Salt & Pyrrha

A Changing World Novel

Chapter 02 - Forest Fight

 

[ - content warnings: attempted sexual assault and violence, both skippable - ]

 

I pull into a parking space about an hour before my friends are supposed to meet me here. I’d left early just to make extra triple sure that I won’t be late to my own coming out party. I mean, they all already know I’m nonbinary and wolfkin, but none of them have seen me in person since I cast the spell two nights ago.

 

I’m practically vibrating with anxiety as I sit in the car trying to decide what to do with all this extra time. This is going to be it. I’m going to show them the real me! I’ve already sent pics to everyone of course, and they’d all responded with varying levels of happiness or disbelief. The three nonbelievers of my friends seem to think that all this magic mumbo jumbo is some elaborate practical joke that people are playing around the world. They don’t believe someone named ‘Cindy’ just handed out the knowledge of a body-altering, self-actualizing magic spell on the internet. That kind of generosity is just not how any of them were raised to believe the world works.

 

I’d tried to explain the spell I’d spent the last month prepping for, but again they’d claimed it was all bullshit. I can’t blame them honestly. I’d performed an actual magic ritual two days ago to go from a lanky generic shy-as-fuck dude bro shell to a short, tough, and curvy enby wolfkin body. I’m literally part wolf now, like biologically. Even I can barely fucking believe it. 

 

Doesn’t really matter though, I think. Who cares if magic is supposed to be impossible?  I love what’s happened to me no matter what actually caused it. 

 

I smile with a deep-seated rightness as I stare at the piercing green canine eyes looking back at me in the rearview mirror. I’d never felt more me than when I first opened my eyes after the magic was over and saw my silver furred, clawed but still kinda human hands. 

 

My triangular furred ears flick to my right, zeroing in on the distant sound of laughter from a group of teens walking up the block towards me. Uh oh. Time to go. 

 

Unfortunately, my body euphoria can’t overcome my social anxiety, yet. There are a couple other people in the nearby area, and I’m hyper nervous about drawing their attention. I hadn’t been hiding my ears with a hood on the drive over here, so who knows who saw me. I thought it’d be fine, but anxiety is in full swing. Best to ditch the car for now, I decide I’ll go wander in the woods until it’s time to meet with my posse. 

 

There are stories of people like me being shot at, chased, and arrested simply for existing near the wrong bigot during the ‘first wave’ of transformations last month. My change had occurred on the second full moon since the spell had been released by the enigmatic sorceress Cindy. I know there’s an order of magnitude more of us this time, so who knows how the worlds going to react as we become more commonplace?

 

I throw my hood up over my ears - much to the dismay of said ears, which flick against it a couple times before finding a comfortable position. My tail’s already tucked up into my sweater, also incredibly unhappily, and my arms and hands are out of sight below the car windows. I open my door and get out of the car as normal-lookingly as possible - despite having to very carefully manipulate myself so I don’t squash my floofy ensweatered tail too hard. I grab the empty backpack from the passenger seat and shut the door, thumbing the lock button on the keyfob grasped in my left hand. I give myself a once over in the window’s reflection. My black hoodie’s big enough on me now that its hood hides most of my furred face, and a blue scarf awkwardly covers both my little snout-like nose and my fang-filled mouth. I throw on the backpack in the hopes that it will conceal the extra bulk of my tail, and decide this’ll have to be a good enough disguise for now. With that I make my way up the sidewalk towards the park entrance. 

 

Fortunately there’s no one in sight once I get to the trailhead of the park proper. I take one of the less-traveled paths and loosen my scarf, breathing in deeply all of the myriad scents of the English countryside. My sense of smell has increased about a thousandfold since my transformation, and I can tell that a few people have come this way fairly recently: one of them wearing a perfumey scent and the other two with traces of masculine deodorant and cigarettes. My chosen path leads deeper into the forest, and the sounds of civilization soon fade into the distance.

 

Birdsong and the background thrum of insects replace them, and I almost immediately find myself letting go of some tension in my shoulders that I hadn’t known I’d been holding. It grows progressively shadier as I go deeper into the woods, and soon there’s so much undergrowth that it’s difficult to see more than a few feet beyond the trail in either direction. This too is a comfort. 

 

I’ve always loved coming here, even before I took on my wolfy appearance. The forest is peaceful, alive, and most importantly nonjudgemental. I can wander as long as I want without having to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being perceived.

 

I never imagined I’d be wandering as my actual fur-real fursona, of course. A month and a half ago I wouldn’t have believed in magic. Then one of my closest friends sent me a video by a trans girl named Heather, the video had Cindy’s spell linked in its description, and I decided it couldn’t hurt to try. My dysphoria had been an oppressive, ever-present source of anxiety and shame throughout my entire life. The chance to be rid of it once and for all, without having to go through endless waiting lists and surgeries, had been far too tantalizing to pass up. And, being me, I’d also decided that if magic is real I may as well go all the way and give myself the body I’d always wished to wake up with. 

 

I sigh contentedly, walking slowly and willing my heartbeat to slow down. Now that there’s no one around, my anxiety’s finally taking a back seat.

[ - content warning: attempted sexual assault, violence - ]

Of course, as I have that thought a high pitched scream pierces the air.

 

“Get away!” a distant girlish voice cries.

 

My ears lock onto the source, somewhere off the path to my left, and I find myself straining to see anything through the bushes and trees.

 

“Shut the fuck up or I’ll make you wish you had,” says a much lower and more gravelly voice. I hear the sound of heavy, steady footsteps.

 

“This doesn’t have to be hard, Amy” a third voice adds, matter-of-factly. This dude’s a little farther away from the sound of it. Apparently the trio I’d smelled earlier hadn’t gotten very far.

 

I glance down at my hands, staring at the gleaming claws tipping each of my fingers. Well, the magic gave me this strength: time to put it to good use. I slip into the tangle of bushes, vines and ivies, slicing through anything standing in my way. I try to stay quiet while keeping up a good loping pace. 

 

Almost immediately there are two curses from the bastards and a cry for help from the victim, so so much for stealth. I crash forwards, glimpsing a clearing ahead through the trees.

 

As I’d smelt and heard, there are only three people present. One larger guy closest to me is pinning the womanesque figure’s - Amy’s? - arms behind their back, while the third stands a few feet away.

 

I burst into the small open space as the big, burly dude releases the girl and gets ready to throw hands. I sprint at him, easily duck under his first punch, and tackle him to the ground, pressing the claws of my right hand against his neck just hard enough to break the skin a little.

 

“Don’t fucking move!” I roar at him, my voice taking on a dangerous, bestial quality.

 

The girl backs away from us, their blue eyes wide and filled with fear.

 

“What the shit?” the guy across the clearing says, panic in his voice, “What is that thing!?”

 

The girl shakes their head a little to center themselves, then darts perpendicularly to where I came from, drawing a yelp of anger from the second guy. They disappear into the woods, leaving a trail of perfume and fear in their wake.

 

“Let them go!” I growl viciously, “or your friend here gets it.”

 

What exactly ‘it’ is is up to them. I’m not out here to kill anyone, but I’m also not out here to let a couple of attempted rapists off with a slap on the wrist. 

 

The guy I’m pressing down to the ground figures out their situation real quick, as their struggles result in my claws drawing more blood. I let out a low, warning growl.

 

“Keep still,” I hiss.

 

“H-hey wolf man!” the other guy yells, causing me to glance over at him and witness the nine millimeter pistol he’s shakily pointing towards me, “get the fuck out of here or I shoot.”

 

Ah. A gun. Huh. I hadn’t planned on a gun.

 

“I- I’ll still kill your friend before that kills me,” I try to assert.

 

“I’ll take my chances,” dicksquid two says.

 

My prey gives a strangled cry of protest. “H-hey!”

 

Hmm. Maybe I should just walk away? Except there’s no way I can trust this asshat not to shoot me the moment I make any kind of move. Fuck. Well, at least the girl’s hopefully getting to safety.

 

As if on cue, said girl walks back into the clearing from the same direction she exited. Except this time, I almost literally can’t take my eyes off of her. Suddenly the same person is just, absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful, like some sort of fae princess. She looks identical to the person who’d run just a minute ago, and yet... there’s a light breeze blowing her scent towards me, and it’s completely different from before. This person smells of the forest, with no hint of perfume. 

 

“Josh, put away the gun,” she says haughtily, albeit with slightly stilted english.

 

‘Josh’ stares at her with wide eyes as she stalks towards him, but he doesn’t lower the weapon. 

 

“What the fuck happened to you?” he asks, his voice stunned.

 

She shrugs. “I gave you warning.” 

 

Then she bursts forward with impossible speed, her form seeming to ripple and change as she does so, and slaps the gun out of his hands.

 

“Fuck!” he screams. I’m pretty sure I hear bones break. The gun goes flying into the bushes as the dude stumbles backwards.

 

“Get. Out,” the woman says. Except now her voice is a bit lower, more dangerous. And her body is at least a foot taller, with long wavy brown hair and piercing grey eyes. She just, she just fucking shapeshifted right before my eyes. What the fuck?

 

The guy with the broken hand screams some more, then goes sprinting into the trees away from us. 

 

I blink, coming back to myself, and find my prey staring wide eyed at me with blood dribbling from the wounds on his neck. I pull my hand away. 

 

“Don’t ever fucking do anything like this again, or we will find you,” I growl at him, low and threatening.

 

I can smell his piss as he wets himself. Then he scrambles backwards, lumbers to his feet, and takes off after his friend.

 

My heart’s thumping a mile a minute, and I turn to find the terrifyingly beautiful shapeshifter looking at me with a small frown. I push myself to my feet a little unsteadily.

[ - end cw - ]

“We?” they ask questioningly.

 

I smile a little sheepishly. “I figured the two of us working together is more scary than both of us just happening to be nearby,” I explain.

 

They frown, staring at me with an intensity I don’t quite understand. 

 

“What are you?” they ask.

 

“I’m mostly human, a little bit wolf,” I reply.

 

“How?” they ask.

 

I raise an eyebrow. “Cindy’s spell of course. What about you?” 

 

They hesitate. “I am, not from here. Who is Cindy?”

 

I stare at them. “Cindy is the sorceress who’s bringing magic to this world. You’re... where are you from?”

 

They cross their arms. “I’m from different world, maybe. I don’t know. What kind of magic is Cindy bringing?”

 

I stare at them, agape. “A different world? That’s a thing that’s possible?”

 

They shrug. “I don’t know. But I am not from here.”

 

I take a deep breath. Then I gesture at myself. “Cindy’s teaching body-changing magic. She released a spell on the internet, I cast it this past full moon.”

 

There’s a moment of quiet. The shapeshifter seems intrigued, but also uncertain.

 

“Salt,” they say, completely blindsiding me with my own name, “what is this ‘internet’?”

 

I take a step back. “How the fuck do you know my name?” I ask tersely.

 

Their eyes widen and their cheeks color. “I- I am sorry!” they say, eyes darting left and right. “I, um, I guessed?” they offer.

 

I stare at them, and they seem to understand I’m not accepting that as an answer. Literally no one but my parents and my closest friends know that name. 

 

Almost as soon as I have the thought, they sigh, seemingly defeated. 

 

“I, um, I can read minds, sort of,” they say.

 

I blink, waiting for the punchline. They don’t seem to be joking.

 

“Is that, is that possible?” I ask.

 

“I can do it, so, yes,” they reply.

 

“What the actual fuck? How does that work?”

 

And who the Fuck are you? I think loudly in my head.

 

Their lips quirk up into a small smile. “I am Pyrrha,” they reply.

 

My eye twitches. Okay. Well. I guess I asked.

 

“Hi Pyrrha,” I say a little strainedly, “I’m Salt. As you apparently know. How much of my mind can you read?”

 

“Before, I could only see minds when people wanted to fuck me. But since coming here, it has grown some. I can read some surface thoughts if I try hard. It’s how I am learning this language, since I have no one to talk to.”

 

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I take a seat on the forest floor, leaning back against a tree and looking up at them.

 

“You could see when people wanted to fuck you, before?” I ask, incredulous.

 

They nod, taking a seat against a tree across from me. “I still can. People used to call me witch, or succubus. I do not know the exact term in this tongue.”

 

“What language are you used to speaking?” I ask.

 

“I do not know what it’s called in this tongue,” they reply. 

 

I shake my head, trying to clear it of the endless looping ‘what the fucks?’ bouncing around in it.

 

“How did you get here?” I ask.

 

“A God saved me,” they reply. “I was drowning, and there was a golden light, and then I was here. Or, well, further south of here. I came to be in front of a villa.”

 

“Okay back up,” I say, “Gods are also real?”

 

The witch-succubus shrugs. “Maybe? None of you seem to believe in Gods in this place. Gaia was real in my homeland, but I cannot feel her here. The power that saved me was godly, but I have had no contact with any gods since arriving.”

 

This opens up about a billion more questions in my head. And Pyrrha gives a little sigh.

 

“Why are you still here?” they ask, “You do not hope to fuck me, yet you also do not run in fear. Why?”

 

I nearly choke on my own saliva, but I get control of myself and put some thought into my answer.

 

“Well, you just saved my life for one,” I say, “and I kinda know what it’s like to be different, and to be stuck in a strange place. Though obviously you’ve got more experience with both of those than I do.”

 

They frown. “You were helping that girl, of course I assisted as I could.”

 

I shrug. “Not everyone would put themselves in danger like that, and besides, you’re changing my perception of reality every couple minutes in this conversation. Maybe we can talk more often, keep in touch?” I suggest.

 

They blink in surprise. “I, I would like that.”

 

“What are you doing the rest of today?” I ask curiously.

 

“Uh, patrolling the forest?” they reply.

 

I raise an eyebrow. “You do this a lot, then?”

 

“I’ve been living here since I arrived.”

 

“You’ve got to be shitting me.”

 

That one gives them pause. “I, do not think that I am?”

 

Suddenly my ears flick to the left, picking up on the faint sound of voices off in the distance. Pyrrha cocks their head as well, and I watch as their ears migrate up the sides of their head and turn into cat-like curved triangles that focus in on the sounds as well.

 

“How the fuck do you do that?” I ask, dumbfounded.

 

They shrug. “It’s an ability I was born with, that has also been strengthened since I arrived here.”

 

“Saaaalt!” I hear in the distance, it sounds like my friend Carlos.

 

“It seems you’re wanted elsewhere,” Pyrrha says with a smile.

 

“Yeah, do you want to come with?” I hazard, “I can introduce you to my friends, maybe we can find a place for you to live that isn’t in the middle of the woods?”

 

Panic floods across Pyrrha’s face. “Ahhh! Um, no thank you!” they squeak. 

 

In an instant they’re on their feet and sprinting in the opposite direction of my friends. 

 

I leap to my feet but they’re already long gone. I could follow their scent, but I’m not going to force them to socialize if they don’t want to.

 

I make my way back to the path as the sounds of my five friends grow louder.

 

“Saaallt! Where are you doggy doggy doggy?” calls Carlos, much to my chagrin

 

“Shut up Carlos,” Sean cuts in, “This is serious!”

 

“What the fuck did that girl mean? ‘Fighting the men who attacked me.’ What is this, a shitty mystery novel?” asks Raya.

[ - content warning: light death mention - ]

“I seriously hope Salt’s okay, I’ve heard there’s been disappearances and deaths in these woods recently,” Cynthia says tersely.

[ - end cw - ]

I make it back to the path a few yards ahead of them, and slip out into the open with a friendly wave. 

 

“Hey y’all!” I say sheepishly.

 

All four of them stop in their tracks.

 

“Holy shit!” Cynthia and Carlos chorus.

 

“No fucking way,” Raya says.

 

“Salt are you for real?” Sean asks incredulously. 

 

I hold up my claws. “As real as they come, I promise.”

 

“What the hell were you just doing in the woods?” Raya asks.

 

I shrug a little. “I ah, heard someone getting attacked and I ran in to help.”

 

“Are you some kind of vigilante now? ‘Wolfby, the great Defender’?” Carlos asks wryly.

 

“Carlos, shut it,” Raya snaps. “Salt, what the fuck happened?” 

 

I sigh, rubbing the fur on the back of my neck with a palm. 

 

“Let me explain...” I begin.

End of 

Chapter 2 - Forest Fight