Well… I may have spent too long thinking of such things, staring and observing such… strange creature for far too long, truly looking for the first time without being driven by mad hunger, able to stay in control enough to simply watch.

Of course the crunchy I had for snack a few minutes ago is partially at fault, having dragged him out of the cave to have a more open area to eat it with ease, and having the opportunity to finally test out the barriers this body had between my bigger version.

And to discover that, to my delight, it was as easy as shaking the rain off of me, by merely thinking of my other form I could grow into it, a blinding light covering my body in a ticklish sensation.

I look at my claws and two pair of hands at each side, and sigh at my heart; glad I had not lost it forever, my dear strong and fierce body…

If I had somehow ended up losing it… I do not know how I would be able to eat the bones out of my meal with those dull teeth humans have… nor how to hunt down my prey with these soft hands I think while eating, leaving only smears of blood behind, tearing the flesh with my arms and crunching the bones with my razor fangs while realizing the miracle it was for humans to still be alive at this point.

Of course I should not forget that, to compensate, they had very annoying tools at their disposal, such as those swords and guns…

I lick what is left over my face with my long black tongue, the aftertaste lingering as, satisfied and with a full belly, I sniff the damp air of the forest and enjoy the rain that washes my scales, shaking like a dog once I stand and turn around to the enter the cave.

Only to feel a piercing pain rip inside my skin and boil my blood.

With a low growl I scratch my head with my talons, only for my eyes to briefly see the red markings pulsating and burning along my skin, hissing and giving off a burning smell.

But they didn’t hurt as much as before over my skin… no, this time my brain was the one being pierced, poked by needles, images flashing and a pair of cold blue eyes drifting in between, the sound of steps, voices, the temple, wooden boards and floor, people approaching, soldiers, and those strange sounds humans make to communicate, my own vision being overtaken by those images, unable to focus between the pain and the flashes.

‘Who are you?’ A voice said, monotone, and this time my vision goes from there to where am I now, as if switched back, my talons in full display as my four arms tried to ease the pain in front of me, all for naught.

‘Where are you?’ It echoed in my mind, as if not made of sound but of thoughts, as if spoken inside a cave to drift away in the corner of my mind, flashes of faces, of soldiers, looking at me, no, at ‘him’, mixed together with my true eyesight, with the entrance, the cave, the crooked red-white tree, the statues.

And as strangely as it came… all of that vanishes, the pain, the flashes, the voice, and yet I could still feel its presence at the back of my mind, leaving me at lost for a moment.

I look around me, ears attentive to any sound, but there was… nothing, nothing beyond the wind, the rain, and the forest.

I recognized that place, that temple… how could I not, I had being there just a few hours ago. Swallowing and clicking my jaw I think that it may be my cue to rest… though something told me that this was far from over.

Decided to put and end to that weird day, I change to my new found body and lay down in the cave with my favorite meal sleeping just a few steps away.

A strange day indeed…

~~~~~~

Since I had slept the entire night of the transformation I wasn’t really sleepy, but rather stressed out by so many different things happening all at once, pilling up together.

And even if I’m still confident in my capability of adapting to any kind of situation it didn’t mean that it didn’t get tired, only that I knew my limits and how to respect them; and how to suppress them too when needed.

In the wilderness a mistake could cost your life, a wound could fester no matter how small, one could not spend too much effort in hunting down a prey or they could tire themselves more and more, nor could they wait for too long and end up starving themselves.

The ones alive in this kind of life were true warriors or beasts…sometimes both, and it took quite the iron mind to survive in this kind of environment.

The type of mind a beast would have.

And the patience of one too.

So I wait for the human to wake up, the moon trespassing the clouds until it reached the horizon to give place to the orange blinding sun.

Out of habit I go deeper into the dark, a crouching figure with far too long hair blending in with the darkness, only the eyes peeking over the locks of disheveled hair.

I look over to the human on the floor, tilting my head and watching as he sleeps, flaring my nostrils to take his smell in, sweat mixed with the odor of the places he has being to before, hearing his heartbeat, the rasping of his lungs inhaling, then exhaling, the blood flowing through his veins and even his stomach digesting, all sounding and feeling so… alive.

It was all so much that I kept staring throughout all night without realizing, so captivated by such creature that I had so brief encounters with, short-lived for so many reasons…

Do I look this weird now? I can feel that my face moves far more than in my other form, not being able to perform small muscle behaviors like these for how many hard scales I had, especially since they hid the skin and render such things useless.

Under such intense unblinking gaze, of course I would easily notice when his body starts shivering, softly at first, but increasing until his teeth start chattering together.

I frown at that. Why is he trembling? Is he excited? Or trying to threaten me? But he is asleep, plus he doesn’t have scales to display, nor color changing, no sound beyond the teeth… What was he up to? Maybe they had some trick up his sleeve after all… and yet time passed, his eyes remained closed, and the trembling only increased.

… Is this human broken? They are very fragile soft little things after all… Maybe he hit the head too hard? It was just a small bump, he didn’t even hit it with too much  strength, but still it was possible…

 Maybe… Maybe I should just eat him, yes… after all, is all of this even worth the trouble? I could always use this form to lure people on the roads, just like they found me, alone and scared, they would never expect that this fragile form contained such a beast inside…

At that point it didn’t matter the crunchy I had earlier, my eternal hunger is present in my mind too, so I lick my lips and deeply inhale the stale air of the cave filled with this man’s odor, and that already makes my mouth water as I swallow, cracking my neck and knuckles as I approach slowly, already anticipating the warm blood going down my throat, the soft tender raw meat melting in my mouth, the crunchy bones to chew on later...

When I realize I’m already standing right on top of him, looking down with unblinking eyes, face stiff as my nostrils flared, as if addicted to the smell, having to brush my arm on my mouth to clean the saliva that overflowed.

Then… I guess I will serve myself … where should I start I wonder… the best soft filled with fat part, or the worst chewy one? I will leave the bone to gnaw later for sure, to savor slowly and suck the fat out of it, yes…

I reach out with black talons, these soft hands hiding the deadly weapons within, eyes wide as three pupils dilated in the sea of red, unblinking staring and anticipating.

Thanks for the meal Bennett, I’ll make sure to enjoy your meat until there is nothing left…