his initial feeling: trapped. There was no escape. He had to play the game of humanity, as he did several years ago when going through their education system.

A few moments later, the doctor returned and caused Cyn to retract himself to the far edge of the bed. Once the doctor was seated once more with his back turned, the deer began feeling comfortable. “I’m sorry for the interruption. Before I scare you, I want you to be reassured: no one in this hospital, or anyone who enters it, will cause any harm to you. Okay? Cyn, do you understand my statement?”

Hesitantly, the deer confirmed. “Yes.” But there were some reservations held. How can this lycan make such a statement? He can’t control the actions and behaviors of others.

“Good. There is someone on his way, and he wants to speak with you.” The lycan could tell that the deer was scared once more. “Remember what I said? No one...will hurt you. Say this with me, Cyn. No one will hurt me.”

Taking a ragged and short breath, the deer played along. “No one will...hurt me.” Repeating the statement did cause a moment of relief.

“I want to warn you. He’s a little bit bigger of a guy than I am, and he is a lycan. But once again, he will not hurt you.”

Almost innately, the deer nodded and repeated the sentence in a whisper. “He will not hurt me.”

“There you go.” The doctor felt a sense of progress, but as the door knocked, he knew it was going to be taken away. “Hang on, Cyn.” The blonde lycan got up from his chair and slowly made his way to the door. Cyn kept his eyes on the doctor’s every movement. He knew the lycan wouldn’t lunge, but his instincts kept his vision locked. Watching the doctor open the door, a sense of danger took hold in Cyn’s mind. With the doctor dipping his head, he stepped back and made his way to his black office chair.

And the guest came in. Instantly smelling the air as the large lycan walked in, Cyn’s eyes shook in place and tried to get farther and farther away in his bed. No...why? In a distressed panic, Cyn’s moved his limbs wildly to get away, pushing himself further up on the hospital bed. “Cyn! It’s oka-”

In his panic, Cyn crawled too far and tipped over the bed, causing him to fall backwards, landing on the hard and cold white tile flooring.