She had started to worry about her decisions in life the farther into the forest she walked. At least the decision to piss off, and literally piss ‘on’ a gift from, a goddess. She had been walking in the forest for hours, carefully picking her way through thick brush and trees. She hadn’t seen any animals, only a few earth-like insects. Grasshopper looking bugs with long feathery antennae, a few coin sized beetles that buzzed loudly away when she got too close, what looked like a spider with bright blue carapace that shook its web as she walked by. She wasn’t an entomologist by any means, but they fascinated her none-the-less. This world was strange and new, and she was stuck here. She had no idea what creatures might live here, no clue as to how to handle them. She was almost excited.
Then it started getting dark, and she remembered that she was walking through a forest in another world, alone, facing the unknown. She cleared out a small space against a large tree, scattering some branches out before her and hunkered down with her back to it. She knew better than to walk through the woods at night. If an animal didn’t get you, then breaking your leg from finding some hidden animal’s den would. She still had her bookbag with her, wrapping her arms around it protectively and holding it close. It had her laptop (now useless), a notebook, some pens and a couple of textbooks from her classes in it. In her pockets she had her wallet, a pocket knife, some earbuds and her cell phone. It too was useless, but she could at least listen to some music as it died.
No, bad idea, she thought. She shouldn’t distract herself here. Once it was dark, that's when hunting animals would start looking for prey. She didn’t want to be deaf when a wolf or worse started looking at her like she was food. So she sat, watching the slow descent of the sun through the trees. Exhaustion had started filtering into her, her eyes growing heavy. Her body still hurt from getting transported here, she was sure she had bruises everywhere. She sighed, back pressed against the tree, eyes closing slowly as her vision unfocused.
It's funny, she thought as she started to drift, that bush almost looked like a wolf…
*CRACK*
Her eyes shot open, she froze. In front of her, meters away was a wolf, a huge wolf. It snarled, growling as its head poked out of the brush. Drool and foam dripped down its gaunt face and she shivered at the cruel, hungry look in its eyes. Shit, shit, shit shit!
Slowly she started to move back against the tree, careful to not look away. It had already made eye contact, it was a challenge to her. She slid up the tree, bag in one hand, the other pushing herself up the tree. She would back up, away from it hopefully not provoke it. As she moved its growl grew deeper, louder, but still it didn’t move. She shook as she stood up, adrenaline pumped through her veins. Then the wolf stood up.
She gaped as it stood up on its hind legs, as it stood over her growling and snarling. It had a human torso, human arms and long, digitigrade legs. It looked… sick. Its coat was dull, filthy and patched. She could see its ribs through its skin. Its arms and legs were emaciated, no muscle definition to them at all, but its hands. Its hands were long, boney, and tipped with a claw that made her think more of a chef's knife the more she looked at them.
It was a werewolf.
She let out a long, shaking breath as she slowly backed away. She trembled with each step, a cold sweat breaking out on her body. She watched it carefully, just like her instructors had said, maintaining eye contact, standing as tall as she could, trying to make herself not worth hunting. It watched her, its eyes slowly tracking her. Then it lunged.
It lept towards her, arms outstretched asif to hug her. She skipped backwards, trying to escape, to turn and run. But it was fast. She felt its claws dig into her arms, she felt its jaws close around her shoulder and she screamed. Burning pain shot down her arm and into her chest, like hot knives carving into her. She struggled against it, squirming and flailing. It was no use, she was going to die.
Then a thought raced through her head, something from her first year in college. A self-defense course she joined in on. She raised her boot, slamming it down onto the wolf's foot. It let out a howl of pain as she ground her heel into its paw, she felt the crunch of bone, the wolf's grip on her arms slackened and she pushed away from it. She ran, trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder and arms, trying to ignore the woozy feeling in her head as blood poured out from the wound. She gasped for air, hearing its growls and the crash of a body through brush as it gave chase. She stumbled, feeling herself falling and tucked her head down. She rolled painfully, whimpering as she tried to get back up. She felt the wolf's breath first as it bared down on her, she rolled again, under its limbs and kicking away from it, catching it in the ribs. She scrambled away, her hand outstretched and grasping onto a fallen limb as it caught her with its claws and tossed her onto her back. It lunged, she screamed, bringing whatever was in her hand in front of her to try and defend herself. Her eyes were closed tight as she felt her arms and legs shudder, it was on top of her, it was going to eat her. It let out a shuddering breath above her, then it stopped.
Slowly she opened her eyes. Its face was above hers, its curled snarl slowly relaxing into a sagging of lips and tongue. The branch she had grabbed, shoved through its chest and dripping blood down on to her. She stared up at it, still as a doll and watched. It could still be alive, she thought, it could suddenly snap at me and end everything. She was too scared to move, too scared to even let out the breath that screamed in her lungs. Minutes passed, they felt like they were stretching into hours as she laid under it bleeding, waiting for the inevitable. But it never came, the wolf was dead.
She pushed it to the side, feeling its heaviness as she struggled. Finally it slumped over and she got a good look at what had happened. The tree branch she had grabbed was thrust fully through the wolf creature's chest, its heart dangling from the end. She breathed a sigh of relief, unable to stop her shaking as she started to walk away from it. She drug her bag behind her, she was probably still going to die. She could only see the edge of the wound on her shoulder, ragged and torn skin, and the claw wounds on her arms stung as her hoodie brushed over them. Her once blue hoodie was stained red with blood, and she could feel it dripping down her fingers and chest.
Then she found herself at the edge of a clearing, thinking of how the day had gone while her life slowly trickled out onto the dirt. Staring up at three moons she didn’t recognize and thinking to herself, that this morning had started out so well. She kept staring as her head spun, the three bright moons glowing down at her, it was so quiet. So, so quiet she could hear her heart beat in her ears. *Thump thump… Thump thump*. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from those moons, she didn’t want to. If this was the last thing she could see before she died, well at least it wasn’t bad.
*Thump-thump*
She had done pretty well… right?
*Thump-Thump*
She would have been a great zoologist.
*Thump-thump*
Man, Fuck that Goddess.
*Thump-THUMP*
She pitched forward, gasping for air as her heart began hammering away inside her chest. Pressure built up inside her with every beat of her heart. She screamed out as she felt something start to crawl across her skin. Her voice grew more and more painful as her face seemed to shatter into pain. She felt bones crack, felt them shifting as if her body was rearranging itself. She could barely see through her tears, looking down at her hands as fur bristled up out of her skin. The pressure in her chest grew and grew, she sank her new claws down into the dirt, moaning out in pain as something burst out from behind her. Her mouth felt too full, more pain as she felt them move at their own accordance. She stared back up at the moons again, howling out a cry that sounded so much louder now. Then the pain stopped, and began to fade.
She flopped forward, whimpering as she gazed into the grass in front of her. Everything hurt all over again, but even that was fading away into a dull ache. She lay there panting, staring down at her nose. Her… her nose was longer, and she could see better now than she could before. She brought a hand in front of her face, focusing on the fur, the sharp claws that grew from finger nails. She crawled up onto her knees, noticing that her boots had slid easily off around her paws.
That made her stop. Her paws? Her Paws!?
She had paws, she had two dog paws instead of her old human feet. She had dog feet. Standing up she almost fell over again, her balance was shot. She wobbled about, her now smaller feet scrambling under her to keep her up. She twisted this way and that, feeling something was off, something was wrong.
Oh…Her tail was trapped in her pants.
She reached back, pressing her claws into the denim and tearing until she felt the long bundle of thick furred muscle and bone slip out and start wagging in the night air. She grinned, running her hand over it and almost giggling with elation at the feel of it. Her hands traveled up to her face, feeling the long muzzle it had grown into, fingers tracing over the sharp fangs and teeth. She felt her ears twitch and reached up, feeling them now perched on top of her head, long, fuzzy and twisting as insects chirped around her.
Then she realized all her pain was gone. Her hand went to her shoulder, finding the skin whole, but heavily scarred under her torn hoodie, scars on her arms where the wolf had grabbed her. She had transformed, and healed. She wasn’t going to die. Tears fell down her face as she stared down at her now furred hands. She wasn't going to die. She wasn’t going to die and she had become a werewolf!
She had no idea how long she sat there, repeating those words in her mind. She looked up at the sky again, the moons shining brightly down on her, and grinned up at them. She wasn’t sure if that goddess was up there, looking down on her.
No, she thought, a bitch like that couldn’t create something so pretty as those moons. They felt too good to be a part of her. She stood, hopping back and forth on her feet until she got the feeling down. She felt so much lighter, stronger. She was full of energy, recharged by the moons she guessed. It was a magical world, right? They had werewolves! She took a deep breath, calming her nerves as she vibrated with renewed vigor. She picked her bag back up, slinging it over her shoulder and walking back towards the forest.
She stopped only once, looking back at the direction she came from, where the other wolf had died. Where, she had taken their life. A question formed in her mind. Why did she feel so good, so healthy, while that one had looked like a walking corpse? What had happened to that wolf to make it so feral while she was still of sound mind?
She wasn’t particularly religious, especially after meeting an actual goddess. But she still said a prayer for it quietly, hoping that whoever it had been before, it was at least in a happier place now. Then she turned, walking into the forest quietly and disappearing into the darkness.
Thank you for the chapter