Erin gave a quick grin. "Come on, climb up to the loft and change into your sleeping clothes. I'll be up shortly, ok?"
"Ok, sis," answered Owen, as he quickly rose from the rug near the fire and ran up the wooden steps to his room, letting the straps of his slacks slide off his shoulders.
The young woman brought her fingers back through her long red hair as she looked towards a window in the sitting room. Erin Helms was at the age of sixteen, and sitting in a bright blue dress on the rocking chair. The darkness of night had arrived, and soon the other object would arrive as well. She had to remain calm, though, so to not disturb her brother upstairs. She felt her hand grip her dress tightly, as her view became lost in the shadows"Sis, I'm in bed!" came her brother's voice, quickly snapping her out of the short trance she had entered. Erin lifted herself from the chair and walked over to the fireplace in bare feet, then quickly put out the flame. Grabbing her candle, she walked over to each of the candles in the room and put them out, before climbing the loft stairs into her brother's room.
"Okay Owen, I'm going to go to my room. Do you need any candles for light?" She took a seat at the edge of his bed.
"That's alright, Erin. By the look of the horizon, it looks like there's going to be a full moon tonight. That'll give me plenty of light," said Owen, as a smile spread across his face.
Erin felt a cool chill run down her spine as her brother mentioned those words. Yet, betraying her feelings, she forced a slight smile on her face as she tucked him in. "Goodnight," she whispered as she gave him a small kiss on the forehead.
"G'night," Owen replied as he closed his eyes. Erin pushed herself off the bed and slowly walked out before climbing down the stairs. Immediately she glanced out the window in the direction that the moon would be rising, still only seeing the glow beyond the distant mountains, not the moon itself yet. She still had time.
She grabbed a lantern case and transferred her candle inside. Quickly and quietly, she pushed open a window, and crept out, then silently closed it. As her feet hit the cold grass, she suddenly realized she forgot her slippers, but there was no time to go back and get them. Erin glanced back once more at her house, then at her brother's window, before she ran off.
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The town of Aralan was the size of a normal town, with fairly spaced houses. The Helms household was a fair-sized home, and gave their family of four a good amount of room to live in comfortably. At this time usually, most of the town was asleep, however she could not risk being caught outside her home, not to mention being followed by anybody.
Erin had a path that kept some distance from the town and would take her a good distance away from the houses, one that she had followed many times since she had first discovered it months before. Walking it in bare feet was slightly irritating due to the amount of small sticks and pebbles that she encountered, but it was not the focus of her attention as the glow at the horizon expanded. But she was almost there.
Erin noticed the large tree from a distance. She picked up her speed as she began to notice the other features of the area; the rocks, the hill, and the river. Quickly speeding passed the tree, Erin quickly started to descend down the hill, holding up the bottom of her dress as her feet moved back and forth rapidly to compensate for the rate of descent of the slope. As she reached the bottom, she slowed herself and came to a stop by grabbing the branch of a nearby tree. Erin immediately turned her attention to the sky, where the top of the moon was visible. The time had come.
The skin down her arms began to tingle slightly, running a chill around her body. Erin shook it off as she reached to the front of her dress and undid the ties, and let it slide to the ground. As the moon continued to become visible by the second, Erin discarded any other garments she had on and tried to ignore the sting of the chilly air against her body. She gathered up her clothing, and placed it in the brush, in order to find it later. It was then she felt the shock.
Erin gasped as her body bathed in the full moonlight. Sensations of tingling and pain ran throughout her body as the change began. Her sweating, smooth, pinkish skin began to sprout dark hair, which slowly began to collect into thick fur. She crossed her changing arms over her flattening, clammy chest, and grabbed her shoulders as her stomach began to sprout fur. Unable to take the stress, Erin dropped to her knees, then dropped her hands to the ground, balancing on all fours. She shut her eyes as her human-shaped hands now began to restructure itself into paws, as sharp claws extended where her fingernails once were. The tone of her skin changed into a darker brown, mixing in with the black fur as the young woman felt a sharp pain in her feet as they began to change. The structure of her back started to shift as a tail extended from her lower back, covered in the black fur that now surrounded the rest of her body. The long red hair had contracted into her scalp as her ears shifted their position to the top of her head. Erin's clenched teeth now showed sharp canines, and she suppressed the new feeling as her face began to stretch into a snout. As the last of her human features disappeared, the consciousness and thoughts of the gentle, sweet Erin Helms became lost in the mind of the werewolf, now standing there, hungry for its meal. The eyelids opened to reveal bright yellow eyes, searching the premises for some prey.
The tree atop the hill emitted a grand shadow as the moonlight beamed down upon it. The thick branches slowly swayed in the wind of the night harmoniously, as a pair of feet landed on a higher one. A black cape followed the direction of the wind as the figure bobbed up and down with the tree branch, observing the area.
"...A werewolf out in these parts...intriguing," the figure muttered to himself as he stared down upon the river area where the wolf was roaming around in search of food. "The full moon has only been out a couple of hours, so its hunt will continue for some time. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to wait until sunrise to see what identity that beast is hiding inside." The figure rubbed his fingers across his chin as he noticed a raccoon venture down the hill.
"Bon Appetite," he whispered as he vanished into the night air with the next breeze.