Chapter 1

What would you do if you found a lone wolf in the woods?

My eyes open and I look to see the orb in the sky, shining bright as ever, I grunt and clamber onto my paws before beginning to stroll along, past trees. I find food, I eat it raw and wholeheartedly, it's all I've ever known.

I take a second to sit down and scratch my hindpaw on my coat of fur before I pick myself back up and carry on walking, possibly meaninglessly, but I continue anyway. And I wonder, what is meaning?

Is it purpose?

What is purpose?

What is my purpose?

I walk past all of the tall trees, touching the sky. The shiny orb, as its name suggests, shines in my eyes, partially blinding me from seeing in front of me as I walk.

I hear a noise all of a sudden, frightening me and engulfing me in fear, I begin to run, honestly, I fear the thing, the sound was loud. Fortunately, the noise had came from where the soon-to-vanish orb is. So the light will not blind me as I run away. The noises get louder and it is a bit overwhelming, my ears twitch violently.

I growl as I make as much distance as possible between the stranger and I. It is a threat, possibly a predator, I have never seen a predator before, at least not a predator of mine, I had played predator many a time before though, whilst any creature I desired, I would hunt as they would play the role of prey.

Whatever the stranger is, it is getting closer and closer to me, but its run is not one of hostility. That is unless it is a designated trick, designed to deceive me into slowing enough to pounce and tear me limb from limb, bone from flesh, fur from bulky skin beneath. The creature comes closer, I glance behind me, but I don't spot it, the orblight is preventing me from looking at the creature, the predator. And then, as I look behind me, at the carefully crafted outline of the predator, I trip over a rock and tumble violently down a bank, next to a shallow stream, water high as short grass.

I hit the bottom and my large head slams against a rock, forcing blood to begin a small flood. I feel my body change as the orb gets low enough for me to see the predator in the remaining light. The predator does not look like me, but it does now I come to look at me, no longer in my normal form, my birth form, my form, but a fleshy bag of skin, unprotected in a form I dare not, and therefore do barely ever assume, just like the predator.

I am by a stream and the creature gets closer, too close.

"I'm not going to hurt you." It says softly.

In desperation and an attempt to escape, I begin to push myself backward on my unfurred, fleshy forepaws, my back up so I can see the predator. I splash a small portion through until I realise that the distance of about myself between the two of us should be a safe distance.

"Your head." It says, getting closer on its two hindpaws, covered by what appear to be soft stones, attempting to touch my head, I violently jump back as I feel my head heal over.

"I don't want to hurt you," It speaks to me again. I don't know what it even means, it's just sounds, like a growl, or a howl. And I wonder why this thing can't talk in a mixture of howls and growls.

"Please." It says, attempting to offer myself one of its skinny forepaws. My back dips into the water of the shallow stream, angering me a bit more. I growl at the thing and begin to change to my form, not a stupid meaningless form, but my form before running away up the bank of the other side of the stream, fairly steep, but nothing I can't handle. At least I know the creature is definitely not a predator. Maybe. It could be a predator in another way, trying to trick me into conversing with it before then eating me. That's all I've ever known, the way the world works, eat or get eaten. And I wonder how the flesh bag creature manages to survive.

The shiny orb goes out of sight for it is my time to close my eyes and enter a different world. When I open my eyes, I rub one of my hindpaws, covered in dirt, against my red coat of fur, the orb has reappeared and, after selecting a creature to eat, I settle on a small creature up in a tree, taunting me. But I can't reach it, so when I see a small creature bouncing, I am overjoyed and with no effort whatsoever, I grab it and tear it apart, enjoying the taste of its flesh in my mouth. After an tasty creature, playing prey today, is down, past my mouth, into my form, I just begin to walk again, seeing the stream, each one of the drops leaving its eternal mark. And then I reach the point where I saw the creature before the orb last disappeared. I look at the mark it left, a strange set of marks.

"Hey," I hear something say and I remember the noise from the creature from yesterday and I snarl as I jump up and grab it by its chest. My mouth gets awfully close to the creature and I move away from the creature I've just pinned to the ground. And I hear a noise from myself, is that a whimper?

I whimper at the creature, I actually whimper, whimper naturally, backed away from it by at least a proportion of my own length, just in case it were to attack.

I do emit a growl as it attempts to reposition itself on its hindpaws, covered by the soft stones. But it does not attempt to run, which in my mind, if I were this creature, is an unwise move. I don't pounce on it though, I'd like to see the plot this small thing is devising. The fleshy bag creature does not even move when I take a step closer to its hindlegs, the only two of its four in contact with his paws making contact with the ground.

It puts its forepaw, uncovered, to touch my snout, but I try to move, however, I fail, and the creature does touch it, it feels cold. "Change." It says and don't understand it. This tongue it speaks is confusing and frustrating to understand. "Change." It emits again, but this time, softer, gentler, kinder, and I do feel less threatened. I only have one thought of what it could mean and, with a lot of effort, I feel the fur sunk into me and myself change. It puts its hand out to me and I grab it, the creature pulling me up to stand on my unfurred hindpaws alone.

I nearly fall, but the creature grabs me and I don't. "So," It releases from its mouth as I consider what it means and my head tries to convert it into a sequence of snarls, grunts, growls and howls, "So do you have a name?" It says, letting go off me, allowing my fleshy form to walk alone on only my hindpaws.

I reply with a growl to the creature, stroking my really long, flowing, red hair, before I fall and begin to walk on all four paws, but still in my fleshy form.

It picks me up again with its forepaw on mine, "You can't talk, can you?" As it grasps me on the shoulder in a desperate attempt to keep me from falling over.

I lead the creature, it has no idea where we are headed, but neither do I, to a place somewhere in the forest, down the stream by a long, long way.

We stop and I fall to the ground as soon as it lets go of me.

It falls, but slowly and controlled as well a few seconds later, next to me. It grabs my forepaw with both of its own. "It's ok." It says. I don't know what it means, but I just imagine that the creature is trying to reassure me. I feel my body begin to change again, this time to my real form, not a meaningless form I don't ever want to assume, only ever really assuming not on purpose. But not on this cycle of the shiny orb.

When the fur covers me, it still won't let go of my forepaw, I try, on my side, to shake it away, but the grip is strong and it will not let go of my red-furred paw. The creature looks at me, "Change." It says, I understand that word now, but I don't want to do it. But if I don't, it will seem like I don't understand it. "Change." It says again, same as before, getting softer and softer throughout the word.

I do. It drains me though and when I spot a creature nearby, bouncing, on all fours, my secondary, disadvantaged, fleshy form grabs the bouncing small creature and I tear the small thing apart with my teeth. The big fleshy creature looks at me again though and points an extension of its forepaw at me and releases the word from his lips that I knew was a lie, the word does not describe me, it describes a form I can assume at will, but I don't because it is a stupid form, one with a stupid name, showing just how bad of a species this form belongs to, with the idea in their heads that they are at the advantage by not being engulfed in fur with sharp claws and sharp paws and sharp fangs and superior senses, a species of which I am glad I am not a part of and I can merely change forms to, like it would do me any good to be a weak fleshy thing, prey, rather then the apex predator. He says the word softly, "Human."

Human.

Human.

Human.