Edited by: Flubbykin

Two travelers were walking east, toward one of many backwoods locate within the Kingdom of Neira. This particular one was quite special. Inside of it a lone, forgotten shrine was raised ages ago. It was beaming with pulses of sleeping powers, beaconing those who could sense the fragile, sophisticated waves of magic …

… and those who were gifted with a certain trait.

- “How long till full moon?” Johan asked his girlfriend again.

- “Johan, sweetie, my answer from 3 hours ago remains unchanged. Three days. We have more than enough time to get in there and find some dark, humid, cozy cave to chain you in.” Marie smiled, thought her smile was exhausted.

Since hunter was “gifted” with a mark of a wolf, he became stronger. Faster. Filled with much more stamina. He could force a tempo of a march which would make even trained soldier faint. And occasionally he forgot that Marie isn’t as strong as him, and thus their journey burdens her much more than she wanted to admit.

And Marie never complained. She wanted to support her fiancé as much as possible. She already caused this whole mess, now, she wanted to pay back as only she could. Without shortcuts with magic. As a gifted child there were too many times she was wondering what she can do, without wondering if she SHOULD do it.

She learned her lesson. In a hard way.

- “I… I am sorry.” Huge man said after a moment “… it’s not that I don’t believe you… I just feel this… crawling under my skin. Like itchiness that I can’t scratch, as if my skin could grow fur anytime soon… I felt this way during changing…”

- “It’s the altar doing. It’s magic waves are resonating with your… other nature.”

- “It can change me without full moon?” hunter panicked.

- “I… don’t know. Altars are unique, even if you would raise exactly same structures, depending on the mana veins in the ground, density and variety of life forces, frequently of prayers and rituals, and many more factors, the magic bound to the altar will… grow different.”

- “You want to say, that this… mana, the power you use for spells, is a living being?”

- “NO!... and yes!... No, it doesn’t have consciousness or anything like that… it’s like… no, sorry, there isn’t anything I could compare it too. Oh! I know! DO you remember – when we were kids, the merchant stopped by our village and showed us a kaleidoscope.”

Man laughed loudly.

- “The only thing about that which I remember, is that you were so fascinated by it that you were looking into it for hours, not letting anybody else to take a look!”

- “You are exaggerating! Every kid looked inside!” Witch puffed her cheeks.

- “Marie. 5 seconds peek compared to your hours and hours can be hardly called…”

- “OK! FINE! But you do remember how it looked?”

- “Mostly.”

- “Depending on the angle, the light had different colors. It’s same with mana, water mage will be stronger next to the sea than in the middle of the desert. Even if she would carry her own tank with water, the manipulation would be bit… duller. Slower. Less effective, requiring more focus. It’s because of mana in the air. But, it’s not that simple. There are three main domains of magic, chaos, order and nature, and fourth which is called a true neutral. Each domain has school, each school has branches. And even then branches has houses and houses has their variant. If you would think about magic as about threads, there are so many of them, and the combinations are simply… You can’t count it. That many.”

- “Millions?”

- “Millions of millions of millions of… this leads us nowhere. What I want to say, is that it’s impossible to copy exactly same magical print. And it’s impossible to exactly predict all effects of newly discovered magical knot… and yes, altars are such knots. Or pegs – needles that keep certain type of mana in place. I am sensing merely few of countless factors which are creating that altar.”

- “And these factors are?”

- “Wolf. Night. Moon. Balance.”

- “I like it. Balance. It has nice ring to it.” Man actually cheered, yet his mood was quickly corrected by witch.

- “You shouldn’t. People view balance as a good thing. It’s not. For example, Johann, you are 28 years old. You have been a wolf for few nights. If balance would touch this certain aspect, it would force you into wearing a wolf skin for next 2-3 decades. However, if it refrains your sanity…”

- “I will be able to control myself during nights?”

- “You will have an impact on actions of wolf during the night….”

Marie stopped the sentence in the middle.

- “Buuuut…?” Johann sensed her hesitation.

- “It may also means that wolf could affect your actions during the day. It is impossible to tell. Not from here.”

They resumed their journey, though it was obvious what was happening inside of Johan’s head.

- “Why are… why are we even going through this pilgrimage? We could just stay in the village. Every full moon you would just chain me in the basement. Full moon is like, once every 10 days? We could live with that and… And…” a doubt hit colossal man like a thunder, numbing his body. He didn’t want to move from his spot.

- “Johan…” Marie turned to him with a brightest and most supportive smile that only lovers could show to one another “… I don’t care what you will decide. I will be with you no matter what! You want to go, then I will go with you, if you would decide that you want to turn back, I am willing to do so too.”

She hugged him. Or, because of their size difference, only part of his side.

Johann was fighting with his thoughts for few moments more, then he shook his head to the sides getting rid of unpleasant thoughts and said:

- “No. I can’t risk that. I can’t risk you. The beast under my skin is strong. It’s hungry and it's getting stronger. I am afraid, that one day I may break the shackles. Or turn into beast in a wrong night. I… I couldn’t stand idea that one day I could harm you….”

- “Whatever would happen… you won’t. You would never hurt me, right? I believe in that.”

Witch picked hunters huge palm and rested it on her cheek.

But, the truth was, that he totally would harm her. He has flashbacks from his changing. Like watching somebody else through their eyes, seeing what he see feeling what he see, but without possibility to interact. And he remembered the hunger. He remembered when he saw her.

Her skin so soft like silk. Her body so petite like doll… her vein pulsating so temptingly. Her flesh so delicate, her smell sooo… tasty.

Each time he reminded himself about those urges, Johann would shiver. He can’t risk it, for he knew that if he would lose control, Marie would suffer the most.

That beast was twisting his feelings, replacing them with something… unholy. Corrupted. Disgusting.

When he was a wolf, he thought that there was not a greater show of love than eating the loved one and becoming one with her…

… he needs to get rid of the beast. He has to if he want to sleep by Marie sides peacefully again.

- “So… I guess we are here.” Marie’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Indeed. They were walking for quite some time through the forest, and finally they have reached its edge. From here, the trees became darker and denser. Way less sunlight was falling through the thick branches. The smell of wet moss and caves was almost intoxicating. And so little of sound resonated from that part of forest. As if every bird, rabbit and owl decided to honor the holiness of this place.

Somehow, Johann felt extremely comfortable here. The altar was calling, beaconing. Offering a safe house. The road into center of the dark forest was wide and welcoming, and he knew that the deeper he would walk, the better he would feel, for his vision was not disturbed by the lack of sunlight, even more, he was seeing better and better, and idea that other creatures were almost blind here was giving him such a weird, yet fulfilling, feeling of confidence and control, that…

- “Now, how will we get further in?” Marie asked “… there is no way I will squeeze through this thicket of bushes.”

- “You… are joking, right?”

- “No. why?”

- “The road is huge. Colossal. Wide and tall, and right in front of your nose!”

- “N-no? There is nothing but… I see.

Witch started singing something under her nose while dancing some exotic shapes with her palms. Her fingers moved as if she was browsing through the dozens of threads only she could see, and eventually, with gestures of fingertips she cut few of them.”

Something shook. Something broke.

The suffocating pressure somehow lost its intensity, snapping hunter from intoxicated day-dreaming.

- “Clever little trick. Multileveled barrier. If you didn’t know it was here and you weren’t the one called by the altar, you would see this place like nothing but yet another dead end. Well, that means we are on the right path. On we go!”

Witch cheerfully resumed walking onward, Johann followed.

They walked on for half an hour in complete silence, not even insects buzzed…

Until hunter started hearing something, like on the very edge of hearing. Whispers. He couldn’t tell apart one word from another. One sentence from another one. Then, he started hearing rustles. Of a single dead leaf being stepped and crumbled. Of a single branch of bush forcefully returning on its position as something walk past it. Everything was happening in this unwelcoming darkness.

- “Marie, come to me…”

- “Aww, you want to cuddle right now? It’s sweet but.”

- “MARIE!” hunter let out almost an alarming growl thought his clenched teeth.

Eyes of witch widened in shock before she obediently push her backs against her fiancé’s.

And then, shadows became material and started dancing, running against them in circle. They were laughing like hyenas. Snarling like wild dogs, roaring like annoyed lions.

One, two, three, four… seven. Seven creatures moving at extremely high speed.

Yet. Eyes of hunter slowly started to adapt to the blurring movements. Humanoids in cloaks with heads hidden under thick hoods. But something in their posture was inhuman. Humans can’t bend their spines like this…

One of the shadows jumped at him from the side.

Even though hunter much more taller and muscular, the strength of the blow kicked him off balance.

The shadow also looked confused, apparently he didn’t consider that a mere human could keep up with their speed, not to mention being able to react to the attack… and not ending his prey with a single blow.

But, as he got kicked aside, he opened access to witch’s backs, till now, Marie was dual casting a complex spell – the first part raised a wall of flames which protected her from attacks, the other was fueling it into explosion which could not only reveal attackers, but also blind them and seriously damage.

But shadows didn’t let her finish. Two creatures quickly jumped on her backs pinning her to the ground, and then carrying her far away – into deeper side of the forest, away from Johann. A basic hunting strategy of pack monsters – to seclude preys from one another. To kill them one by one.

Johann saw how clawed hands are digging into the flesh of his love as creatures were carrying her away, even though no serious damage was done yet, he could smell it –the stench which made his blood boil and instincts go wild while heart start screaming in panic.

He smelled the blood of Marie. His Marie. His little girl being in danger.

And then her heard voice he heard only before he would get to sleep, voice, which previously was nothing than incomprehensive snarling. Now, it was clear and strong.

~ What are you doing!? They are talking her away from us!

W-what are you… who? – the Johann screamed in his mind.

~ Finally able to hear me!? Good. No time to talk. Look into yourself! Look into me! We have to save her! Rip them from their claws!

The voice sounded like a cracking doors, like a howl of the wind through the open window. Like something that should never be able to talk.

- “I-I don’t know if I can trust you..” Johann actually said aloud confusing other shadows which were just surrounding him.

~ IT’S NOT ABOUT TRUST! THEY WILL KILL HER! SHE IS OURS! SHE IS MINE! PROTECT HER!

- “BUT HOW?!”

~LET IT GO! LET EVERYTHING GO! FOCUS ON ONE!

- “On what!?!”

ON HUNT!

And the world, for a split of second turned all grey and white. He saw everything. The wolfish faces of shadows, he count see them better than in the day! Their huge teeth, wide eyes, now filled with confusion.

And then, his perfectly monotonous white and grey vision was stained. With red.

He saw blood. He saw veins and arteries under their skin, he saw their hearts beating so lusciously in their chests. Demanding to be free of their bony-prison.

This white and grey world was dull, sad. It needed to be painted.

What’s a better color than red?!