Chapter 1: The Mad Scientist
Chapter One: The Mad Scientist
A mad scientist created Howell Wolfe inside a laboratory, as the product of an experiment gone awry. The mad scientist in question had injected human cells into the artificially seeded embryos of a wolf. He then rather irresponsibly implanted those embryos into Lupa’s canine womb...all except for one. That one embryo showed promising signs of becoming what the scientist had wanted: it was genetically “more human” and “less wolf”. The scientist named Forrest Foxtrot had gleefully implanted it into the womb of a human woman.
Howell was therefore born of human rather than of wolf, as his siblings had been born. His brothers and sisters were all mostly canine and did not look very much like humans at all. Howell, on the other hand, had developed into a furry bipedal being with the body of a human and the head of a wolf-like creature. He was promptly named “Howell Wolfe”, and his education began in secret inside the mad scientist’s spooky old manor. Howell had nicknamed the place “Wolfhowl Manor”.
The surrogate human mother, Una Foxtrot, raised Howell rather than the wolf-mother named Lupa. Lupa and her cubs lived in a gigantic pen with plenty of trees, rocks and a creek. The gargantuan pen covered one hundred acres of woodland and was located at the back of Forrest Foxtrot’s large mansion. Strict guardian androids watched over the property, and several layers of electric fencing protected it. Howell saw little of his wolf-mother Lupa, for his siblings would not accept him as a member of the pack. The four-legged brothers and sisters of Howell had all been raised as wolves, and he had never been encouraged to form a rapport with any of them. Instead, he called Forrest’s sister Una “Ma” and referred to Forrest as “Uncle Forrest”. He was fairly sure that Forrest was his biological father, while Una was his aunt.
Nonetheless, Forrest sternly advised Howell to follow his dictates, just as Una did. Howell was the only “son” that Una had ever had, so she protected him fiercely from the outside world.
Howell had never seen the “outside world”, as Una called it; or at least, he had never seen the world outside of Wolfhowl Manor and its surrounding land. Ever since he had known of its existence, Howell Wolfe longed to venture into the forbidden realm of The Others. It was, of course, off limits to him and always had been since his birth.
“The others would never accept you, Howell,” Una told him whenever he asked her about the subject. “You need to stay here, under our care, for the rest of your life.”
Howell growled at that, each and every time Una uttered the words.
Acceptance. Who cares about that? Howell had recently turned eighteen years of age, and he was ready to party. He was not particularly worried about what The Others thought. They were others...what they thought was of little consequence. If they killed him, then he would go down having a damn good time. If they let him live, he would choose a mate and have pups with her. He would raise the pups to live among the others in their own Otherland. I will show no fear and neither will my courageous kids! My wife, of course, will support my every move, because I am so impressive. I’m part wolf! He knew enough about the outer culture through its idiotic television programs to predict that he would either be revered as a star...or perhaps reviled as a rebel. Either way, his plan was to escape Wolfhowl Manor, once and for all.
