milliways_bar | (no subject)

Not far way, there is a timberwolf. He walks up to the Bar and orders what seems to be a raw steak and a bowl of wine.

He smells something that catches his attention but has no idea what.

That's not a wolf. Angua watches him warily, wondering what his reaction will be.

The wolf turns to the woman, and then the oddest thing happens. A voice seems to come from the wolf.

"Oh, hello. Don't mind me. I'm just eating breakfast, and find that nothing goes with steak tartare like a glass of fine wine."

Uh huh.

Angua nods, and after checking around the room for anyone that might see her speaking canine, replies:

*I'm not minding you. But don't you find wine glasses easier to handle with opposable thumbs?*

"Well, yes, I suppose that is the case. And certainly a wooden bowl is no substitute for fine crystal. But as I am a wolf right now, I do what I must. And better to sip of a merlot from a bowl than to drink soda from the finest of goblets."

It takes a few seconds for the wolf register something about what she said. Or rather, how she said it.

"Pardon me, miss, but did you just speak to me in wolf?"

*You expect me to speak to you in Morporkian in your current shape?*

She sounds amused. He seems new to this.

If wolves can look puzzled, than this wolf has such a look.

"My current shape? So you can tell that this is...abnormal for me? Very well. I wil not deny that I am usually a human.

"However, you could speak English as well. Apparently, I have no trouble communciating in that language either. Though how I know that is beyond me." And the wolf takes a lap of wine in a way that could almost be called effete.

Angua shrugs, and then, because human is easier when you're human shaped, and less likely to be suspicious, says:

"So how long have you been able to change shape?"

He looks at her. She's a sharp one, and since he is confused about how this happened, he might aw well do something rare. And be honest.

"Only two days. And I have no idea quite what happened. But I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Or would be a gift wolf in this case. It's been quite liberating."

Oh good, one of those.

"Liberating how?" she asks, suspiciously.

"Oh, in that it's nice to be able to be someone else - something else - for a while. I slept outside two nights ago, taking in the sounds and the scents. It was remarkably pleasant. Calming. So much nicer than a lumpy mattress.

"And the food tastes different. Sharper. I daresay that I might have to order all of my favorite meals again just to see what I have missed.

"Though it does seem unlikely that The Four Seasons serves wolves."

It gets bloody cold in the winter though. And wait until someone starts attacking you just for enterring the bar.

"And the smells?" she prompts

"The smells? Well, thus far they have not been too overwhelming. But I have not been inside that much. I would suspect that at a busier hour, they might grow difficult. And were I to return home in this form, they might be intense. Lord knows they are harsh enough to offend any human." And within the wolf, the human mind pieces clues together.

"Your questions, miss, seem to be fairly knowledgable. As if your strange ability to speak in wolf. Are you some kind of zookeeping prodigy? Or - and till two days ago I would have thought this impossible - also some kind of chimera or lycanthrope?"