章節 41: Tansformation
During the following week, Irma found that connecting with her inner wolf had become much easier. While she wasn't able to communicate, she felt the strength of the connection and the forest where the wolf lived. Always feeling the connection gave her a sense of peace and helped her focus.
The talk she had with Gaude had given her a sense of purpose for the arduous training. Even more importantly, there was already a significant improvement that had resulted from the training and meditation – the ugly scars were almost completely gone and with them her worries for her future.
She was slowly getting used to the fact that somehow, Gaude seemed to be more centered than herself in some matters, and even able to advise her. On the other hand, it wasn't quite as strange, if she considered the fact that Gaude had actually been an adult once before.
In fighting, however, Irma was still indisputably the best of the trainees while Gaude was slowly working his way up from the bottom day by day. Irma had discovered that Gaude was a glutton for punishment – he challenged each opponent again and again, until they either refused, he won or the sparring time ended.
Irma couldn't even get angry at Gaude anymore for throwing her into the lion's den, it looked to her like he was having it way worse. For some reason, seeing Gaude struggle gave her the will to go on. There had to be a good reason why Gaude was putting himself through so much suffering, and she hoped that if she tried her best, she'd be able to share some of that burden.
Now instead of the other trainees, Irma was constantly singled out by Captain Ross for sparring.
She was worked like a stolen horse and the sparring sessions left her badly bruised each time. Yet, Irma knew that she was growing at an unprecedented rate, she could already easily beat up the top three all at once.
It seemed to her that while the Captain was training her twice as hard, he still held back quite a bit when it came to sparring. She was thankful for the small mercies – while they did have medicine to quickly heal broken bones, the process itself still hurt like hell.
Yet, each time that she was defeated by Captain Ross, a drop of oil was added to her fire, causing her to reaffirm her resolve to beat the living crap out of the man the moment she had the opportunity.
On the night before the full moon, Irma dreamt of the forest again. She saw the wolf. The wolf was looking at her, as if waiting for something. Irma sat down and waited for the wolf to come to her.
"Have you come to see me once more before I transform with my real body?"
The wolf still didn't respond, it simply licked her hands and lied down beside her.
"Are you worried about something?"
The wolf whined a little, looking at the suddenly darkened sky where the full moon was rising up.
It seemed that even the wolf was worried about her first transformation, or perhaps it was herself that was worried, and the wolf just tried to help her prepare?
After all, she had bonded with her wolf, and the wolf with her. The wolf would take her interests into account, even if it had full control of her body. Perhaps that was the message the wolf was trying to give her?
Irma slept deeply that night, no longer afraid of the coming full moon.
###
It was 8 PM when Gaude, once again wearing the illusory appearance of Charles Vywin arrived in his private combat academy. Carter had informed him that the rest of the trainees had been all given leave for the day. All of them had someone to visit. Some had been cooped up for the entire duration of the training due to their own lack of talent.
Gaude wasn't actually expecting any great talents from the ranks of drug dealers, he simply wanted to find out if the method of training he had devised had any negative side-effects. He would be putting himself through something similar after his body had matured enough for rigorous physical training.
"… win? Mr. Vywin?"
It turned out Gaude had been quite distracted in his thoughts and whatever Carter was trying to tell him had slipped his mind.
"Can you repeat that?"
"I was just trying to tell you that the girl has been making good progress. She's been improving even faster than before in the past week. In a year, she might even stand a chance against me."
"I'm not so sure about that.", Gaude replied with a smirk.
Carter's face became contemplative. "Anything I should know?"
"You'll find out soon enough. Take a breather for today."
"Sir, yes Sir!", Carter said and saluted mockingly.
"I'll have you know I've taken out more hostiles than your entire unit did while you were still on active duty.", Gaude spoke, parting his hands in front of my chest in mock exasperation.
"My unit was bound by laws and regulations. Hell, I've taken out more hostiles than my unit since I went off the books.", he growled in response.
"Point taken. Still, drop the damn training weights and get yourself a cold one. I'll call you in if it's necessary.", Gaude conceded.
"What's the special training about anyway?"
"Need to know only. For now, you don't. If all goes well, I'll brief you in a month latest."
They parted ways and Gaude made his way to the ritual room. There wasn't an actual sign stating the room's purpose, naturally. That would've only caused unnecessary rumors among the trainees.
Irma was already waiting for him, seated in one of the two armchairs, her left leg over her right knee and arms crossed. She looked a bit nervous, as if she was about to undergo an experimental medical procedure or something.
Gaude took a seat in the other one, placing his arms on the armrests. After wetting his lips, he once again felt the unfamiliar texture of a Mandrake leaf in the roof of his mouth, fixed there with a daily application of sticking charm and protected from harm with an unbreaking charm applied once every three days.
"There's an hour until moonrise. I believe that will give me enough time to explain what I've kept secret so far."
"You can take that off in here, you know.", Irma said.
"Take what…", Gaude replied, then took a look at himself. He discovered that he was still wearing Charles Vywin.
Gaude summoned Laly and had her dispel the illusion.
Gaude spoke: "It's time to begin now. Start with ten minutes of meditation, after that we'll go with the full experience. Let's see what happens if you go through it while in your own mindscape."
"Won't it be dangerous for you if I go through it with you in the same room?", she said with genuine concern on her face.
"I trust you and by extension your wolf to remain in control. If all else fails, Laly's quite fast at Apparition."
Gaude gave Irma a few last-minute warnings, tips and instructions that he had managed to learn from the Skinwalker tribe.
After that, she adjusted her posture and closed her eyes. A few minutes later Gaude saw her face relaxing. Ten minutes in, she had a smile on her face.
He ignited the herbs. About ten minutes later, her hair formed into the wolf ear-like tufts again. Gaude got up from my seat and went closer. Once again, he tried to touch one and it twitched the moment his hand got close to it.
This time, he didn't leave it alone. he touched it. Suddenly, the muscles in her face wriggled as if they had a life of their own. This time, Gaude touched her head near the tuft, giving it a gentle stroke.
The tufts were very soft, but that was probably due to them being made of hair held up by magic. Still, Gaude found stroking and touching them extremely enjoyable and therapeutic.
The tuft lowered itself slightly, as if relaxing. Gaude decided that he had had enough fun for the time being and returned to his seat.
Laly was by his side, ready to take him out at the first sign of danger.
A while later, Irma's eyes shot open. Both of them were now blue. Then she took a position on all fours and stretched like animals do.
Gaude heard small pops and cracks from her joints, as if they'd gone stiff from all that sitting in one place and suddenly her body started expanding. Her nails grew into long claws, her face elongated into a black snout and her hands became something more like paws.
Her exposed skin was covered in short gray fur. She raised her snout and produced a loud howl. Gaude finally saw her eyes. They had black sclera and deep blue irises. There was a white diamond shape on her forehead. Her hand-paws looked like she was wearing black gloves and her foot-paws looked like she was wearing black toe-socks. Her ears were large and fluffy.
Her body was still somewhat covered with her clothes – Gaude had ordered a set of elastane clothing for her, knowing that Werewolves had the tendency to expand on transformation. The stretchy clothing didn't save her midriff, forearms and calves from being exposed.
"How are you feeling?", Gaude asked, trying to keep his voice calm. In fact, he was quite nervous as it was his first time seeing the process up close and a Werewolf looked quite intimidating. There was nothing as reassuring as having a House-elf ready to take you to safety.
Suddenly, the wolf turned its head towards Gaude and was right in front of him a moment later. It was growling deeply and sniffing the air.
"It's alright. We're all friends here.", Gaude had to make an effort to maintain his cool, she was moving much faster than he had expected, especially right after transformation. Finally, Gaude managed to get a glimpse into Irma's mind. Currently, it was chaotic, operating only based on instinct.
The Werewolf's growl became throatier, as if warning both Gaude and the elf not to try anything.
Then the Werewolf came even closer to Gaude, sniffing his body.
He stood still and tried again, reproachfully: "Irma, isn't that enough already? You're scaring Laly."
Finally, the Werewolf's growl stopped, and she looked at Laly curiously. As Gaude had mentioned Irma's name, something seemed to click in her mind and suddenly, thoughts had flooded into it, taking over the control of her body from the instinctual side.
She sat down in front of Gaude. He slowly raised his hand and spoke softly: "Can I touch your head?"
The Werewolf brought its head closer to Gaude. He moved his hand to the top of her head and touched it. The fur was softer than it looked. He slowly caressed the top of her head, sneaking his way closer to her ear.
When he was close enough, he bent my fingers and scratched. Suddenly she dropped, her head landing in his lap. Gaude chuckled softly. She growled a little in response. He decided to return to stroking her head for a little longer.
Once her eyes were half-closed, Gaude spoke: "In the magical world, the infection that caused your transformation is called the Werewolf Curse, also known as Lychanthropy. The curse or disease, however you want to view it, spreads through the saliva of a transformed Werewolf. The saliva also causes unstoppable bleeding, unless you have access to the extract of the magical plant Dittany and powdered silver.
Now, let's get back to the Werewolf that attacked you, Fenrir Greyback. The name sounds suspiciously like an alias. In addition, he's a wanted criminal in the magical world.
What you need to know about the magical world for now is that they don't look kindly upon Werewolves, mostly thanks to Fenrir Greyback and those who share his goal of infecting as many people as possible.
You see, Fenrir Greyback fancies himself a bit of a man of the people, or Werewolves in his case. He wants to make his own Werewolf nation, right here in Britain.
However, I'm hoping that by teaching you the ways of the Skinwalkers, you'll be able to change your form into the wolf and back with ease, given enough time to practice.
Speaking of which, are you willing to give it a try?"
The wolf had been listening to Gaude attentively. She closed her eyes for a while and seemed to be trying to do something, judging by how her muscles tensed up.
"I doubt that's how it's done. Try to think of your human form. Feel yourself into that form."
She tried again and slowly her snout began receding and her height decreased. She was only a foot taller than in her human form, but that seemed to be the limit. She remained in a half-state between her werewolf and human form.
"That's good enough for now. We now know that you'll be able to turn back with some more practice. Perhaps you'll need to turn back naturally first so that your body knows how to do that."
Then an idea struck Gaude. Since she was stuck in the Werewolf form for the rest of the night, she might as well get some fresh air.
"Irma, would you like to go to a forest, far from any people and go for a run for the rest of the night?"
The Werewolf's eyes seemed to gleam. Gaude took it as a 'yes'. His suspicions were confirmed with the excitement that was permeating her mind.
"Brace for interdimensional turbulence. Laly, take us to alpha site.", Gaude said half-jokingly.
Irma's Werewolf body seemed to tense up a little.
"Yes, Master.", Laly confirmed, then took Gaude's hand and placed a hand on Irma's hulking form.
A pop and a twist later, they were in a small clearing between tall spruce trees.
"Just make sure to come back here when the moon starts setting and we'll pick you up."
She looked back at Gaude for a moment and then ran off.
"Laly, let's go back home."
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