by Nick Stead
My ruined hand was easier to repair – once my feet were in good enough shape to take my weight, I tried to rise back up to two legs a second time and successfully made it, and with the flesh clear of the spikes it was free to roll across the holes until muscle and sinew was joined once more and damaged bones became whole again. Skin stretched across and hid the inner workings of my body, leaving no trace of the grisly wounds. My other hand I left punctured but in good enough shape for the time being, not wanting to waste more energy than I had to on healing. I severed the flow of energy that allowed my body to change forms and flexed my fingers to confirm they were in working order, then turned my attention back to the last stretch of floor between me and the exit.
I resumed my slow and steady pace, determined not to suffer any more unnecessary damage in that room. Carefully I lifted one foot and placed it down so that the spikes went through the existing holes in my flesh without creating new ones, then lifted the other foot and repeated the motion. My skin was still furless after using the regenerative powers of the change, my hand and feet mostly humanoid with just the smallest of hints of my inner beast waiting to break free. My nails had lengthened and become claws, and pads had started to form on both the soles of my feet and the palm of my right hand. The bones had begun to elongate and take a more lupine shape designed for walking on all fours, but not enough to hinder my movement on two legs. I could cope with the small changes without needing to expend more energy to reverse them.
Finally I reached the door, and at first it seemed David was actually granting me a shred of mercy when the panel began to slide upwards without me having to suffer further torment while I tried to find some hidden mechanism to work it, like in some of the other rooms. But the cruel truth didn’t take long to break through the falseness of that apparent kindness when the panel ground to a halt at waist height, just revealing a crawl space lined with yet more spikes. A growl of displeasure escaped my throat as I took this in, realising I would have to suffer one last torment before I could leave that torture chamber behind me.
Crawling through on hands and knees was possible, but it would do a lot of damage to my lower legs which would mean greater pain to endure and I’d be vulnerable when I reached the other end, until I’d had chance to heal again. For all I knew, there could be worse waiting for me in the next room, and if I was walking into another fight I wanted to be in as good a shape as possible. That left me with one other option, which was probably what David had intended. I hated playing to his fantasies but it felt like I had little choice, if I wanted to clear the spikes with as little damage to my body as possible. So I reluctantly accepted the role he’d assigned me yet again, willing the transformation to resume and make me lupine once more. The time had come to change completely to wolf form again.
Chapter Twelve – Battle of Tooth and Claw
That familiar surge of power carried on a tide of pain began to flow through me as my flesh bent to my will, tissue growing and changing at a rate not possible for any mortal creature. Fresh sweat trickled down my filthy skin as the blood boiled in my veins, the air around me feeling like it had turned to a prickly, uncomfortable warmth as if I was surrounded by a bubble of hot air, though in reality I knew the temperature in the chamber remained unchanged and it was merely the feverish symptoms that came with the transformation. Then the itching of fur sprouting from my skin took my discomfort to a new level. Coupled with the deep ache of bones stretching or shortening and the stab of my guts shifting to become fully lupine, it was almost enough to drown out the throb of the metal piercing my feet.
I sank to all fours before my shifting anatomy forced me down, crouching on the balls of my feet and the tips of my splayed fingers, trying my best to mitigate the damage of the spikes through the transformation. At least I had the benefit of being in control of the change, rather than at the mercy of the forced transformation induced by the full moon. I was able to guide it so that I could continue to place my hands and feet as carefully as possible to prevent creating too many different wounds on the spikes. If I failed to keep aligning them with the metal teeth I knew it wouldn’t be too disastrous whilst the transformation was still ongoing, as the flesh would simply close up again as part of the change, but I was aware that would probably take up more of my valuable energy. And assuming I had plenty more challenges ahead, it was energy I didn’t have to spare.
Focussing on my feet first, I let the lengthening of my bones resume and my pads fully form until they became paws, the flesh shifting around the spikes where they impaled it. Even though I’d become accustomed to the pain, it felt worse with the added discomfort of the torturous floor I was currently stuck on and it took all my willpower to retain control and keep to a careful pace. But somehow I managed, despite my growing desperation to just get it over with and cross the final stretch of spikes to the respite I hoped I would be granted at the end of the crawl space, before facing any new suffering in whatever lay beyond.
I let the change continue from my newly formed back paws up my legs, shifting my position so I rose from a crouch to standing on all fours as the bones altered to allow me to stand comfortably in that position. Then I turned my attention to my mostly human hands. The tips of the spikes pricked my palms but otherwise I’d managed to splay my fingers around the metal points, keeping my weight off them and avoiding impaling myself again. There was no way I could walk like that without injuring myself though, my digits too weak to take my weight for long whilst they remained humanoid. So I raised my right hand and let the transformation continue until that also became a paw, placing it back down with gritted teeth, a growl escaping my throat as fresh pain stabbed through where I forced it back onto the spikes. I transferred my weight to that paw and lifted my other hand, repeating the same process with that one. It took slightly longer for that left hand to change since it was still mostly human, the nails not even lengthened into claws at that point. But they soon turned from pink to black as the change took hold, seemingly necrotic and in danger of falling off, until the flesh of my digits became unmistakably lupine around them and the dark claws looked at home on my paw.
The soft flesh of my palm hardened into the tougher pad of my wolf form, the skin and tissue knitting back together where it had been punctured from the climb up the spiked chains, only to be torn anew with a fresh wave of bloody tears when I forced myself to impale it on the metal teeth once more. But at least I was stood on all fours as comfortably as possible in the circumstances, and I let the transformation alter the rest of my physiology without the need for any further guidance, though I forced myself to keep the change to a measured pace. Until the transformation completed it would force me to shift my weight around some more as my skeletal structure continued to alter, so I needed to keep placing my paws carefully if I didn’t want the spikes stabbing through in too many different places. Technically it might have been possible to crawl through the narrow tunnel to freedom without becoming a full wolf, but since I was having to use the energy to walk on all fours anyway and I would be better equipped for a fight as a full wolf than some weird mix of human and wolf as I currently was, I wanted to take it all the way. My hybrid form I’d come to favour was one thing, utilising the main advantages of both the human and lupine side to my nature in a wolf man form that granted me both powerful jaws for biting and flexible arms for slashing with my claws like a cat, not to mention opposable thumbs. But with a wolf’s legs and an otherwise mostly humanoid body, I would be clumsy in a fight. And I had to assume David would have created more enemies for me to fight, because to let my guard down could well be the death of me.
So I endured the pain of my spine altering, new bones forged at the base and pushing outwards into a tail, and the internal agony of my guts continuing to shift. I didn’t fight the discomfort of my face stretching outwards into a muzzle, or the ache of my teeth elongating into fangs and the irritation in my gums where new teeth pushed through. Only the feeling of becoming more powerful made it bearable �
� if it weren’t for the greater power of my lupine nature, sometimes I wondered whether I’d embrace it at all, outside of the forced transformations at full moon. But with my body running on so little energy, such power was short lived. The transformation completed and in its wake came another wave of weariness and renewed hunger, my flesh craving energy to replenish all that had been spent over such a short period of time, and rest to recharge its batteries again. Even a werewolf has his limits, and rage and adrenalin could only take me so far before the cost of such constant physical exertion as I was being put through needed to be paid. But food and rest were luxuries I couldn’t afford, and so I fought the tiredness of my aching flesh, pushing myself onwards.
I began to make my way along the narrow tunnel, the spikes just visible to the greater night vision of my wolf form. There was no light within the tunnel itself but there was just enough leaking through from the room behind me and the room ahead to give my eyes something to work with. Those fake flame torches created a square of weak flickering light at the other end of the crawl space, but somehow the foul stench of the dungeon seemed stronger in that passage and I was given no real glimpse of what I was stalking towards, either by sight or smell. My sensitive ears did detect some clue in the form of the tell-tale sounds of life – the beating of a creature’s heart, an animalistic snort of breath, and the shuffling of movement. Beyond that, I was going in blind to whatever David had prepared for my next challenge, though I was grateful that the panel at the other end had been left open to give me some small hint of what was to come and to grant me some light. With it closed I may well have ended up in total blackness before I reached the end of the tunnel, and my wounded paws throbbed to greater heights with the thought of having to manage the metal fangs as I struggled to find the way out in the pitch darkness.
My progress along that last stretch of spikes was agonisingly slow. I had to crouch slightly in the cramped space but at least I didn’t have to crawl in wolf form, or the transformation would’ve been pointless since I’d still be taking damage to my limbs as I passed over the metal teeth. Trying to co-ordinate my four paws so that they aligned with the spikes in the same way with each step I took was much harder than it had been on two feet, however. I felt like I was moving a lot slower than I had been in human form, when all I really wanted to do was clear the passage of torment as quickly as possible by that point. And all the while I was listening out for more sounds from the next chamber, for what little good it did me. There was definitely something waiting for me up ahead, but it was impossible to tell what it was from sound alone. I couldn’t even begin to guess what it might be, since I was encountering more and more creatures of myth and legend. It sounded animalistic, but that didn’t mean it was of the natural world. I could be slinking to a bloody end at the jaws of a predator far greater than I was, for all I knew, and yet, what choice did I have? The only way was forward.
In reality the crawl space can’t have been that far – perhaps only a hundred metres, if that. But it felt to stretch on forever with the continued discomfort I was being made to suffer, and my heart hammered harder and faster in my chest with each new sound coming from beyond that small patch of dim light I forced myself to keep heading towards. The confidence I’d felt in the natural territory of my woodlands when facing Leon was but a distant dream, doubt gnawing at me the closer I drew to some unknown adversary which I had to assume was locked in that room for me to fight. I had no way of knowing how far David wanted me to get or how long he wanted me to suffer for before orchestrating some cruel and brutal death deemed as fitting punishment for the love I’d ripped from him that fateful night which seemed a lifetime ago. It could very well be the final fight I was unwittingly approaching, pitted against an opponent so great that my death was almost certain. If it was that thing whose presence dominated the entire dungeon, it would explain why the stench had grown so strong once I’d entered the crawl space, and given the instinctive fear it induced I had to assume it outclassed most other creatures of the night considerably. Whatever it was up ahead, that thing or otherwise, I could tell it was big. It was something larger than my wolf form, at any rate, and my doubts intensified as a feeling of dread settled over me.
My resolve was beginning to fail me as the pain, weariness and fear continued to wear me down with every step. I wanted nothing more than to leave this place full of torment and curl up somewhere safe, where I could sleep long and deeply, blissfully unaware of all the threats that faced me in this cursed life. Only the thought of Amy’s fading heartbeat kept me moving towards the new danger. I had to push on, for her sake if not my own.
Finally that square of dull light was within reach as I crossed the last few paces on the shadowy path of agony. Warily I stuck my snout through the opening in the wall to the new chamber, but my eyes hadn’t fully adjusted after the darkness of the tunnel and I could only make out the shadowy bulk of something waiting on the opposite side. There was nothing for it, I’d have to venture into the room and face this latest challenge.
So I took my first pain free step since first falling into the room full of spikes, my paw weeping more tears of blood as if in relief at the respite granted to my flesh. Fresh pain shot through my damaged nerves as I emerged from the crawl space, almost as if they were cheering to finally be free of the spikes. The throbbing soon became more persistent and I imagined my body craving the transformation to make it whole again on some cellular level. But it would have to wait.
My vision cleared and I looked across to find my opponent was of the natural world after all. If we’d been in a natural setting, that terror I inspired in living creatures might even have driven him to submit to my supernatural might and flee before me, without the need for a fight. And I would have let him escape the encounter unscathed, since he was neither the prey the curse caused me to crave nor the natural choice of prey for a true wolf. But we were far from his woodland home and there was nowhere to run in this man-made arena, where we’d been brought together purely for the cruel amusement of men who delighted in our suffering. And since my very presence set my adversary’s adrenalin pumping through his system and there could be no flight, that left him only one option: as far as he was concerned, he must fight for survival.
A mortal wolf would have stood no chance in combat with the beast David had chosen to pit me against. To a werewolf it should have been an easy win, but in my current state, running so low on energy and still wounded as I was, I knew my victory was far from guaranteed. Blood still flowed from the holes in my paws and if I was about to sustain further injuries in this coming battle of tooth and claw, there was every chance I could faint from blood loss again.
Whether David truly intended me to die here was debatable – there was a chance he might intervene and spare me from death once again, as he had in the other chambers where it seemed my opponents would overwhelm me. Or he might have grown bored with this game and deemed me to have suffered enough. Either way, I had to assume the worst. To rely on him saving me if things were about to go badly could well be the deciding factor in whether I met my demise. I had to dig deep to find what strength my body had left and fight as well as I could, if I wanted to ensure my survival, just as my opponent was bound to do. I couldn’t even try communicating to him that I had no desire for the fight we were being forced into, or that I would leave him be if he would keep out of the way while I searched for the door to freedom from this arena. Such things might have been possible in those romanticised stories humans are so fond of, where animals can talk to each other as if they’re people, but in reality the communication barriers between species are just as difficult as those between different human language speakers.
My opponent reared up on his back legs, one of the most impressive heavy weights of the animal kingdom. In my weakened state, I might as well have been a mortal wolf, facing a battle where he had all the advantages when it came to size and strength. I was possibly more agile, but the ever growing toll on my body was beginning to s
low me, so I probably didn’t even have speed on my side. Then the grizzly bear charged, and the fight began.
Fifteen hundred pounds or so of pure muscle ran straight for me, driven by the terror induced desperate need to fight for survival against the unnatural thing he felt threatening his very existence. If I’d had time for such things I could have sympathised, given the similar fight or flight response the scent of that unknown creature was keeping my body in. But there was no way out of this battle, regardless of whether either of us really wanted a part in it or not, and there would be no escaping the room until one of us emerged victorious. I had to ensure that was me for Amy’s sake. And even if the bear did come out on top, I doubted the Slayers would keep him alive if they had no further use for him, whereas my continued existence would at least have some meaning if there was even the slightest chance of leaving the dungeon with not just my own life, but that of my sister and my allies.
All I really wanted was to heal my wounds and carry on towards Lady Sarah so I could fulfil my end of the bargain with the witch and save Amy, or so I prayed, but this fight of tooth and claw was inescapable and so I stood my ground and readied myself for the inevitable clash with my opponent. He charged at a much greater speed than I’d realised bears were capable of, an impressive force with enough weight behind him to crush me on impact. A true wolf might have balked and fled before the larger predator, but even in my weakened state I found the nerve to stand firm in the face of certain death. Only when the grizzly was almost upon me did I dodge to the side at the last second, succeeding in evading his initial attack. But my movements were slow enough that it was a close call, the fur ruffling on my side from the rush of air as he passed by.
