Chapter 11
The Sky’s Open Wide

I practically counted down the days until the full moon. I made sure to stay active as well, of course. The Witch had kept his distance from the village for what I presumed to be reasons of either social anxiety or regular old not-liking-people, but I didn’t have any such compunctions. But even though it pained me, in the last few days I did stay near the cabin. I didn’t want to risk messing up the timing, for one. 

The other reason was that I had additional research to do. With the help of Pancakes, who supplied me with hugs, cuddles and the occasional distraction by crashing full-tilt into the sofa, I had been plugging away at the actual magic the Witch had performed so close to the full moon a month ago. With some luck, if I could figure out what he’d done, I could maybe get an idea of what he’d been trying to do. The odds were low that he had actually intended to drag a complete stranger into this world. 

But I was pretty sure the moon was connected, somehow. Had whatever had gone wrong also turned me into a wolf? And a woman? On top of getting a better chance to figure out what had happened, that was the other reason I was excited. Getting to be a wolf again would be educational, sure, but I also kind of missed the way Pancakes would get all excited at me being the same size as him, and being able to express a similar sentiment through wagging had been nice. 

And it would, purely for research purposes, be interesting to turn into a woman again, and had nothing to do with the way Octavia would get all excited at the sight of me. Not at all. So I counted down the days and wrote down several different ‘spells’, which read a little bit like a glorified cheats manual straight out of an early 2000s gaming magazine, and prepared for the day itself. 

The biggest obstacle I’d run into with this magic and trying to expand on it was the lack of feedback. I had no idea how magic had even been discovered, because the strange combinations of words, poses and motions, sometimes accompanied by certain colours, items and even articles of clothing, that caused reality to break for a moment seemed completely arbitrary. 

What I needed was breakpoints. I’d learned a bit of programming in high school, and I had remembered the concept of stopping whatever was happening so you could look at your code in action without trying to read everything at once like it was the matrix scrolling past. Sadly, that’s all I’d remembered, and I had no idea how to apply that to this particular instance. 

So, instead, I had set up several magic circles just outside the house that would make certain symbols light up — something that was easy enough to do — whenever certain magical effects happened — which was a lot harder to do — and then maybe try to find a way to burn them into some wooden planks — which was likely to burn my house and/or the forest down. 

I was all set. A part of me had expected that I’d be anxious. After all, for the next few days I’d be changed into a different body from the one I was in most days. It didn’t turn out that way, though. Maybe it was because even in this new body I had a kind of low-level anxiety about having to inhabit a body in the first place — a fate nobody should have to go through if they didn’t want to. Whatever the reason, the thought of being wolf and woman for a few days genuinely didn’t bother me. 

The night itself I made sure to put some extra logs on the fire. I wanted to spend the first night, at least, going for a run through the forest. Stretch those puppy legs. And when I got back, the last thing I wanted was to come back to a freezing cold cabin. 

I made sure to give Pan some extra food too. He’d been a really good boy these last few days, even though we hadn’t been by the village for a bit, and I knew he kind of liked the long treks through the snow. That, and I didn’t want to have to fight him for my own food when I no longer had thumbs. 

One thing I’d half-noticed last time, and I was curious to really try to pay attention to this time, was that I didn’t seem to be all that tired. I had spent most of the night awake as a wolf, and then most of the day awake as a woman, and excited to see the world as either, I had spent only a very minimal amount of my time during that full moon actually asleep. 

Was I getting energy back from switching from one to the other? Was one form “asleep” while the other was awake? Did that mean my body wasn’t really changing but being swapped out? So much to try and figure out, and no way to really control any of it. 

Pancakes looked at me, said “Yip” and tried to lick the back of his hind legs and fell over. He was the greatest cat in the world who also happened to be a wolf and in that moment and any moment before it I had never loved anything more. He kicked himself in the head and then bit his foot. 

“Pan,” I said to him, “you’re so stupid and I love you.” He looked at me and panted happily. I rubbed the top of his head. “C’mon, it’s about to be sunset, let’s head outside and get ready.” I tossed one last log on the fire and stood up, grabbing my coat from the hanger, and held the door open for Pancakes to head outside. I kind of wanted him there, for moral support. I had the feeling it would be nice to have a friendly ‘face’ around when I was changing and this time maybe not going through some kind of panic attack. 

The sun was still clinging to the horizon like a kitten on a “Hang in there!” poster, and the sky was painted in every colour imaginable, provided your imagination was limited to orange and purple. It snowed slightly. I walked to the circles, Pan close next to me, and did a check of my handiwork. The biggest circle was supposed to throw up a magic sigil if any magic was happening. Then there were a few different ones. One I hoped would burn a sigil into a plank if there was a wolf. I even managed to make that sigil look vaguely like a wolf. 

Finally, a few different sigils. One that would burn if moonlight was indeed important, one for any kind of transformation magic, and then a few different ones for different kinds of magics. Teleportation, object swapping, even illusions and light distortion. 

Standing in the first circle, I did the light-creation magic moves again. That one was easy, and it made Pancakes go “Mwee!” Immediately, the sigil lit up too. Good. It still worked. 

It was rapidly getting darker as the sun set. Something I’d noticed last time was that, even with the moon visible in the sky, the change didn’t happen until it was proper night, proper dark. I still had a minute or two, so I blew air into my hands to keep them warm, which only helped a little. I beckoned Pan over and shoved my hands in his fur. Much better. 

The sigil lit up. Right, Pan was a wolf. “Okay nerd,” I said, pointing, “sit.” I couldn’t have him in the circle while I changed. I needed to observe everything. Okay. I cleared out a bit of snow and looked up at the moon. Any second now. I took off my coat and folded it. I wasn’t taking off my shirt and pants until I was in full wolf-form. No way was I going to be sitting butt-ass naked in the snow. 

I looked over the various circles again just in time for everything to explode around me in a violent cascade of light. Every single one of the circles and sigils was sparking like crazy. Wait, no. I squinted through the assault on my senses. Through all the lights and colours, I saw there were a few that weren’t lighting up! I saw the sigils burning into the wood and scorching patterns deep into it. I’d actually be able to make use of some of this… well, when I had thumbs. For now…

Not so much. I shrugged the shirt off my head, and fell into the snow. The lack of cold on my paws, on my fur, was genuinely delightful. I shook, a motion that came natural, to get any snow off of me, and then trotted over to Pancakes. The ‘wolf’ sigil turned off when I stepped out of the circle.

“Woof,” I said to Pancakes. He cocked his head, then seemed to recognise me, opened his mouth, and very gently and carefully clamped his muzzle over mine. 

“Wghh,” he replied, and he was right. I blew some air into his dumb face and he backed off with an offended look on his face. Now, time to get this dumb baby inside, and then go running. I nudged Pan to the door and pushed it closed behind him. Maybe catch something? The thought of actually killing my own food with my own teeth and then eating it raw hadn’t sounded particularly appealing before, but it was a lot more palatable now that I was like this. Oh well, I was just going to have to play it by ear, teeth and tail. 

With an explosion of speed and energy I’d never felt before I’d landed face-first in the snow here a month ago, the gently drifting snowflakes turned into a hyperspace-tunnel in front of me. I’d forgotten how freeing it was to run through the trees, dodging on auto-pilot. 

After a few minutes I had to slow down, and I was happy to just jog in a large circle around the cabin, just burning through some energy. Even though the sun was down, my eyes had no trouble adjusting to the darkness, and the snow seemed to illuminate everything. 

My breath formed little clouds again and I stuck my nose in it and swirled it around, but stopped when I heard a high-pitched yapping noise. I looked around carefully until I realised that must’ve been my own laugh. Shaking my head, I turned around and came face to face with… another wolf. I almost reprimanded Pancakes, until I realised a few things in quick succession. This wolf:

1. Was not Pan.
2. Was wearing a shoulder bag of some sorts. 
3. Was a girl wolf.
4. Was laughing at me. 

“Mrr?” I said and cocked my head. She laughed again, then kicked up some snow at me. I shook my head as the powdered snow landed on my face, and then kicked some back. She deftly jumped aside and crouched low, her tail wagging excitedly. 

Well, if that’s how she wanted to play it… I jumped up and forward at her, but she dodged again. I growled playfully and gave chase. She ran. I followed. Then she turned around, ready to kick up snow again, and I turned around. Now she was chasing me, and it was only after a few seconds that I realised that I was having fun. I was actually having more fun than I had in quite some time. 

We chased each other in circles around my cabin, until I was genuinely too out of breath and I needed to relax. She led me to a stream and a small pond, where I made the dubious decision to drink from groundwater, but only after she did. Then, we looked at each other, because that felt like the right thing to do. She was a pretty wolf. I was trying to figure out for myself how I knew she was a girl. It was something about not just the way she sat, but the way she held herself, the shape of her muzzle. 

But then… I looked down at the pond. Yeah, it figured I was a girl too. Something about that made my tail wag. Strange. I looked back up at her, and she was wagging too. Maybe it was to do with finding someone like ourselves.

I began making my way back, until I realised that that might not have been the best idea. For one, it was probably almost dawn. Last time, the transformation had taken longer than I’d anticipated, and my perception of time seemed to be a bit different. So, for the sake of safety, it was probably best not to lead anyone up to my cabin, no matter how much fun they were to play around with. 

Especially now that we were calming down, it was dawning on me that she was probably someone from the pack of werewolves the Witch had talked about. Well, I wasn’t sure who she thought I was, but I didn’t want that pack to find out, especially not where I lived. 

I turned around and started to walk away in the wrong direction, parallel to where I was going. Behind me, the lady wolf took a few steps too, so I steeled my heart, and growled as I turned around. The wolf seemed genuinely surprised and froze in her tracks.

Before she could do anything to make me regret being so mean, I broke into a sprint, and only after making sure after an hour or so she hadn’t followed me, did I double back to the house. I felt genuinely awful. She’d seemed nice, and I was glad that my first encounter with the pack had gone well, but I couldn’t reveal myself yet. Especially if I was going to turn into a very naked woman soon. 

The sun started to come up just as I reached the front door, and as my limbs elongated I hurried inside and scurried up to the hearth. The fire was still smouldering but I tossed some new logs on there, then warmed my hands. 

Maybe because I’d technically been naked for most of the night, even as a wolf, but being nude in this room didn’t bother me. Before, I’d never been comfortable without clothes, but something about being like this as a woman… I looked down, and felt my cheeks redden a bit as I looked back up. It felt a little voyeuristic, but then again, who wouldn’t like to look down and see some—

My thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. I ran over to the couch, shoved a protesting Pan off of the clothes I’d prepared, and got dressed as quickly as I could, before dashing to the door and opening it just a crack. 

“Maya!” 

“Tavi!”

Elamimax

Ela!

I'll see you all tomorrow! :3