Chapter 0-02: All Before Dinner

"What the hell !? Why would you do that ?" yelled an utterly dumbfounded dark-skinned girl, wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and combat boots.

The squat, broad shouldered, cream-coloured wolf standing in front of her whimpered, feeling somewhat guilty even though she couldn't care much less about the rotund figure rapidly disappearing into the night at full speed on a bicycle.

"Yeah, well... Shit, I didn't even get his bloody name !" the braided girl groaned while planting her palm solidly on her face.

The wolf snorted, unconvinced.

"I'm telling you, no way he's just some random, normal guy. I mean, what the fuck was he doing here at this hour ? And he knew what I was talking about, too."

The wolf raised her head and exposed her throat, uninterested in a continued argument.

"Fine, but we have to talk later about you turning in front of people !" the tall girl concluded while the wolf had started sniffing around.
"Whatever... How can I understand you anyway, that doesn't even make any sense..."

Her mumbling was interrupted by a sudden growl from her companion, as a silhouette had appeared on the other side of the trail.

She raised her hands reflexively in a rough fighting posture, startled:
"Who the fuck is there ?"

The figure held their hands up, approaching slowly:
"Hello. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier, but I'm looking for something. And it looks like I found it."

Now that they had gotten closer, the pair had an easier time looking them up and down. They were wearing worn, dirty clothes, as if they slept outside the night before. And the night before that. An oversized hoodie under a denim jacket, the hood pulled up, made it difficult to really discern the shape of the body. A beanie under that held down a head of washed-out blonde hair, betrayed by the few that still claimed free range above the eyes of their owner. Cargo pants and a pair of crumbling skating shoes completed the apparel that overall only let the face be truly visible. It was thin and pale, loaded with heavy bags under the eyes, which were the most notable feature, slightly glowing yellow with an oversized pupil.

Their gazes met, and the tall, wide-eyed girl recoiled back:
"Wo-ho, what the hell..."

The individual rubbed their eyes, trying to smooth the fatigue out of their traits:
"Let's not pretend that I did not just witness that girl turn into a bloody wolf and get into it, okay ?" They looked up again, their eyes now an average shade of grey.
"Let's take turns. I'm Sed, what's your name ?"

"Gaëlle."

"Nice to meet you, Gaëlle." They paused, before gesturing towards the wolf, who growled again.
"And this is ?"

"One at a time, Sed." she had lowered her hands and was working on regaining her composure, still rattled by the surprise.

"Alright, fair enough." they sighed.

"Are you like us ?"

"If by like you, you mean..." they hesitated, glaring at the wolf. "I... think so. I imagine you can also...?" points at the plaid-clad girl, points at the wolf, then back at the girl again.

"Yep. Why are you here ?"

"Hold on, my tur-" they stopped as she raised her eyebrows in response.
"Oh, right. Damn. Well, I had heard rumours of wolf howls in the forest, and actual wolves are at best excessively rare around Brittany, so... Worth checking it out." they shrug.
"Do you know Vergris ltd ?"

"Uh, no ? What is- Actually, table that. If you're like us, how long has it been ? When did it... start ?"

They grimaced:
"Uuuh, a couple weeks ?" They closed their eyes for an instant.
"What day is this ?"

"Saturday." Her mouth split into a cheeky smile.
"This one don't count."

"Almost three weeks." they answered almost immediatly, utterly confidant. They opened their eyes, catching her gaze again.
"Thanks. You didn't quite finish your beautiful story about dreams earlier, when you were getting some random guy involved. When did you turn for the first time and how ?"

The wolf let out an amused snort as the girl' smile faded into an annoyed pout. "Okay, no need to get pissy, sister." she mumbled as the hooded face briefly tensed up at her words, a flame suddenly roaring brighter in their chest, only slightly retreating with a slow, controlled outake of air.
"Alright." She took in a breath.
"I kept having those dreams for a couple weeks, everytime more vivid and detailed. Every night, I would go a little farther, do a little bit more. I would explore the forest, the villages nearby, sometimes be back on the streets in my neighborhood, sometimes be on the other side of town.
Until, one night, I go to bed. And I start having this lucid dream, where I wake up in my bed, at night. I walk on four legs again, I am covered in fur, I can smell everything, I feel strong. I know I'm dreaming, so I'm like, "Fuck yeah, this rules.".
I go out through the window and have an absolute blast through the town. I go to my favorite places, hiding from people, I run around the gardens, then I go out of the city and cross the fields to go up to the forest. I spend the whole night out, howling at the Moon, chasing critters, enjoying my body, fast, powerful, perceptive.
I am back in my bed at the first lights of dawn, expecting to wake up with my alarm, still in my pajamas and ready write all that down. But no, when I wake up, it's noon, my muscles ache, and I'm still a fucking wolf. Obviously, I was scared shitless. It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to turn back... Thankfully, I had nowhere to be that day." She flashed a sardonic smile.
"That was a week ago. I've been experimenting since, trying to figure out what I can do from my earlier dreams... and the new ones. Overall, feel like I'm handling it pretty well." She shrugged.

The intense-looking individual was rubbing their temples, hardly containing their exasperation. The wolf was now laying down on the grass and leaves, muzzle rested on her paws, looking up worriedly at the exchange heating up in font of her. After they took a moment to (unsuccessfully) gather themselves, the pale, fatigued silhouette turned away from the source of their annoyance:
"You know, that's great, for you. Sounds fun, so fun, love it."

"Okay, then, what is your deal girl ? You show up, I don't know you, and you're giving me a lot of shit that feels kinda unwarranted. I'm pretty sure we're all trying to figure this out here, right ? We're clearly all fucking confused !" yelled out the tall, dark-skinned girl, spreading her arms in frustration.

When the dirt-covered face whipped around again to glare at its clean, soft-skinned and symmetrical counterpart, it was distorted by anger, rapidly twisting into a hirsute, rage-filled mask. The eyebrows thickened and fused as the whole forehead became covered in dirty grey fur, fangs cracked the mouth into a violent maw, and the ears sharpened into points. Even though their posture became hunched and low-standing, they grew by at least half a head as their body thickened and stretched, brimming with crushing power and wound-up speed. The oversized clothes now looked as though they barely fit the muscular stature that still somehow gave an impression of thin, wiry musculature.

In only a few bounds they were right up to the frustrated girl, only to be faced by a shape still taller than them. Reflexively, she had also stretched into a towering stature, extending her already graceful shape in a feral display of smooth lines and agility. She now looked down on a bestial Sed barely reaching her ribcage, as she stood up fully on her feet, not making any effort to hunch or crouch. Her braid were swimming all the way down to her knees, bent as they were into animalistic, double-jointed pillars of powerful pressure. The jet-black fur was covering her arms and neck, the half open plaid shirt revealing a hirsute torso, barely contained by a now much too tight sports bra.

Undettered, a grey-furred hand grabbed at a shirt collar, pulling a barely human face down to another:
"Some fucking creep decided that it would be funny to make me into a crazy killing machine. That was the last thing he ever did, and now I have to walk on fuckin eggshells to not rip someone else apart while I figure out how to fix this. That's my deal." they whispered in barely contained rage.
"Also, never call me a girl again."

They did not get the opportunity to stand there and keep growling at each other's throats as a gravely, barely human voice suddenly rose:
"DOWN."

Where a squat, cream-coloured wolf was laying now stood a creature of claw, fangs and fur. Every muscles and tendons screamed for violence, the wet muzzle barely able to form the words that were snarled, the hateful eyes dancing with the flames of rage ready to burst at any moment. The two others now simply looked like hairy children, even though the creature was barely taller than the hypermuscular, grey-furred silhouette.

Sed released the collar, turning away and stomping a few steps while their shape shortened, the tension slacked, the sharpness subsided. Gaëlle regressed back to a... moderatly imposing height and dusted down her shirt. She sideyed the creature, who shaked suddenly like drying herself while falling on four legs, back to a squat wolf in a confusing blur of fur. The wolf licked its snout and looked back expectantly.

Satisfied with the state of her shirt, she recomposed herself, looking contrite:
"Look, I don't know what going on with us. I'm sorry about what happened to you, and I'm sorry about the girl thing, I... I didn't know, but I should've asked. That won't happen again. Maybe... It seems we're in a similar boat, so we could group our heads together and try to figure it out ?"

Scratching their head, Sed pushed back their hood and beanie, letting more wild, dirty strands of blonde hair free to danse around their face. Then, they let out a sigh and turned back:
"You guys are my only lead anyway. I'm not actually so mad at you, I just... I've been having trouble with getting a handle on... anger, recently." They sighed again. "But also, do you really believe that all of this just started with weirdo dreams ? I mean, stuff just doesn't work like that."

"I mean, people also don't just turn into wolves, right ? I think there's a lot of stuff we don't understand about reality." Gaëlle shot back with a coy smile.

They looked unconvinced, but brushed past it:
"Okay, I do think we should share what we know, but can we get someplace else ? Or do we have to keep talking in the middle of the forest, at night, in February ? Might start raining any time too." they remarked, looking up at the blanket of clouds covering the light of the moon.

She gazed back towards the source of the rich, iron and flesh scent, who had wained, now only a diffuse sensation around them.
"I'm still curious about this, but... Sure, I know where we can go."

"Oh, I thought that was you guys' smell, but I guess not ?" They furrowed their eyebrows while looking around the trail.

"Well, whatever it is, it guided us to what we needed to find, so maybe that was it ? We were supposed to meet, I think."

They rolled their eyes as she grinned, amused at the discomfort her words created in her new companion.

"No. Something else. Dangerous." The two of them jumped again at the sudden intervention of the small girl, back to a human shape and sniffing the air.

"Fuck !" the braid-wearing girl let out a yelp while reaching out her hand in the way of her sight. "Put your clothes back on if you're going back to two legs, bordel. And what do you mean, dangerous ?"

"Should leave." The poofy-haired girl shook herself off and started to put a pink, frilly skirt back on.

Sed leaned towards Gaëlle's shoulder, almost whispering:
"What's their deal ?"

The dark-skinned girl took on a conspicuously thoughtful face, before adressing the small shape that was struggling with its clothes:
"Right, you could introduce yourself to..." She briefly turned to Sed.
"It's them, right ?" The tired face nodded.
"...To them, and we can explain how we met when we get somewhere more comfortable, alright ?"

The wild girl stopped halfway through putting her jacket back on and nodded. She dropped to all fours, though still human, apparently not wanting to bother going through another round of stripping and putting on clothes. Then, she did introduce herself, except it was through a mix of growls, barks and body language. Taken aback, Sed realized that they suddenly found themselves with a clear picture of feelings of indignation, protective violence, and destructive retribution.

"GUT-THE-DESPOILERS-AND-BURN-THEIR-THRONES"

The words, spoken in a barely human voice, had escaped their lips before they knew. The girl smiled only with her teeth and almost bowed, acknowledging the recognition of her moniker, before standing up and finishing to put on the clothes.

Sed was rapidly feeling their head starting to spin while Gaëlle shook herself off before gracefully turning to them:
"Well, looks like you got it in one. Now let's get something to eat, shall we ? I'm starving !"

"Wow... I understood that."

"Yep !" She wrapped her arm around their shoulders while continuing on:
"You could say we're similar, the two of us, in the sense that we somehow got a bit of wolf in us now. She somehow got a bit of human where there was none. Freaky huh ?"

"...What ? Do you mean she's-"

"-Was a wolf, as far as I understand. We'll catch you up to speed, but first-" She checked her cheap, supermarket watch "-we have a bus to catch, or we'll be walking all night !" She started jogging down the trail, growing to towering height again, before turning back her hybrid, bestial face towards her new comrades.
"Come on, let's leg it !" she laughed, relishing in the physical prowess of her new form, bounding with cat-like grace, slowing down only to sidestep, almost dancing in excitement, leaving Sed to watch, half-stunned, half-resigned.

"...This might be bad." they sighed with a strained face, before letting their body release some of that pent-up fury, twisting and infusing it with power and primal expression both.

An approving snarl came from behind them, as the wolf-girl came up to them, her transformation not doing much to help with the small stature, only now making muscles ripple out of her increasingly incongruous clothing:
"Come on, pup. I follow."

Sed furrowed their eyebrows as a question died in their throat. One last sigh later, they were running after the dark silhouette now zig-zagging in the treeline, their worries proving true.

They did enjoy this. Too much.

Gut-the-Despoilers-and-Burn-their-Thrones looked behind her one final time, shivering at the darkness, frowning her nose at the corruption. Her instincts were pulled apart between running away and diving deeper to destroy the WYRM.

Not tonight. She turned back towards the trail and ran as fast as she could, flying on short but powerful members.

Somewhere, deeper in the trees, a raspy breath kept clinging to a corrupted, twisted imitation of life.