Andy confides a recent mishap: when playing with his slingshot accidentally shot a dove. Sorrow at the accidental killing inspired a tale of the risks of joining the survival contest of nature. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls this story "The Tale of the Hunted."
From a recent camping trip, Diana welcomes home Gar, Hank and father Grant, and prepares to join them on a subsequent trip into the woods. On the open-roofed rear of the truck, Diana lifts a sheet, and sees the paw of a slain wolf. Grant laments it not to be a Blaze. On the school bus home, Diana’s friend Laura disapproves of any kind of hunting.
In bed that night, from outside, Diana hears a growl. She parts the curtain. Outside is a wolf. Its eyes glow blue. Diana screams. Grant supposes the nightly visitor to have been one of his dogs.
Next day, in the forest, Gar teaches Diana hunting stealth. From behind a tree, with a bright, Laura bounds into view. Gar warns against sneaking around hunting sites. Exasperated, he retreats. Laura presents Diana with a hand-carved pendant, in the likeness of a human face, framed by the grip of a wolf. A local native tribe, she says, believed wolves to have mystical powers unlike any other creature.
In bed that night, Diana hears a mysterious canine whine. She gets up and lifts the curtain of her ground floor bedroom. Through the distant trees sprints a wolf. Just outside the window stand the silhouettes of nine wolves, each with blue-glowing eyes. Diana runs back to bed and hides under the quilt.
As Diana dreams herself to have the glowing blue eyes of the spectral Blaze. With a growl, the legendary wolf then bounds through her open window, and onto the bed. Diana, wakes, and finds the room free of wolves. She reaches for her glass of water - and sees her forearm to be raked with three scratches.
Next morning, Grant knocks on the door, and announces his and Gus’s inspection of the traps. From beneath the quilt stirs a canine whine. Diana emerges, walks across the floor at a curiously low angle, and looks into her mirror. Her reflection is that of a wolf - the Blaze. In her new wolf body, Diana fumbles around the house, knocking things over. She escapes through the cat flap.
Outside, Gar sees her, and gives a startled yell. The wolf flees into the forest. Gar emerges from the house, and reports the wolf to have been inside. With a grimace of horror, Grant picks up his daughter’s hat. He supposes the wolf to have scared her away.
In wolf form, Diana sprints through the forest. With no sign of her, Grant tells Hank and Gar to keep searching the woods, while he checks the road. On her bike, Laura cycles up to Grant. While he gets his truck, Laura investigates the house. Amidst the mess, she finds the tribal pendant she gave Diana - and sees its eyes to glow blue.
In a forest clearing, Diana approaches another wolf. The two inspect each other. With a gunshot and a yell from Gar, they run. As Gar calls for Diana, his foot lands in a metal trap, whose jaws snap closed around his leg. With a yell of pain, he falls. He calls for help - and, in horror, sees a wolf calmly approach him. From the side, another wolf approaches, and sniffs at his shoulder.
The wolves flee. Grant gently helps Gar to the truck. Diana approaches the house. Laura greets the docile wolf, and brings some water. In the trunk, Grant arrives, and confronts the wolf with a club. As it retreats, a metal trap closes around its paw. Gar falls from the passenger’s seat, and urges Grant not to harm it. Grant swings - and finds himself unable to deliver the blow. Gar directs Laura how to open the trap. The limp paw of the wolf then blurs, and shifts its hue and texture to that of a human hand - Diana.
Overcome with relief, father and daughter embrace - and see the other wolf calmly withdraw into the wild.
With Andy’s story received in calm silence, Tucker closes the meeting and douses the fire.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Laurie accidentally spooks Gar and Diana, Gar scolds her for it and crossly asks her "What if I had a rifle?" To this, Laurie coolly responds "What if you did?", as though making a point that hunting is not allowed in residential areas.
- Dirty Coward: Diana's father's hunting party. When they see Diana as a wolf, one member tries to crawl into the safe confines of his pick-up truck.
- Forced Transformation: The charm Laurie gives to Diana ends up changing her from a girl into a wolf.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Played with. Diana isn't a hunter, but she was at a crossroads of becoming one. One day, she finds herself transformed into a wolf and in danger of being hunted by her own father's hunting party.
- Just Woke Up That Way: The morning after her scary wolf nightmares, Diana crawls out of bed to get ready for the camping trip. But when she looks at herself in the mirror, she's shocked to find she's a wolf.
- Karmic Transformation: Although she's never hunted a wolf a day in her life, Diana does feel conflicted between respecting nature and pleasing her hunter father. Almost as though fate intended to help her choose, she's turned into a wolf and sees first-hand how hard it is to be an animal on the run.
- Meaningful Name: Diana means hunter, something her father hopes to make her during their camping trip.
- Mistaken for Own Murderer: Downplayed. Rather, Diana's father believes that Wolf!Diana scared Diana out of the house rather than ate his daughter. Regardless, Diana's father does seethe at the very thought that the wolf could harm Diana, and plans to make it pay if it does so.
- Noble Wolf: The Blaze is considered The Ace of wolves. Powerful and majestic, no hunter has ever captured him for many years.
- Savage Wolves: Discussed. Earlier in the story, Diana is witness to her two friends Gar and Laurie debating about whether its right or wrong to hunt wolves. Gar firmly believes this trope, stating that hunting wolves is less about the necessity of feeding one's self and more about killing "a threat to society". Laurie, on the other hand, doesn't buy it and believes people say wolves are monsters as an excuse to shoot a defenseless animal.
- Scenery Porn: Some lovely shots of the wintry forest.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It wasn't like Laurie intended to turn Diana into a wolf with the necklace she gifted her. All the same, the wolf charm does just that, and it wouldn't have happened if not for Laurie's unintentional actions.
