Title: Full Moon Risen
Date: October 21, 2005
Rating: T
A/N: I have a story on fanfiction by this name, but in French. The only similarity is that the main theme is lycanthropy, and the prologue is strikingly similar except without Remus, St. Mungo's, and an angry French woman.
Prologue
The wolf's fur was soft yet bristled against the young girl's skin, the steady breathing making her eyes flicker shut, the dark black of her eyelashes barely touching her pale cheeks. The forest floor was cold, and the leaves pressed against her bare arms but from where she lay, she didn't notice it. The fur was warm and she moved closer. The moon shone quiet blades through the tree branches, illuminating the only two things moving in the forest that night.
A rustle alerted her to someone near them. She pulled herself up as the wolf lifted its head. A man burst through the trees, followed by three more. Flames burned angry streaks through the night air. They held their bows in steady hands. She moved closer still to the wolf as one bent down to grab her. The creature growled protectively, barred teeth showing white in the flames. It lunged.
The girl felt the sharp rip of teeth on her flesh, the burning, painful sensation as her clothes were soon wet and sticky with a warm liquid...she looked down, her white night-gown was red. She swayed.
The thin layers of linen lay against her wounds painfully as she woke up, jolted from a nightmare. She couldn't rememer what it had been about. The memory had slipped away from her like water through cupped hands. She moaned.
A woman stood at the doorway looking in on her. Her eyes darted around, trying not to hold onto one place for more then one time. She could hardly look at the little girl that lay in front of her. She wouldn't touch her. She knew what had happened to her, she had seen her brought in with the blood still flowing freely from her side, the men with their hunting clothes still on, a dust of ashes still clinging to their shirts. They had left as swiftly as they had came.
Now the girl lay alone, her blue eyes wide as she obviously recalled what had happened. She couldn't do anything for her. There wasn't a thing in the world that could make her forget it, and nothing that could ease the pain.
The woman sighed. She'd seen more then one life ruined by the moon.
A wolf ran through the forest, legs harsh and powerful as it moved through the trees. A wound covered it's side, the act of an arrow, of a man. It had gotten the weapon out, but the blood was still a dull trickle in it's fur. It's eyes shown amber and intelligence in the moonlight as it fell onto a bed of pine needles to lick the blood from the wound.
The taste of it made it howl.
The moon shown full and quiet in the sky, overbearing and oppressive as he shut his eyes against the pain and slipped into darkness.