Worries of a First-time Werewolf

Surviving alone in the wilderness was an adventure, and yet it was also so boring. Graham ran back and forth through the snow, leaving a trail of paw prints as he weaved and circled across the forest clearing. One area had a thicker layer of accumulated snow, and he used his front paws to dig at the snow until he had created a small pit of exposed grass. He then pushed snow about and formed it into a wall around his pit, forming a little snow fort in which he could sit curled up. The next thing he tried was to make a snow man, but it was awkward and slow because his paws clearly had less dexterity compared to his hands. Eventually with enough persistence Graham had created multiple large spheres of snow. He reared up on his hindpaws to stack the spheres on top of each other and create a snowman, then he grabbed some twigs to give his sculpture some arms. Feeling inspired, he took his winter coat and gloves and put them on the snowman, which made it much more obvious that this was a sculpture and not just a lumpy stack of snow. Graham then tried to create another sculpture right beside the first, but this time he moulded the snow to make it look like a snow wolf instead of a snowman. The snow didn't stick together too well and ended up just looking like a large, four-legged blob beside his snowman. He put his winter cap over the snow wolf's head, which helped a little bit with the appearance.

Taking a step back to reflect on his work, Graham laughed and his tail wagged, as his own creativity amused him. And yet it took him no time at all to get bored again from his isolation. His wristwatch was still strapped around his forelimb--Graham raised his arm and brushed aside some of his fur which obscured the timepiece's face, and he found that it hadn't even been an hour since dawn.

Moving forward on all fours, Graham decided to go for a walk. Perhaps some exploration and exercise would help occupy his time. Reaching out with his arcane power, he infused magic into the campfire and then extinguished it with a push of his will, smothering all the flames in an instant. Picking a direction at random, the magician-turned-werewolf left his camp and headed out into forest to see what he could find.

---

At first he simply strolled, but gradually Graham picked up his pace into a quick trot, before accelerating into a run. He weaved between trees and leapt over snow mounds or fallen branches, moving quick and fast. Running on four legs felt as natural as running on two.

The forest all around was covered in snow, with coniferous trees showing their pine needles under a layer of white. Graham spent many minutes running just for the thrill of it, sprinting in different directions but overall heading towards the west until the forest opened up into a wide lake covered by a smooth topping of clear, faintly blue ice. Slowing down his run, Graham padded to a stop right on the bank of the lake. He put a paw on the hard, icy surface and found it firm, and then he stepped out onto the lake. He made a few tentative, slow steps to test if the ice was solid, but he didn't hear any cracks, and soon he started running on top of the ice.

Instead of having to slow down to dodge trees, bushes, and other obstacles in the forest, out on the open expanse of the frozen lake Graham could go at an all-out sprint. He enjoyed the sheer exhilaration of pushing his new body as much as he could, sprinting and bounding across the ice as his claws dug into the smooth, firm surface to provide grip.

Graham ran around the edge of the frozen lake until he came across a stream that was flowing down from a small hill nearby. The sight and sound of moving water made him abruptly aware that his bladder felt full, which was an easily resolvable problem. Graham jumped off the ice and onto the snowy ground again, then he strolled up to one of the nearby trees. At first he tried to urinate the same way he had as a human, standing up on his rear limbs, but this was an awkward position and he found it hard to start. Feeling self-conscious, Graham glanced around--and of course there was no one around, because he was in the wild--and then he turned to urinate like how a dog would. Standing on all fours sideways to the tree, he raised one hindleg and then let himself go. No need to remove any pants or underwear, or stand upright like a human. It was simply efficient to act like an animal because he so very much resembled one.

Once his bladder was emptied, Graham lowered his leg. Without even thinking about what he was doing, he turned around and sniffed at the base of tree. Part of his mind resisted this action and found it repulsive, yet another part felt curious. He kept some distance and he certainly didn't touch the wet patch in the snow, but his nose could easily pick up the scent--his scent, which was now marking this tree.

Graham chuckled from the silliness of it. "Haha. Weird werewolf wildness, this is." Everything felt so novel. His new body form was vastly altered from before, and it was an adventure just discovering how to use it, beyond the adventure that was simply surviving in the wilderness. He picked up his run again--but this time instead of sprinting across the frozen lake, he ran straight up the hill beside the lake. Moving up a slope was a greater challenge compared to running over smooth terrain, and he slowed down as the increasing inclination required more exertion. Graham finally came to a halt right on the top of the hill, where there was an open patch mostly free of trees. His warm exhaled breath was visible in a vapour cloud as he panted tiredly, but it was a good, satisfying sort of tired.

Strolling around the top of this hill, Graham got a better look of the surrounding terrain from this vantage point. Towards the east he could clearly see where the forest ended and became grassy meadows, which then became the neatly trimmed fields of the Royal Academy of Magic. The outer boundaries of the academy were demarcated by a simple-looking wooden fence, but there were magical defences hidden and unseen. Anything larger than a bird that passed that fence line would be tracked, and anything not human that tried to approach the buildings would be intercepted by campus security--boxy, massive stone golems carved from large blocks of marble which were empowered by enchanted runes etched into their stone surfaces.

Beyond the academy's myriad of buildings there was yet more open fields, then the far larger city of Tiwani, and finally the ocean. Snow covered the fields and the roofs of most buildings, though the ocean was unfrozen and ships could be seen sailing in and out of the harbour. In the other direction towards the west, there was snowy forest and rolling hills as far as the eye could see. In the distance Graham also noticed a layer of grey clouds approaching, gradually obscuring the otherwise perfectly clear morning sky.

"All alone in the wild," Graham muttered to himself. There was a sense of solitude and independence with being out here entirely on his lonesome. A cool breeze gently rolled over the hilltop, making the tree branches sway, and ruffling his fur. He spent several minutes admiring the scenic landscape, then he stood up and turned to go.

There was a small pond on the top of the hill, also frozen over, but from it flowed the small stream that trickled its way down the hillside. Graham followed the stream back down as it curved left and right, flowing down in a meandering path until it reached the lake again.

As he came to the base of the hill where the stream fed into the lake, Graham lowered his head to sniff at the water. With the lake all covered in ice, this was the one area where moving water from the stream broke the frozen surface. He was about to start drinking when a flicker of movement across the lake caught his eye.

Graham snapped his head up, but he wasn't sure what had put him on alert. The forest surrounding the lake all seemed calm and motionless, and after a few seconds he decided he had probably just seen a bird, squirrel, or some other harmless small creature flitting about. He dipped his head again to start drinking. The clear stream water was icy cold, but it tasted fresh and clean. The shape of his snout and lips meant he had to lap up water with his tongue, but he quickly got the hang of it and quenched his thirst.

Suddenly there was movement much closer. Graham froze up, with his mouth open and his tongue still in the flowing stream water, as he saw faint motion behind one of the nearby trees. He was being watched. For a moment everything was still, but then a creature came strolling out from behind one of the nearby trees, on the other side of the stream. In form it somewhat resembled a dog, but bigger, and wilder. It was a wolf.

Graham remained motionless as his mind worked frantically, trying to think of what to do. In the past years he had gone camping in this forest a couple of times before, along with his fellow students from the academy. During those trips he had always known that there were wolves living somewhere deep in the forest, but never had he encountered one. Graham could vaguely recall that the advice was either to yell and make himself look big, or to play dead. Or was that for bear attacks? He couldn't remember.

Blinking his eyes, Graham lifted his snout from the water. Wait, why was he even scared of a wolf? He was a werewolf. A normal wolf was just his natural kin, but then again, did that mean anything? It was still a wild animal. It could be savage or rabid.

By now, all his mental uncertainty had given the wolf enough time to approach. It wasn't running towards him, just trotting over with a quick, casual stride. Up close, there were several things Graham noticed. The first and most obvious observation was this wild wolf was a little bit smaller than him, by about ten to fifteen percent in his estimation, though with the thick fur that covered them both it was hard to be exact. It was still a large creature that would have passed his waist in height if he'd been in human form standing upright, but wolf to werewolf, they were close in size. The wolf had a similar colouration, though with more of a brownish tinge to its fur, whereas Graham's fur was neutral shades of grey and white.

It didn't look rabid or savage. Instead the wolf appeared healthy and relatively young, with a light-footed stride and no signs of injuries or disease, not even any scars. The wolf slowed down as it approached and it watched Graham closely, with attentive eyes and ears perked up towards him.

Graham slowly backed away from the stream so that the wolf would have to jump over the water if it wanted to attack him. Standing on the opposite side of the stream, the wolf came to a stop and it kept watching him, occasionally glancing around but always returning to stare. "Ruff," barked the wolf casually, and its tail gave a slight wag.

Graham didn't know how to react. "Ruff?" he replied, though his voice sounded slightly more like a human saying the word rather than a proper canine bark. He cleared his throat. "Ahem. Ruff," Graham tried to repeat, but he still wasn't sure if he was getting the intonation right.

The wolf tilted its head. Did it recognize him as a werewolf? Or did it think he was just another wolf? Graham didn't know. He wondered if he ought to just leave, but he didn't know if running away would trigger some predator instinct and make this other wolf think he was prey to be hunted. For another moment the wolf just stared at Graham again, then it crouched down to start lapping up water from the stream.

Idly, Graham abruptly recalled that wolves normally hunted in packs. Was this all a setup for an ambush? He hurriedly looked around but saw no sign of any other wolves approaching. Apparently he had encountered a random lone wolf.

The lone wolf spent a fraction of a minute drinking water, casually quenching its thirst and occasionally glancing its eyes up at Graham to make sure he was still there. When it was done drinking, it stood up and licked its snout dry. Then in a smooth but sudden motion it leapt across the stream and was right beside him. Graham flinched, but again he didn't know how to react other than to keep still as the wolf circled around him.

The wolf's tail wagged again, but then when Graham made eye contact and stared back, the hackles on its back rose up and it growled softly at him, baring its teeth. "Grrr..."

Graham didn't have to be a real wolf to understand the threat. Sustained, directed eye contact was a challenge. Without even thinking, he took a few steps back and averted his gaze, with his own tail instinctually swinging between his hindlegs. This made the wolf relax, and it stopped baring its teeth and panted calmly. Strolling forward, it casually nudged its snout against Graham's lowered head before going to sniff at his behind. Had he just been dominated?

Again, Graham suspected that he was doing something wrong. This lone wolf was smaller than him, so why was he the one backing off? Not that he was going to pick a fight. What did it even matter? The wolf could act like it was the boss--the alpha?--if it wanted to. He didn't care.

The wolf sniffed at Graham all over. It nosed at the wristwatch still strapped around his forelimb, before making a curious bark. "Whuff."

Sitting down on his rear, Graham raised his forelimb to show it off. "That's my wristwatch. It tells the time."

"Hnnnnnh?" The wolf made a confused whine when it heard his voice. Graham didn't consider himself qualified to interpret lupine emotion or communication, but the surprise was obvious as the wolf backed off and tilted its head to peer at him.

"Didn't expect that, did you? Hah." Graham chuckled. "I'm not a wolf. I'm a werewolf. Not that you would know what that is. I'd bet you've never seen anyone like me before."

"Hawoar. Nff." The wolf still looked confused for a moment, then it stepped forward and circled around Graham again, as if trying to see how he was making these very un-wolf-like sounds.

"Silly wolf. You silly, silly wild thing." Graham pointed a paw towards the east, in the direction of the rising sun. "I'm a werewolf. I'm a human magician from the academy, believe it or not. This is not my normal appearance, and honestly I can't even explain how I ended up this way."

The wolf had been listening to him talk, but abruptly it moved away as if distracted. It walked up to a nearby tree and sniffed at it, and Graham wondered what the creature was doing. Then the wolf turned around and raised a hindleg, which made things click in Graham's mind. That was the tree he had relieved himself against earlier, and now the wolf peed over the same spot he had, replacing his scent. It even made eye contact with Graham as it did so. He was definitely being dominated.

"You know... I don't care about that. You can pee on whatever tree you want. I'm not contesting that." Even from a distance away, Graham realized that his nose was sensitive enough to pick up the scent as the wolf marked the tree. There was something strange about that smell, though he didn't know what it was. When the smaller, slightly brownish lone wolf was finished it came back over towards him, and Graham found himself curious. He stood up and sniffed at the wolf--first at their face, then side.

Instantly Graham realized this was something he ought to have done before. He knew that his nose was now very sensitive and vastly more capable than before, but sniffing at random things just wasn't a common human behaviour, so it hadn't occurred to him to do so. Now he sniffed. The lone wolf had its own unique scent, and Graham was largely lost for words as to how to describe it. That scent was of fur and forest and wild canine, yet there were nuances that made Graham instantly certain it was a unique scent. It was impossible to verbally describe all the olfactory complexities, but he was sure he would recognize and remember this scent if he ever smelled this particular wolf again.

Another thing Graham instantly realized was that this wolf was not an it but a she. He also couldn't explain how he knew the difference in smell between a male wolf and a female one, but it was just something that his wolf form instinctually could tell from the scent. It would have been inappropriate to peer at a woman's genitals or even another man's, but this was no human and Graham felt no embarrassment about his curiosity. A quick glance underneath the lone wolf's belly revealed a lack of certain organs that Graham could feel dangling between his own hindlegs. His suspicions based on scent had been correct.

The wild wolf had obligingly been letting Graham sniff at her, as was apparently appropriate wolf behaviour, and now she even shifted her position to push her hips against his snout and let him sniff her under the tail. The smell there was stronger and more intense, and it fully confirmed that this was a female wolf. Graham snapped his head back, and he raised his head and breathed heavily of the cool winter air to clear that scent from his nostrils and his brain. "This is a new experience. I didn't... did not ever expect that this would be a part of being a werewolf," he muttered.

"Oww, roaww, rooorroawww," went the wolf, trying to imitate his speech though not well at all. She bent her forelegs and went into a half-crouched bow, with tail wagging and mouth open like a dog that just wanted to play.

Graham just laughed and shook his head. This was a wild creature, yet there an animal intelligence to her gaze, as well as a clear curiosity. Were wolves normally this friendly and playful? He wouldn't have been surprised at such behaviour from a stray domesticated dog that was familiar with humans, but this was a wild creature. Then again, he wasn't human currently.

Idly, Graham also recalled a story he had once heard from another student at the academy--the story was that the wolves living in this forest were not just normal wolves, but dire wolves. Dire wolves were said to be monstrous large and terrifyingly intelligent, able to outwit and hunt almost any prey, even humans. Graham didn't know if the stories about dire wolves were true, and this lone wolf certainly wasn't large or monstrous, though it did seem more intelligent than he would have expected from a wild creature.

The wolf growled again and charged at him, yet now he knew it was just play and he simply rolled over when she tackled his side. Her jaws were around his throat in an instant, yet the bite was loose, and the sharp points of teeth didn't get through his fur.

He kicked with his legs and scrambled backwards, managing to pull out of her loose bite hold. The lone wolf dropped into a crouch again, and then with a playful bark she leapt at him once more. This time Graham also darted forward, using his large size to try and shove the wolf over instead, but she easily outmanoeuvred him and dodged to the side. On first meeting they had both been cautious and weary about each other, but that had quickly been become curiosity, which eventually had become exuberant, youthful energy of play. Were they friends now? Was it even possible to befriend a wild animal, a wolf? Graham didn't know, but he was certainly having fun.

But before they continued, a distant, harmonic sound suddenly made them both stop. "Aaaawwwwoooo! Owwwooooo!"

Both werewolf and wolf perked their ears up and turned to listen in the direction of the howls. One howl after the other, the sounds overlapped in the distance and made it hard to tell exactly how many wolves were howling.

"Awooooo!"

Graham glanced to the side as the wolf he had been playing with sat back on her hindlimbs and raised her head to howl as well. She was loud. The sound harmonized with the distant howling--it wasn't just noisemaking for the sake of it--this was communication. Graham almost wanted to join in, but he didn't know how, and before he could even try the wolf had stopped.