Chapter 05:
I tried to do something with my great big paws that would be productive during my time in the moonlight, but something just wasn't clicking. It felt like nervous energy started to build up inside me every time I tried to settle down and do something with my hands until it burst out and I found myself pacing like a restless... wolf. The image came to mind again and again, of a wolf pacing without cease in my mind, and when the image settled fully, color flooded the mental image until the beast might as well have been standing, glaring, into my eyes. Golden fur, golden eyes, and massive, the creature's piercing gaze ran right through me.
HUNT
The thought came as a shock to me, so clear and precise and pure it was that it took my breath away. It wasn't just a word, it was... an urge. A physical and mental thing that had me twitch to obey. I wanted... to hunt, I realized. The wolf's tail waggled a little and its ears perked up. What was going on? Then it hit me - I was a werewolf. Maybe this was... part of that? I wasn't going insane, this really was in my mind and heart, and the image in my mind's eye didn't fade or change, no matter what I did. It was... resolutely a wolf. For a moment it was a wolf standing on a dusty ruined street, and in another, it was in a ballroom. I could just about imagine the wolf in a suit with a bowtie, but it... she, I realized, remained resolutely a wolf that seemed to amusingly tolerate the attempts to change my perception of it.
I see... Are you... what are you? I tried to think the words as clearly as I could, and she tilted her head, clearly hearing me speak to her in my mind.
YOU
Her response was direct and simple - not a word, but a concept that had me blinking because I knew it was the simple truth all in one go. Wolf-me didn't lie - she didn't know how to. She had no concept of deception, of subtlety. Not unintelligent, I figured, but a good deal... simpler, refined down like the head of an arrow. She seemed calm, but... bored. She was bored. She didn't want to use these hands of mine to work on a broom of all things, she wanted to... images assaulted me. Running through the woods, cold breath in the air, breath hot on my lips! Bright eyes in the dark searching for movement, ears tracking every sound! A chase, a catch, and teeth closing on something hot and wet and screaming until-!
Wolf-me licked her chops, and said HUNT again in that all-consuming voice that filled every inch of my perception of her, hitting me in the face as a concept.
"What's wrong? You've been... staring at that bit of wood for twenty minutes?" the voice of Gelidia said, clear as day, from next to me. I glanced at her, and shook my head, setting the ur-broom down with my other things carefully. I'd made my way back to the inn and gathered up my things before trying to make the broom. The cloth strips my clothing had been shredded into was still cloth, so I kept them and set them with the knife and spear, which were too tiny in my now massive paws to do anything with. I had claws, so I'd figured I could use them to make tools still when... this had happened.
PACK
The concept hit me as I thought of the ghost as... a friend. That was my only word for it - we'd only just met but it was easy to think like that, especially after my previous life, before coming here. Easy friendships formed from necessity, faces and names obscure to me now but the facts of them lingered relatively fresh in my mind, even as they had begun to erode like a dream. I looked to Gelidia and carved a single word as the mental image of... of wolf-me watched me, allowed our paws to be used to communicate. She'd been letting me do it so far, and now... the prospect of a hunt was on the horizon. Of course she would!
I NEED TO HUNT, I THINK
My blocky, deliberate hand was easy to carve into the wood with my claw. It was no more able to resist my hand than the dirt on the street had been. She looked at me and blinked.
"Need?" she asked, sounding... sort of disturbed, if I was honest. Her expression when I looked bore this out and I shrugged.
THE WOLF IN ME IS BORED WITH WORKING
and then, I pointed to the first carving.
Gelidia's mouth thinned into a line, but she shrugged "Well I can't stop you. You won't find anything to hunt in town, animals don't come anywhere near it, but I bet there's game outside the town. I don't think there's anything that will be dangerous to you out there, but do be careful, I'd hate to be haunting your corpse!" she said, somewhat exasperated. I let my muzzle loll open a bit and felt my tail wagging behind me, thumping the floor a bit as I stood and stretched! I'd been crouching down, and when fully standing, the ceiling of the room I was in booped my head and squished my ears a bit, perked as they were on my head. I streeeetched, bending backward a bit, shifting my stance to support myself, and found a little grunty whine escaping my lips as I did so. As I did, so did my mental image of my Wolf! She dipped her front, eyes shutting a bit as she streeeeetched.
Alright, we hunt!
My wolf bounced on her forelegs in excitement, her own tail joining mine - one and the same as it swished behind... us. Strange, but not unduly so - the thought felt about right. Us. We. This body - the hybrid form we were in... was our body, not just... mine. She was me too, but it felt more comfortable, for me, to think of her as separate from me a bit. Her thoughts weren't mine exactly, her mental image didn't match my own concept of myself, she was me.. but also not me. She seemed fine with that idea, didn't object, just excitedly bounced in place and play-bowed to me, eyes intelligent and bright in my mind's eye. I made for the door, and dipped a shoulder to sidle through into the night air.
I found a ring of skeletons waiting for me, but when Gelidia followed me a moment later, they froze.
"KRAAAAH" one of them said, and the others stood a bit straighter. That skeleton stepped forward, his halberd at his side for all the world like a soldier! Had the skeletal guardsmen all respawned? I peered at them, and put my Inspect skill to use.
Skeleton Guard Captain of Lambstock, level 4, attentive, concerned
The guard captain? And he was a good deal higher level than me. That had to mean he was tougher, right? Had I fought him already? I had no idea, none at all. Gelidia stepped forward, footfalls silent on the cobblestone as she moved towards the guard captain. When her light hit him... I could see the spectral outline of a man there, riding around his bones, but little else. She shook her head.
"At ease, Captain. This one is serving the house of Windbinder, and is no danger." she said in teh face of previous evidence. I'd wiped the floor with these guys before, and I could do it again. Wolf-me agreed wholeheartedly with a kind of cocky pride.
The guard captain pointed at me and said "KRAH? KRAAAAH RAAAAR" and I could hear a whisper in the air as he did so, interlaced with the skeletal voice coming from old bones. I'd broken them... but maybe monsters respawned? They WERE the undead, and that was a major factor, right? They'd turned to light and dust and I had no idea where they'd gone... but here they were again.
"The werewolf?! But my lady-!" the skeleton's voice said, and Gelidia put her hands on her hips, tilting her head just slightly as her voice became amused and frosty.
"You are a skeleton, captain, and I am a ghost. Emily here is a werewolf. What was your objection again?" she said with a voice like a snowcone - sweet, syrupy, and cold.
"Right... I see your point, Lady. But she attacked us earlier in the night!" he protested, as a last ditch effort. So it HAD been these fellows, before?
"I watched that fight, if you could call it that. YOU stuck a spear in her side - of course she got irritated! Now just you go about your business, Captain, and don't you dare do that again! She is not to be treated like that!" the spectral woman commanded, and the captain stood tall, back stiff with annoyance and stung pride. He executed a stiff about face, and addressed his men.
"Return to your posts! you heard Lady Windbinder - get back to it! This place isn't going to KREAAAAARRRH" he faded and returned to screeching as Gelidia turned as well, and moved over towards me.
"Sorry they attacked you earlier." she apologized sincerely and I shrugged, tail wagging a little.
"Mrarraraerr. Huff!" I said, as I tried to reassure her without thinking, making her shake her head and smile. I'd tried to say 'no harm done, except to them!' but I think the doglike smile and wagging tail, along with the tone, said enough for her to understand the meaning behind it! I'd wiped the floor with those skeletons once before, and that was before even having a skill to help! I had to think it'd be even easier, now. Sure I'd been hurt... but that didn't seem a big deal when I didn't even take half an hour to recover fully! Wolf-me felt pride at that. We'd kicked their asses handily, and it felt good.
"Go!" Gelidia chuckled "Go hunt! Nobody's gonna stop you." she said. So, I did just that.
I took a few steps towards the ruined gate, but it felt more natural to slip to the semi-quadrupedal stance to progress. And, I found out as I poured on the gas, a good deal faster! The world seemed to blur as I accelerated and found... that I could go even faster! Exultation filled me, and when I ran past the gate guard skeletons, I did so in a golden-furred blur! My hands shot forward, gripping the earth and pulling me forward, even as my legs curled under me! Then, once I'd pulled with my claws, I kicked downward and shot ahead, and this method of movement turned me into a golden furred rocket into the woods! I tried to laugh, and what came out was something like a wheezing pant as my tongue lolled out and heat filled my body edge to edge in my fur. Panting came naturally after that, washes of heat billowing out of me in clouds of steam that condensed water out of the air despite the balmy evening air! Exhilirating was too mild a word for running like this! I could taste the air, feel the wind in my fur, and freedom burned in my breast as excitement flooded every inch of my body!
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
I reached the tree I'd climbed so slowly and carefully when I'd first arrived here in the world in what felt like seconds rather than the hours it had probably taken me when I'd made my way down and towards the town earlier. To slow down, I simply shifted my stance low and wide, and planted all four limbs fully, plowing a furrow as my bulk skid sideways on my paws and to a stop, ripping the forest floor up with ease as I drifted sideways, then backwards the way I'd come as if I'd been a rally car rather than an eight foot tall werewolf. I had no idea how fast I'd gone, but I had a feeling it was a hell of a lot faster than I could have sprinted when I'd been in school back home, closer to a car on the road than a person on foot. The transformation felt worth it in that moment just after that run! I couldn't actually see a downside in that moment.
> [Health: 110/110]
> [Stamina: 60/110]
> [Mana: 80/105]
My mana was still recovering at its snail pace, and I'd burned through a fair whack of stamina doing that, but... other than that, I felt perfectly alright! Even as I watched, my Stamina ticked upward by 15 points before the status menu faded. I rose back to two legs and, panting, faced upward towards the greattree's roots. IT was still so, so big compared to my tiny frame, and really put things into perspective for me just how... big this world could be. My tail waggled a bit behind me still, but... introspection could wait. I had a hunt to get to!
HUNT!
my wolf was just as excited as I was!
RUN! FREE!
and I had to agree!
That's right!
I'd moved very fast, yes, but my passage had upset several creatures in my wake and ahead of me. I could hear the trumpeting snort of a deer as it bounded through the brush and away! I could hear the terrified patter of something smaller running away at top speed - a bunny, I figured, and I figured... a bigger bit of prey would be more fun, right? So, I took off after where my ears told me the deer had gone. Again, for the second time that night, the forest floor blurred under me and it took me several seconds to spot my prey, bounding and trumpeting again and again in terror as it fought for distance from me! It was a buck - an older one if I had to guess, but still plenty spry, with a rack that looked like the gnarled branches of a tree as I closed distance on it.
It was cunning prey though, and darted away from me into a copse of trees, and bounded over a fallen log like a spring, bouncing ten feet into the air if it was an inch! I didn't bother - I just slid sideways under it and sprang after it. The deer glanced back in terror as I reached its side, and... its hooves flashed backward so quickly I couldn't react properly with a KRAK as they hit me in the face and chest! My world flashed white for a moment in pain, the sharp hooves slashing open my snout and staining my face and pelt red with blood, cracking bone beneath with ease, but that hardly deterred me - just slowed me down a moment as red rage flooded me behind eyes watering with pain! I caught up again, and swat the thing's flank with all my might, eliciting a startled braying noise as its haunches went sideways with a horrible crack.
Had I broken its spine, just like that? I didn't have any capacity to care, and no desire to prolong the inevitable. Instinct guided my teeth to the stag's neck, and the creature's terrified thrashing and braying ceased with a horrible, meaty crunch, filling my jaws with hot blood as the creature died. It twitched and kicked and thrashed, but it was uncoordinated compared to the graceful, bouncing thing it had been before. My muzzle hurt, and so did my chest, but I didn't care a wit as... I relished the brutal kill and successful hunt with savage glee that both shocked and excited me. The pain, the blood, the victory, it all became... one thing.
HUNT!
Wolf had a word for it, and so did I in that moment of blood in the darkness. I let go of my prey at last, and it flopped to the ground, neck and lower back twisted at an unnatural angle. I wasn't hungry... so the meat didn't appeal to me in that moment. TAsting blood was enough for my Wolf's satisfaction. Notifications awaited my notice. AS blood streaked from my jaws, and coated my furred breast and claws, I acknowledged them.
> FIRST BLOOD!
> You have slaughtered Deer White-Tailed Sprinter, level 6!
> Bonus XP was gained for defeating prey above your level!
Level six? I guess it wasn't a young deer. That made sense in a way - I guessed that animals had levels and things too. Did that mean White-Tailed Sprinter had been his class? Again I guessed that made sense. I wondered what other classes animals could have, and what... on earth their core arrangements might be like, but shrugged the thoughts off for now as unimportant. Another notification waited for me.
> Your [MONSTER, COMBAT] Bestial Might skill has improved, and is eligible for rank up! Rank E is a free rank.
> [MONSTER, COMBAT] Bestial Might, Rank E: 0% Your cursed body surges with monstrous strength! Jump higher, run faster, hit harder, in any shape.
No change there, so maybe it was an incremental improvement, like the others? None of my skill-ups had cost a skill point though... I wondered when they would? But still.
> Ding Ding Ding! Your Lycanthrope class has reached level 2!
> You have gained 1 skill point!
> Health +10, Stamina +10, Mana +5
What, just like that? I'd only just leveled up before! Had I leveled and then some earlier, fighting the skeleton guardsmen? Or had I leveled just from taking on such a high level deer? Then I looked at my status.
> [Health: 55/120]
> [Stamina: 40/120]
> [Mana: 82/110]
Holy cow! I reached up to my muzzle to find it a little crooked where the deer had struck me in the face, and found... that my chest really, really hurt! Blood was oozing around my fingers - my blood! The deer had walloped me good, right in the face! Had I been human, that would probably have just killed me outright, I realized. Had I really come that close to death? I looked down at my prey with renewed respect. Wow. Level six - got it! He'd done like fifty points of damage to me with one double kick! I might have killed him with a swipe and a bite, but... damn. I nodded in respect to my Prey.
I must be sure to use all of him if I can. He was very strong.
Wolf-me didn't fully understand, but she didn't object, and didn't mind as I carried the deer back to town over my shoulder with ease.
"Are you alright?" Gelidia said from beside me as I carried the creature back towards Lambstock. I nodded.
"I... you're bleeding." she said, clearly concerned, and I shrugged. It hurt... but not a ton. The pain of the injury was rapidly fading as my health ticked upward.
"Don't you shrug at me! That thing kicked you in the head! You should be dead!" she snapped, and floated in front of my face, bringing me up short! I blinked at her, but she was right. Next time I hunted, I'd definitely respect the crap out of them hooves! Holy cow! I wouldn't let that happen twice - once was plenty! I paused to scratch one simple word in the dirt, then kept walking.
OUCH!
She sputtered! "But-!" and again I paused, writing
ALREADY HALF-HEALED FROM THAT
> [Health: 100/120]
> [Stamina: 100/120]
> [Mana: 85/110]
About... fifteen points of health per minute, and twenty points of stamina per minute, I figured. Something like that. Gelidia blinked at me and her jaw worked, eyes wide, and she just managed a weak "Holy shit." I grinned at her again, tail wagging.
"I guess it makes sense... you are a werewolf." she allowed. I nodded. Yup. Certifiably a monster! "Just be careful, okay? If your health hits zero, I'm... pretty sure you'll still die. That was close - if that thing had gotten you twice..."
I'd have been dead. It was chilling, but she was right. I had to be more careful! Even as I contemplated my own mortality... a notification popped up!
> Your [MONSTER] Bestial Vigor skill has improved, and is now eligible for rank up. Rank C costs 1 Lycanthrope skill point.
This would cost 1 skill point? Well... it was literally saving my life, this skill. It wasn't a hard choice to make at all! As predicted, it would passively improve just by me... surviving in this world. Point well spent. I accepted the skill point expenditure and just like that,
> [Monster] Bestial Vigor, Rank C: 0% Your cursed body teems with life force! You resist harm, recover supernaturally quickly from injury, and hunt the night tirelessly! You now have the ability to spend mana to heal yourself, and may invest mana to toughen yourself still further!
Holy cow! Did I just get a new ability?! I thought about it... and found a sort of switch inside me. Not one, but... two of them. I imagined them as something like a wheel. I could... open the flow of mana into them, and control how much I gave to either one. It didn't take a whole lot to heal the health damage I'd taken, but I could see that healing like this... would be quite the sink of mana points if I got badly hurt! My muzzle gave an uncomfortable lurch and popped back to true, and the pain in my face and chest... vanished as I did so.
> [Health: 120/120]
> [Stamina: 120/120]
> [Mana: 75/110]
It'd taken a bit of mana to fully fix all that - about ten points for the minor damage that had remained, and my stamina had recovered naturally. The other little 'wheel' was harder to 'turn' and only accepted another ten points of mana, but... my fur began to shimmer and shine faintly in the moonlight. My fur felt tighter on my form, and Gelidia tilted her head at me.
"Did you just... heal yourself?" I gave a wolfie grin and nodded, tail wagging so hard my butt wiggled side to side! I bounced on my hind feet, excited, and felt my ears actually flopping atop my head as I made a happy, excited noise in the back of my throat! This was SO INCREDIBLY COOL! She blinked at me, and let out a rolling belly laugh, clutching her tummy as she laughed, and laughed and laughed!
"God that is so cute! You look like a damn golden retriever, bouncing like that!" she said, and I found myself laughing too, a noise very like a whine and a pant escaping me! I couldn't help it - the mental image was just too much! Wolf-me didn't mind a wit - she was just happy that Pack was happy, and felt good after the hunt!
Together, the pair of us made our way back to town.