Chương 300: WEREWOLF MYTHS 101

4 FEBRUARY, THURSDAY, C&C LESSON We had C&C lessons once a week. It's short for Customs and Culture, and it was about the different customs and culture wolves and humans and sometimes vampires had and stuff like that. The subject description was very idealistic in a "we are the world, mutual respect, embrace differences and let's all hold hands" kind of way. But we all know the real world doesn't work that way.

In reality, the lessons were about wolf culture, because we were on the Gold Packlands, and in the Gold Packlands, most of the businesses and governing bodies were headed by Lycans, so the humans here had to learn to not offend their future bosses. The last few weeks had been uneventfully basic. Our teacher for C&C was Teacher Tabby. (It's short for Tabitha.) She was Lycan, and she wanted us to practice Lycan culture, which usually addressed each other by rank or function, blah blah blah, and first names or even nicknames were commonly used with that title. Especially if that person was both respected and loved (such as herself). Because the school had a strict policy about identifying which students or teachers were human, Lycan, (or vampire), she couldn't say exactly who, but there were really powerful Lycans in our school.

There were pretty big-shot vamps around too, did she know? Just yesterday night I almost met Edward's friend Dionysus... Who wasn't Dino, by the way. Thanks to Maria, I've passed Dino enough times to recognize his flame. Edward's friend by the same name was a much darker flame. I'm getting that their flames darken with age. I bet Teacher Tabby didn't know that either. I also bet he was related to Dino. Anyway, most of C&C was about Lycan culture. It was very one-sided.

I had thought I might learn some of the curious human customs in this class, but nope. And the Lycan stuff they teach was like... I wanted to say preschool level, but some of these things were so basic, I think even a preschooler wolf would know it. For example, one should make respectful greetings with a bow, particularly to Alpha wolves. It shows submission.

"What if I don't submit?" Terrence had challenged.

"Well, that's a very good question! Class, what would you think would happen if you met an Alpha wolf and didn't bow in greeting?" Teacher Tabby asked.

"He'll think you were rude or didn't know any better?" I suggested because that would be what I would think. The class laughed like I made a funny joke.

"Sam's always so naïve about this stuff," Krystal scoffed to the other cool girls. I could hear her, of course, and so could Teacher Tabby, who also probably could sense I was a wolf, if not an Alpha wolf. I think Teacher Tabby wanted to soothe the question over at this point, but then...

"He'll shift and bite off your head!" Troy told the class.

"My dad had a Lycan boss, and he got so mad at one meeting he shifted and killed everyone in the building."

"Yet his dad lived to tell the tale," Marcus chided. The class laughed again. Abigail raised her hand.

"I read that Alpha wolves were really fierce and possessive over their Lunas. Is that true?"

"Someone's been reading way too many webnovels," Zara muttered quite loudly under her breath. Even the other humans heard and laughed. Abigail's face reddened.

"I was just wondering, because they sound so scary. Sometimes a Luna could be a human too." Pfffttt... I stole a glance at Henry. Hey, your date thinks you're sooooo... scary. Hahaha. Apparently, Marcus had the same idea. He said something I didn't hear to Henry and was hit across the back of his head. Marcus' face hit his desk. The class went silent. Marcus straightened up.

"I'm okay. Sorry, Teacher Tabby, we were just messing around." Teacher Tabby opened her mouth and then shut it with a nod.

"My mum says werewolves are dangerous because they kidnap teenage girls and force them to be their mate," Janice added.

"Yeah, it's better not to go out at night," Ivan told her.

"Werewolves hunt at night." Wow. I was wrong. I did learn a lot about humans in this class—mostly about what they thought of us wolves. They also liked to call us werewolves. We were wolves. Or Lycan. I don't think any wolf I knew would say, "I'm a werewolf." That just sounded like something from a movie—you know, the half-man, half-wolf thing that howls at the moon... Oh, like my Uncle Andre. Yeah, Uncle Andre should audition for a werewolf movie. But most wolves were either fully wolf or human at any one time.

You knew that, right? Uncle Andre was an abnormality. I guess so were Dad and I. Since I could produce claws in human form... Merging technique. It isn't easy, and usually that's all, just claws and maybe teeth if it gets fierce. And Dad's merging technique was self-made, so really only the wolves he taught it to would know it. Like Uncle Andre. And from what Lola remarked, her uncle, Gamma Endo learned it too. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

There were other merging techniques, but those just tapped on short bursts of speed, etc. No physical transformations. Anyway, I digressed. Today, we had C&C, and Teacher Tabby came into the class to teach us about another deep and cultural custom of Lycans around the continent... I rested my head back onto my desk, because since we were applying Lycan customs to this class, I was the Alpha. I could do whatever I wanted.

"Did any of you watch the news yesterday? I mean, wow, I guess many of you would have questions. So today, I would like to hear some of the questions you have, and we can discuss them as a class." Teacher Tabby must have felt this was the perfect real-life teaching moment to connect with her students. Lycan teachers had a thing for real-life application questions and what they liked to call object lessons.

There was a legendary scholar who liked to say things like, "It is better to teach your student to ask than to answer." A lot of Lycan teachers liked to quote him, even though it's very likely that he never existed in real life. There was a journal detailing his various exploits, philosophies, and quotable quotes... But it was undated, and most scholars believed the journal to be an artistic expression of an unknown author. Anyway, a lot of Lycan teachers admired this legendary albeit fictional scholar.

Many wolves who were teachers today had read his journal when they were young. I bet Teacher Tabby had read the book too. She was beaming at us when she asked, "So, who wants to start us off with a question?"

"Why are werewolves always starting fights in the Red Lands?" Ivan wanted to know.

"Why do you say that wolves are always starting fights?" Teacher Tabby asked.

"Werewolves are always fighting," Troy answered.

"If there were no werewolves, there won't be any wars."

"Yeah, because without wolves, all the humans would become a blood farm to vampires," Henry said.

"No, I'm quite sure humans like to fight among themselves too," Marcus pointed out. He listed two examples of human-only war.

"But those are just small wars," Ivan argued.

"Only because humans are weak," Henry said. Terrence slammed the tabletop.

"Humans are not weak! We are strong and smart!" Henry and Marcus made scoffing sounds at that.

"I bet Henry is a werewolf!" Troy accused. Teacher Tabby quickly tried to diffuse the situation.

"Now, class, we are talking about the Red Packlands."

"Only werewolves would call it the Red Packlands," Ivan pointed out.

"It's the Red Lands."

"Yes, and I am a wolf," Teacher Tabby patiently reminded him.

"Oh yeah," Terrence said.

"I forgot. No offence, Teacher Tabby."

"None taken, Terrence," Teacher Tabby said.

"My dad says that Werewolves smell like wet dogs when they sweat," Troy informed the class.

"Eww..." Some of the girls said and giggled. Terrence tried to sniff at Teacher Tabby. She moved away from his desk.

"Terrence, can you not sniff at the lady teacher?" Zara scolded.

"That's disgusting."

"She smells nice. Like cookies," Terrence said.

"Are you sure you're a werewolf?" Troy asked. Teacher Tabby nodded.

"Yes, of course I am."

"Transform into a wolf and show us!" Ivan demanded.

"Yes! Show us!" The other guys said.

"I have never seen a werewolf transform before," Abigail said. Teacher Tabby turned red in the face.

"No... I can't shift now."

"Because it isn't a full moon?" Someone asked.

"Maybe girl werewolves can't change," someone else speculated.

"How about Henry? I bet Henry is a werewolf," Troy decided.

"Henry, can you transform?" Terrence wanted to know. Henry growled very lowly. I got excited for a moment because I thought he might really shift in the middle of class, but then I realised that it was Henry we were talking about.

"There's no way Henry is a werewolf," Abigail said.

"Why not?" Leia asked.

"Because he's such an incredible kisser?" Leia made air quotes over "incredible kisser," so it was obvious that she was quoting someone... Abigail coloured.

"Wooooah..." The class in general said. The other girls tittered.

"Henry and Abigail sitting in a tree..." Troy started singing.

"Who knew Abigail is the kiss-and-tell type?" Pearl shrugged with a wide smile. Abigail turned her head sharply around to glare daggers at Pearl.

"Don't mind her, Abigail," one of the random girls said loudly.

"She's just jealous."

"Oh! So Abigail kissed a werewolf?" Troy suddenly connected the dots.

"Henry isn't a werewolf!" Abigail insisted. Why? Did he not smell like a wet dog? Hahahaha. Weren't we supposed to be discussing the events in the Red Packlands shown on the news channels yesterday? And since when was it a bad thing to be a wolf?

"For all we know, Terrence is the werewolf," Zara speculated aloud. Terrence slammed the top of his desk.

"I'm not!" He did it with such force, his face was red and the table fell over.

"What's so bad about being a wolf?" I asked. The whole class suddenly quietened. Oops, I asked it aloud, didn't I? Terrence looked at me wide-eyed.

"Werewolves smell like wet dog when they sweat. They are stupid and angry and always fighting. Like Terrence," Zara said.

"I'm not a werewolf." Terrence kicked the fallen desk.

"I'm a werewolf," I said. I purposely said "werewolf" too. There was a pause, and then the whole class laughed.

"Zammi, we all know you're a warlock," Krystal informed me.

"Yah! If you're a werewolf, then I'm a vampire," Zara laughed. Seriously?

"Why don't you shift and prove it?" Henry smirked at me.

"Don't, Hen, she just might," Marcus cautioned.

"Ah, nobody is going to shift in the classroom." Teacher Tabby quickly reassured everyone, but I think she was mostly reassuring herself. Then Teacher Tabby gave us homework. We had to read the news about the Red Packland situation and write a summary about the events that had unfolded there this week. The whole class groaned. I was groaning inwardly too. I mean, I already had to read countless reports on the situation, but now I had to look for an official human version to write. But that would be interesting.

I decided to write the situation from the human's point of view. It was very different from what I had expected. I imagine my report to be along the lines of this: The werewolves started causing trouble again at the Red Packlands yesterday. First, the fight dogs (who are werewolves) ran away from the vampire fight cage and into the Red Lands, and then all the other wolf packs around the continent rushed over to fight the vampires, and then after that they started fighting among themselves.

And some of them (rogues) started going around robbing shops and people and all kinds of other crimes in the Red Lands. Werewolves are stupid and like to cause trouble and unrest. They also smell like wet dogs when they sweat. Us wolves, we need to work on our PR. I know they are just humans, so why should I care what they think? Still, today was the first time I felt less than proud to be a wolf. We smell like wet dog, really?