The topic of food reminded me I had yet to eat, or in my case drink, and I was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger starting to settle in. I retrieved the werewolf blood from Qubit, which was presented to me in another one of the jars from the village, and made a mental note to get a proper glass.
Much like it was the case around the corpse, my hand began to tingle as I held the jar and I felt both anticipation and excitement rising within me as I eyed the ruby liquid. My nose quickly picked up the scent, which caused my mouth to begin watering. The prickling sensation spread up my nostrils and my lips as they made contact with the rim. The blood was still warm and I felt a sensation of what I could only describe as power spreading through my body originating from my belly as I gulped down the crimson liquid. As I consumed more, the prickling began to slowly subside, but I could still feel it when I focused on it. It was like wearing a brand new pair of shoes, where you sort of just forget about them after some time.
I drained the jar dry and as if a burst of adrenaline and caffeine had suddenly begun coursing through my body, I felt reinvigorated, energized, and very alert. Everything felt sharp, the sounds, the sights, and even my breathing. I was suddenly acutely aware of my entire body, feeling the fabric of my clothes, the taste of the air on my tongue, the energy contained within me. The feeling was intoxicating and I felt like my worries were all melting away.
I snapped back when I heard something break and felt a dull pain in my hand. I did not even realize that I was gripping the jar so tight that it shattered, with one of the shards embedding itself into my hand. I got up and dropped what was remaining in my hand onto the table and examined the barely bleeding red gash in my palm. I gingerly flexed my fingers but was surprised that the pain was more of a dull ache as if I had bruised it rather than cut it open. It seemed this energy, which I am assuming is mana as Lucie had called it, acted as a sort of painkiller.
As I watched my wound close before my eyes, I noticed that the mana seemed to be collecting in my injured hand. Not all of it, but it was definitely moving on its own accord. I remember being somewhat able to move it myself and wondered if it would heal faster if I did it myself and began flexing my hand. Unfortunately, the wound was too small to notice any difference as it soon closed fully, but I discovered something else as I focused on the traveling mana. Rather than it following my muscles, it was listening to where I was thinking of flexing, or at the very least that was how it seemed to me. It was like I was trying to move new muscles that were in the same spot as my normal ones and trying to move them separately. It was a difficult exercise but a challenge I wanted to overcome as I felt like it could bring me closer to actually producing magic. Even doing the reverse of trying to only flex my hand without having the mana move proved to be near impossible as it just kept on collecting.
As more mana arrived, I felt like my hand was getting warmer, and just as I began wondering how much could coalesce in one spot, as if a breakpoint was reached and the tingling sensation overcame my hand and began to aggressively attract all of my mana. I began to worry and tried to redirect it, but with my lack of proficiency, it barely slowed. I quickly took off my glove and rolled up the sleeve while holding my hand away from me and toward the window as I resigned myself to whatever was going to happen.
Please don't blow up. Please don't blow up. I hope I can regrow my hands.
My hand soon became completely numb as I lost all sensation in it, even though I could still move it. I felt my heart racing in anticipation for something to happen and found myself beginning to squint as I watched it. From just looking nothing seemed to even be happening, or so I thought until I noticed a slight change. I could see the hairs on my forearm beginning to rise up and grow. They began to spread and I also saw my hand begin to bulge slightly as if it was a timelapse of it gaining muscle.
Is it just making me buff super fast? Wait, no...
The process seemed to be gaining speed, at which point I noticed that my fingers were getting longer, larger. My nails were growing and the hair was getting thick like fur and graying. It was spreading to just above my elbow, and the hand that now greeted me was not mine, but still very familiar. It was the arm of the werewolf.
It was not quite as big, but still intimidating. I gingerly tried moving it as I got my feeling back and was filled with amazement as it did. I compared it to my left arm and let out a wry chuckle at the sheer difference, and when I brought them together it did not feel like I was grabbing my own. It was so surreal that for a few moments I simply played around with it.
I could still feel the remaining mana gathering in it, and when I gave stopping it one more try and failed, my sense of elation deflated.
"Shit! Shit..."
How do I change it back? I can't hide this!
I soon began to feel a sense of dread creeping up on me as I could no longer feel the mana in my body anywhere other than my hand. Exhaustion was slowly spreading through me as the earlier high from the mana dissipated along with it, and my senses reverting to normal made it feel like everything was muffled.
I sat back down on the bed in case I collapsed, keeping an eye on my new hand as even the supply of mana stored within it dwindled to nothing. A shart pain that made me wince shot up through the entire transformed portion as soon as it was out of juice before once again falling numb to any feeling. I watched with relief as it seemed to be almost transforming in reverse. As the last of the gray hairs receded, I inspected my hand once more to confirm that it truly was back to normal once I got feeling back in it, but noticed that it was very slightly beefier than my left.
I'm not just imagining this, right? Will it look more like a werewolf's arm the more I do it or will it just gain muscles?
I felt like my eyelids were getting heavier, and for the first time since waking as a vampire have, I truly felt physically exhausted. With the last of my energy left, I went over to close the window shutters before I laid back down and closed my eyes. A knock on my door however soon interrupted my rest and, raising my head, found a soft light to be seeping from in between the closed window shutters.
"Valerie? Are you awake?" It was Lucie's voice.
I felt somewhat disoriented as I felt like I had laid down for but a few minutes, if even that, but I no longer felt physically tired. More troubling was the sudden hunger I was feeling and was not so sure about using the werewolf blood as a food supply anymore. Another knock on the door reminded me to reply.
"I'm up. Just a moment."
"No rush. Just waking everyone up. We'll set off once everyone has had breakfast. I'll be downstairs."
I heard her soft footsteps receding after she delivered her message, eliciting a sigh of relief as I was given an opportunity to gather myself. Only when I felt sure no one was at my door did I dare whisper to Qubit.
"Do you have any more blood stored that isn't from the werewolf?"
"I do, but not in an amount to nourish you adequately for the day. I recommend the werewolf blood but in a lower quantity than last night. I have been monitoring your body and the effects of the blood on you, and it would seem it only reacts when condensed. I have also made another observation regarding this magical variable designated as mana that I believe would be vital information for you. It would seem your current body, while functionally that of a living, biological being, is not composed of traditional matter. Mana seems to be able to temporarily create matter, much like when your arm morphed, before disintegrating into nothingness once the mana is depleted. I theorize that should you completely run out of mana, your body will follow a similar process to that of the werewolf's corpse."
"Wait, could I have died from what happened last night? The morph wouldn't end until I ran out of the mana from the blood!"
"You would not have died but rather lost your current body. Your arm seemed to have only been absorbing excess mana within your body, as mana seems to be infused within all of the matter in your body which it could not draw from. This mana integral to your structure was in the process of being replenished before your arm drew everything away. Due to your body being practically composed of mana, it allows for rapid reconstruction, but what commands it to convert to your current form, much like how your arm was returned to its current state, is unknown."
"But it didn't turn back completely. It's... bulkier now." I raised my hand to examine it once more, and sure enough, it still was much like the night before.
"The modification to your arm through mana seems to have a lasting effect on whatever method it uses to determine what form it should assume. I recommend refraining from the modification of your head and vital organs until the cause is found."
That last line of warning caused a chill to run up my spine as I thought of my head turning into that of the werewolf, and potentially even my brain.
Would I have turned into the werewolf? Would I have been myself? Oh god, that is terrifying.
I took a deep breath as I shoved that thought aside. Lately, everything I did seemed to be dangerous in one way or another, and I already had so much to worry about that it was beginning to be hard to keep track of everything I had to keep in mind. And to top it all off, I barely even knew anything of how magic actually worked. For all I knew, my arm transforming could be due to me being a vampire since I did drink blood to cause it to happen.
Come to think of it, how do humans get mana? I seem to only be running out and they definitely aren't drinking blood. I think.
My thoughts were interrupted by a brief but sudden surge of pain all across my body that I somehow instinctively identified as an intense pang of hunger that seemed to consume my entire body rather than just my stomach, and I had a flash of panic as it was much like how my hand had felt just before it reverted.
Thankfully, before I could even ask, it seemed Qubit was prepared and had already placed a brand new jar containing a lesser amount of the werewolf's blood on the table. I wolfed it down immediately, ignoring the prickling sensation that was significantly lessened.
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