Wolf Boy Returns from Space: Chapter 17, Part I

Pan sent a formal letter to Queen Artia. He used his seal. He added Kaiden’s name. He had at least one dedicated follower.

Panfilo of the Alands and the Tates, within the protection of Raine and Ruella, with fealty from Kaiden Akuma, welcomes the good wishes of Queen Artia of the Confederated kin groups in Reforested Greenland.

“Yeah,” Kaiden said. “That sounds right.”

They went wading in the nearby ocean’s surprisingly chilly water while their bodyguards trailed them. The bodyguards, Vanessa and Ray, had taken to Kaiden. Pan spotted the three now and again on the walkways near the outside walls, forming shapes with their hands as they discussed—

Battle tactics.

—training maneuvers. Pan suspected that they’d gotten Kaiden a weapon. 

He and Kaiden went through medieval portraits that Phillipe dug up of wolves. “Does Phillipe know what Monseigneur Rhys and Canon Lider suspect about my origins?” Pan asked Francesca, who laughed and said, “No. Phillipe thinks that everyone should know everything about a particular topic. You’re an Anthros. You are here asking questions about medieval animals. You get a history lesson.”

Which proved that Phillipe was another person for Pan to keep in his potentially useful file.

“Wolves are a big part of medieval lore,” Phillipe said as they leaned over an image of the Beast of Gevaudan, a skinny wolf-like creature with a huge jaw and long tail, though not as long as Pan’s. “Some folklorists—the ones that try to get history out of story—think the tale about the little girl and her grandmother came from Gevaudan history. A whole bunch of Frenchmen tried to track down a potentially rabid wolf.”

“Little Red Riding Hood,” Pan said. “My mother raised me on folk tales,” he elucidated when Xavier raised a brow.  

Xavier nodded. He said to Phillipe’s frown, “Sometimes oral tradition is the only proof left from the past.”

“Oral tales get changed a hundred times before they are written down—changed, moreover, to meet their audience’s needs.”

“The historical hints linger.”

“Imposed wishful thinking.”

“Says the guy who works on a Congregation.”

“Documents—we look for documents.”

“Within context.”

Political know-how 101: History requires documentation but a good story is remembered.

“Anyway,” Phillipe said to Pan and Kaiden after a final scowl at Xavier, “People worried a lot about wolves. Rabies was a major fear. No way to cure it. Wild animals were sports, food, and threat.”

“One reason Anthros insist they arrived two hundred years ago,” Xavier muttered.

Pan said, “Sentience requires embracing the negative as well as the positive.”

Phillipe and Xavier eyed him. “Just a guess: you were raised by a priest,” Xavier said.

“By an adult clone who says, ‘Reality is the only reality that counts,’” Pan said.

Allec had started his life-extension procedure two days earlier. He and Pan talked beforehand. On the screen, Quin lurked behind Allec, looking worried.

“The procedure is still newish,” Allec confessed. “Extensions for clones who have already received life-extensions. I could wait. But I was the pioneer for the first procedure. I figure I should be the pioneer for this one.”

That’s why Allec was the best parent for me.

Quin said, “Are you okay? You and Kaiden?”

“Yeah. We spotted your bodyguards.”

Allec laughed. Quin grimaced. “Never hurts to take precautions.”

And why Quin was the second best parent.

In the tale of how Pan came to be raised, Samantha and Greg deserved a mention as did Meke RaykJanes—with Monseigneur Rhys and Canon Lider as Pan’s investigators.

Monseigneur Rhys had sent a private communication to Pan that morning, encrypted for the plastic sheets that bore Pan’s thumbmark. Monseigneur Rhys and Canon Lider would join Pan and Kaiden in another two days. In the meantime, Monseigneur Rhys attested that he and Canon Lider had spoken to Moon Cloning. The technicians connected Panfilo to a bone that was sent for testing forty years earlier.

The next day, a messenger arrived at Bamburgh Castle and asked to speak to Pan about "his purpose on Earth."