Intent

Chapter Two : Girl

I peered out from the tree line. The small clearing seeming larger than it actually was with the presence of them. I smelled blood, and heard the tearing of material as I watched the herd silently. I knew I should intervene, but we were all hungry enough that anyone could have performed this act on any person and we wouldn't say a thing about it. An image flashed through my mind, the same girl, lying still in the snow, soft breaths escaping her astonished mouth, only joyfully running about in the grass, the heat of a summers day, the wind blowing through my hair. I didn't have hair.

The old me had hair, and was clumsy and weak compared to the me I was now. But who was "me". I couldn't remember. More or less, I didn't want to remember, I suppose. The girl brought me out of my thoughts by making a soft plea. Her head turned to me, blue eyes turning gray with the pain and the loss of her own mind. She asked me for help. No, she mouthed the word help. While short breaths escaped her mouth, sound did not. I stood and walked silently over to the girl, looking down at her as though she was below me, meer pray beneath my powerful jaws. She locked her blue eyes to my green, and held my gaze, threatening me. I didn't look away. I couldn't look away. She seemed to be challenging me to save her. I knew I could, and it seemed like she knew, too. We held each others gazes for a long moment, until I heard the crunch of bones beside me, and I saw that one of the herd had broken her femur. The girl made a soft whine but otherwise lie still. The white snow was now saturated with her blood. I looked into her eyes again, and saw the girl I saw earlier. Happy, joyous, carefree. My body started shaking, I heard the scrape of bones and the tearing of flesh to make way for new ones. My spine stretched and arched, my horns unraveling from my skull like thread. I found myself shivering in the cold snow, my new self. Naked, and a little afraid, I looked at the girl one last time, her eyes half shut in desperation and exhaustion. And suddenly,

I knew who she was.