New To The Pack

April 21st, 2004 – Midnight

Caroline (CAR-a-line) woke in a feverish sweat. Her fingers ached, her knees ached. She began to shiver uncontrollably, curling into a ball on her bed. She began to twitch and turn into odd angles, rustling her scarlet sheets. Hair began to sprout on her arms and legs, her finger nails turned long and curved like talons. They turned black and she cried out from the pain of them shooting out of her finger tips making them bleed.

She bolted from her room, stumbling down the hall way barely noticing her dad open his bedroom door to see her, wide eyed. She fought the urge to run on all fours as she ran threw the back yard towards the woods. Ruby red hair covered her arms, legs and torso. Each hair feeling like a pin prick as they poked threw her pale skin. She could see everything clear as day, although the full moon shone brightly. She ran, narrowly avoiding trees and shrubs, sticks and fallen trees. The twigs tore at her night shirt. Pads formed under her feet, pushing off the soft flesh that had been there. The rocks and sticks no longer cut her feet.

 What the hell’s happening to me! She thought, frantic. Then, in a clearing, she felt her bones pop, and grind inside her body. She collapsed at the pain, feeling each and every bone break, and reform. She cried out at each break, though no one would hear her. She didn’t care, she just wanted the pain to stop. She felt her ears grow long and thin, then cover with hair. She could hear everything, and nothing. No sounds of nature, no birds in trees or crickets in shrubs.

She herd people, miles and miles away sleeping soundly in their beds. CRACK! The last bone to break, was her spine. It shattered into dozens of pieces and reformed. She screamed in agony as it reshaped it’s self, popping back together in a different way. Her hair covered skin bubbled all the while, feeling like fire that longed to spring free of her and torch everything. Her nose and mouth grew out and became a muzzle. Her hands and feet to large paws, a shooting pain came from her tailbone where a long tail came out, then pricking her with hairs of its own. Her cry turned to a lonely howl as the rest of her body changed. Soon, a ruby wolf lay in her place. All pain gone, she stood on her paws and took off in a dead run into the woods. She practically flew threw the trees, jumping over obstructions with ease. Her instincts alerted her to a doe near by. Late night snack. She crept up behind the larger creature silently, then launched her self at it. Successfully biting its neck sending the doe to the ground with a gurgled cry.

Notes