• Act I- Awakening

    I was cornered in his Hell house; I knew I was going to die. But, at least the others were safe. He pulled his dagger out of his sleeve and plunged it into my chest. My name is Yukiru, and I...am a wolf.
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    I yawned and stretched my paws as far out in front of me as I could. The sun beamed in through the dew soaked trees all around us. I exited my den and was abruptly greeted by Ichio.

    “Ani! Good morning, Ani-chan!" he yelped jumping so his muzzle was close to mine. ~!~Note: Ani-chan means Big sister~!~

    I softened my eyes slightly and returned sweetly with, "Good morning, Ichio. Is father back with breakfast yet?" Ichio stopped jumping and he had a worried look on his face. “He hasn’t come back yet,” he whimpered. My ears perked up in surprise and curiosity.

    “Really? It’s not like Father and the hunters to be out so late.”

    Ichio’s shining face appeared again, “Maybe Father got some moose! Or even some bear!” his mouth began to water. He licked his muzzle trying to subdue his excessive drooling. “I haven’t had some in so long!” he whined. I rolled my eyes and trotted over to our stream near the den (which was a gaping hole in the side of a mountain). I lapped up a few gulps of water when I heard Ichio howl my name. I ran back to him, “What? What’s wrong?” I barked. He just kept staring at the clearing in front of us. Soon I heard the sound of a lot of wolves running at us. My tail began to wag.

    “Dad’s back!” I barked happily.

    But when I stuck my nose in the air and I took a good whiff of the air, I didn’t smell a kill, Father, or any wolf I knew for that matter. My tail stopped swishing when I saw a huge red-tinted wolf and many other wolves come running, full, speed at my family and clan. I ran back to out clearing and howled,

    “ENEMY RADE! Females and pups, to the den! Adolescents…protect all and kill all!”

    As a 3-year-old wolf, I was on the front lines, ready to risk life and limb for my beloved clan. One by one all of my comrades were being slaughtered in front of me. I fought as many as five bloodthirsty wolves at a time. Because I was the last one standing out of around 25 adolescent, fully capable wolves is still beyond me but I was surrounded by eight wolves when I heard Ichio howl in pain from the inside of our den. I donkey-kicked a charging wolf and sprinted to help my little brother. My stomach turned when I saw his Ichio’s head in the mouth of the leader red-tinted wolf. The leader flung Ichio into the nearest wall and a small blob of blood burst from his mouth with a yelp. My ears folded back and a deep growl leaked out of my teeth.

    “Get out…NOW!” I barked.

    The intruder coughed in a snicker and taunted me with, “No, I don’t think I will.”

    I charged at him with the intent to kill. Before I could wrap my fangs around his neck, h e said something in an odd language and a swirling pattern slithered onto the right side of his face and his right eyes turned completely black. He slammed his forehead into mine and I could feel the shock wave from my head all the way to the last strand of fur on my tail. I tried to stand up but my legs became boneless and I collapsed, my vision becoming more and more darkened. I could hear Ichio’s terrified yelping transforming into a muffled gargling noise and then…nothing. Everything was gone, blackened and never to return.


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    I awoke hours maybe days later. My bones ached like they were put in a car compacter. Wait, why did I know what a car compacter was? I looked down and I saw these peach, fleshy, furless limbs protruding from my odd torso then more fleshy limbs with boney mini appendages sticking put of them. I went to swat my head because it began itching but instead of lush fur I felt stingy fur on top of my head. That’s when I ran out, on all fours, out of my den and gazed at myself in the river with shock. I nearly ran away from the river when I saw that all of my fur had vanished, my muzzle was flattened and my wet black nose was now soft and dry. Then I remembered why all of my clan members laid massacred around me.

    “ICHIO?!” I screamed.

    I gasped and held my neck with my new, odd paw. What was that that just came from my throat? I tried to run like I used to but, I stumbled over myself and fell into the dirt. Then, the most random thought popped into my head; to stand up on my back legs. When I did, I immediately fell onto my tailless rump. After numerous attempts, I finally managed to accomplish standing upright. Now, walking was a completely different story. My knees were bleeding, as were the bottoms of my fleshy front paws from my failures. I licked my front ones but when it came to my knees, I was strangely unable to lick them like I used to. Not that I needed to, my scratches were already healed.

    “That’s weird,” I murmured.

    Come to think of it, I couldn’t smell the air or the soil like I used to. And, the birds’ calls that were so vivid to my hearing were now undetectable. I became frustrated from the fact that my body was both dysfunctional and annoying, and that I wasn’t able to save any of my family from their horrific demise. I sat on my rump and folded my front legs around my back ones and buried my head inside of the hole my legs created. My eyes felt cool, when I brought my head up, my eyes were…leaking? I hated myself, I wanted to die! I bit my right paw, hoping that it would bleed. But, it didn’t, it only ached and strange grooves formed on my paw. I took the skinny things that came form my paw and felt my new, bunt teeth. My anger and anguish became excruciating and I screamed a scream that would put a banshee to shame.

    That’s when I heard it, the pattering of two sets of feet like mine rushing towards me. When I saw the two male humans standing in front of me, my killer instincts kicked in. I growled, but it was a pathetic growl that couldn’t scare a newborn pup. But the two males took half of a step back. The taller and more muscular one chuckled. The shorter, but still muscular, one looked and the tall one with a stern look and said something to the tall one that I couldn’t hear, which frustrated me a little. The shorter one took a few steps towards me and I stood up and tried to run back to my den but I fell once again. I could hear the taller one erupt in laughter. I was both humiliated and infuriated. I stood up again and face the shorter one. But, when I did, his face was a strange reddish tint. He quickly turned his face so he couldn’t look at me anymore and said, “We…don’t want to hurt you.”

    For some mysterious reason, I understood his foreign language.

    “Do you understand what I’m saying?” I nodded in response; I’m not sure as to why.

    “My name is Hotaka, and I think I think I know what happened to you.”

    I gasped and this time I spoke, “Really?!” I clamped my throat again with my front paws. Hotaka took off his red scarf and threw it at me. I somehow know what a scarf was, and instantly caught it.

    “Wrap it around yourself,” Hotaka ordered. His scarf was the size of a blanket when I was done unfolding it. Hotaka cautiously walked up to me and held out his long, but oddly welcoming, front legs.

    “May I carry you?”

    I stood up and tried to walk to Hotaka but I tripped over myself again, but he caught me before I could make contact with the soil. Not that falling was new to me. And he gently carried me through the forest to parts I had never seen before. The taller one followed behind us and I couldn’t help looking staring at him from time to time. He just looked so vaguely familiar.

    “That’s just Zero. He’s kind of a jerk but he grows on you,” Hotaka explained. I think I giggled a bit at Hotaka’s comment. I had never been outside of my clan’s territory before do the sight of new trees and the slightest melody of birds was mesmerizing. Hotaka stopped after about five minutes of walking and set me down. I gasped when I saw two strange triangle dens and a moving red and orange flower illuminating the area. I stumbled over to the “flower” and stuck my left peachy paw out to touch it but Zero ran up and yanked my paw back.

    “That’s fire, stupid! You could burn yourself!” He said in a raised volume.

    I was somewhat startled by his sudden need to protect me. Hotaka rolled his eyes and shooed Zero away from me and for the next hour-an-a-half, explained my new form’s anatomy to me. And whenever anything came up about mating or my “Lady Parts,” as Hotaka would put it, Zero laughed with immaturity. I quickly realized why Hotaka was so eager to get my nude body…less nude. Then, the topic of my transformation came up. Hotaka explained that the reddish wolf’s name was Surt-Lim and what happened to my clan, happened to his and Zero’s.

    “You can change into a wolf whenever you want, also,” Hotaka said with a smile.

    “Really? How?!” I interrogated.

    “You have to hold onto any vivid memory you had of being a wolf; what color your fur was, how you howled, things like that,” Hotaka went on. He stood up, “Watch,” he ordered. Hotaka closed his eyes and when he quickly opened them they were the golden eyes of a wolf. And in not even a fraction of a second he was a brown wolf with his studded bracelet still on his left wrist. There was no in between phase just human, POOF, wolf. Simple. Hotaka walked up to me and nudged my arm with his muzzle. He was telling me to do the same. A thought from when I was a wolf? Then I had the perfect thing; the day when Surt-Lim raided my clan. I remembered the way Ichio’s yelps were so clear in my ears, how Surt-Lim’s voice echoed like a snake, and how my ebony fur clashed with his blood wine fur. Then I felt the ground under my real paws. The melody of birds was angelic music; the smell of pine trees mixed with the ferns growing around us was simply intoxicating.

    “I’m a wolf again! I’m a wolf again!” I chirped, prancing around like a pup. My tail was wagging a mile a minute. I felt like my heart was going to burst from happiness. No one could take that away from me.

    End of Act I