- Chapter Three -

71 8 0
                                    

One of the other tavern workers came and took over my shift just before sunset

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

One of the other tavern workers came and took over my shift just before sunset. After a few weeks I had scheduled it just so to the point where I could leave home and be in the woods ready to shift by sundown.

Ivy was eager to get back to our routine. She practically dragged me by the shirt collar down the street the tavern was on and into the woods that overlooked the Atlantic. We broke into a run and the forest began singing its lullaby.

Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to be human. To not be able to feel these sensations. Running through the woods faster than any human could, the world hummed around us in a way only a Werecat could sense. It was almost as if every night the trees welcomed us home.

The sun was just about to set. The birch treetops were absorbing the last rays of golden sunshine for the day and nighttime bugs were beginning to chirp. Since it was the middle of July, Ivy and I had taken to a deeper patch in the forest than we normally do to avoid any late night hikers. The land was rocky, with Lion King worthy rocks jutting out of the constant upward slope. They were patched in healthy green moss and smaller rocks.

"Let's follow the stream and go a bit farther up." Ivy said, breaking me out of my observations.

After maybe a half hour of an uphill run along the babbling stream, we finally reached a green patch of grass surrounded by birches. I slipped off my shoes to rub them in the fresh, green grass.

I glanced at Ivy to see her sitting in the field, completely surrounded by red and yellow wild flowers. Purple flowering vines had sprung from the earth to creep up her arms. As the green eyes and name may suggest, Ivy's affinity was Earth.

"Show off." I said, earning myself a stuck out tongue.

An internal alarm a few seconds later told us it was time. Many Werecat scientists over the years had researched and experimented on our internal clocks, but none were able to completely understand just how we knew when it was time. Sure, the sun set and moon rose, but no one knew how exactly we knew when to be ready.

My stomach sank as I sank to my knees. I had forgotten on the way here that shifting tonight would hurt since I hadn't in days. Too late, I thought to myself.

The burning began in my chest. It radiated outward until all I could feel to the tips of my fingers and toes was white hot pain. I fell on my side into the grass and I could feel the dark fur growing from my skin. My eyes opened to see my nose and mouth both slightly elongating to form a panther's snout. Fangs and claws sharpened. My eyes burned. Just when I as ready to scream out the pain, it was over.

I glanced at the treetops. The sky was completely night now, but the stars and moon illuminated the forest in ways the sun never could. It was blanketed in a soft blue glow and every sound, from the babbling of the brook at my paws to a single cricket playing its song in the tree above me, was audible. I loved the night. I belonged to it.

Feral: A Werecat NovellaWhere stories live. Discover now