29. Well that happened

Today is the day of the full moon. I had wanted to slip away to test the enchanted necklace I had made. Well, I didn’t actually make the thing. Instead I had it commissioned to the same smith that made my tiara. I did enchant it using runes and glyphs however. For now it worked by creating a thin magic shield just over my skin. The shield should prevent any moon magic from passing through, or at least that is the idea. 

“Are you sure this will work?” Yup, I am not here. I had tried to slip unnoticed but Sophia had faked being asleep and followed me. I had noticed right outside the common room but the stubborn girl refused to let me go alone so here she is. 

“Well, from the test I have run, the test you have seen as well mind you, it should work.” My answer seemed to pacify her a bit though she still looked nervous, not like I could blame her. I also felt a bit nervous as I fiddled with the pendant. I had commissioned it to look like a wolf’s head made from silver. No goblin silver this time though, father had no idea I had commissioned this. 

The pendant is a beautiful piece, the wolf looking almost alive with its mouth somewhat open showing sharp teeth, the eyes adorned with small rubies. I had also asked for the chain to be a bit thicker than strictly necessary. Afterall, it gave me more area to enchant and the symbolism wasn’t lost on me. A Chain to contain the beast. 

The trek to my hidey-hole went by uneventfully. Sophia still jumped at every shadow and sound. Me on the other hand, well this is my territory. I have been here so many times that other predators know to stay away, prey too avoid this area like the plague. The only creatures that still dare get close are unicorns, centaurs and acromantulas. The second one I avoid at all costs since they could rat me out to Hagrid and therefore the rest of the faculty staff. The latter are just stubborn which benefits me quite a bit. 

“Alright, only one a few more minutes before the moon makes its appearance.” As I said that I turned around and came face to face with the moon cresting the horizon. Huh, looks like the trek took a bit longer than expected.  

“Silver?” I turned to see Sophia with worry firmly etched in her eyes. For my part I felt weird, tingly all over. I could feel my vitality shift as I began feeling myself change. However, despite the pendant’s failure to fully shield me it had worked to some extent. 

“Give me a sec, I need to focus.” Afterall, I am still changing but it is slow, extremely so. If I had to guess I will be transforming for the next hour or so at this rate. This made it a prime opportunity to study what is going on. 

From the little I had seen so far I could already make a few conjectures. I had an idea already but this pretty much confirms it. The reason why werewolves look half baked is due to a lack of abundant vitality. The shift is an intensive process that consumes vitality. The body’s natural defenses prevent an excess from being drawn by the shift resulting in the unfinished transformation. 

This is why I looked like a proper bipedal wolf when Sophia saw me back then. My abundant vitality allowed for a full shift. Besides that I could already tell why werewolves lost control. The brain shifted too resulting in a shift of neural pathways. Not only that but there is also a slight shift in chemical composition. 

Without any time to waste I got to work on an idea I just had to counteract this. Flooding my brain with mana I tried to make a copy of my brain. Simply put, I had the mana there suffuse every single cell to attempt and create an unaltered copy of my brain and hopefully my mind. 

As soon as I began I could feel an odd shift in both my mana and thought pattern, it was akin to an eco. Like thinking the same thing twice with a slight delay. With each moment that passed the eco changed and I realized I was thinking about two things at the same time. 

“Wow, this feels weird.” I commented out loud. Sophia looked even more worried but stayed silent for the time being. For my part I was quickly adapting to the sensation. Not only that but I quickly drew a parallel to something I had read before. This was most likely like those parallel thought skills that could often be found in japanese isekai manga. 

With this I could easily focus on two things at the same time while the spell sustains itself. It isn’t sunshine and rainbows all the way through though. I could still feel a mild pressure building not to mention the constant draw on my magic. Even so, this new spell would be indispensable for the future. 

“Okay, so it's like this…” I explained to Sophia what I had just experienced and done. I had to try really hard not to laugh at her flabbergasted expresion. She looked like a fish out of water opening and closing her mouth. 

“How?” Very eloquent my dear. Instead of that sassy response I giggled. By the second I could feel one of my twin minds shifting more and more towards a beast like mind, guided by instincts above all else. It felt weird and the desynchronisation made it weirder still. 

“What can I say, I am special like that.” After saying that I got closer to her to better smell her scent. It calmed me somewhat, she smelled like family and looked like my wolf brain was already making itself known. 

The next hour or so was spent recording the shift both internally and externally with Sophia’s help. The first thing to change was the internals actually, organs shifting shape and position while bones cracked and grew to accommodate them. Skin tearing and healing as it got stretched while fur grew on top. 

“Awurfr.” I tried to speak once the shift finished only to hear an awkward sound coming out of my muzzle. Sophia who had been marveling at my shiny white coat became silent while looking me directly in the eyes. Her lips twitching uncontrollably trying to form a grin. I for my part gave her a glare to dissuade her from laughing… it didn’t work.

“Pffft! hahahha, that was adorable, do it again.” Instead of trying to talk again I opted for crossing my arms while turning away. At least my arms still had enough motion range to do so. I also got to keep my thumbs so that is a win too. 

Unfortunately for me, my wolf brain could still control the body and before I knew it I was licking Sophia’s cheek affectionately. Again, controlling one body with two minds is kind of awkward but doable. Wolf me and magic me could still control the body independently from each other or, we could share control by sharing thoughts. Again, weird and convoluted. 

“Wait, stop, stop.” Sophia giggled as I let wolf me lick her face all over. That is what she gets for making fun of me! After a while of silliness and playing, at some point we began playing tag. Not like she could ever win against a werewolf though. I decided to reign in my wolf brain and get back to work. 

It was almost instantly that I figured out what had gone wrong with my pendant. Well, in truth nothing had gone wrong. I just hadn’t had the opportunity to properly get readings on full moon magic. I had made approximations but I was still off by a bit. Thankfully the fix was rather easy and quick. Unfortunately, working in my wolf form on delicate stuff isn’t possible. 

Instead of trying to fix my pendant right away I decided to do something else. With a mischievous grin I turned to Sophia, unholy glee shining in my eyes. Payback time is upon you! 

“Uh, silver, I don’t like how you are looking at meeee-eep!” Before she could finish I took her in my arms and lifted her above my head. I was going to test this new body and what better way to do so than to run around full speed with Sophia holding for dear life on my back. 

“Wait, silver put me doooooown!” Not listening to Sophia I placed her on my back before sprinting full speed on my four limbs out of the hideout. For wolf me this felt as the most natural way to move, for magic me it felt weird, oddly nice but weird nonetheless. 

“Silveeeeeeeer!” I could feel Sophia holding my fur with a death grip as I kept gaining speed. I was already going as fast as I would as a human enhanced by vitality. Best of it all I wasn’t even enhancing myself with a lick of vitality at the moment. Thinking about that I decided to give it a go. 

Well, a cheetah is capable of running at up to a hundred and thirty kilometers an hour. Now, I don’t have a speedometer built in but I am sure as hell I am going faster than that. By this point Sophia had stopped screaming and opted for hiding her face in my fur instead. Feeling like this is punishment enough, and a bit guilty as well. I slowed down until we stopped at a small clearing. 

Due to the wind I hadn’t heard it but now I could, Sophia was sobbing. A wave of guilt came crashing down on me and wolf me even lashed out against magic me. She did so with enough force of will as to wrestle full control of the body. Wolf me began to whine softly while curling up protectively around Sophia, calming pheromones going at full blast. 

A minute later Sophia had fallen into a pheromone induced sleep. Her chest rising and falling softly as she slept. We stayed like that for a while until magic me managed to regain enough control and trust back from wolf me as to gently carry Sophia back to the hideout. Wolf me refused to leave her out of sight and so magic me had to comply. In the end I carried Sophia back to the dorm without being found. 

While doing that I finally knew how wolf me had done so the first time around. The crazy mutt had climbed the outer wall. No wonder no portraits saw her, even so trying the same with a sleeping Sophia is a big no no and wolf me agreed. Sneaking through the corridors undetected took a lot of skill and instinct. However, in the end we managed. 

As I laid Sophia on her bed I couldn’t help but be curious. How did I look as a wolf? Sophia had given me a description before but I really wanted to see for myself, especially so because Sophia could’t see my vitality inscriptions. Wolf me protested a bit against leaving Sophia alone but gave in taking into account we were in a place we considered safe. Not to mention we wouldn’t be going far. 

Looking at myself in the bathroom’s mirror I couldn’t help but admire how I looked. I had grown a good ten centimeters in height without counting the five centimeters of extra height provided by my pointy ears. Fluffy white fur all over, it being short close to the hands and feet while growing longer around the neck like a sort of scarf. A long fluffy tail at my back helped me balance on my digitigrade legs. 

I had thankfully taken my clothes off once I felt them start to stretch against my changing body. Sophia had flushed quite a bit once I came back with only a bathrobe to keep my modesty. What caught my eye above all else was the sight of cyan blue lines glowing with power all over my body. 

Instead of the two markings I had expected It looked almost as if I had tribal tattoos all over my body made of those same cyan blue lines. If I am to be frank it looked awesome and powerful. However, they looked incomplete as well. Strangely enough, wolf me agreed. Our more primal instincts yearned for completion. Something was missing and we felt the need to be complete. 

shaking my head, I would need to give it more thought tomorrow, once my mind isn’t addled by constant instinctual compulsions. Besides that I had a cute pup to cuddle and lick clean and… damn it wolf brain stop it. Shaking my head to dislodge my wolf’s brain weird notions I got back on my bed to sleep. Only to slip out of it and cuddle Sophia due to my wolf’s brain constant whining not letting me sleep. Stupid mutt.