Lycanidae [CoR chronicle]

10

Nicole was caught off guard once she stopped the car at the side of the forest on her way home. Not because the Forest of Doom carried some of her bad memories and she hadn't come near it for a while, but she was caught off guard by the very wolfish figure sitting next to the road. Once the blue feline closed the car door after getting out, she crouched while narrowing her eyes as the figure's scent was familiar. It was small and its round, beaded eyes became visible when she came closer. "Chase?" she spoke in a half-whisper. Chase let out a happy bark as soon as he recognized her as well. Despite all that happened, he seemed more at peace than expected. But Nicole couldn't think about it too much. She was glad enough to see him again at least. The fact he got to step foot outside the asylum proved Rocaah's work had started paying off. No matter how glad Nicole was about that, it suddenly all became a bit too much for her to handle, so she decided to just let it all flow through her and stay in the moment. Chase spun around in a few circles in front of her and everything seemed as if it was played in slow-motion. Nicole smelled the pines from the forest, felt the grass underneath her feetpaws and closed her eyes for a moment. Chase wanted to approach her to greet her properly, but she suddenly stopped him while she began holding her head again. "I'm sorry, Chase. But this is the worst timing ever for us to run into each other!" The little Lycan tilted his head in confusion and whined briefly. Nicole then abruptly grabbed onto her left shoulder as it started burning without warning. Above all, a bright full moon revealed itself in all its glory as clouds moved away in the sky, and the silhouettes of the two mammals were sharpened by the light. Frantically tearing off the sleeve of her already tight shirt, Nicole inspected the scar that was hurting so badly out of a sudden. Scarlord's bite wound... It then hit her, and before she was able to get any words out, she dropped to the mossy ground and her uniform began tearing in its traditional way. Frantic screaming from Furore echoed in her mind as the entity apparently was suffering the same agony as her. She knew it had to do with her condition's nature not going well with the infectious Lycanthropy curse and feared the worst. However, there was no time to fear, and her gums began bleeding again. It had been a long time since she endured a transformation in this fashion, with her nerves feeling as if scissors were snipping them. Her groaning turned into yelling and despite Chase being used to the concept that surrounded a Lycanthrope's transformation, it brought up fear in him as he never had witness anything such as this before. Nicole's fur became even more gray, and her overall appearance turned rather wolfish. Her long tail replaced itself with a thicker, fuzzier one and her ears pointed themselves further, along with her snout morphing into a longer muzzle. Rough and sturdy black claws emerged from her paws instead of her white, thinner ones and her bottom canines grew longer than the upper pair. It was an unusual sight. Not even a bit of the Upper Limit could be recognized anymore. Or any bit of her in that case. The seemingly ginormous werewolf became even too large for its uniform and only the black boxers and tank top that were worn underneath managed to stay on. Despite the skinnier build of the Lycan compared to the Upper Limit's, this wolf beast still proved a lot of its strength when it slashed its paws through the nearest log. Everything happened too fast as Chase felt the need to run and hide as soon as the monstrous Lycan focused its sight on him. Feeling unsafe, the tiny Lycan let out a panicked bark and started sprinting in the opposite direction as fast as he could. Not looking behind him, unable to notice the beast having given into the chase, he only wanted to get away as far as he could. He took lots of turns, trying to shake the beast off, but its above-supernatural power gave it the ability to follow closely behind. Chase started running out of options quickly, but a light in the distance gave him slight hope. Hoping to stumble across another being that was making its way through this dark forest that could serve as a distraction, the small Lycan increased his speed on all fours and ran until his legs gave up. But to his unfortunate surprise, he only stumbled upon a farm at the other side of the forest, which made him realize he took too many turns and ended up at the border again. With dragging steps due to exhaustion that could not be topped, Chase pulled himself through the leaves until he was able to hide behind a large crate next to the farm's stables and hoped to be safer there at least. Once he heard the wolfish monster gaining up on his track, he tried his best to hold his breath until the heavy footsteps faded away. The small Lycan then took his chance to get a peek and carefully moved his snout from behind the crate, inspecting the tons of dark trees ahead of him. The very moment when he expected to have lost the beast, another disaster was right around the corner as the alarmed screams of chickens could be heard. Chase got back on all fours and took a sprint towards the sound to investigate, already expecting what was going on. The beast clearly found distraction with the powerless sheep and chickens that were formerly resting in these stables, and they now fearfully kept their eyes on the monstrous wolf. Chase wasn't sure of what to do, but knew for sure he didn't want Nicole to get in any more trouble than she already was and made a move without thinking. Before the ferocious Lycan could injure more of the baaing sheep after forcefully having torn open the gate, Chase took a high leap and landed right onto the monster's neck, immediately digging his little teeth into the fur. The large Lycan let out an aggravated snarl and tried to shake the little werewolf off it, no longer paying attention to the terrified sheep that managed to escape. Chase bit as hard as he could, since the monstrous wolf's coat was stronger than he expected it to be and it soon resorted to digging its large claws into the little Lycan. Chase let out pained whines and howls, accepting the fact he was no match for the beast at all, and slowly let go of it. He jumped off and made sure to land on all his four paws before sprinting off, hoping the beast would follow him. And so it did, leaving behind the farm before all could've gotten way worse. Despite a few sheep having gotten entirely or partially mauled, most of the animals remained intact and were now making their way to the fields, unmonitored. But it's nothing Chase could worry about right now. He only focused on preventing the large Lycan from going on an actual rampage...