“You try now.”
Stephanie wasn’t sure she wanted to, was more interested in being able to stay in her human form. Not wanting to become the monster. Afraid she would lose herself.
The problem was there being no way of telling if she would be able to control the change next time. It worked this time, but what about the next? She couldn’t risk not being able to control it, for fear of hurting someone. Or worse, making them like her. The best way to deal with this is to learn control through practice. Oh, what the hell, she thought and pictured the image of herself in the fox form.
Suddenly, the agony lanced through her entire body. Bones snapped and elongated or shortened as necessary, she could feel her skin breakdown in some areas and form up in others. Her entire skin tingled as red fur erupted from her pores.
As swiftly as the pain came, it was gone, leaving an emptiness in its wake. She stood taller and firmer, she was instantly aware of the sounds and smells around her. The way the breeze brushed against and rippled her fur. She could smell Jason. She felt…Invigorated! Scanning the area, she was amazed at how crisp and clear her vision was. With the full moon, she could see well at night, but this was different. Like full daylight. It was amazing, but it scared her as well. She liked this too much. It was too strong, too amazing.
About to change back, Jason interrupted her thoughts.
“Hey. Race you back to the house?”
“Wait… What?” she asked, but he had turned and took off running. His speed was amazing.
Thinking for a moment, she took off after him.
They ran fast and wild. It was as if there were no obstacles in their way. Slowing, Jason allowed her to catch up. They traveled in a roughly straight line, jumping logs and bales of hay. As they neared the house, they traveled at an amazing speed.
As they approached the fence, Jason pulled ahead, his longer legs eating up the ground before him. The fence was only four feet tall, and was something she couldn’t jump normally, even with a running start.
Jason took it at full speed and leaped a decent four feet or more over it. So startled by the leap, she almost forgot to jump herself. Bunching her legs, she leapt when she was nearly on top of the fence, clearing it easily. Hitting the ground running, she took off after Jason.
Slowing a little to let her close some of the distance between them, he was still around the side of the house before her. There was a loud booming noise and a flash of light.
Rounding the corner, she watched as Jason’s body hit the ground. Fleetingly, she scanned the area. With his shotgun, smoke tendrils sliding out of the barrel, twin ghosts escaping their haunts, her father stood on the porch. Eyes wide, he hurriedly pumped the gun and shakily leveled it at her.
“Stephanie? If it’s you, and you understand me, please say something.”
“You shot Jason, Dad!” Her voice sounded strange to her and by the expression on her father’s face, it sounded strange to him, but something about it was familiar enough, he lowered the gun.
“I’m sorry. I heard something running hard in the fields coming this way. After all the warnings you gave me about how dangerous you might be, I thought it best to prepare myself in case what you said was true. The last thing I wanted was to have you come upon me in my sleep.”
Hardly listening, she moved over to Jason, picturing herself as a human in her mind. Absently, she felt herself go through the change. She felt next to nothing.
“Good god.” She heard her father utter.
Jason was covered in blood, holes perforated his loose t-shirt, his chest fur matted and sticky.
“Jason? Jason?” She bent low over him.
Laying there, unmoving, his eyes finally fluttered opened.
“Ow. That fucking hurt.”
Jason moved to get up.
“Oh, no, you lay back down. You had buckshot blown into your chest. It’s amazing you’re still alive, Jason.” It was. Very amazing. Considering how much blood there was.
“It is amazing, isn’t it?” Again, trying to stand.
She pushed him down, but he used it to his advantage and pulled himself up on her.
As he stood, she heard a couple of thuds hit the ground. Jason must have heard them, too, because he bent down to pick whatever they were off the ground. Several more thuds accompanied him as he leaned over. Watching, she saw him pick several things off the ground. Holding his hand out to her, she opened her hand to catch what he was dropping into them.
Three heavy objects drop into her palm. She examined them. They were small pieces of metal, almost like mangled lead balls. Glancing up at Jason, she noticed he was in the middle of changing back to his human form. The end of his transformation was punctuated by the sound of dozens more buckshot striking the ground.
“Good god,” her father muttered, again.
Glancing up at her father. “Sorry for scaring you, sir.” Jason apologized.
“Sorry for sca…,” her father sputtered, mortified. “You’re apologizing to me? I’m the one who shot you!”
“Well, that is true,” Jason began, “but you wouldn’t have done so if I hadn’t come around the corner so fast and looking the way I did.” Jason barked a laugh. “I would have shot me, too.”
Her father appeared like he was going to pass out, his face pale, almost white in the moon’s radiance.
Jaws clenched and her hands on her hips, Stephanie lashed out at her father. “What are you doing here, Dad? You were supposed to be gone, remember?”
Her father lowered his head.
“I’m sorry Stephanie. It’s just, I thought you might need me. Also, I didn’t know if when you guys changed if you would be able to change back.” He gave a sheepish grin. “There are some decent people around here I didn’t want to see get hurt.”
Staring hard at her father for a moment longer, her countenance softened. He did the right thing she decided. Stupid. But right.
“Why don’t we go in and sit,” she suggested.
Glancing at Stephanie and giving a curt nod, he turned and made his way inside.
Stephanie stared at Jason. It seemed impossible he was standing there as if nothing had happened, though he had, a minute ago, been blasted off his feet by a shotgun.
He smiled at her. “I’m all right, Stephanie. Trust me.”
Frowning at him, she was not sure if she believed him, but could see no evidence to the contrary.
Continuing to smile at her, he moved to take her hand. Taking his, they went inside.
They each gave their account of the night’s events to her dad and answered his questions as best as they could. They changed forms several times to let him watch. Stephanie was exhausted. It had been a long day, and a long evening with some stressful events. She had a great deal to think about.
They discussed returning to school. At first Jason was all for it, but she convinced him they should wait it out for a bit. Just to make sure they had control over this thing. Capitulating, he agreed she had a point. Quite honestly, she was scared. This thing scared her. It also excited her at the same time.
Several hours later in the wee hours of the morning, Jason and Stephanie finally retired.
They spent a few months at her father’s place learning what they could of their new forms and helping her father resurrect the farm. They found after a few more changes, the transformation became almost instantaneous, and nearly painless. Though, there is only so much pain you can ignore of your body being dismantled, stretched, and fused back to a new body.
There were many things they learned. Their senses were more acute than before. Their sense of smell and eyesight were especially keen. The ability to see almost perfectly at night was amazing, as well as their increase in strength and speed. In time, Stephanie became comfortable with the changes happening with her and suggested to Jason they return to school.
Although both had contacted the school and requested a medical leave of absence, the schoolwork must have been piling up, so Jason readily agreed.
They said their goodbyes to her father and headed back to school.
Leaving was tough. During the last month, her father and she were able to heal much of the damage caused during her childhood. They were starting a new relationship which promised to be special. As their relationship healed, it brought new life back to her father.
Every day, with their help, he worked tirelessly on the house, exacting repairs and much needed maintenance. Returning to the fields, he planted new crops of corn. When she left, they shared a long and warm hug. She knew he would be okay. When Jason and she backed out of the driveway, she could see tears running down his cheek. She knew she would be okay, too.
Chapter 6
Returning to school was easier than she had expected. Beth was ecstatic she was back and wanted to know all about what happened. She asked Stephanie to change for her, because she had never gotten a chance to see it.
It was a little awkward to be asked to do it, like she was some kind of circus freak or something. But she knew Beth wasn’t like that, so she changed for her. She was a little worried Beth might be a little weirded out by the whole thing, but she took it stoically.
Everything was going well at school and with Jason, as well. It was a nice thing she liked him so much, because she could sense him wherever he was. Everything was going as well as could be expected, and for a while it was like the transformation thing was only a dream.
Sitting next to each other at the kitchen table in the apartment she shared with Beth, they worked tirelessly on their homework. Months had passed since Stephanie’s initial shift. Life had returned to relative normalcy of classes and schoolwork.
It had been a long night and their eyes drooped and their thoughts grew sluggish, but they were trying desperately to finish up the last of the schoolwork they needed to get done for tomorrow’s classes. Stephanie stared blankly at the calculus problems, trying hard to convince it to solve itself, but to no avail. Math was hard enough when rested.
Pressing pencil to paper to try for another go at it, she felt her mind lurch. It was as if someone had grabbed her whole body and yanked in one direction. It was a clumsy grab, heavy handed. The strong pull lessened, and she felt her muscles ease, though she didn’t remember clenching them. There was still a pull, but less than before. Staring off in the direction it came from- north, maybe northwest, out of the corner of her eye she caught Jason also staring in the same direction.
“Did you feel it, too?”
Turning his head, he gazed at her, his body still facing the pull, and nodded.
“What do you think it is?” The question was left unanswered. Though they both knew they needed to find out.
Hank and Simon sat around the fire outside their cabin, cooking up a deer they hunted down earlier. They ate half of it while in bear form but saved the rest for the evening’s meal which they chose to cook over the fire. While hunting and feeding in their bear form was exciting and freeing, they both realized the risk of getting carried away in the power of their Lycan body. Though they could hunt and feast in bear form, they chose to do so only occasionally, relying on more mundane methods most days.
They appeared different than they had only a few months ago. Hank let his beard grow out and it was now full and scraggly. His hair was longer as well, now reaching his shoulders. Sim had filled out as well. It appears, along with the extra strength, came the muscle shape as well. Facial hair had started to grow on his face, but it only came in at the lower jaw line and the upper cheek, leaving the middle somewhat sparse.
These past few months had been wonderful for both Sim and him. With the situation they were in together, they couldn't help but grow closer. They shared something like no other two could share. They could always sense the other’s presence, an unspoken acknowledgement of the other’s importance.
They sat in silence around the fire, neither needing to speak. A weird tingling crawled up Hank's neck. It was like someone dragging a string up his neck. The string dragged from the back of his skull and out the front. It dragged his head around to face south-west. It unraveled inside his brain as it traveled south, to reach its destination and grow taut. He could feel a slight pull on him in that direction. Sim, he noticed out of the corner of his eye was standing, staring off in the same direction.
He wasn't sure what it meant. But, he knew it must have something to do with them being lycanthropes. As strange as it seemed, he could sense no hostility from the feeling. If anything, it brought a sense of peace to him.
"Sim?"
"Yeah, Dad?"
"It's time to go." Standing, Hank walked to the house.
"Right behind you, Dad."
Chapter 7
Sylvanis knelt in the garden behind her latest home. It had been a tumultuous time these last eight month. Harder for her parents, she knew. The moving, searching for new jobs, and the separation from their families, all to raise her. And yet, they had no idea as to whom they were raising.
In many ways, she didn’t know who she was — a child of this world and this time or a woman of the past? Her memories, though spotty at times, were of someone from a time long ago and far away.
Now she understood why she was here, alive now which was what mattered. Her power was returning to her, a dribble at times, a rush, overwhelming her, at others. There was an urgency to it which frightened her. She learned long ago to trust her power, and when it was urgent, something important was coming. She only hoped she lived long enough to find out what it was.
She had gambled, and her life was the wager. But the bones were cast; it was only a short while till they revealed their roll.
Her parents, if she could still call them that, had left. They had suffered profoundly for what her essence had been forced to do. They essentially lost their child upon her arrival, though she promised herself she would endeavor to be a daughter to them. She smiled. You shouldn’t promise things you don’t know if you can accomplish, she chided herself. After all, she might not live through the night.
Shaking off her doubt, for it was the doubt of the child she was. Regardless of the age of her memories, she was still, in some ways, a baby. Sylvanis hoped her gamble paid off, because there was much to do.
There was a shuffle off to her left, a presence on the wind confirming she was no longer alone in the garden.
“You are slipping, Sylvanis.” Kestrel’s voice was still shocking to her, for when she drove the knife into the woman’s heart, she thought for sure it was the last time she would hear it. Rising, she turned to face the woman.
“Have you lost the old ways?” Kestrel’s eyebrow arched. “You neglected to hide your presence from me… I could sense you from the other side of the world.”
Kestrel moved into the light from the porch. Sylvanis gazed at her. Kestrel, of course, was unchanged. Tall, regal, and beautiful. Yet, cold and hard, like the alabaster her skin resembled. Black hair flanked her face and flowed down over her shoulders. She wore a dark green robe of what Sylvanis believed to be silk, given its reflective quality. It was hitched in the front with a belt, looped over twice, enough to keep it snug to show off her curvaceous body.
Never one to be jealous of Kestrel’s beauty or shape, she felt a little envy rise inside her now when she considered her own shapeless body. Pushing down those thoughts, they were the child’s in her head, not her own. This was going to be difficult if these thoughts continued to push their way forward.
“Good evening, Kestrel. I see your spell worked well. Although vile in nature, it was a creative way to escape your punishment.”
Anger flashed briefly across Kestrel’s face but fled promptly as she smiled.
“Your counter spell was equally creative, Sylvanis. To be honest, when I woke, I was quite astonished you had the nerve to conceive of such a response. I see your essence has made its mark upon the body of the one you confiscated.” Her lip curled in a sneer. “Yet, you still have not answered my initial question. Have you lost the old ways? By not hiding your presence, you
must have known I would find you?”
“I wanted you to find me.”
Kestrel, who had been moving closer, stopped, wary.
“What do you mean? You wanted me to find you?”
Sylvanis took in a deep breath and released it slowly before answering.
“I was hoping you would join me.”
Kestrel barked a laugh. “Join you? Join you for what? Tea?”
“Join me in the work we began long ago, sister.”
“Don’t call me that!” Kestrel snarled at her. “You turned your back from the right path long ago, Sylvanis. When that happened, you ceased to be my sister. You were unable to do what needed to be done. You failed to do your duty as a Druidess.”
Sylvanis could do nothing but shake her head.
“It was you who turned from the right path. It is not our place to decide the direction any one animal species should go. Our duty, our calling, is in teaching, and healing. Our job is to teach mankind how to live with nature, not to force them.”
Kestrel moved forward again, stepping within an arm’s length of Sylvanis.
“You are wrong. They are destroying this Earth. Haven’t you sensed its pain? It cries out in suffering, suffering caused by mankind and its unrestrained desire to expand at any cost. If you had let me do what needed to be done centuries ago, our Earth would be joyous!”
Sylvanis shook her head as Kestrel spoke. “Oh, Kestrel, you hear what you want from the Earth. Don’t you understand? It is always in pain. It is not done growing, yet. It’s like a child going through growth spurts, and it can be painful. You would understand if you listened to the Earth, not just heard it.
“There is still time to correct your course, Kestrel. Work with me. Help me guide this age in how to live with nature. They have made vast strides from where they were a few short decades ago. Together, we can teach and heal as we were meant to.” Even as Sylvanis finished, she knew Kestrel’s answer. She would never change. She would continue to fight and attempt to control mankind, to ensure it would not damage Earth anymore. For those she couldn’t control, she would destroy.
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