The Story Of The Beast With The Four Dirty Paws

Full Moon

As the sun crawled under the horizon, and the blue blush of the night grew across the sky, Remington watched the subsiding red of the sunset flicker away.

He turned away as darkness fell, and followed the rock-strewn path that was his way back home.

The cold air bit at his skin, making him wish he'd covered up more. He made a compromise with himself since his house wasn't too far away. Then, he stopped.

His eyes caught onto a stream of light falling on him, his gaze followed it until it reached the round, cool glow of the moon. Seems like the full moon today, he thought, absent-minded, inexplicably transfixed on its image. But the light of something much closer caught his attention.

Following the stream of moonlight back down, he focused on his shoulder. His eyes widened in shock.

A pattern of glowing blue marks ran across, stretching from chest to back. Almost like a bite mark.... The moon itself seemed to pull the escaping light straight towards it.

His breath caught, in surprise or disbelief, he couldn't tell. Until it caught for another reason entirely.

His head snapped back towards the moon, knocking out any breath he had in him. He felt it staring right into his soul, its very presence frightening but aweing, utter vulnerability filling him.

His skin and bones started tingling, shivering all across his body. What started as a slight itch covering his arms and back, turned into needles in every pore.

He gasped for air, watching his arms turn dark, something rapidly starting to grow from them. He reached out a hand to feel it, something soft... hair, no.... fur?

But he didn't have time to question it, before another burst forced him down to his knees, his nails digging into the soft ground. Shocks ran through his system, and his nails started to fall out; bone digging through his flesh, curving into sharp and bloodied claws.

He gagged as his jaw forced itself open, he felt his teeth start to protrude further, thinning, and even more taking their place, cutting his gums into strips as a bloody stream rained from his mouth onto the ground.

Bones cracked and melded and grew, muscles ripped themselves apart and reattached, like some kind of horrifying dance of change. His ankles grew unnaturally long, fingers moving out of place, bones rearranging themselves, his spine starting to grow out, curving behind him. It felt like his nerves were being burned and electrocuted and frozen all at the same time.

He cried out in distress, trying to crawl away from this agony. But before he could get too far, his cry was cut short as his neck closed entirely.

He choked, grabbing for his haggard throat, causing him to lose balance. He collapsed, falling down the hillslope, his aching muscles crying out from the hit of the rough earth.

He arrived at the bottom, still void of any air, on the verge of blacking out. Suddenly his lungs expanded, and he desperately gasped, inhaling deeply as much as he could, high-pitched whines escaping his lips as he ached on the cold, hard ground.

But the haze covered his eyes, carrying him away once more.

~ 🌕 ~ ☁️ ~