#Would I? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

harleiquina · 2 years

Text

The Fish-wolf

Is not every day that I follow someone elses prompt to come up with a story (I’m not very fond of this practice but I understand why it is helpful) however, after watching The Sandman’s extra episode and seeing people asking about the abandoned (?) concept of a fish that turns into wolf (or was it a human that turned into a fish, hm maybe I got it wrong, nevermind)... my imagination clicked. Whatcha gonna do?

Apologies in advanced for any oddity in my writing, I speak and write Spanish pretty much 24/7 so.... my grammar structure has nothing to do with yours (I don’t know why all the sudden I’m so self-conscious about my commas). Let us pretend that I’m telling this story out loud, maybe that would make it make more sense. Hopefully.

*No muses were harmed while writting this story. Actually I’d like to be left alone for a little bit: I have way to many stories on the works and I cannot keep on coming up with new ones while I have to work. If any of you could say that to them or to Morpheus himself I’ll appreciate it. Just for a little bit, not forever... I’m nobody without my creativity. Although is it truly mine?

Shh! Be quiet! Hasn’t anybody ever told you not to mess with a pack of Were-Wolves resting on the shore?

Can’t you see the thick fur, slightly curved back (as if one of them it’s trying hard to walk in 4 legs) and those big eyes filled with reason and inteligence? I mean, sure... in movies they always exagerate the human side because it’s easier to put a costume on an actor than using a real Were-Wolf, but the concept is the same. I think.

What do you mean with “that those are not Were-wolves”? I swear on every cell of my body and every particle of my ancestors that has transformed itself back to dirt and still lives on this Earth that those are Were-Wolves!

Still, I could spend here a lot of time discussing the diference between movies, real life and the elusive, latin and misteryous cousin of the Were-Wolf known as El Lobizón, but we’ll be here for the rest of the night and tonight is a very important one. Why do you ask?

Well, do you see how one of the wolves (let’s call him like that to shorten time) anyway, do you see how it is just siting IN the water, playing with he waves on his paws, blowing bubbles with his nose and, in occasion, stares at the moon as in a eternal trance that could be mistaken with fascination and longing?

That one, my dear, is a Fish-Wolf.

Hey! There’s no need to laugh! I know exactly how it happened and I am here to tell you.

But nobody invited you so... you can leave... if that’s what you want. No? Ok, let’s get to it.

It was a night like this, many moons ago that a Were-Wolf was quenching his thirst on this river and, without him noticing, one little fish was slightly scratched with his fangs. The little fish, let’s call him... no, not Nemo (I’m tempted on a homage to the Captain, but I’m afraid of the Mouse’s Copyright), hm, maybe Verne could be an option, not a good one but he wouldn’t mind. It’s a fish after all.

So Verne came back with his own, leaving a very faint trace of blood in the water nearby. Because of that the others left him, it’s never good to leave trace when you are a easy prey.

Verne stayed alone until he healed, rather quickly I might add, and eventually moved on with his simple life. And then a new Full Moon came.

As soon as the sun began to set, he could feel a knot in his stomach. I was different to the times he eat something (or someone) that he shouldn’t. This time felt like an emptyness growing deep within. He felt hot as well, something completly new for him. Hiding in his favourite rock, he felt himself getting bigger. He could barely fit there! So, once again he left his community alone and went to the shore. If it was his time to die, he wouldn’t expose the location of the others. Maybe if nature was kind enough he would be found by that terrible bear that killed nearly a dozen of his siblings and if he was really sick to death maybe that would cause him, at very least, a terrible indigestion.

Near the shore the water was slightly warmer,but he didn’t mind, the fact that he now had paws was far more disturbing. Verne also felt his skull changing shape, now he also had a nose! and teeth! and hair! His eyes now were in front of his head and that made him dizzy... and then he realized that he couldn’t breathe anymore! He tried to take as much water as he could but it was the weirdest sensation it felt like burning, and it was also heavy inside of him. Verne surrendered and left himself float as it happens to all fish when it’s time to go. Yeah, I know, quite a surprise he received when he realized that now, outside of the water he could breathe just fine.

Stunned by this discovery, he gazed upon the stars and the moon. That emptyness he felt at the begining was gone, as if the light scared it away. The trance was broken by something moving on top of his head. It was his ears, he always wondered how did they worked and now he could tell that there were others like him nearby. Should he... join them?

He tried to move as usual but it didn’t feel right, so he decided to use his paws to walk on the pebbles below him. I’m not going to lie to you, it took him a few tries to get the gist of it.

Now it was time to set foot for real on land and on grass after that. His heart was pounding, would it hurt? It was dangerous, that’s a given, but how different where this elements away from the bottom of the lake where everything gets softened by the water? He kept his front right paw mid-air for what seemed an eternity and it would’ve remained like that if it wasn’t because another creature was staring at him with curiosity.

“Go ahead” it said “The first night is always a mess, but you’ll get use to it. I’ve seen all of them going through it and they always overcome it... which is saying something. No offense, but humans are quite stupid”

“Humans?” asked Verne.

“Wow! You can understand me! Who are you? I’m a stork”

“I am a fish”

“A fish” the stork was surprised and all the sudden it dawned to her “You’re not here for vengance, are you?”

“I just been through one of the worst experiences in my life and you think that I’ve done it to get you?”

“You are no human, alright” laughed the bird.

“What is this?”

“You mean your dashing new appearance? That, little one, is the body of a wolf. Now if you mean about the gift... well, there it is: it’s a gift. It’s been told by generations that the Moon and the Stars decided to help a small group of humans against some other humans by turning them into animals so they could find food and shelter a lot easier and out of any suspicion, but humans beeing humans thought that this meant to go out there with the power to destroy their enemies. So the gift was changed, now whenever they bite someone they pass it on. It was a good idea, nobody wanted to share this opportunity with their opponents, so the number of blessed ones decreased. Still, sometimes accidents happen, like you I believe”

“Is there a way to make it go away?”

“Just through death. It’s ancient magic, little one, and not casted by any man in a robe claiming to have all the knowledge of the world and gets gold as reward for it even if it’s the planet’s worst liar”

“Humans like gold?” Verne was surprised.

“Humans like lots of things. Some of them have more worth than others for them. Would you believe it? They even kill themselves for said things... what kind of sensible creature sacrifices not hundreds but thousands of lives for a piece of metal? I’d understand better if it was for a really good place to live, but it is still too far fetched. Bah! Stupids, as I said.”

“Then” the fish realized that the conversation strayed too far away of his interest “What should I do?”

“If you want to die we can wait until sunrise and I’ll take care of that”

“No, no. I’m good for now”

“You better be. This will happen for every period of full moon until the very end of your life”

“Every single time?”

“Yes. When you put it like that it helps me understand why humans think of it as a curse. I’d say that you should be smarter” a howl interrupted her “I’d better get going, they are coming and some of them enjoy being the salvage hunter a little too much”

“And you’ll leave me here?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. When changed, humans are even dumber than before. They’ll think you are one of them and leave you alone” The stork moved her wings and in just a couple of seconds was flying near the clouds.

Verne decided to hide. Thanks to his new paws he was able to cross the patch of grass that created a natural border between the trees and the shore. He sat behind some mossy stones and waited to see the others, they were taking their time and that helped him realize that even if the plants weren’t as smooth as the ones he was used to, they were still nice to the touch. He felt tickles and fell in love with the overly scented combination of green grass, earth and rock.

And then they came. They were only three, one of them seemed to have taken the leader position and the others follwed him. He could tell that they were lost just like him, nobody knew what to do with this new body. The wolf that seemed to be the leader howled to the moon in a position that probably felt cooler than what it looked. Just as the stork said, the humans were dumb: everything they knew about beeing a Were-Wolf came out of movies. It would seem that the main question would be: if you’re not a bloodlust beast of the night, are you even a Were-Wolf?

Verne kept watching them, but the lovely combination of forest’s smells made him sneeze. Before the others could see him, he started to run.

He never felt such freedom before, or at least nothing similar to the wind blowing against him and drawing small waves in his fur. The extasis of feeling his legs trodding with a strenght unknown to him... and the jumps! What a glorious thing it was floating in the air, even if it was for a little bit.

The other three wolves followed him, firstly because he was a stranger and they needed to make their position clear... but then, they felt the same and joined Verne in his life changing discovery.

They run, played, jumped, rolled on the herbs and, once they got tired, just laid down to hear every sound, to smell all the scents and taste the night with every pant.

The sun was starting to show it’s early rays. Verne felt the need to go back to the lake and the others also felt that it was time to leave.

He could barely remember the change back into fish, maybe that’s why he felt for a while that all of it was just a dream. A very wild one. He should stay away from those emerald green pretty algae that he ate during the morning.

But then it happened again at night, and in the next one, and so on until the end of the Full Moon.

He was able to try a different life for 5 nights, try new tastes, smell flowers and pines, feel the vibration of the worms under the soil and dig to find them.

It was a blessing for him, and he was never going to let the Moon and Stars think that he wasn’t greatful about it. Thats why he just stays there, absorving their light giving them nothing more than love in return.

#my writing #aspiring author #the sandman #calliope sandman #should I thank Ric Maddoc? Gross #Really nervous to post this but someone might like it #It's so out of my comfort zone #I write novels not short stories and most definetly not fables #but who cares?#If this ever reaches Neil Gaiman himself I'll be so embarrased #would i?#who knows?#I hope this makes you feel something nice dear reader

2 notes · View notes