Case 13: Entry 1

I was going over my notes from previous cases yesterday and, being the idiot that I am, remarked to Nox that everything's been too boring. So far my cases had been split between hauntings, mild curses, people struggling with negligible magical talents, and people jumping perfectly normal shadows. They were all very procedural, a few paid extremely well, and none were challenging enough to demand more than five minutes of research. How horrible. So naturally I complain about it. You'd think a "supernatural expert" would know better than to jinx himself.

Okay. Rant finished.

This morning I got a call from a couple whose nine year-old son was bit by a werewolf. Apparently they were visiting relatives in the mountains and something came out of the woods only to run away a few seconds later upon hearing a truck horn. Of course, the parents didn't believe it was a werewolf attack at first. It was only after he started howling in his sleep that they decided to call me. Even though the moon is technically only completely full for a few seconds or so, it looks full for three nights. Most werewolf lore says that the change happens one night out of every month, but according to the parents the attack happened on the third night of the full moon rather than the middle one. Which means the change probably takes place for three consecutive months at a time. Which means we have two nights before the kid's first change.

As I see it, there are three big questions to answer. First, how much does it take to contain a werewolf during the change? Second, can a werewolf be subdued or tranquilized? Third, can a werewolf be cured?

I'll have to go through all the serious literature I've collected on werewolves for answers. Which isn't going to take long because even with all the Agency's resources the data pool is still absolutely minimal. Specific accounts are all short on details, and the lore often contradicts itself. The last time I looked at this subject I came up with four distinct werewolf myths. At least the weakness for silver is mostly universal. For the first question I can look for any indications of how strong the creature is (if memory serves, the answer is "really, really strong") and make a list of possible weaknesses. For the second and third questions I need to figure out if the wolf is a distinct spiritual entity living inside the person or simply an altered personality state. If it's a spirit, then I might be able to drive it out or put it to sleep. If not, I have no idea how to handle this.