Chapter Three: Changes

Michael returns to his camp, but his nightmare is not over yet

Michael neared his camp as the sun set.  Disheveled and bloody, he did not seem to be a soldier.  He didn’t feel like one at that moment either.  His fellows presumably dead, Michael felt as though he should have done more in the skirmish than just get knocked unconscious before anyone even knew what was happening.  He joined the army to fight, not to lay helpless on the ground.  The wound in his shoulder burned and itched fiercely. Michael tried to take his mind off of the pain of both his shoulder and his uselessness in the fight. 

Darkness began creeping over the landscape around the camp, as Michael approached.  He glanced up.  A full moon shone overhead, half obscured by clouds.  He raised his hand to one of the two sentries posted at this side of the camp, and the man motioned him forward.  Shoulder throbbing more than ever, Michael put a hand on it. The pain lanced through his entire arm.  Michael dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.  Pain wracked his entire body.  Michael gasped, unable to even inhale in the midst of the agony.  For the third time today, Michael felt terror.  The creature, he thought, it must’ve made me sick! Rabies…something! I can’t die now!  Not this close to camp! This close to safety! I can’t escape savages and that…that THING just to die now!

Looking up, he saw the sentries rushing to help him.  Doubled over in pain and unable to hold back any longer, Michael cried out. He thought, this much pain isn’t possible!  How can one man endure all of this?  Michael wanted to scream.  He wanted scream all the things he was thinking.  The sentries finally reached him and struggled to pull him up.  A button on one’s coat sleeve tugged the hair on Michael’s arm.  The long hair.  The very longer hair.  Wait, he thought, why is the hair that long?  Doubling over from the agony throughout his entire body, Michael decided his body hair was the least of his worries.  Lifting him up once again and throwing one of Michael’s arms around each of them, the sentries struggled to carry him back.  The men on either side of his quite broad shoulders " his shoulders never seemed broad -- seemed rather short compared to those he was used to at the camp.  When the three reached the camp, he noticed the tents seemed a bit shorter than he recalled too. 

Pain!  Michael’s entire head filled with fire.  He ripped his arms away from the sentries and fell to the ground as he put his hands to his face.  Michael could feel movement under his hands.  The very bones in his face seemed to be shifting and molding into something else!  His nose grew out.  Even his ears changed!  They felt pointed and slowly slid up his head.  Michael could feel the rest of his body undertaking similar changes.  His shoulders broadened even more.  His arms and legs grew longer.  WHAT’S HAPPENING TO ME? Michael screamed inside his own head.  He lifted his face to the sky and opened his mouth to scream aloud, but only a long howl erupted toward the full moon shining above.  Then there was only darkness. 

Reviews

[Ardeth Lane]

I love how you put so much information into such a short chapter. I could never do that. Good job! I'm excited to read more!

[loowzerX]

haha dude ur book is awesome..why arent you published yet?! :|

[Shin]

Dude, this was absolutely awesome, I was waiting for this moment when I first read your book, I loved how you described the metamorphosis! All the pain and the psychical description was just so rich in words, loved it, I can't wait to read more.