The Transformation

The full moon was still two nights away, yet Clyde already felt its pull deep in his bones. He knew he had to get away, go somewhere remote. If his family knew the beast he would become, there was bound to be blood.

He left at sundown, silently finding his way to forest edge. Deep within the woods was a cave system, one he had chanced upon years before while out hunting. For the past three months he had used the shelter it offered to protect him – and to protect his family from the thing he would become.

As he stalked quietly through the trees, Clyde wondered again at the creature he had encountered those month past. He had been prowling the low hills and had picked up the trail of something different, something he had never before come across. Though his hackles raised, curiosity got the better of him and he followed the trail. It wasn’t long before they found one another. Clyde was still not certain who had been hunting who.

It had been too dark for Clyde to see anything in detail, but he knew his opponent had snapping fangs and piercing claws.

The creature sank its teeth into Clyde’s shoulder, causing Clyde to howl in pain. He managed to injure the beast and make his escape, yelping and whining as he fled as quickly as his legs would carry him.

The following morning, Clyde felt a change within him and he knew the monster had infected him with some poison. He could not have guessed just how deeply affected he would become.

Now, as he neared his sanctuary, he felt the ache in his legs he had come to recognise as the beginning of the change. He picked up his pace, wanting to be underground before his body began convulsing.

*

It was cold in the cave. Clyde tried to sleep through the following day but the pain in his body kept him awake. His stomach jumped and lurched and his head began to pound. His whole body trembled violently, causing him to pant uncontrollably.

Though he could not see the sky from his self-imposed prison, he knew when the full moon reigned the night.

Fire leapt through his limbs and his torso, danced along his spine and up his neck. Above his growl of agony, he heard the cracking and snapping of his bones as they twisted into new shapes. His skin peeled away in wet clumps, revealing a foreign body underneath. His ears folded into a different design, his eyesight altered and his sense of smell changed.

Everything about him was different. He was not the Clyde his had been all his life – now he was a dreadful monster that would plough death and destruction wherever it trod.

He struggled to retain his mind, fighting the beast’s base instincts to leave the cave and search for food, for warmth, for companionship. Whether it was his strong will or the fear that he may hurt his own kin, he won the battle and kept the raging animal underground for the night and the next day.

*

At some point, Clyde had passed out

He awoke now, thankful he was still in the darkness of the cave and back in his own body. Weak and hungry, he crawled out into the daylight. It took him longer to get home than it had to reach the cave but soon enough he was back. The sight of his family warmed his heart.

Happy again, at least for another month, Clyde was reunited with the wolfpack.