The bright full moon shone through the window like a searchlight. Its harsh blue light illuminating the room and throwing pitch dark shadows where its fingers failed to reach. I had awoken with a jerk, the moonlight in my face, bright enough to perturb my vision through closed eyelids.
Had I failed to keep track of the date, again? How could I have been so incompetent? Surely this was one thing that I could remember. My brain, addled by the constant cycle of transformation and subsequent recovery, just couldn’t remember. Why had the waxing gibbous moon not alerted me to the time of the lunar month? Why had my efforts to calculate and forewarn, alert me to the coming change, all failed like an untied handkerchief, a missed anniversary, or failing to put the bins out on the right day?
There was no use crying over spilt milk now, because the pearly moon had already splashed my face and the die was cast. Nothing could change or delay the process now. With a sigh I looked at my hand resting on the pillow and watched with fascination as the bristly hairs started to sprout. My skinned itched as the follicles pushed through my ill-prepared skin, rushing to be the first, ahead of their neighbours. It was always the coat first. Still, I could feel the deeper changes afoot. Bones starting to become denser and reconfigure with excruciating pain, that soon turned to ecstasy as my body felt a primal urge to recover its alternate form. Tonight, unlike the other twenty odd days of the month, it knew what its form had to be and drove my cells to race towards it.
My gums split as canines grew long and strong, fangs pushing into my lower lip. My sight started to change, suddenly those moonless shadows no longer hid their secrets from me. My tongue lolled out of my mouth as its growth outpaced that of my jaw. I watched in fascination as my fingers withdrew, their tips turning into pads, my nails becoming claws. My nose reached development with a sudden sharp pang of sensation, the scents of the night illuminated like a too bright colour film, all saturated in every colour. Through the slightly open window I could now smell prey; rabbits, mice, voles and squirrels. In the far distance a bitch was in heat and my gonads reacted with an urgent tug that could not be denied. My brain responded, switching into primeval animal, driven by basic urges, all human reason and social moderation pushed far, far back, far away from any chance of affecting my behaviour. And there it would stay for the next twelve hours.
Suddenly everything human felt so wrong, so completely alien. I had to abandon it. Pushing out from the too soft and too hot confines of my bed, I landed on the carpet. Again, the falseness, the unnatural feel of it revolted me. I had to get out of the house, full of its synthetic and chemical odours. I had to be somewhere where the scents and textures were natural. The ticking of the clock on the bedside table assaulted my finely tuned hearing with its mechanical tick and percussive tock.
As my paws hit the loam of the garden outside the window. I smelt the petrichor of the early evening dew on the soil. Freezing, I surveyed my surroundings, then sprung forward as a shape darted across the lawn. With a satisfying squeal and crunch the mouse was mine and would help sustain me whilst I searched for that bitch. I sat and raised my snout to catch the wafts of evening scents. My nose twitching as I estimated distance and direction of each and every separate smell. Then my snout caught it. I paused for a moment to refine my bearings, then set off with a bound.
Now I was fully animal. Slathering, growling, racing. The king of the night. I loved it and imagined my lupine form. A mighty beast that could not, would not be contained. Leaping a fence and scrabbling over a wall, then free across the park, wind in my face, the joy of the chase. I could almost feel, taste that bitch now, could sense her readiness, nearness.
At the edge of the park, I hurdled another fence. I had to give voice to my desire, my strength, my virile urgency. I howled and barked then leapt over another wall. Surely, she was here. If not, then just over the next fence. With a manic yelp I leapt at this last barrier.
Just as I was expecting to see the other side, my muzzle collided with something and I bounced back, falling to the ground. Dazed and confused I looked at the barrier. It looked like all the others I had overcome with ease this evening. Maybe something thin on top of it, but surely not enough to keep my muscular body back, unquestionably I could just break through. I took another run at it but with the same result. In frustration I howled and barked. I wanted her to know that I was right here. I was primed and ready. I was a jackal ready to take her. I yelped in greeting then howled at the moon.
Then without warning, something encircled my chest, gripping me and lifting me. My feet left the ground peddling ineffectually.
“Hello little pooch, what are you doing in our garden?” Said a human voice, a massive soft face appearing in front of me.
“Aren’t you a little cutey, hey? Yes, you are!” A second hand scratch me under the chin and rubbed my back. “We’ll just have to take you inside and keep you safe until we can find out who your owner is, won’t we little poochy poo?”