Dryad System: But I Look Like a Wendigo?

The first thing Lief noticed was the darkness. He couldn't remember what he had just been doing, but strangely enough, he didn't feel overly panicky about it.

He floated peacefully through the darkness, his mind emptied of thoughts until the darkness began to recede, fading to white.

Greeting him inside the empty whiteness was a large green deer with humongous branching antlers draped with vines of blooming flowers and sparkling fruit. A faint perfume filled the air as the deer approached Lief, towering over his form. The deer's eyes seemed to contain a bright flame as it stared down at Lief, as if looking deep into his soul.

The flames in the deer's eyes changed from gentle candle lights to fierce bonfires as its expression became one of excitement. Lief felt something deep within him stir as he stared back into the deer's eyes.

Suddenly, both the white void and the image of the green deer seemed to become corrupted, eventually dissolving into the darkness as an immense feeling of sadness and betrayal overtook him.

Lief woke up with a start, his body jolting upwards. His breathing was heavy and ragged as perspiration trailed down his face. He had been experiencing the same dream over and over again. Even though he knew it was the same dream each time, the details would always slip from his mind like water through a sieve. He was unable to recall the dream only a few minutes after he woke up.

He yawned and stretched as he stepped out of bed, disarming his alarm clock since he was awake before it needed to go off. He took a quick shower before he changed into his school uniform, which consisted of a plain white t-shirt, black jacket and pants, and a tie in his school's main colors of green and silver.

Once he was finished changing, he grabbed a granola bar for his breakfast and headed out, grabbing his backpack and folders on the way. Normally he took the bus to school, but today he decided to take his bicycle.

Lief was a second-year student at a fairly prestigious highschool. The campus could support almost 10,000 students at any given time, though usually there were around 7-8,000 students each school year. Normally, first and second year students stayed on campus at the dorms, but because he already lived close to the campus, Lief was allowed to stay at his house.

On the way to the school, he met up with two of his closest friends, the twins Cain and Asher. Cain and Asher were their names in the common language, though they once told Lief that their names in the language of their homeland were Kazan and Kai. When they had moved to the west, they had changed their names to better fit in.

Cain was the older of the two twins and tended to be more serious and logical. He tended to be the brains of the group, sometimes stopping Lief and Asher from doing something stupid. Meanwhile, Asher was like a small puppy, an adorable disposition with a miniscule attention span. Whenever they got in trouble, Asher would be the one to bail them out. Because he looked so innocent, adults tended to believe whatever he said. Lief was the brawn of the trio. He usually helped wherever they needed some heavy lifting done, or if they just needed some brute strength.

For example, one time, Asher got the amazing idea to create a robotic dog that would fight any intruders. Lief built the robot out of materials Asher acquired, following the instructions given to him by Cain. It ended up malfunctioning and started attacking anything it saw. Lief eventually had to get it to stop by smacking it with a bat until it was completely destroyed.

"Morning Cain, morning Asher!" He greeted the twins cheerfully as they rode up beside him on bikes of their own. Cain nodded towards him in acknowledgement of his greeting, but said nothing. He still looked sleepy, a complete opposite of his twin who looked as energetic as ever. "Good morning Lief!" Asher smiled brightly back at him.

If Lief had to describe Asher's smile, he would admit it was like looking at the sun, without all the radiation of course.

The trio headed down the street towards their school, with Lief and Asher racing ahead at dangerously fast speeds, while Cain rode at a more moderate and safe speed.

Suddenly a golden ring of light appeared around each of them, causing each of them to yelp in surprise.

What happened next, Lief couldn't exactly remember, and he suddenly woke up in an unfamiliar setting. "Cain, Asher, are you there?" He was met with only silence.

As he pushed himself up from the ground, he found that he was not in his human body, though his new form seemed to be vaguely humanoid, so he was glad for that at the very least.

His new form was quite lanky and seemed taller than he was before, and it felt a bit off to walk around in. Noticing a river nearby, he walked quickly over to it and glanced at his reflection.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

His full form was completely and absolutely bone-chilling, especially to Lief who hated horror movies and games despite his strength and bravery when it came to other matters. His friends often teased him for it.

His head was a demonic looking skull with glowing orbs inside of the hollow sockets instead of eyes. He wasn't able to tell what kind of skull it was though, since he wasn't all that interested in anatomy. All he knew was that it wasn't human. At the top of the skull were a pair of large horns that corkscrewed into sharp points. Along the sides of the skull were a pair of small horns that extended down to the mouth of the skull, bringing to mind a pair of bug mandibles, though they were far sharper than the mandibles of any bug Lief could think of.

Fur extended along his spine starting from the back of the skull. The fur was a dull shade of green, and got darker the closer it was to his body.

His body was mostly humanoid, though the skin was not like human flesh. If he had to describe it, he would say it felt like what a shadow would feel like if it were solid. His chest had a few bones exposed. His torso also had a few bones that interlocked to form a sort of armor.

At the base of his spine, he found that he had a new limb, a long tail that somehow seemed to be made entirely of bone, without anything holding it together. Each bone segment of his tail also had a sharp spine that he was somehow able to retract at will. After a short while, Lief was able to control the tail well enough to use it like another arm.

His feet were just as inhuman as his skeletal head. Each foot ended in sharp claws with jagged edges. At the back of each foot, just above the heel, was a sharp hook that seemed to be made of bone. His hands also ended in sharp claws.

All in all, his new form reminded him of a monster he had only heard stories about, a wendigo.

"Is this a dream?" He tried to pinch his arm to see if he was awake or not. Because of his claw-like fingers, he ended up scratching himself and drawing a bit of blood. "Ouch!"

When he looked around at the rest of his surroundings, he found himself in a dead forest that seemed completely devoid of life. The trees were blackened and withered, as if something had drained them of all of their vitality.

If the forest had been filled with fog, Lief could have mistaken it for a horror movie set, with him as the antagonist.