I scrambled away from the now closed door of the abandoned shack I had found and rebuilt as containment for my new, terrible curse. Lycanthropy. Every full moon, I’d become a mindless killing machine, a massive danger to myself and others. Or at least I assumed that was the case. There wasn't exactly an abundance of research or non-fictional accounts of my condition. Hell, as far as I knew I might've been the only person in the world suffering from it. While I got probably too deep into a mental tangent about werewolf research and if such a thing ever existed, the moon finally reached its’ peak, shining through the cracks in the boarded up window of the shack. As the light of the full moon washed over me, I reflected on how well and truly fucked I was.

  The week had started off so good, too! I had plenty of pns with my friend Emily that I was definitely looking forward to and not trying to come up with excuses to skip, a raise at work that meant I’d finally be getting paid more for the massive workload my manager dumped on me (dick move, Darren.), and other assorted good things I could definitely come up with if I had enough time! Hell, I hadn’t even had any of those weird intense feelings of jealousy and sadness towards girls or dogs in a while! Things were looking up! And then the second I walked out of my house on Tuesday, a stray dog bit me. Honestly it was weird how the dog came up to my door, bit me, and ran. Almost made it seem targeted, but that would be silly! It was just a stray after all. So I went to the doctor, got a rabies shot, no harm no foul. I carried on with my day as normal, and I was ready to move on from the odd bite. On my way home from an extremely exhausting day of work, I passed a park, and saw somebody throwing a ball for their dog. Now usually this is where some of those odd feelings of jealousy would start simmering in my stomach, but no more than that. This time, however, was different. I almost jolted forwards when the ball was thrown, and had to stop myself from running after it and looking like a weirdo. While this was odd, it could be dismissed as a long day taking its toll on me. What happened next, however, couldn’t be. As I turned to leave and continue on my way home, the dog I had seen pying fetch came trotting up to me, startling me a bit. I growled at it without even thinking. Fucking growled at it. Something was definitely wrong, and that solidified it for me.

  After a small amount of research, and skipping over something about some small town cryptid called a ‘therian’ (I mean it had to be, I’d never heard of it and with symptoms like this it had to be some variety of paranormal), I came to my conclusion. I had been infected with Lycanthropy. I’d be afflicted with a monstrous transformation and killing urge come the full moon, and it would st however long it did. Honestly none of the sources were too clear about the length of the transformation (which didn’t even sound too bad, disregarding the killing urge part. I mean, who wouldn’t want fur, nice floppy dog ears, and a fluffy tail to wag? Somebody who hasn’t been thinking enough about what it would be like to have those, that's who.). This would’ve been all fine and dandy, had it not been two days before the full moon. So obviously I did what any reasonable person would do: find a suitable abandoned shack in the woods on the edge of town, blow half my newly raised paycheck on wood pnks, a hammer and nails, and spend the next two days renovating it to serve as a wolf containment zone. My pn was completely foolproof, and nothing could ever go wrong!

  Anyways, back to before I did the whole In Media Res Thing! I was about to transform, and feeling very confident in my excellent preparations and impenetrable defenses when I heard the thing I never wanted to hear in this scenario: “Hellooo, are you in there? You didn’t show up for our pns or respond to my texts!”. Shittttttt, Lily was here. Whatever, maybe as long as I stayed silent through the transformation, she should leave, and be safe, away from the soon to be killing machine contained in a shack that in retrospect was maybe not the best choice for containment. I tried silencing a yelp as the transformation began in earnest. Fur started crawling up my body, my feet changing to digitigrade paws (good riddance, I never liked the things anyways. Too big and blehh) and my thighs becoming rger and softer, and definitely 100% packed with muscle to spring towards prey! The changes continued further up, with my hips widening and my already too-wide torso shrinking(?), clearly to make me hunt better. I felt weight shift to my now furry chest, (somehow feeling much better than the hair that was there before) probably to help me bance better, like a tail! Speaking of, a very waggy fluffy tail burst out of my suddenly softer behind, which I had to admit was kind of cool. Next came my arms, with the gross muscle I had that would never go away melting as the fur washed over it. My hands became a little more paw-like (which felt really nice for some reason), and my gross overly chewed nails became dull bck cws (I couldn’t help chewing them, so honestly I was a little gd I wouldn’t be able to any more). Finally came my neck and head. As the fur washed over my neck, suddenly my hushed (definitely not hyperventiting!) breaths became lighter and airier, and my gross, way too masculine face softened into something more feminine, my mouth and nose forming an honestly kinda cute snout with a very boopable bck nose, and my gross weirdly shaped ears becoming floppy, soft, and much better.

  Now that the easy (and honestly pretty nice) part was over, here came the murderous urges. As I waited and waited for them to come for what felt like hours, (but was probably 30 seconds at most) I examined some of my new body. My clothes thankfully weren’t ripped, and honestly I felt like I had lost height and size rather than gained any. With this, an odd feeling of warmth rushed through me. That had to be it! The urges! The reason I had to be contained and kept away from others while I was changed! Any second now I’d become possessed by the urge to hunt, and kill, and maim! But nothing happened. That nice warm feeling persisted, and after a few minutes of waiting I figured that Lily had probably left during the transformation and the wait for the urges was pointless, and allowed myself to let out a soft, content, “wuff”. “Was that you? I know you’re in there, your phone tracker says so! Shit, are you in trouble? Hold on, I’m coming in!” Ok, so clearly Lily hadn’t left as I’d hoped, but my defenses would definitely hold and keep her safe from me! As the door creaked open, I realized I had completely forgotten to buy a lock in my haste. I was completely fucked. I scrambled away from the door and backed up against the wall, hoping that the distance would stop her from seeing me and putting herself in further danger. Of course, as soon as she opened the door her eyes met with mine and she let out a scream of pure and total fear (nothing else, definitely nothing else!!!). “OHMYGODDDISTHATYOU??!?!?!?!?? YOU’RE SO CUUTEEE!!!!!” WHAT? She saw me transformed into a murderous beast, and her first reaction was to call me cute?!!?!?!? As I whined in fear of hurting her, she moved closer towards me, clearly ignorant of the threat I now posed. “Hey, are you OK? I know first shifts can be really tough, would you want me to help calm you down?” I nodded yes, just slightly. Her hand slowly came up to my head, and she started petting me, scratching me behind the ears and all!

  Oh my god.

  How had I lived without this before?

  The warmth of her hand and tingly, mind-fluffing sensations it produced combined with the constant warm feeling I’d had ever since transforming to reduce me to a pile of happy fur, my tail wagging incredibly hard. Though my thoughts were reduced to mosses, I had to get one thing out: “whatd’youmeannfirs’shifs?” Lily paused for a moment, or an hour maybe. With the state the pets had reduced me to, it could've been either. Finally, she spoke. “I said first shifts because, well, and there's no easy way to say this, imtheonethatbityou!” what. what? WHAT?!?!?!? No way. My best friend of six years, who was with me through thick and thin, did this to me?? Willingly infected me with a curse that might still make me a danger to other people??? “Why?” Oh, I had said that out loud. Lily stared at me for a second, and began to speak. “I saw a lot of myself in you. You were beginning to pull away, hiding from me and the world. Every time I saw you, which became rarer and rarer, you seemed more uncomfortable in your own skin than before. I just… wanted to make you happier, and I figured that maybe giving you your true form might help with that.” My what? “Your true form.” Apparently I had said that one out loud too. “It’s what you want to look like and be, above all else. It’s a distiltion of you into your purest form, the ones that makes you happiest.” Her expnations made zero sense. I mean, surely if this was true everybody would be running around looking like this, right? Why look like a gross guy or a boring human when you could be this? Judging by her silence, I had succeeded in not spilling my thoughts out loud this time. Unfortunately, that meant I had to actually ask her this on purpose. “I just don’t understand.. How could you be the one that bit me if you look like that, and if everything you’re saying is true, why doesn't everybody look like this? Who’d want to be a gross guy or a boring human??” Lily looked at me bnkly, though I saw something click behind her eyes. “Oh… we have some things to talk about after this. But the answer to your first question is that people like us can change back and forth from our standard and true forms, though you may see some bleedover between the two, and this is my standard form. I bit you while in my true form, which probably makes me the best person to answer your second question. To be honest, I don’t really get the appeal of manhood or humanity either, but we’re outliers. Generally, men like being men, and people like being human. The fact that you don’t says some things about you that might be best discussed ter, in a more comfortable setting.”

  At this point I needed to get answers now and I didn’t care about the setting, and I told her as such. She looked at me reluctantly, nodded, and began to speak. “Alright, if you’re sure you want to talk about this now. Going off of your true form, and the things you’ve said here, you’re most likely a girl, and some variety of dog. Here’s the thing, and this goes especially for people like us, if you want to be a girl, you’re probably a girl. If you want to be a dog, you’re probably a dog. Now if these traits make up your true form, that probably changes to a definitely.”

  “I…. huh?????????”

  She looked at me with concern. “The rest of this conversation and several identity crises are definitely not things that should be had in a pce like this, so if you’d like we could head back to my pce and continue talking. I could heat up the pasta meal I made for earlier, even! I know how much you love breadsticks!”. She was right, and I nodded yes, my newfound tail only wagging slightly at the mention of a pasta meal and breadsticks as I stood up and walked towards the exit with her, unsteady on my new paws (god that felt good to think!!! No more gross human feet!!!). Just before we got in the car, Lily turned to me, and proceeded to tell me the most joy inducing words I had ever heard. No compliment I had ever had compared to the feeling of etion I got at a few simple words.

  “Thank you for being so nice about everything, you’ve been such a good girl, and such a very good dog about all this!”

  As I got in the car and tried my best to hide my blush, which was barely noticeable under all my fur, my tail quickly made my feelings clear. Much to my embarrassment, the rest of the ride to Lily’s house was filled with the sound of a very fluffy tail thwapping against a car seat.

  Announcementyummy pasta dinner... :3c