Chapter 6 - Village Life

It had been two weeks since Flint joined the Fry’s household. He had already earned his place, working every morning and afternoon at the smithy. He found he was able to tolerate high heats better than humans, so was able to work longer around the great heat of the furnace. Also being able to weld the hammers with certain skill, George was surprised at how Flint could work the iron as well as he could after very little training by him. Johnny was just chuffed to have Flint around. They hung out a lot in the evening. One evening Johnny took Flint to his boxing club, to show him the art of pugilism.
Flint at first couldn’t get his head round the whole idea.
“So you stand in a square with another bloke then purposefully punch each other till one falls over? Is that it”?
Johnny laughing, slapping Flint on his back.
“Well if you put it like that it doesn’t sound highly intelligent but really it is good, you learn how to punch without hurting your hands too much.”
“Why don’t you at least wear gloves of some sort?”
Johnny looked at Flint with a look of horror.
“For goodness sake don’t say that at the club, there is a movement coming in from overseas from England where they wear these great big puffed up gloves and they can only hit in certain areas of the body, it’s really soft! This is a proper bare knuckle club, that’s the proper way to do it.”
Flint, still very unsure, the family was brought up to be careful around humans at all times, so the thought of actually hurting someone on purpose, in the name of sport, seemed like madness to him, but he agreed to go with it. Johnny started by giving him some instruction, showing him how to take a defensive stance, hands up protecting his face. Flint’s mind at that point transporting him back to when he was standing in the family garden as a dog, seeing his dad galloping towards him, Flint taking a submissive stance to show he was no threat and yet his dad bared down on him. It was only the intervention by his mum that saved him that night. Coming out of his reverie he concentrated on the different jabs and punches Johnny was showing him.
After a good hour of learning these shots, Johnny slapping Flint on the back said
“Right, I think you are ready for your first bout. I’ll go and grab your opponent and let’s see some action. With that Johnny disappeared, eventually returning telling Flint to follow him into the next room where the ring was. Flint followed him in through the door where he saw a square marked out on the floor. A chair at either end in opposite corners.He walked into the marked square and sat  on one of the chairs. The door behind him reopened and in strode a large gnarly looking man with so many scars around his face. Knuckles were similarly covered in scars. Johnny behind him smiling from ear to ear.
“So Flint this is Matty ironically known as mad dog! I’ve asked him to take it a little easy on you, but well you know he’s a bit” 
Johnny spinning his finger by his ear
“You know crazy”
Flint looked warily over to the other side of the ring, Matty “mad dog” was grinning at him, someone walked into the ring area, rang a bell and then stepped out. Matty came out of his corner to the middle of the ring beckoning Flint out. Flint stepped slowly forward, holding his clenched fists up in a defensive way. Stepping closer, suddenly Matty pulled his arm back and threw a hard punch towards Flint abdomen. Doubling over wheezing Flint felt another punch this time side of his head. He wheeled back. Shaking his head to clear it. This time though when Matty stood forward and threw a punch, Flint anticipated it and ducked. Matty spun round, Flint seeing an opportunity pulled his own fist back and slammed it into Matty midriff, physically lifting him in the air, as he dropped back down, Flint pulled his fist back ready to send a blow to his head but when he saw Matty holding his hands up breathing hard he pulled the punch back. With a look of concern in his eyes.
“You ok? Sorry I shouldn’t have gone in so hard. Matty sat back on his chair wheezing, holding a hand up,
“Son don’t worry, I tell you what you Ludovics would clean up on the boxing circuit, I’ve seen Carver and that monster of a man Nero, I mean no offence if you can destroy me in one punch, imagine what they could do! World champions with no doubt.”
“Ok Matty go and clean yourself up, leave Flint alone now”
Johnny walked up to Flint
“I’m sorry mate I know you didn’t want to hurt him, that was my fault for pushing you… the thing was I know you are struggling with your changing thing. I just wanted you to see you are still a hell of an animal! Matty is unbeaten in our club, to stop him with one punch to the abdomen like that is totally unheard of.”
Flint gave Johnny a baleful look.
“If it hadn’t worked out this way Johnny? If I got properly pummelled in the ring, what then? Would you have been giving me that little speech then!”
Johnny looked away for a second, before answering 
“Yes well it was a gamble I agree, but I knew you would come through. Hell I’ve seen you in the smithy working the metal in the sweltering heat with ease, I knew you would be ok.”
Flint still looked morose but deciding Johnny meant well, and he did feel good when he saw Matty “mad dog” jolt up in the air after his punch. He knew it was bad of him, he has been brought up not to hurt humans but still it was good!
As that first month carried on, Flint’s strength increased as did his agility, he was running rings around George now in the smithy, the furnace blasting out under his pumping, so many horse shoes and other pieces of ironmongery was being produced, people were visiting the blacksmiths just to watch the wereman work. George at one point, got so exasperated by the gawpers and gawkers he purposely retrieved a large iron bar, he had buried into the heart of the furnace until white hot and then plunged the whole thing into the large cooling bucket. The whole smithy filled up with a huge cloud of super hot steam and it made such a noise everyone jumped and ran out thinking the whole place was going up. After that less people would come and watch Flint work. Flint, oblivious to the stir he was making in the community, just knew he had to work to earn the right to stay at the Fry’s house, so he worked hard and long. 
Johnny didn’t take him to boxing anymore, in fact a few weeks after Flints visit, Johnny got in a prize fight with a monster of a man from another village further down in the valley and even though he boxed hard and intelligently he was no match to this man mountain and he got a real beating, broke his nose, his eye socket and cheek bone, his face looked so black and bruised, after that he decided boxing wasn’t for him. When Flint saw how destroyed his best friend's face was he was furious, he was all set to chase down the thug who did this and show him what real pain was. Johnny stopped him saying it was a fair fight, he had gone into it with his eyes open, knowing how much bigger and stronger this man was but was still confident he had enough guile and skill to beat him. But no that wasn’t to be with a shrug of his shoulders Johnny told Flint that was probably his last fight. 
Flint by this point had embraced village life. Everyone liked having him around, the girls in the village were especially enamoured by this incredibly strong individual. Flint would find girls hanging around after he finished work asking if he would like to take them out to pubs, cafes or just go back to their homes! Flint with a normal young man’s libido was obviously struggling not to take advantage of all these girls, he knew though with the wolf blood pumping especially as the full moon approached he couldn’t get too involved with girls, it was entirely possible at the height of arousal he could end up doing the girl some real damage. He knew his older brothers, even Jobe who was a real ladies man, were careful to only have any sort of relationships at the new moon and and just after when their wolf powers were at their weakest. Also a lot of the girls hanging around had boyfriends or at least boys who felt they had rights to the girls. The last thing Flint wanted was to get involved in stupid fights with local boys over girls. So everytime a girl came up he politely but firmly turned down any of their requests to meet up anywhere. 
The full moon was now fast approaching, in just a couple more nights, the change would be upon him. Flint was getting more and more nervous, what was going to happen, if he somehow this time changed into a wolf would he get away from the village to a safe distance, if that did happen would he just go bounding off into the forest beyond to track down his family and rejoin them? If the more likely outcome is that he became a dog again, what to do then? He had very firmly told the Fry’s don’t go near him  if he is a dog, he will still have certain instincts, he didn’t want people thinking they could come up to him as if he was a friendly pet dog. That could lead to disaster. They all solemnly promised not to go near him. On the same token they asked, would it be safer to make sure he didn’t get out on the streets in case people came up to him thinking he was a stray dog and tried to catch him?  Agreeing certainly for the first change, maybe locking him in a safe area away from the Fry’s and other people would be a sensible thing to do. It was George who suggested locking him in the smithy with the back door open so he can roam the adjoining courtyard which had a high fence all round it so he would be unable to get out on the streets beyond the yard. Nodding Flint agreed to this plan. 
The night of the full moon arrived, Flint taking his rug which he had packed to the smithy. Finding a relatively clear area, he laid the rug down. After spending the evening with the Fry’s eating a hearty meal then saying his good nights. He started to head towards the smithy. Johnny stopped him at the front door.
“Flint, before you go. Look I hope whatever happens over there you find some peace, I know your worried and I know you don’t want to be a dog but”
Johnny paused his ears going slightly red, he continued
“But all I wanted to say, having you here this month has been amazing, I never had a brother till now. You are my brother” 
Flint, taken aback by this confession of brotherly love from Johnny, smiled at him then grabbed him and hugged him. 
“Remember what I said at the last villagers meal we had at the house, when you were worried about me not ageing and you getting old and dying. I said then we would always be friends and I meant it then, to be called your brother is even better!”
Johnny was obviously embarrassed by his display of friendship and pushed Flint off.
“Yeah well let’s not tell the other lads what I said, they still take the piss about that time I said your mum was stunning! Even though I know for a fact that Danny has on more than one occasion shall we say released his pleasure whilst dreaming about your mum! He told me when pissed as a fart once”
Flint laughed, suddenly holding his stomach.
“Oh god I’m going to have to go, I can feel things on the move, soon my legs and hips will realign and I’ll have to crawl there. Not very dignified!”
Turning away from Johnny with a smile he turned back to the door. Opening it he stepped out into the humid night air. Walking briskly over to the Smithy. He let himself in and took his clothes off, neatly folding them onto a chair then naked as the night was so warm he got himself comfortable on the rug. His entire body at this point was beginning to ripple, he felt things moving, changing shape slowly at this point. Like a glacier sliding down a valley, unperceivable movement at this point but as the moon rose speeding up all of the time.
His last full human thought before the change was one of resigned acceptance, this is going to happen. I’ll have to live with and cope with whatever happens to me tonight. With that the moon reached its zenith and the light through a small grimy window hit Flints contorting naked body. The change began in earnest