Werewolves Within

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Werewolves Within - part two.

Brian looked so peaceful lying there, I hope there was no lasting 
damage.  Closing my eyes, I willed myself back to my human form.  My 
fur sliding back into my skin always made me shiver, but it never 
lasted for long.  As nice as it was, my werewolf form was not really 
designed for delicacy and finesse.  For that I needed to be my human 
self.

Opening my eyes I looked down in time to see my talons pulling back 
into my hand and fading to their usual nondescript translucent white 
fingernails on very ordinary pink hands.  Wrapping a robe around my 
now hairless, and hence cold, body I crawled from the tent.

The camp site was a bit of a mess, partially from where I had changed 
the first time, then, when I chased off after Brian I had knocked the 
table over and when I carried him back I seemed to have taken out the 
remainder of what was standing.  Slowly, I began to clean the mess 
up.

It took me a good hour to get some semblance of order back, then I 
lit the camp fire and began preparing some dinner.  For a moment I 
was tempted to change and go after another kangaroo, but last night 
had been an accident.  I was loping through the bushes and came 
across it suddenly.  Naturally, it had panicked and tried to get 
away, unfortunately it slipped and slammed into a fallen tree before 
falling over a drop and onto a pile of rocks.  

I thought it was dead, but it was still clinging to life, but it was 
clear it would never move again.  I put it out of its misery and my 
wolven instincts took care of the rest.  I never got any pleasure in 
killing another living animal.  Occasionally I would take off to the 
forests for a night and hunt down rabbits or foxes, they were 
introduced vermin, so I thought that was all right, but my human side 
still rejected it.  I thought it was a waste of life and very messy, 
I would get covered in blood and had to follow yesterday's little 
exploits with a bath in the river.  That was one of the reasons why I 
was lying on the sandbank when Brian found me.

Brian, my thought kept coming back to him.  What was he going to do.  
I mean, he literally fled into the bush when he saw me change.  It 
was quite funny really, him running at full pelt through the 
underbrush with me loping along a little way behind him.  Then he hit 
the branch and went down like a tonne of bricks.  He was pretty badly 
hurt, but I think he will snap out of it.  

At the moment I am more concerned with what he will think of me.  In 
the tent, he seemed to be relatively relaxed, but that could be the 
blow to the head.  We will need to talk once he is better.

The sun slowly set and the day faded to night, clearing once again 
bathed in the silvery light of the full moon.  It was strange, humans 
believed the full moon was the time of the wolf.  In a matter of 
speaking it was, but this was because it was lighter and they could 
see better.  Luckily, there was no effect of it upon myself.  
Although, on nights like this, with still forests and uncharted 
territory, the wanderlust was strong.

A moan from the tent brought me to my senses.  It was Brian, 
obviously in pain.  I quickly hurried to the tent and crawled inside.  
Using a torch I looked him over.  The lump on his head had gone down 
slightly and the cut across his temple looked as if it was several 
days old.  I suppose something should have clicked then, but it 
didn't.  I gently place my hand on his forehead.  He was running a 
high fever, sweating and in my unprofessional opinion, was generally 
in a bad way.

I unzipped his sleeping bag and opened it to expose him to the chill 
of the night air.  In the process I pulled of his sweat soaked shirt 
and jeans.  That was when I noticed the fur.  

It was definitely fur.  No man is that hairy.  It currently covered 
his shoulders, chest and was slowly descending on his body.  I was 
confused.  It looked as if he was undergoing a change, but he was not 
of my kind.  This was not possible.  

Then I looked up at his tortured face and noticed the cut.  The cut I 
had licked in my wolven form.  Somehow, I must of infected him.  My 
saliva had mixed with his blood and now he was changing too.  I had 
never thought it was possible, that a bite from a werewolf was enough 
to change someone, I thought it was just a myth, like most of the so 
called facts about me, but what is there was some truth to it.  What 
if it was a virus of some description, able to spread through bodily 
fluids, like AIDS.  Not for the first time, I cursed my lack of 
knowledge of myself.

Nothing like this had happened when we had kissed or had sex, maybe 
it was only through direct contact or perhaps all those other times 
his body had be exposed little by little until today when it reached 
saturation point?  Whatever the reason, it was clear to me he was now 
changing.  I knew from experience, the first change is the longest 
and hardest, as different instincts battle for control of your body.  
Tonight was going to be a long night for us both.

I left his side for a moment to grab a bucket, some water and a towel 
which I used to wet his brow, while I murmured soothing words in his 
ear.  I have no idea if they worked.  Sometimes he would seem to 
calm, then suddenly his body would contract and he would let out a 
loud moan, other times, there was no reaction at all.

His fur continued to grow down his body, covering his skin in a 
familiar silvery grey colouring.  Then his physical frame began to 
adjust.  I could hear the bones and ligaments creak, pop and crackle 
as they bent and reshaped themselves.  It started at his feet, that 
awful stretching as his ankle moved away from his toes.  His toes 
grew longer and his talons pushed out behind his toenails.  Hie legs 
continued to reshape themselves, muscles moving under his skin, bones 
strengthening and his pelvis adjusting itself to carry his new shape.

He let out another moan and his spine lengthened into a tail, worming 
itself into existence between his legs.  I continued to watch, 
somewhat embarrassed as a sheath grew around his member and his 
testicles were covered with a dark furry sack.  The change continued 
up his chest, new muscles rippling under the skin, up to his 
shoulders.  If anything, he would be able to put most body builders 
to shame.  

At this stage, his arms did not change much.  I knew they stayed 
similar to a human, bones thickened, they grew stronger and his hands 
became slightly less functional as another set of talons protruded 
from his finger tips.  For a moment, all was still, then tendons 
began to grow around his neck.

He opened his mouth and let out a loud howl of pain as his teeth 
pushed themselves out, drawing his mouth and nose into a muzzle.  
Fangs pushed their way through his gums and another howl escaped his 
lips.  This time somewhat deeper and more reverberating than the 
first.  His ears slid up towards the top of his head and his eyes 
faded to a very inhuman grey colour.

With another moan his body almost collapsed back onto the mattress 
and he lay still.  His large furry hand, still grasped against mine 
where I had unconsciously grabbed it sometime during the change.  
Slowly, his breathing slowed and he slipped into a deep sleep and I 
crawled from the tent.  

I poked at the ashes of the fire and realised at least three hours 
had passed, but he seemed to have gotten through the worst of it.  On 
a physical level anyway, how he was mentally was anyone's guess.  I 
through some more wood on the fire and stared at the flames, lost in 
my own thoughts.

A soft whine pulled my back to reality and I jerked around to look at 
the tent.  By the light of the flames stood a large wolf, pawing at 
the mosquito netting of the tent.

"B..Brian?" I muttered hesitantly.

The wolf nodded its large head and pawed one more at the netting.

Reaching over, I quickly unzipped the flap and he squirmed through 
the opening.  He was a magnificent beast.  A pale silvery grey 
colour, similar to myself, with those haunting wolven eyes which can 
peer into your very soul and so big.  He was huge!

Tentatively at first, but then with growing confidence, he gently 
stepped around the campsite on wobbly legs.  Soon he had mastered the 
art of four legs and was prancing about the clearing, occasionally 
loosing the knack and falling in a heap.  I could not help myself 
giggling at his antics.

Eventually he returned and lay beside the fire, watching me with his 
impassive eyes.  I wondered what he saw.  As he lay there, his paws 
slowly reformed themselves, his spine straightened and his face 
pulled back to something vaguely more human.  

He grinned.  Although to anyone else, they probably would have taken 
off into the night when they saw his sharpened teeth.

"So," he managed to growl.  "I like you now?"

He looked a little confused at the deep gravelly voice coming from 
deep within himself, but then his tongue lolled from his mouth in 
another grin.

"Yes," I nodded.  "You are like me."

With a sigh, I felt the events of the previous days descend on me and 
I almost fainted.  He was on his feet and beside me in an instant.  
Gently holding me in his paws, guiding me back to the tent, where he 
wrapped a furry limb around me and I drifted off to sleep.  My last 
thought was of how easy it is for the protector to become the 
protected.

I awoke sometime late the following morning.  The sun was high 
overhead and birds sang in the trees.  Brain was still wrapped around 
me, but very much human.  I slowly squirmed out from under him, 
awaking him in the process.

"Sorry," I whispered.  "Didn't mean to wake you."

"Nahh," he muttered sleepily.  "I was about to get up."

I grinned and climbed out of the tent, stretching in the sunlight.  
He followed me out a few minutes later.

He sat on a log and I could see him thinking things over.  I decided 
not to say anything until he asked.

He looked at me a little perplexed.  "You're a werewolf aren't you?" 
he asked.

"Yes," I replied.

He seemed a little relieved at that, although he paused before 
asking, "And I'm one too?"

I nodded slowly.  Again he seemed relieved.

He sat there for a while longer and I prodded some life back into the 
fire.  

"So how does it work?" he asked suddenly.

I looked up, "What, being a werewolf?"

He nodded.

"Well," I slowly replied.  "Its a little different to being human.  
And its not like the movies.  You do heal faster, but that is just a 
faster metabolism.  And a silver bullet would probably kill you, then 
again a standard lead one would probably be just as effective.  Also, 
up until yesterday I would have said a bite wouldn't pass it on, but 
now I'm not so sure.  As for control, you have it pretty well all of 
the time.  I find that if I need it, my wolf's instincts are just 
below the surface, not trying to take over, but more like provide 
support if I need it.  And like I said yesterday, you don't need to 
worry about going hairy at a full moon."

He nodded again, "So, how do you change then?"

"Me?  Most of the time I just think about what I want to become and 
let my body do the rest.  With practise, you should find it does not 
take that much concentration.  Assuming you are like me, you also now 
have three forms.  Human, wolven and wolf.  Wolven is sort of a 
combination between the two.  However, you should also be able to 
change individual parts of yourself."

I looked up to find Brian staring at his hand.  Slowly, his talons 
slid from his fingers and fur grew along the top of hand, the 
underside turning to leather pads.  The fur stopped part-way up his 
arm, while the bones began to reshape themselves.

"Cool," he managed to mutter.  

Then he lost his concentration and his hand quickly shifted back to 
its usual human form.

He looked a little disappointed and I giggled before beginning to 
rummage through the packs for some coffee.

I stopped when I heard an "Oh wow!" being murmured behind me.

I turned around to find Brain peering down the front of his robes 
with a look on his face, stuck between horror and pleasure.  

"Brian!" I almost screamed and I grabbed a potato from the top of a 
pack, hurling it at him.  "That's disgusting."

He let out an "ow" and rubbed his shoulder where I got him with the 
potato.  He looked at me sheepishly.

"Sorry," just checking some minor details.  "Just wanted to make sure 
everything still worked."

"Does it?" I countered slyly.

"Not sure," he responded.  "You sort of interrupting before things 
begun to get interesting."

I resumed my rummaging, but not before adding, "Well, we can see 
about that later..."

I could not see him, but I knew Brian suddenly had a grin from ear to 
ear.

***

Epilogue.

That camping trip was about six months ago.  Since then everything 
has gone relatively smoothly.  We did have some complains from the 
neighbours about some unruly dogs in our backyard.  But the Ranger 
could not find any evidence of them and we have never owned any.  
However, that relatively close call was enough for us.  We have just 
moved to a little place in the country.

It is very secluded.  Completely surrounded by State Forest and 
National Parks.  The agent was amazed we were interested in the 
place, but we love it.  We also seem to be fitting into the local 
community quite well.  Everyone seems to have something to hide, but 
everyone gets on relative well.  

Brian swears he has seen strange things wandering through the forest.  
From his description, they sounded like centaurs.  But centaurs don't 
exist, then again, neither do werewolves...

The End...for now... :)



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