The Glass Scientists micro-fanfictions

Wolfish matters

The trees seemed to part around him as he ran, the branches often swinging directly into his face as they were all too short all of a sudden. Not that he could feel it at that time, though he'd surely be feeling it come morning as he had to patch up the scrapes and bruises to the best of his abilities.

It was funny, only a mere handful of moments ago, he had been terrified, an agony he had never thought possible contorting his body into unholy and inhuman shapes as the pale moonlight had filtered through the treetops, dappling the woods with its strange patterns of shadows against the dark. Thankfully he had the foresight to leave his home before anything had happened.
He'd been feeling odd for a good few hours, and no matter how much restlessness and searching for relief he had been doing. Convincing himself that a good walk would make him feel better, fresh air and enough movement to get the wiggles out of his system a sure fire cure for whatsoever it was that was getting him quite so antsy.

But that was when the pain started. It had at first been little more than a headache and a tenderness of the muscle, the sort that really could be sorted with by little more than a walk and a nap, but it grew and worsened so very much that the lad's legs could no longer hold him up. It was a pitiful sight indeed, to see the young man dropped to the ground, grass staining his trousers, and his face contorted with a confused pain - and a pained confusion. The poor lad! - as hot tears poured down his face, falling free and messy as he had far too much to worry about and his appearances at that moment were less than his far more pressing concerns of what the hell was happening and whether it would ever end and if he'd still be amongst the living when it all came to its hopeful end.

But within the hour, no one could have have identified the beast that ran helter skelter through the trees as having ever been the shy and unassuming Jasper Kaylock.

The first transformation, he would later learn, was by far the worst. It was the first time his body had to contort and twist into its new, greater and more fearsome form, and unfortunately he was less than prepared to be forced almost unknowingly into the shape of a wold.
It was said that there were folks out there who would numb the issues that the transformation caused with a specific mixture of herbs and roots brewed in the light of a new moon, but the specifics of this were kept a secret under lock and key by those who knew it, so the poor farm boy had no option for relief from his torment. 

It wasn't that he was completely without warning that this would happen, or at least he would have been aware of his unfortunate fate had he thought to identify the beast that had forced his life to become so terribly topsy turvy. It would have had to have been a month since he heard the low, pained moan of a creature that was unknown to him, and the sound damn near broke his heart. With little thought for his own safety, he had set out with a meager stack of supplies to help, and help he did. But not without consequence. He'd gotten too close to the beast's fearsome maws and, in a moment of panic that Jasper fully understood, it had panicked and clamped it's jaw hard around him. While he had done a decent enough job of cleaning and patching them both up, he was infected the very moment the teeth had broken through his skin and drew blood.
It hadn't intended to infect anyone, in fact it had gone as far away from anyone at all to avoid the temptation that it had no control over, but the deep dark woods held more than just sun and moonlight spilling trees, and unfortunately for it, these occupants of the dark and unexplored corners of the world were less welcoming to a wayward beast than one might hope. Attacked to beyond an inch of its life, it was a marvel that Jasper had come along when he did, undoubtedly saving its life. 

And how did it repay its saviour?

Why, by passing along its curse onto him!

Another matter that Jasper's new form that he hadn't imagined would have been an issue at all was that he was not used to a shape other than a human body. Trying to move about was an ordeal, staggering about on four very uncoordinated legs or trying to balance on his hind legs at a higher height than he was used to compensating for, causing him to smack right into any and everything that he hadn't thought to worry about until it collided right into him. But thankfully enough he didn't really feel it all too much. His newly acquired thick coating of fur combined with the sheer adrenaline that pushed him forward, onward with no path or intention other than to keep moving.
He'd be damned if he stopped, but he was already damned so why could his body not be kind enough to let him breath for even a moment?

Oh, it might have felt wonderful then, but it was inevitable that his body would hate him come morning. With the harrowing ordeal of transforming to wolf and back to man without the misfortune of experiencing it previously coupled with the strain on his muscles that came from them being used in all manner of wrong ways, he was going to be aching during his chores and there was nothing he could do to stop this.

Well, if there was nothing he could do to chase away the inevitable, the next best thing was to make the absolute most out of a bad situation.