RUN!
Moonlight filters down through the canopy in shafts of silver light, barely illuminating the trees and undergrowth below. The shadows of the forest stretch out deep and black before you as you run onwards, desperate and terrified. The sound of breaking twigs and leaves underfoot echoes around you, drowned out by the sound of your heart pounding in your chest, surging adrenaline driving you forwards. You lungs pull in cold air, your throat stinging and burning as the chill competes with the heat building up inside you.
Around you, the gnarled trees reach out with claws of twisted branches, a ghostly echo of the creature that attacked you. Too many to avoid, you crash through them, the grasping branches catch on your clothes, rough bark grazing across your skin. The pain was easy to ignore.
Rushing onwards, a fallen branch catches against your foot, sending you tumbling awkwardly forward, landing on your right side, crushing your injured shoulder. Red-hot pain sears through the wound, the jagged claw marks raking across your chest, stunning for you a moment.
Recovering, you lean on a tree for support, dragging yourself upright. Feeling dry leaves and dirt underfoot, you realise you’d lost a shoe in the tumble, impossible to find in the darkness. Kicking your remaining shoe off, you pause a moment to catch your breath, fingers tracing the lines of the claw marks under your torn clothes. The wound was deep, pain flaring as each deep breath stretched out your chest, but seemed to have stopped bleeding… strange, but you didn’t want to question a good thing.
A howl broke the silence, a sharp reminder you were not alone in the forest, that you were still being pursued like prey…
Memories of the attack flash across your mind. Alone at your campsite, preparing dinner, expecting your fire to keep any curious wildlife at bay. A silhouette of black fur launching across the fire towards you, its teeth and claws slivers of brilliant white. The pain and blood as teeth dug into your shoulder, claws dragging across your chest. The weight of the creature slamming into you, knocking you both down, tumbling backwards, the wolf falling away from you in a flash of blood. Panic set in, barely registering the wolf was tangled up in your tent behind you, knowing only that you had to escape. To run.
RUN!
Another howl, closer this time. You set off running again, barefoot, trying to shut out the pain from the stones and branches underfoot, the burning ache in your muscles. You push yourself onwards, adrenaline surging through your body, your heart feeling like it might burst, desperate to escape the predator on your heels.
For a while, it works, and the feelings of your body die down as you focus on the forest ahead, weaving your way through the moonlit trees, the fear of what might lurk behind every shadow urging you on. You head vaguely downhill, half-remembering something you heard years ago, finding and following a river. Maybe it wouldn’t follow you then? Lose your scent? It was a faint hope, but you hold onto it.
And in the darkness of the woods, your predator follows, waiting for you to succumb to its curse, its gift, now coursing through your veins.
Struggling on, your body continues to ache and burn, as if being torn apart from the inside. You kept pushing, but it was becoming more difficult with each step, constantly tripping over your own feet. Pausing briefly, you looked down, running hands down the rock hard muscle tensing under your skin. Tendons strained, the throbbing pain forcing you to shift your feet, rising up on tip-toes just to get comfortable. How much more running could you take?
Despite the cool of the night, the gentle wind playing across your wound through the holes in your shirt, you felt unbearably hot. Your clothes felt more and more uncomfortable, strangely tight across your body, a hindrance to your chances of escape. You pull them off, struggling a little as the fabric clung tightly to your body, fingers digging and tearing into the fabric. Soon, your clothes lay about your feet, and you breathe a sigh of relief as your body bathes in the cool moonlight.
Calming yourself, you ease back into walking, subconsciously keeping your weight on your toes. Your heart pounded in your chest, adrenaline still pumping through you, the base instinct to keep running urging you back on. You wonder if the wolf is still following, patient, waiting for you to tire out. To give up. Determined not to give it the satisfaction, you quicken your pace to a jog, carefully working your way through the dense trees.
Behind you, the wolf smiles, staring intently at your naked body.
Half-stumbling, half-running through the forest, it isn’t long before your heart begins to beat even faster, feeling like it’s trying to burst out of your chest. Your breathing grows rapid and shallow, ragged, almost panting through your open mouth. Warm blood surges through your body, your skin flushed red despite the cold. The flesh around your wounds starts to ache, a strange pressure beneath your skin building. Flesh and muscle knit themselves back together, strong, more powerful, large. The tense muscles in your arm bulge under your skin, chest heaving as it grows.
You try to ignore the feeling, imagining your body swelling to fight an infection, anything to pretend what was happening to you was normal. For a while, it works, and you run on...
Pain flares through your right leg without warning. A fiery pain of tearing muscles and stretching skin, bones cracking and growing longer, forcing your leg out longer. Unbalanced, you tumble forward over and over, landing in a pile of leaves. Dazed, confused, you are helpless to watch as your legs crack and stretch, bones and muscles underneath breaking and reforming, your skin rippling like water. Toes are pulled outwards, growing thick and powerful, your feet stretching out behind them. Something in your hips shifts, joints and tendons adapting to your changing legs, thighs bulking up with powerful muscles.
Closing your eyes, you try to make sense of what was happening to you, the feeling that you body was rebelling against you. You could no longer pretend this was normal. The sound of your own heartbeat grows deafening, your heart swelling in your chest, pressing against the rest of your organs until with a sickening crack your rib cage pushes out. Air rushes into expanding lungs, skin stretching out thin across them, growing muscles flattened against your growing ribs. It snaps again, and again, you back arching as your skeleton painfully adjusts to your changing torso. With each snap, your ribs press against your flattening flesh, the shape of them visible as your chest barrels out.
Your eyes fall onto your wound, the marks of tooth and claw that once ran deep crimson across your bare skin now shone with white scar tissue, the ragged edges tinged with black. Below, your new lungs heave, drawing in the chilled night air, stretching your chest to its limits. With each hammer beat of your heart, your veins grew darker, an echo of the strange flesh at the edge of your wounds. The colour spread out across your body, spilling like ink from your veins, soon turning most of your body pitch black, hidden in the night.
You struggle to move, pulling yourself up against a tree, mismatched arms dragging your still-stretching legs back across the rough ground. Your legs were unrecognisable, thick with corded muscle, the pain of splitting skin as something pushed out from behind your nails. Your blood glinted off the claws growing from each toe, the sharp points reminding you of the beast that had attacked you, the beast you were becoming.
Trying to stand, you clutch with shaking arms at the tree, muscles straining to pull your heavier body upwards. Your legs thrash beneath you, feeling so strange and alien now, bent in some mockery of wolf and man. Heaving yourself upward, pain shot through your arms, claws emerging from your fingers and digging into the bark, sending splinters flying around you. You mutter a curse, but it helps, giving you the purchase you need to stand on your shaking legs.
You look down, taking stock of your changing body, your broad chest making your waist and hips look oddly narrow, even with the powerful thighs atop your lupine legs. Your flex your right arm, feeling the strength in its enlarged muscles, joints and bones cracking as they adjust. You glance at your left hand, still embedded in the tree, feeling the bones in your fingers stretching and pushing against your skin, the growing strength in your arm, slowly shifting to match your right.
Despite everything that had changed, despite the feeling your body was no longer your own, it was hard to deny just how powerful your body was feeling, the strength in your growing muscles. You could feel something deep inside your mind, urging you to enjoy your changes, to embrace them…
You shake your head, pushing the thoughts away, struggling to keep hold of your emotions. Staggering forward, clumsily adjusting to your new legs, reminding yourself of the need to escape, to find help, anyway of reversing what had happened to you. You manage two steps before the next change struck your body, a wave of tension rolling down your spine, the sensation of a growing pressure at its base.
Your tailbone grows larger, unfusing, new vertebrae pushing your skin outwards to form your growing tail. Closing your eyes, you can feel it behind you, twitching and shifting as muscles and veins knit themselves around the growing bones. Then, the sensation of pins and needles. Thick, black fur forces its way of your skin, growing thick and heavy before spreading up and over your body like fire. The new fur bristles as it grows, covering your thighs, pushing against your hands as you run them down your body, almost losing them in the softness of them.
Reaching up to your wound, it spreads around, leaving the white marks standing proud amongst the thick mane of fur growing over your shoulders, reaching up your neck. Your spine tenses again, your neck suddenly pushing upwards, forwards, thickening with dense muscle. Bracing yourself for what you knew was coming, you winced with pain as your skull began to crack and shift.
It feels like a brick is being forced out of you, the growing pressure causing your skull to push forwards in bursts, your jaw stretching out ahead of you. Your teeth ache, spreading out around your mouth, growing wide and sharp, predatory fangs to match your claws. You look down over your growing muzzle, vision shifting outwards, watching your nose flattening out against your growing jaw. Your ears rise up, stretching out thin and pointed, nestling themselves amongst your hair, now as black as your fur.
The pain grows intense, and you collapse onto all fours, claws digging into the cold ground. Cries of pain turn to low howls, echoing around the forest, joined by a familiar call from behind you. Your skull grows outwards. Still drawing forwards, large and bestial atop your changed body. Finally, the pain subsides, your new skull settling into shape. Heart still racing, you try to calm yourself, panting through your changed mouth, your lengthened tongue resting between vicious teeth.
Holding yourself still, you took stock of your transformed body, sensing, hoping, your changes were complete. Gone was your old, human body… replaced with the body of a werewolf, somewhere between man and beast, predatory and powerful. You grin, sharp teeth flashing it the night, realising just how good it feels, how right.
You stand slowly and look at the forest through changed eyes, the colours muted but everything brighter. This was your home now, in some way, you could tell. All around you can hear the sounds of the forest, the falling of leaves, the distance call of an owl, and the sound of paws padding across the forest floor. Your ears twitch involuntarily, turning to focus on the sound. Instinctively, your sniff the air, picking out the familiar scent of the creature that had attacked you. Your body tensed, heart quickening, though it was no longer fear you were feeling, but something else…
The wolf pads up behind you, giving you a good look at her for the first time, the fearsome body of the creature that attacked you seeming now so welcome and alluring. At first glance, she might have seemed to be an ordinary wolf with rich brown fur, her supernatural nature only revealed when she stood. Her eyes are fixed on you as she walks over, advancing towards you. You might not be .her dinner, but you were definitely still her prey.
“Enjoying my gift?” she asks, her tone warm and comforting despite the glint if her sharp teeth. Stepping closer, she places an arm on your chest, feeling your racing heart, lust and desire growing in your body. Her claws trace the lines they cut into you body minutes before, gazing at the marks her teeth had left in your shoulder. You stand, stunned, enraptured, struggling to find words to say.
“I’m sorry it hurt, but I’m sure I can make it up to you.” She steps closer, moving her hand slowly down your furred chest, pressing her chest against yours, her heart beating in time with yours. Her muzzle brushes against your injured shoulder, nipping gently at your still-tender flesh, teasing you.
“Show you everything your new body is capable of…” she whispers in your ear, her clawed hand slipping between your legs, desire growing deep within you. “... and all you have to do is promise not to run.”