The Beasts We Are

The Beasts We Are Part 4

Author note: none of the Hermits are doing that great honestly.

Doc POV

"... Ren?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

My friend lay on the ground. He started changing. His ears and tail grew shaggier. His hands became more paw like, claws and all.

I watched as my best friend turned into a werewolf.

The wolfish Ren stood up shakily. He raised his head and howled.

Then he glared at us.

I stood in front of the others beside Impulse. My hand hovered above my sword.

Ren stayed still. I had just enough time to think good, he won't hurt us when he lunged.

I grabbed my sword and smacked him across the muzzle. Ren flew back into a pillar.

"Run!" I yelled.

The other Hermits ran out. Stress and Cleo managed to lift the unconscious False onto Joe's new horse back. Stress hopped on as well and they left.

Soon it was just me, Impulse, and Iskall.

I turned to them. "What now?" I asked as Ren prowled around us.

Iskall lit his hands on fire again, but Impulse shook his head.

"Don't." He said. "We don't want to hurt him."

Iskall gestured towards Ren. The werewolf shied away from the fire. "Okay, then what do we do?"

Impulse looked at something in his hand. I could see the gears turning in his head. "Distract him. I have an idea."

I looked sharply at him. "Good idea. Maybe he fancies a game of hunt the goat."

Impulse picked up a sword someone had dropped and started messing around with it. I turned my attention back to Ren.

"So. What should we do?" I asked Iskall, keeping my eyes on Ren.

"Not get bitten?" He suggested.

"Anything helpful?"

Iskall shrugged. Before he could answer, Ren leapt at him and pinned him to the ground. "Help!"

I ran up and kicked Ren off. The wolf yelped and glared at me.

Oh boy.

Ren lashed out at me, and his claws dug into my skin. It burned like fire. My shoulder went numb.

He jumped at me, and I stepped to the side.

"Impulse!" I yelled. "You done over there?"

"Just about!" He called back. "Give me a second."

The werewolf didn't seem to like that response. Ren snarled and clawed at me. I held my metal arm up to stop any of the blows from getting to my chest. Ren tried to bite me, but I shoved my arm in the way. I heard a sparking noise as the wolf's jaws crushed my arm.

Ren recoiled, probably not fond of the taste of metal. He pounced, and tackled me to the ground. His foaming jaws were inches away from my face. Ren raised a paw to strike.

When another howl from the forest innturupted him. Ren's head shot up, looking for the noise.

Another wolf jumped over the rail and landed on Ren. The wolves snarled at each other, circling and growling. I noticed the eyes were green and red. Wither.

A third wolf followed the second, and leapt into the fray, dragging Ren out to lay him before Iskall.

Iskall grabbed a lead and tossed it around Ren's throat. He pulled it hard and the rope tightened. I grabbed one too and tied it around his snout, careful not to be bitten.

"Done." Impulse came over, a metal band in his hands. He wrapped it around Ren's snout. The wolf snarled, and tried to shake it off, but Impulse had done his job well.

Iskall dragged WereRen over to a fence and tied the end of the lead to it, then sprang away. The werewolf tried to lunge at him, but the rope held him back. 

The three of us collapsed to the floor and sighed in relief as Ren clawed the air around him.

The two new wolves changed into Wither and X. Wither looked fine, apart from a few claw marks that were probably from Ren. X looked tired.

"That." I took a breath. "Was awesome."

We watched Ren for a bit, struggling with the lead that was keeping him away from us.

A thought hit me.

"What do you think happened to Mumbo?" I asked.

The other four frowned.

Iskall was quiet for a bit. "Do you think its as bad as Ren?"

Wither gave a wry smile. "No, it's worse. We had to knock him out, and use a lot of duck tape."

I raised an eyebrow at this.

X continued. "We got there, and Mumbo wanted us to go. If we'd known why, we would have. But..." His voice trailed off.

Wither picked up the story. "The change affected him hard. He became a vampire, and tried to attack us, although against his will. Probably like Ren." He gestured to the wolf. "Trapped in his own mind."

"How do you know it was against his will?" Impulse asked. "And it's not just species instinct?"

"Because he tried to kill Grian." X responded.

That put a damper on things.

"Where are they now?" I asked quietly.

"Still coming. They should be here any minute, but we went on ahead. Good thing we did too, or you'd have to add being a werewolf to the list of species." Wither answered.

I turned to X. "And the shapeshifting?"

He looked a bit embarrassed as he told me what had happened. "I figured out how when Mumbo was... You know. I turned into a gorilla. I kept trying different ideas on the way back, and it's easier now."

"He makes a very cute panda." Wither chimed in. Xisuma went a bit red, although it was hard to notice in the night.

Two shapes flew through the sky towards us. I reached for my sword thinking they were phantoms, but Impulse grabbed my wrist.

"It's Tango, Grian, and Mumbo." He said. I wondered how he could tell from this far away, but as they got closer I could see he was right. I frowned though, seeing their condition.

Grian wasn't physically harmed, but he looked shaken.

Tango looked worse physically. A long cut on his shoulder had soaked his shirt black. (I learned he had black blood the hard way.) And he carried Mumbo.

They landed beside us, stumbling a bit as they hit the ground. Tango gently lay Mumbo down on the ground.

Mumbo's wrists were bound together with -as Wither had promised- lots of duck tape. His mouth was covered too. I wondered why for a minute before remembering he was a vampire now.

"Are you guys alright?" I asked.

Grian sighed as the sun peeked over the horizon. "I'm fine." He mumbled.

"Aside from the shoulder, then same." Tango added.

We talked as sunlight crept over the valley. It crept over RenWolf, and he started changing back into a human. Cut, bruised, unconscious.

We untied the rope and brought him and Mumbo inside.