Sleepwalker Wolf

Sleepwalking

Travis

            Meeting Russ was a strange experience. He looked beyond happy to have found Val again, but almost refused to look anyone in the eyes. I couldn't imagine what it must be like to be unable to differentiate between facial features. It would make meeting new people extremely uncomfortable. Val and I looked it up after he and Garry had left and discovered it was called face blindness. It can happen when someone suffers from a brain injury and I think suffering from a prolonged 104 degree fever definitely counts.

            Val was in a content mood for the rest of the day, but after so long together, I'd learned the signs to predict her sleepwalking. She gets a little antsy and twitches her nose a lot. So I warned her about when we laid in bed.

            "And it's okay to shift when I'm pregnant? Even with triplets?" Val asks as she turns onto her side so I can wrap my arms around her and pull her against my chest.

            "It should be fine. I'll keep an eye on you to make sure nothing goes wrong, but your body is built for this," I say, pressing a kiss into the back of her head. "And we've got a midwife and a midwife in training in the house, so you've got plenty of help if something does go wrong."

            "Okay, make sure I don't tire myself out too much tonight. I don't want to be exhausted when I wake up."

            "I will. Just sleep, sweetness."

            It couldn't have been much longer after she fell asleep that I felt her moving. I'd learned after the first few times that it was best to get out of the bed so she wouldn't roll onto the floor. She needed the space since she wiggled a lot when she shifted. I watch from the side of the bed as her bones shift and fur sprouts. Shifting while pregnant isn't necessarily dangerous, but things can happen so it's best to have someone there to supervise. Which means I need to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't end up going to Carry's for a sleepover when she might be shifting. Eve would probably be there, but my instincts would never leave me alone if I knew there was even a slight chance she'd be putting herself in danger.

            After her shift, we follow an almost routine we've picked up for nights like this. I spend a few moments scratching between her ears and let her get reaccustomed to my scent. Then she weaves her way out of the bedroom door I've learned to keep cracked when she's going to shift. We head outside and she spends a good half an hour sniffing around the yard.

I'd just barely shifted so we could go wander around the woods for a while when the front door reopened. My entire family was standing there, Eve looking particularly bleary eyed. Mom came up to me and ran her hand over the side of my muzzle.

"I knew Valery was going to shift tonight and I figured we'd all go for a run as a family. It's been a while since we've gotten to do that."

Trev grumbles about his sleep being interrupted, but follows Dad and Eli around to one side of the house while Eve and Mom go around to the other. They all come back in their fur sides a little more awake. Val comes and sniffs every one of them in turn, nuzzling against Mom's side a little.

We all take off into the trees, Mom and Dad lagging behind. Once we'd gotten older, they tended to disappear for a while, and we all pretend we couldn't smell it once they came back. Thinking about my parents running off into the woods to fool around isn't a pleasant thought and one I'd rather ignore. This time, thank God, they stuck to the group and watched us all run around like idiots.

The moon is bright and full, but the sky is dark as the moon barely shines through the thick cloud cover. The air is crisp, but easy to deal with when you're covered in fur. Leaves litter the ground and the trees have grown bare. I can smell the snow on the breeze as we come into a little clearing in the trees.

I bite and pull on Trev's tail to get him to fight with me. We roll around in the dirt until I smell Val growing closer, probably unable to help wanting to join in the tussling. The instincts are always stronger when in our fur sides. Which means hell will freeze over before I let my pregnant girlfriend get in a fight between Trev and I.

When she gets over to us, I quickly back off. She huffs and barks at me, annoyed that I denied her a little fun. I just nuzzle my head against hers and give her a little warning growl that I don't care how much it upsets her, she isn't fighting with my brother, even if it's just play fighting. Trev just moves on and starts picking on Eve.

Mom and Dad are sitting beside each other at the edge of the clearing, watching us. My parent's don't look very old in their skin side, but shifted you can see the white fur growing around their faces, showing just how old there are by werewolf standards. In fiction, werewolves live a long time, but in reality, we only live to be in our sixties or seventies at best. My parent's are only in their mid-forties, but it's still a stark reminder that they won't be around forever.

Dad throws back his head and lets out a long howl, Mom and Eli following after. Trev pauses biting Eve's front leg long enough to join in and Eve kicks him in the face before letting her voice join the others. I look over at Val who sits beside me to see she looks a little confused about what we're doing. She's never had a family who ran with her in the woods and showed her fur side exactly what being a wolf was all about. So, I nudge her with my nose before joining my family.

After a moment, Val lets out a hesitant little howl, growing in confidence when she hears herself. Howling in our fur sides feels like singing. Normally we use it to find each other, but sometimes it's just nice to hear each other. The sound can carry for miles, so we never do it during hunting season because we don't want to draw any undue attention to ourselves. My incident a month ago being the prime example.

Before long, we all grow silent and start wandering back towards the house. I look around at all of us, Trev still trying to annoy Eve, Eli trailing behind them, and Mom and Dad taking up the back as they always have. Val has a content look in her eyes, rubbing her shoulder against mine as we walk. My entire family here together and I wouldn't have it any other way.

We all shift back and head inside, Dad locking the door. After a few quiet goodnights, we separate into our rooms for the night. Val hops up onto our bed and spins in a few circles before laying down. After removing my shirt and joggers, I collapse next to her and scratch the back of her neck when she rests her head on my chest.

"I know you won't remember any of this when you wake up, but I love you, sweetness, more than anything. And I'm so grateful I get to spend the rest of my life with you."

Val licks my cheek and I chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you again in the morning."

As Val falls back to sleep, shifting back into her skin side not long after, I enjoy the warm, bursting feeling in my chest. All my dreams are turning into reality, and I know it won't be an easy ride, but it's one I wouldn't ever wish to get off.