The First Moonrise (Alone)
The cold hurt.
It went all the way inside me, making my bones ache.
The forest was frozen.
Everything was white under a dark blue sky.
The air smelled like ice and pine trees. I was by myself.
My body felt wrong. Tight.
Like my skin was too small.
My muscles jumped on their own.
It started as a bad feeling, like I couldn't sit still.
But it got worse. It felt like something inside me wanted to get out.
The moon was coming up.
Just a little bit of white over the trees.
It looked cold and far away.
Pretty, but scary. I knew what it meant.
What it was going to do to me.
I tried to fight it. I squeezed my hands tight.
Think of Elara.
Think of her smile.
Think of anything but the burning feeling in my body. It didn't work.
I saw her face, but then it changed.
I remembered how scared she looked.
It was my fault.
My teeth started to hurt.
They felt like they were growing, getting pointy.
My jaw hurt. I made a small noise, like a cry.
It didn't sound like me.
I had to get away. Far, far away.
I walked fast into the frozen woods.
The snow made a crunching sound under my feet.
It was getting harder to walk.
My legs felt like they wanted to bend the wrong way.
The moon was higher now.
Bigger. Its light came through the trees and made the snow look silver.
It felt like the moon was pulling something out of me.
Something dark and strong.
My back bent up. A sharp pain went through my spine.
I made a noise and fell to my knees in the snow.
My bones felt like they were moving, breaking.
It hurt so much.
I wanted to shout, but the sound that came out was low, like an animal.
I could feel my face changing.
My nose felt longer, my forehead lower.
My hands… my fingernails were turning into claws.
Sharp and hard. I looked at them.
My human hands were gone. Now I had monster hands.
"No," I tried to say, but it came out as a growl.
A deep, scary sound that went through the quiet forest.
I felt scared and also a little excited.
Losing control was scary, but I also felt a wild power growing inside me.
I closed my eyes tight.
I tried to remember who I was. Liam.
Remember Elara. But her face was going away.
Now I just saw red.
The pain was so bad now.
Every part of my body was changing and twisting.
I could feel fur growing on my skin.
It was thick and rough.
My clothes ripped because my body was getting bigger.
The smell of the forest filled my nose.
But it wasn't just trees and snow anymore.
There were other smells.
The soft smell of a rabbit hiding close by.
The stronger smell of a fox far away.
My nose felt super strong.
Everything smelled a hundred times stronger.
My legs got straight and long.
They felt strong. I could feel the muscles moving.
I stood on all fours now.
My knuckles touched the cold snow.
It felt… right. In a scary way.
The moon was right above me.
A big white eye looking down.
Its light seemed to go inside me, making the change happen faster.
The last little bits of Liam were being pulled away.
Now there was just something else. Something wild.
A final, terrible change went through me.
My head felt like it was changing shape.
My teeth grew into long, sharp teeth.
My eyes could see better.
The world looked black and white under the moonlight.
I wasn't Liam anymore.
A strong feeling took over me. I needed to run.
To hunt. To do what the animal inside me wanted to do.
I made a long, sad howl that went through the quiet, frozen forest.
It sounded scary and also like I was free.
My paws dug into the snow.
The cold didn't bother me now.
I could feel the power in my legs, the strength in my mouth.
The world is different now.
I saw it with different eyes.
I smelled it with a different nose.
I ran. I ran through the trees.
I was a shadow moving quietly in the snow.
The frozen branches hit me, but I didn't feel them.
The hunger was back.
A strong, animal need.
I smelled the rabbit again. Stronger now.
My muscles got ready.
The hunt had started.
The last thought in my head that was still Liam was Elara.
I felt a little bit bad.
But then the animal feeling inside me took over.
The change was done. It was strong.
It couldn't be stopped. Under the cold, watching moon, the wolf ran free. And Liam was gone.