Rufferto stared, horrified, as Groo's body was transformed. He cringed as Groo made the most awful sounds imaginable, as if he were in great pain, as if he were being tortured beyond endurance, almost as bad as the ones his stomach made if he hadn't eaten in a couple of days.
Rufferto tried to hide from the sounds, and the sight of his beloved Groo, but he couldn't.
Thankfully, though, it was soon over.
However, when Rufferto opened his eyes and looked a wolf stood there...a wolf with a face that looked amazingly like Groo's!
From out of the brush came other wolves. Short wolves, fat wolves, wolves who climb on rocks; tough wolves, sissy wolves, even wolves with chicken pox; they all came out and looked at Groo.
Oh no! thought Rufferto. What a time for Groo's natural leadership abilities to be recognized! Now Groo is the leader of a pack of transformed werewolves!
"Groo!" Rufferto called out, and to his amazement Groo looked over to him.
"What?"
"You can understand me?" Rufferto said in wonderment.
"Of course," Groo said, "don't I always?"
"Uh, no," Rufferto said, "until today you weren't a dog."
"Don't be silly, Rufferto. Now come on, I see a tree over there I just have to claim as my territory."
Rufferto did the dog equivalent of shrugging, and followed. As he stared at Groo marking a tree, he realized that the transformation really hadn't changed Groo all that much.
"Which way should we go?" one of the wolves asked.
"We head North!" Groo announced to the pack, and they followed him.
"Groo," Rufferto asked after a mile or two, "why are we headed North?"
"I just have a feeling," Groo said. "I know this is the right way to go."
"Do you know what's ahead?" Rufferto asked
"Do we ever?" Groo answered.
Rufferto laughed. "So true, my friend, so true."
As they journeyed through the night, Rufferto and Groo conversed the entire time. They had been accompanying each other for so long, but this was the first time they were able to actually talk, to understand each other. Rufferto found it the best time he'd ever had with Groo, and he thanked whatever forces led to this amazing turn of events.
"Leader!" one of the wolves cried out.
Groo looked around. "Where?"
"No, Groo, that's you." Rufferto said.
"Oh yes. I remember now. Yes, I'm the leader. The leader, that's me. Ask what you want of the leader, which, remember, is me."
The dog looked quizzically at him.
"What?" Groo asked.
"We know this place." the wolf said. "This is where we came from. This is the land of the evil insect lord, the malevolent Gnat King. He has the power to cancel the light of day, and make night last forever. He also transformed us into these creatures!"
"What were you before?" Rufferto asked.
"I was a soldier" one said; "I was a merchant" said another; "I was a cat" said a third.
"A cat?"
"Hey," the wolf said, "don't judge me! No one's perfect! This wolf over here was a lawyer!"
The wolf accused of being a lawyer looked panicked. "No I wasn't!" he said. "That's a lie! That's a vicious lie! I object, your honor!"
"Get him!" the other wolves cried, as they descended on the lawyer-wolf.
"Stop it!" Rufferto yelled. "We mustn't fight among ourselves! We have to stick together, follow our leader, Groo!"
"Groo???" the pack yelped. "I remember Groo" said the soldier-wolf. "He destroyed half my army, then half the army of the other side, then half of the villagers of the town we were protecting!"
"I remember Groo too!" said the merchant-wolf. "He caused a bunch of people to misunderstand each other, and I lost my business creating tubes filled with leaves for people to light afire and breathe in!"
"I remember Groo too." said the cat-wolf! "He stole a mouse I was about to eat, and ate it himself!"
The pack of wolves moved menacingly toward Groo, and Rufferto quickly leaped in between."No, you mustn't! Groo is your leader! You've been following him all this time, hasn't he led you well? Hasn't he guided you with wisdom and cunning?"
Suddenly the air filled with smoke, and lightning struck the ground ahead of the pack of wolves. The air itself split open, and an old man appeared before them.
"Ah," he said, "I see you have found your way back home! I am your lord and master: Cole, the Gnat King! You are now under my command, and I will use you to do my evil bidding!"
The rest of the pack looked at Rufferto. Rufferto smiled nervously. "Um, er .... did we err?"
The pack descended on Rufferto, but only managed to get a small bite in his neck before Groo entered the fray and fought them back.
"Rufferto is my friend!" Groo said, in a commanding voice. "He is under my protection! You can't kill him, only I can kill him!"
"So kill him!" the other wolves cried.
"Yes, I'll kill him! No, wait a minute; no I won't kill him!"
"Why not?"
While Groo was trying to remember why not, the full moon shone down on Rufferto's body, and the wound made by the other wolf. His body convulsed in pain, and he cried out. Soon, the pain ended. He raised himself back up, and stood, unsteadily, on his own two feet.
"Um, wait a second," he thought.
He looked down. No longer was he covered with fur, he was dressed in a fine business suit, and a human body.
"Groo?" he said, looking for the wolf that looked the most like Groo. The Groo-wolf looked up, at him, and cocked his head as if he didn't understand.
He always looks like that, Rufferto reasoned. But as he tried to converse with Groo, he realized it was impossible. Once again they were separated by species, unable to converse.
The other wolves began to converge menacingly on Groo. Rufferto tried to cry out, to stop the pack, to save Groo, but his voice made the strangest sounds when he began to speak. He found himself stating phrases which filled him with a cold dread.
"Stop!" Rufferto cried, "Your honor, I object! Order in the court! Motion sustained!"
Rufferto felt cold to the very marrow of his being. His worst fears were realized! He had become ... A WERELAWYER!
Suddenly thunder and lightning filled the sky, and the wolves descending upon the Groo-wolf stopped. "Enough!" called Cole, the Gnat King, You are all under my control, and you must do my bidding! I have important missions for all of you! Now, listen very carefully, for I will now tell you all the evil acts I will command of all of you!"
He looked menacingly at Rufferto, the werelawyer. "Especially you, my legal friend…"
Next up:
Chapter 3 by David & Jenny Perrey aka The Dyslexic Duo
RUFFERTO FOR THE DEFENSE
Or: Justice is blind, and its sense of smell ain't too good
either.
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