Full Moon

Viola quickly made her way back through the slightly worn forest path that she always transversed when travelling to and from her home. Her heart was still racing from the encounter with Krais. It had started off fine, they talked about her fathers legend and the reasons why he was such a great hunter. The problem started when Krais got closer to her, due to the close proximity to the moon cycles peak her sense of smell was more pronounced than usual. As soon as he had moved into the wind and close enough for the smell of his cloak reached her nose  her heart began to race. The smell was one she recognized, it was similar to the smell that her wolf left behind once it had been released and then tamed once more, but it had been mixed with something more, a more pungent metallic smell, blood. The cloak had been clean, recently washed if she was to guess, but the smell of wolves blood was a lingering scent that is not easy to clear.

The minute the smell reached her nose she had quickly backed away claiming that she wasn’t feeling well, he hadn’t seemed convinced but had let her go nether the less. Slowly she reached her heavy oak front door, heaving the door she quickly opened it and dived inside closing it and clutching her chest.

The fear that had gripped her when she had smelt the blood remained with her for several more minutes before her heart finally returned to its normal calm rhythm. Once it had she stood in the silence still leaning against her door for a few more minutes listening to the sounds of the forest outside, using her gift of sensitive hearing to detect and trace every slight movement in the surrounding area. However, there was nothing not a single bird in the trees or a small animal scurrying through the undergrowth of the forest, for a single moment her heart rate increased slightly again at the thought of being completely alone before it occurred to her what time of the month it was. It was not that uncommon for her transformation to drive the smaller creatures away for several days a month, but they would always come back.

She stood listening to the gentle silence of the still forest before finally moving off of the door and removing her still pristine white cloak and hanging it back onto the stand that stood off to the side. She placed her package onto the small wooden table that sat in the center of the room, directly in front of the large hearth that was situated in the center of the rear wall. The dim golden rays of the dying hours of the suns day shown through both of the clouded glass windows giving the room a warm and homely glow. Viola walked over to the hearth and began to stack it from a small pile of chopped wood that she always kept next to it, once it was stacked and ready she used two small piece of flint that she pulled from a pouch that was obviously hand sawn into her skirt and proceed, with some difficulty to light the fire. Soon the suns light had left the sky for good and the dark of night quickly took its place, the room however, thanks to the fire, still maintained the warm and homely glow.

Viola stood up, her back feeling much better than it had earlier in the day, and looked around the main room of her home. Thanks to her situation she kept it as barren as possible, it limited the damage she would do when not in control not only to her possessions but also to herself. The door to the house’s second room was even heavier than the front door, reinforced with several metal spurs and several locks, it was within that room that most of her possessions were kept, a room that her wolf was forbidden from entering. Viola looked out the window that sat within the rear wall just above the hearth, from behind the trees she could already see the beginning of moonlight starting to illuminate the tops of the trees, She quickly ran to the heavy oak front door and bolted it shut, double checking to make sure she did not miss any of the locks. Once she was sure that the door was secure she moved through to her bedroom, giving it a once over to make sure that if the wolf did get in the damage would be limited. After the quick look over she bolted the second door and seated herself on the floor looking directly out of the window and prepared to face the inevitable moonlight.

Slowly she removed her tunic and placed it on the floor next to herself, she followed this with her skirt. Then she saw it, the wispy silver of the first moonlight flowed through the window and began to move across the stone floor towards her naked kneeling body. Slowly and gently, as if caressing an old friend the light moved over her flesh, leaving neither mark or evidence until it reached the her eyes.

Viola’s Vibrant green eyes meet the shining light of the moon and for a brief moment the full moon could be clearly seen reflected in her eyes. The reflection lasted mere second before she blinked, upon re-opening her once dark green irises had been replaced with a pungent yellow colour that seemed to posses an unearthly glow around them. From the center of her now yellow eyes the white was replace by black like oil spreading over water, slowly her face started to elongate around the mouth that hung open as though trying to scream out. Her neck thrashed back and forth as the face continued to elongate and the beginnings of the muzzle formed. The newly formed structure did not stay pale for long as the skin darkened  shortly after the initial morphing, it continued to move up her head and towards her scalp. Her shoulder length blond hair seemed to shed as the darkness on the skin passed under it. Her ears began to lengthen as her newly formed muzzle opened with another silent scream revealing the new pearl white razor sharp teeth and a long pink tongue.

The transformation started making its way down her neck, which was lengthening as it happened, the veins could clearly be seen through the pale skin briefly before it was replaced by the traveling darkness. Viola’s body violently through her onto her back as her arm started to lengthen taking on a more limber yet muscled appearance, at the same time her once swelled chest began to shrink, lengthening like the rest of her but also seemingly collapsing in on itself as her back arched in pain. As it the change reached her hands the finger nails grew and became pointed with the fingers themselves becoming more pointed and deadly looking. With another silent scream from the now well formed muzzle the final part of the transformation began, slowly her legs lengthened and changes, her knees moved up into a more bent position and the ankle and heel ascended the calf creating a more traditional dog leg shape. As the legs morphed there shape, the base of her spine started to expand and grow, followed by the black skin. The balls of her feet slowly swelled and turned pink as the pads formed and the toe nails followed the path of the finger nails.

Viola’s body seemed to come to a rest, the strange looking cross between a canine and human lay on the floor, still naked but with coal black skin, panting as though trying to recover from an injury. However it was not over yet, and her body very quickly began to toss and turn violently as the creature struggled to roll onto all fours. As it rolled over, dark black hair slowly grew out of every piece of bare skin, longer and longer until it covered the creature from the top of its now fully extended ears to tip of its formed tail in a long shaggy coal black coat. Finally the fully transformed creature stood up on its now much longer legs and arched its back once more, it opened its mouth as though to scream at what it had become, no scream came. Out of the creatures perfectly formed muzzle came a bone chilling howl. Meanwhile outside, the moon continued to rise into the night sky it’s task complete for another night.

After a few minutes the howl died and the creature seemed to shrink into a whimper, it was alone, there was no response. Every time it awoke it tried to find its pack, but every time was the same and ended in failure. Slowly it looked around at its now colour devoid surroundings, the warm fire had been reduced to nothing more than some smoking embers and the darkness that the wolf loved so much was filling the room once again. As it sniffed the air, it caught a pleasant scent from a small white package that had been place on top of the only piece of furniture in the room. In moved towards it, carefully bending over so that it did not bash its now much taller head on the low hanging rafters, upon reaching the package its nose went into overdrive and saliva began to form in the recesses of its mouth. With an glee like attitude it began to rip into the package and snap at the still bleeding meat inside.

The wolf took mere seconds to finish of the small slabs of raw meat, nothing more than a light snack in its mind. Another quick look around the room immediately informed it that the other half had done her job, as she always did. With that there was nothing left to do, so the wolf rolled up in the darkest, but warmest, corner of the room and closed it eyes falling quickly into a dreamless yet restless sleep.