The Turn of a Page

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

            I felt Baz nuzzle me again, on my neck this time; uncovering my face, I looked up and saw he was smiling wolfishly, which is hard to explain other than he was baring his teeth but without the menacing eyes. Standing up, I shook my head and looked down. Thinking I was being delusional, I shut one eye and looked down at my nose, which was further away than normal; it was on the end of a furry snout which was definitely coming from under my eyes. I looked down more and padded my way backwards and I saw I was standing on furry legs with paws on the end and sharp black claws protruding from my toes. How was this possible?

            Baz paced beside me, but as I was walking backwards I couldn’t see where I was going and fell to the earth after rolling over a small log. Shaking my head again, I looked over my shoulder and saw that my body had totally changed. It was coated in black fur, not a speck of grey or white or brown broke the perfectness of its texture; my legs were connected to my body by muscular thighs and from the base of my spine began a large, fluffy black tail that swished of its own accord.

            ‘What? How? This is impossible; this has to be a dream.’ My voice was covered with pining at the same time. I bit down into one of my front legs and yelped as it hurt, I also hurt my own ears from the unexpected sound from my mouth.

            ‘This is no dream, Kez.’ Theo had walked over and crouched down in front of me. ‘Your anger has released all that lies within you. You say you have dreams of being this?’ I bobbed my head. ‘Then that should have told you that you had this in you.’ He tried to reach across to touch my head, but I snapped my jaws in the air a mere inch from his finger tips, he soon retracted his hand.

            ‘You look very beautiful, Kerry,’ Baz yapped beside me.

            I felt blood rush to my cheeks but then realised he wouldn’t see past the fur, so I covered my muzzle with a paw instead to compensate. ‘You don’t mean that,’ I mumbled. ‘What happened?’

            ‘I don’t know. This is all so strange, and it does feel like a dream. I’m so happy, I don’t know about you though.’

            Uncovering my snout, and smiled what seemed like a smile in this new form. Oh, I had no idea; every little thing was a totally new sensation for me. Looking away from Baz, I saw that Theodore was still crouched in front of me. Anger still bubbling up inside me, I clambered up onto all fours and began snarling at him, but I was really talking although he probably couldn’t understand.

            ‘This is your entire fault. If you hadn’t let your own family know what you truly were, I wouldn’t be here confused and feeling left out. After all this time just dreaming, I finally find out that I really belong in your world. I’ve wasted near to five years wishing I could share my life with Barry completely, and I could have done if you hadn’t been so selfish.’ His eyes bulged with what could only be described as pure fear.

            ‘Kerry, stop that!’ Nathaniel barked as he leapt between me and his Beta. ‘It is not his fault, he wanted to protect his lover and he is sorry that it had led to this.’ Though he was barking, he wasn’t growling or trying to make me submit to him as he had done with Barry the first night I met them.

            I growled, using all the power in my lungs to force the air out of my teeth. And then I turned by body on itself and leapt into the trees and kept on running in a straight line, not caring where it led me.

            ‘Kerry!’ I heard Baz call out, in the form of a howl and it sounded as though he was hurting. I listened closer and realised I could hear the pace of my own paws as they thudded on the ground underneath me as I ran. Funny though, the rhythm of my paws (all four of them) didn’t sound right to my ears, so I stopped. Feeling my ears prick and turn on top of my head, I listened all around me and heard the same thudding coming from somewhere behind me.

            Scared that it might not be one of mine, I resumed my fleeing only to be stopped when I came across a river. Even more odd was that it was in a clearing, and the familiarity of it to my dream shook my mind a little. Now I had stopped I knew I couldn’t jump the girth of the river from a standstill, so I padded back to the tree line, crouched and then sprinted up to the river’s edge before putting all my weight into my muscular thighs and pushing my elegant body into the air. The gush of wind through my fur was liberating and I wanted to close my eyes to take in as much of the sensation as I could; but I knew if I did I would crash to the other side and probably injure myself.

            Feeling my forepaws hit the ground, I bent what would be my elbows and let my body take in the impact as my hind legs joined my body on the grass. Before I got up, I panted heavily trying to get my racing heartbeat to settle to a normal pace (though I didn’t know a normal pace for a wolf’s body).

            ‘Kerry, don’t run. Please!’ I heard Baz call to me again. Once again, my ears pricked but this time I also turned my head and expressed my surprise that he had followed me.

            He appeared, running, through the trees and skidded to a halt when he saw the river in his way. Unlike me, he dropped down and pushed his hind legs with a force I couldn’t begin to imagine; he leapt across the girth of the river, but he only just managed to touch my side with his front paws and his lower back and hind legs splashed down into the waters’ depths.

            He yelped in what seemed to be an injured cry. Snapping my body round, I ran over and clamped my jaws down onto the scruff of his neck and pulled with all my might to get him out of the water.

            ‘Ow! Kerry, that hurts. But thank you,’ he gratefully yapped. ‘Well that was a stupid idea. How did you get across?’ he asked while he shook his whole body, the exact way a dog does when it has just come out of the bath.

            I huskily chuckled, which was another new thing to me about my voice and sounds I could make. ‘I walked back to the trees and ran to the edge and then pushed down and leapt across. I’m surprised you didn’t do the same,’ I explained.

            ‘Ah, it seems better that way. And to think you’re only a starter at all of this,’ he chuckled back. Then he lay down. ‘Show me.’

            ‘What?’

            ‘Show me, I want to see,’ he repeated.