I took my girlfriend, Cathy, to see American Werewolf in Paris the other day. I was actually a little surprised she agreed to see it. It wasn't exactly what I'd define as a 'chick flick' but I had been with her to see some of those period dramas and I figured she owed me one. As it turned out, she really enjoyed it. Well, bits of it. As I was driving back in the car she was complaining how werewolves always got the raw deal. "They are always the baddies," she began. "Why can't they be the goodies for once? I mean, why do they have to go around eating humans? What is wrong with a nice hunk of venison from the forest? Thats what normal wolves do, why can't werewolves do that? Oh, and they never get a wolf looking right on screen. A werewolf wouldn't look like that." But this stage we had reached the house and as I fumbled with the keys for the door I asked her what exactly would a werewolf look like. "Well, not that," she said. "Its hard to explain, but they would sort of have three forms - human, wolf and a cross between the two." "Oh," I replied. "A bit of a closet werewolf freak are we?" She looked at me with her large brown eyes and grinned mischievously. "I have done some research," she admitted. That was the end of that conversation and I quickly forgot it. Then, the memory of it cropped up a month or two later while we were camping. We had hiked down to an isolated spot I know on a river. Its about 10km from the nearest farm, with a great little fishing spot. We set up a small camp in a clearing and I proceeded to catch a nice size trout for tea. That evening we cuddled around the campfire, softly talking to each other as night descended. Slowly a full moon rose above the clearing, bathing all in a silverly blue light. "Full moon," I said to no one in particular. "Better watch out, the wolves will be out tonight..." Cathy giggled and playfully thwapped me with a cushion. "Silly, we live in Australia..." I squirmed out of her reach and stumbled towards the tent. "I'm going to bed," I said. "I'll be up early in the morning, trying for that lunker fish which got away from me today." Cathy gave me a little wave, "Ok, I'm going to stay out here a while longer and look at the stars. I'll see you later tonight." I unzipped the tent, found my sleeping bag and quickly crawled inside, drifting off to sleep within moments. I awoke late the next morning, with the sun already streaming into the tent's small window. There was no sign of Cathy, but I did not pay that much heed, she often got up before me. I unzipped the bag and let out a soft groan as the morning chill caressed my skin. Quickly I grabbed my clothes and climbed into them, pulling on my boots as I left the tent. As I exited I noticed Cathy's sleeping bag looked as if it had not been touched, but also dismissed it - she was incredibly neat. I grabbed my rod, a box of lures and headed for the river. It was only a short walk and I stumbled through the underbrush onto the river bank and found myself staring at a very naked Cathy. She was lying on a patch of sandy bank, in a sliver of sunlight. As I saw her I let out a gasp. Her eyes flicked open and her head turned towards me. "Cath..." I began. "Morning," she interrupted. "Just stopped by for an early bath." "Oh," I murmured. She flashed her cheeky grin at me and stood up. "I love being out in the middle of no where... Its so... liberating." Yes, I could see that. "Well, I'll find some breakfast." And with that, she disappeared into the greenery, looking all the world like a forest dryad. This left me alone with my thoughts, so I did what any sane man would - I went fishing, pondering over recent events. It was around that time which I began to recollect our previous conversation about werewolves. It was a stupid thought, but somehow it kept coming back haunt me and I couldn't shake it. I suppose what really cemented the idea in my head was finding the dead kangaroo. I have found dead roos before, but never one this fresh. It must have been killed only a few hours before and whatever had done it had made short work of the body. The carcass had been stripped pretty well clean. "Foxes," was my first thought, but there was something wrong. There was a muddy patch of ground nearby and the tracks of one animal could be clearly seen in it. Big, very big. Too big to be a fox. "More like a dog," I thought. "...Or a wolf..." Lost in my own thoughts I wandered back to the camp, passing the patch of sand where I found Cathy. By chance I noticed the same set of foot prints leading onto the sand. Interested, I looked around. They led right up to the patch of sand where she lay down, you could see where the ground had been disturbed around the impression of her body. Then there was one set of human tracks leading away. The only other set of tracks on the bar were my own. The rest was smooth white sand. A cunning canine which back-tracked? Or one of use just happened to walk over its tracks? No, this was something different. In silent contemplation I made my way back, thinking of Sherlock and his "when all else is eliminated..." approach. Upon reaching the tent, Cathy looked up from beside the fire. "Whats up?" she asked in response to the perplexed look on my face. "Oh, nothing much," I lied. "I just found a dead roo by the river. It wasn't there yesterday. I was just wonder how it got there and what killed it." "Probably a fox," she replied. "No, I don't think so. The footprints around it were too big. And the roo was pretty big - whatever brought it down would have need to be large. Thats not all, I followed the tracks back up the sand bank where I found you this morning and they lead on to it, but not off of it." "Strange," she said. "Yes," I nodded. "But now that I think about, there were no tracks of you going onto the sandbank, or into the water." I looked up at her. "What is going on?" She looked back. "What do you mean?" "Last night you didn't sleep in you bed. I find you beside the river naked this morning? Care to explain?" Cathy looked directly at me. "Ok," she began. "I'll tell you, but hear me out and don't laugh. After that you can make your own opinions." I nodded. "Well, Brian... you see, I'm a werewolf." I think I handled it rather well. I lifted one eyebrow (something I am proud to be able to do) and said "really?" "Yes," she replied. "I am a werewolf and have been since around about sixteen." "Sixteen? Ummm, some sort of family curse?" "No, but that is about when the hormones kick in. And don't worry, I don't turn into the raging beast you see on the movies. I still know who and what I am. I just sort of grow fur and occasionally howl at the moon." I giggled. I couldn't help it. "Oh come on Cath," I said. "You expect me to believe that you are a werewolf and that every full moon you go romping around the countryside?" "No," she said getting defensive. "I don't usually romp around the countryside and I don't change with a full moon. I can change whenever I like." "Oh really?" I relied doing my eyebrow thing again. "Ok then, show me." This sort of enraged her somehow. "You don't believe me?" she almost shouted. "Ok, I'll change for you." With that she began pulling off her clothes. I leant back against a convenient tree and watched her, enjoying the show. Soon she was naked again and, with a last glance at me, she closed her eyes. By this stage I was grinning away like an idiot, wondering what someone watching would think. I had just accused my girlfriend of 18 months of being a werewolf. She had admitted she was and was now naked on front of me with her eyes closed. "Almost like some kinky game," I thought to myself. Then Cath let out a low moan. Sweat began to form on her forehead and her arms began to shake. I sat up and looked closer, from my position it almost looked as if her skin was getting darker. "Trick of the light," I thought. But it continued to get darker, I felt myself twitch as a cold sweat ran across my body. By now it was quite clear Cathy was definitely shades darker and I could see that this was caused by fine hair sprouting from her arms. As I watched, it grew longer and thicker, quickly transforming her from her usual human pink to dark grey / brown colour. I also began to notice muscles rippling under her skin, her biceps bulged and her neck thickened. The change rippled down her body, I watched her human breasts shrink into her body and noticed the small mounds of four other nipples form below them. Her legs grew muscles which would have put Iron Men to shame and behind her I could see what must be a tail, twitch. Her foot reshaped itself somehow, I'm not sure exactly, but I do remember watching her painted red toe nails being pushed out, replaced by claws of polished ebony. I moved my gaze back up her body, watching her hands being replaced with sharpened talons, similar to her feet. A sharp intake of breathe drew my gaze to her head which she threw back. Then with barely a pause she let out a howl which would have woken the dead. At the same time, her mouth flowed outwards into a muzzle. I watched in silence as her teeth grew into sharp ivory fangs. Her ears slid up towards the top of her head and her eyes faded from their usual light brown to a pale grey. She turned to look at me and in an inhuman grown announced "One..." Then she knelt down onto all fours and her hands and feet began changing some more. It was about then I decided that perhaps this would not be the best place to be. I staggered to my feet and with out looking backwards fled into the bush. Behind me I heard a warning growl, but there was no way I was going to stop. It did not take long before I could hear twigs snapping underfoot as what had been my girlfriend gave chase. I ran on blindly, not caring where I was going as long as it was away from what was behind me. I never saw the tree branch. Not until it was too late. It got be directly across the temple, lifted me off my feet and threw me flat on my back. I saw stars, heard bells and let out a loud groan. I sensed rather than heard something near me. Then I felt its warm breath on my cheek. Tentatively I opened my eyes. They focused on grey fur, black nose and a mouth with a red tongue grinning at me. I closed my eyes again and waited for something to happen. I was surprised when I felt the wolf straddling my chest and a rough tongue being licked up the side of my face. I open my eyes and looked at a very large wolf licking at the wound at my head, I tried to get up and it let out a low warning growl and nosed at my head, its heavy frame sinking lower onto my chest. I closed my eyes and gave up. Then I felt the weight change. The hairs which had been pricking at my neck vanished and the weight spread down my body. I opened my eyes again and was looking at Cathy. "Silly Brian," she scolded from my chest where she was lying. "I told you I know who I am - why did you have to run? Now I'll have to carry you back to the camp." She said something else, but I have no idea what it was, since at that point I lost consciousness and everything faded to black. I do remember being carried by something, it was big and warm and soft, but somehow not right. I awoke sometime later, lying on top of an open sleeping bed, with something warm and soft pressed against me. I tentatively open my eyes and looked at the furry bundle beside me. A silvery eye looked back. "Cath..?" I ventured. The huge head nodded slowly. I closed my eyes, lay back and took a deep breath. This was going to take a lot of getting use to, but I could go through the ramifications in the morning. Right now my head hurt too much and I wanted to sleep. I rolled over and placed an arm over Cathy's fur and pressed myself close to her warmth, my breathing slowly relaxing. As I drifted into unconsciousness I can remember feeling the werewolf wrap a protective arm around me, to protect me in my sleep.