She and I
lay together side-by-side on the hilltop with
nothing between us except the evening breeze and the blades of grass tickling our bellies. It was the
perfect end to a perfect day: we had
raced each other through the forest, we had
sipped from the stream, and we had sung together in
perfect improvisational harmony as we walked along through the valley. "
We've been together for a few months now," she said, breaking the silence on the hill, "And there's
something about me that I want you to know." Her words were uneasy, as if this wasn't a good thing she was ready to reveal to me.
"You can tell me anything. You know that."
She took a deep breath and blurted out "I'm not what you think."
"I think you're the best friend and lover I've ever been with. You're telling me that's not true?"
"Well, I'm that, but I'm more than that, too. That's why I wanted us to come up here tonight. You'll understand when the sun goes down, I hope."
Perhaps this is some kind of kinky game, I wondered, puzzled at her behavior. She had never been this cryptic with me before. "What are you talking about?"
"I don't want to say too much right now. You'll think I've lost my mind. You just have to see. It'll be so much easier if you see for yourself. I've never told anyone about this. If the community found out about what I am, they'd tear me apart."
"I don't understand. If there's something you want to show me, then just show me now. You don't have to wait. Whatever it is, I'll understand."
"Not right now. Let's just enjoy this time together." We watched the last of the sun slip below the horizon, me being curious at her words and her shivering nervously.
"There, sunset," I said as darkness took over the land, offset only by the coming of the full moon. "Now what did you want to show me?" I noticed that my love was trembling even more now. I looked into her eyes and received the shock of my life. Her beautiful amber eyes had become brown! "Hon? What's going-"
"I promise I won't hurt you," she said tearfully, and then everything stopped making sense. She rolled away from me, still shaking but only now the shakes were becoming full-on spasms. I cried out to help her, worried that she was having a seizure or something, but she just sneered "Get back!" in the most godawful screech I'd ever heard. She began to grow larger, parts of her body swelling in some places and shrinking in others. The evening wind buzzed by and blew away most of her hair except that on her head and that hair grew longer, flowing down her back and becoming a most uncharacteristic brown in color. As I watched in horror each of her limbs split into five small fragments, each becoming pink at the end as she wigglied them in the air. She cried out to say something to me as her face flattened, but her throat had changed so much that I couldn't understand her anymore. When she opened her mouth I got a look at her teeth. Even they had transformed, becoming small and dull. I doubted that she could bite into anything with that mouth. Just as quickly as they had begun the changes stopped and, as she stood up, I got my first good look at my love's new form.
Terror filled me. She was taller, pinker, fleshy in some places, devoid of fur & tail, and full of curves. I realized then that the old legends were true and I had just seen the proof. Werehumans do exist.
I sat frozen for the longest time just looking at her and trying to figure out what to say. For the first time in our relationship I just didn't have the words. She sat down next to me and scratched my head. Again she said something, but I didn't know how to speak human so I had no clue what she told me. Her tone was soothing though, so I put my fears & questions aside for the night and listened to her breathe until I fell asleep, lazy wolf that I was.
Written for The Blood is the Life: A Frightful Halloween Quest.