Mobian Daylife #10: 'An Azure Lake Werewolf in Riverside'

 

“My goodness, Lanni, why haven’t you called me with everything that has been going on?!” The taller, older sheep chided her daughter. Voice sounding raspy and tired, the bags sagging under this older sheep’s eyes twice as heavy as they had any right to be.
“Mother, I have called. You just never answer your phone.” Lanolin offered in retort, crossing her arms against her chest again. “And why haven’t you tried calling me, since we’re on the subject?”
“Had one of our thoughtful neighbors not had the consideration to get hold of me,” she said, completely ignoring her daughter’s question, “and tell me about the monster roaming the area, I’d never have known about any of this!”
Laik backed further away from the growing tension between the two sheep, his instincts telling him not to get caught between this family feud.
But then not getting caught up in stuff wouldn’t be very Laik the Wolf, would it?

Lanolin’s mother’s gaze pierced him through the chest from across the room. Her eyelids were heavy, a trait she obviously passed down to her daughter.
“And you,” she said sharply, “Why was Lanolin bringing you back to her supposedly empty house, hmm?” 
Laik’s ears fell flat against his head. What the mother was insinuating with that question couldn’t have been further from the reality of the situation… right?
“Ma’am, we’re here on official Restoration business.” He squeaked out, the older sheep crossing her arms as she shifted from one foot to the other, cocking her head and doubling down on the glare. Lanolin got that from her mother, too. “We’re following up on—“
Lanolin’s arm shot out, silencing Laik mid-sentence. “What we’re here to do is clear the air, so to speak. And since you’re here now, as a resident of Riverside, you too have a right to know.” 
Silence filled the room, only the gentle rustle of dried leaves dancing across the sidewalk outside, and the chorus of crickets filled the dreadful, tense silence Laik found himself in.
“Well,” Her mother barked, “I’m waiting.”
Lanolin began the explanation, going over everything she felt her mother should know. About the expedition to the Fractured Island(the part about it being a failure left out), the reappearance of the Phantom Ruby, the Riverside werewolf, and, well, that’d be it. Her mother didn’t need to be privy to everything.
Especially the fact that said werewolf was standing in the room with her right now.

While Lanolin and her mother caught up, Laik took the opportunity to slip out, sensing the uneasy atmosphere the house had taken on. Lanolin’s mother was a case, putting down her daughter at every turn. Deflating any accomplishment Lanolin could offer. It’s no wonder his friend was so bossy when she had to grow up with a mother like that hanging over her.
The streets of Riverside were much brighter now, and far more populated than they were during Laik’s first visit to the town, and especially more so than the second visit that week when everyone had been aware of his presence. 
It hadn’t been that he liked scaring people; That wasn’t his intention when loping into town while in his transformed state. His goal was to see how much control he actually had over the bestial form and whether or not it could give in to some sort of carnal urge to maul other living beings.
It’d turned out to be, yes, it absolutely could—if he didn’t press his will onto it through a thick sheet of lunar energy. 

The were-thing form was not Laik. It shared similarities to the wolf Mobian when pulled into this reality, but Laik’s physical form ceased to exist whenever he allowed the were-thing to run free; Its only form of control being Laik’s mental presence and a heaping amount of lunar energy.
That meant that use of the form was strictly limited to just once every other day, assuming the night between uses was clear and Laik could absorb what he and Renfri started referring to as Moonglow, or lunar energy. He could feel his body pulling the glow of the moon into it now, familiar with the flow that existed inside him—right along with the phantom energy.
It felt simultaneously warm as it did cold. Once he embraced that chill factor, that’s when the beast came howling out of the eternal darkness.
“If we came here to clear the air with Riverside, now was the time.”

Lanolin rubbed the bridge of her muzzle, pinching her eyes shut and trying her best not to shout. Her mother, troublesome and bullheaded as always, wasn’t worried about the actual issues at hand.
“All I’m asking from you is honesty, Lanni. Why are you making this so hard?!” she pleaded to her daughter once more, her tone sounding both aggravated and as if she were enjoying it.
“Because there’s nothing else to tell you, mother!” Heavy inflection on the M sound, “Laik and I—“
“Yes, you and that wolf. That is the problem here.” The older sheep leaned against the back of her rocking chair, her legs uncrossed. “That. Wolf.”
Lanolin knew exactly what her mother was getting at. Interspecies coupling was something her mother had always been firmly against, despite herself being born long, long after the notion carried any real weight in Mobian society.
“Be honest with me, Lanolin: Why did you bring him here—“
And before Lanolin could even begin to protest answering her bullish mother, a blood-curdling scream suddenly ripped through the calm autumn night, followed by a horrific, monstrous howl.
Lanolin’s mother shot up out of her chair and rushed to a nearby window, pulling the curtains aside. She yelled, “Was that the werewolf?! I thought you took care of it!”
Lanolin herself just exhaled deeply. “Laik, what are you doing?”

Outside, Riverside had quickly fallen into chaos as the were-thing crept through the city streets. Windows and doors slamming shut in his wake. Blinds were closing and curtains pulled together. One woman, a pink rabbit, tried to flee from the alley as Laik-thing approached, tripping over herself multiple times as she went.
“Man, maybe the movies aren’t too far off in how they portray people in these sorts of situations after all,” Laik’s conscience said, eliciting a shrug of the were-form’s shoulders in response. 
The monster walked on two legs, standing upright at nearly seven feet. Uncomfortable as it was, Laik was willing the beast to present itself in a more relatable manner. 
What he got was a barrel-chested wolf-monster with gnarled antlers, looking like it was mocking how Mobians walked.
“Maintain. Maintain…” He said, the wolf-thing growling in reply. “We just need to wait for Lanolin, big guy. She’ll talk us down, I’ll change back, and—“
“Halt! You won’t go any further, monster! You don’t belong in this world.”
Laik-thing’s snakelike neck turned back on itself, his head hanging upside down over his back to catch a glimpse of the voice of the person who dared to defy him.

A mobian. A rat, by the looks of it, sat in the cockpit of what could have been nothing else but a broken and battered Death Egg Robot. Sparks flew from the joints as metal rubbed against metal as the jockey attempted to manipulate the doctor’s creation.
“You will terrorize our village no longer, beast!” He yelled from the Egg Pod that had been hastily repaired and placed into the dock of the mech.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Laik asked as the were-form fell into a more feral position on all fours. “If Lanolin saw this—“
“WHAT on Mobius are you doing, Conrad?!”
The were-form shrugged again.
“And there she is,”
The rat turned his head to the sheep as she rushed toward them from down the street. “Are you for real right now? Why are you driving that thing?!” She pointed at the beaten and battered but still functioning egg robot.
“Lanolin! Thank goodness you’re here; You can bear witness to the destruction of the Riverside Werewolf once and for all.”
The sheep walked up to the robot, ignoring the snarling, hulking form with glowing red eyes that loomed in the darkness down the street.
“By using the same weapons that nearly wiped out our town to begin with?! Are you an idiot, or just plain dumb, Conrad?”
The rat turned his attention back to the monster. “We’ll figure that out later, Lanolin. Now you get back while I’m the hero!” 

The sheep looked dead at the were-form, their eyes connecting. Laik was seeing everything at a slight angle, somehow looking Lanolin dead in the eyes and from slightly above the head of the were-form at the same time.
Laik knew the sheep was frightened. There’s no way she couldn’t be, seeing him like this for the first time. He hadn’t intended for a fight to go down, but now, seeing a Mobian willingly piloting a piece of Egg tech, something was going to have to be done.
He’d simply delay his plans a bit longer.
The were-form sensed its Mobian host’s resolve, meaning it was time to let loose.

Lanolin knew what was going to come next and had the sense to get off the streets. She only hoped Laik wouldn’t allow the thing to hurt the idiot rat that was piloting the machine.
“Laik…” She shook her head, “I’m beginning to think you aren’t worth all this anguish.”
Her thoughts were drowned out as flesh collided with metal.

The Death Egg Robot had been one of the smaller units that Robotnik had deployed to Riverside in a bid to wipe the town out post-war, but was quickly stomped out by Sonic the Hedgehog, who was once again running at full speed.
It now looked like the machine had been quickly pieced back together using the more primitive tech of the Mobians. 
Primitive by Robotnik standards at least.
Joints screeched as metal met metal when the two clashed. The were-thing bit down on the Death Egg Robot’s new left arm, the metal warping against its bite force, halting the spinning blade at the end as oil gushed out of the bite wound.
“Blast you!” the rat pilot yelled as he wrestled the joystick controls in an attempt to shake the monstrosity off. He’d already lost his primary weapon, and things could only get worse, he figured out very quickly.
Were-thing tried biting the machine’s other arm, but ended up hurting its teeth as it clanged against the hyper-reinforced steel of original Eggtech! The rat laughed as the were-form reared back in pain, releasing his grip on the Mobian.
“Why didn’t you just bite through that arm, too?” Laik asked, but knew he wouldn’t get an answer. The were-form couldn’t speak, but it understood well enough and could communicate in its own way, much to his surprise. It was a vicious, feral creature, but primitive it was not.
Using the wrecking ball that had been welded onto the end of the mech’s other arm, Conrad the Rat swung it upward and decked the were-thing in the jaw, sending it flying onto a small convertible, crushing it instantly!
“Ah man, we’re going to have to pay for that, you know?” Laik lamented, looking over the crushed car as the were-form pulled itself from its wreckage. He sighed, “There goes my plan to end this peacefully.”

“We’re going to have to pay for that,” Lanolin said out loud as Were-Laik pulled himself from the car’s crushed remains. Whatever the wolf’s plan had been when he willingly let that thing loose was probably out the window now.
Her communicator started flashing. It was someone from HQ.
She ground her teeth.
It was Sonic the Hedgehog all over again.

Were-Laik shouldered the robot, knocking it off balance as the rat pilot cursed. Reaching a long, bony hand up, Were-Laik’s massive claws landed on the control panel, slicing into the touch screen that the mechanics had used to run diagnostics on.
“Ah, heck!” Conrad the Rat yelled before reaching up and pulling on a handle. The shield that completed the evil genius motif of the robot slid down, crashing into the werewolf’s hand and trapping it between thick plates of steel!
Were-Laik howled, loosening some of Laik’s hold over the beast. 
“Whoa there, buddy, don’t give in. We’re here to perform, remember? Don’t hurt ‘em, okay?”
Were-Laik’s other hand swooped around, gripping the robot at its crotch! Using his immense, otherworldly strength, the werewolf lifted the Death Egg Robot over his head and shook it violently. The rat screamed in terror inside.
Freeing his claw, Were-Laik tossed the mech aside, demolishing the rest of the crushed car from earlier.
Like a child that had just pinched their finger in a doorway, the great, menacing were-form took his damaged hand and rubbed it in a bid to smooth away the pain.
“You gotta be careful, big guy,” Laik said with a soothing tone. The beast, as ancient evil as it looked, was an infant in this world and reacted poorly to pain. It had to be talked to like a child… which was also something Laik wasn’t familiar with.

“Yeah, Tangle, I copy that. I’m actually watching…” She inhaled deeply, then exhaled. “Everything’s happening right in front of me, ugh… Yeah, he’s literally crying in the street as we speak.”
She hadn’t seen her mother approach her, otherwise she’d not have spoke so blatantly about the beast like she’d known.
“Excuse me? Who is this ‘he’ you speak of, Lanolin?”
Lanolin balled the tightest fists she’d ever made. This had to end, and she’d be the one to take the fall for it.
And like that, any feelings she had for the wolf had evaporated like water on the surface of the sun, a change in her core that would plague her for the rest of her life as she would seek out the How and the Why.

“All right, so you do bleed. And since you bleed, that means you can be killed.” The rat yelled as he righted the robot, stomping across the street as onlookers watched from the relative safety of their homes.
“I’m going to smash you like last night’s mashed potatoes!” 
Were-Laik sat upright, groping his injured hand, wrapped in his own tail as tears welled up in his vicious-looking eyes. The Death Robo loomed overhead, hanging the wrecking ball weapon up high, ready to bring it down on the antlered monster’s head.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Lanolin roared, her voice amplified a dozen times over by her Wispon Bell, the sound waves seemingly ignoring the monster, but knocking the robot over once more.
Laik and the were-beast both sighed a sigh of relief. “Saved by the sheep.”
“Laik,” Lanolin yelled, this time using her normal voice. “Stop toying with that badnik and destroy it already.” She demanded.
“Wait, what?!” Conrad’s voice was frantic. “Lanolin, what are you doing?! HELP ME!”
“Hoo boy…” Laik’s voice echoed in the beast’s head as it exploded into action, cocking its arm and then impaling the downed robot through its crotch. Using his hooked claws, the monster ripped out what was essentially the Death Egg Robot’s innards, spilling black oil and fuel all over the street.

The concealed cockpit that housed Conrad the Rat went dark as the machine finally croaked. Had the monster left him alone?
The sound of claws streaking across the egg-shaped torso said otherwise. Moonlight quickly illuminated the interior as the werewolf ripped the head off the machine, revealing the pilot within.
Were-Laik’s huge head, fixed on the thick snake-like neck, slithered into the cockpit, pinning the rat against the wall of the machine. His chest was rapidly going up and down from fear.
Conrad closed his eyes, expecting the monster’s next action to end it all.
Instead, the rat felt a huge, slimy tongue lap across his face, leaving a trail of foul-smelling saliva in its wake, glimmering with a purplish shimmer.
“Oh no, oh no, he’s taste-testing me first. This is it, I’m donso!” The rat said to himself before the presence of the beast, or the lack thereof, had registered in his fearful mind.
He opened his left eye, slowly at first, the thick sticky saliva burning his retina at first and blurring his vision. Flashlights were shining on the being that sat at the rim of the cockpit, revealing that the werewolf was gone, and in its place was a normal wolf Mobian.
Conrad quickly lost consciousness.

The next day…

The day following the fake attack on Riverside, Lanolin scheduled a press conference. One that would ultimately hurt the Restoration’s image, but one that was going to be ultimately necessary at this juncture, or at least she felt.
Not a word had been shared with Laik since the previous night. Try as he had, Lanolin wanted nothing to do with the wolf now unless it had been strictly Restoration-related.
“You’ll need to be there as I deliver the speech, explain your predicament, then give the mic back to me. Do you understand?” She’d said with the most militaristic voice she could muster. Void of any emotion. The wolf had to know she meant business. “I will not have another Sonic the Hedgehog running around, do you understand me?”

The press conference had gone over as well as Laik had expected. Lanolin ultimately took the blame for the damage, for lying about having dealt with the werewolf and offered to move back to Riverside temporarily to help replace any damage her actions, or lack thereof, had brought to her hometown.
“I don’t want you ever coming near this town again, do you understand me, wolf?” She’d called him wolf again, something that she’d only really done in the beginning, before they had gotten to know each other.
Laik was lounging beside the same river he’d survived on during his initial stay out here in the moors. Going over everything in his head, how he could have done it differently.
He’d gone back and forth over who exactly was to blame here, ultimately deciding it was everyone’s fault. He shouldn’t have used the monster for fun and games, and definitely should not have gone out and acted out an attack without talking to his friend about it first…
Was she even still his friend? She didn’t talk to him like he was anyone of value now, and whatever that energy had been between them all this time had instantly vanished overnight, with Lanolin looking at him with the same sort of disgust that flashed across her face whenever the subject of Sonic was breached.
“You really screwed things up this time, Laik…” He said to no one but the wind and the gently flowing river.

Elsewhere, Lanolin was dusting her bedroom, getting things in order for the extended stay she was going to be putting in as she carried out her self-inflicted community service for her town.
Her mother had left without a word earlier that morning, headed back to Casino Night Zone now that everything had been squared away in Riverside. It was just as well, the sheep thought, her mother never truly cared anyway. She just wanted to make sure her property was still intact.
She didn’t care about her daughter. Not as much as she tried to make it look, publicly at least.
She couldn’t think of Laik now without feeling anger. It hadn’t burned the same way it did if a certain Hedgehog was brought up, but Laik had definitely hurt her on a more personal level; Deprived her of something that had fueled her spirit until now.
The love she had for Laik, that she kept bottled up, had shattered amid the chaos. Now replaced with, not hatred, but a sort of disgust. Not in the wolf, but herself.
How could she let herself fall for someone who was so careless? Love was too fleeting; she’d simply go back to focusing on her career, the Restoration, and her friends. The stuff that really mattered.
“Oh, Laik, you really screwed things up this time.” She sighed, slamming her underwear drawer shut.