Shapechangers

The Republic had decided the “werewolf” question. Reading the detailed account in the paper did not make me feel any less disgusted than the short version on the radio had.

How many of the people actually affected had the lawmakers listened to before signing their names to that bill? Three? Well, they had talked to three, but they obviously had not listened. Must have been hard to hear about the media clamour, granted. That rampage in Mearen apparently had been too good for sales to pass up.

Following a morbid impulse I looked up some websites of sensationalist papers. Yep, right there was the rant about the pressure from the League of Nations that had led to that ridiculous “compromise” of classifying werewolves and similar shapechangers as animals for two weeks a month. Only.

At least nobody in my town knew I was one of Them. That tiny taste of it-could-have-been-worse turned sour when I came across the “perfidy of monsters hiding among us, ready to strike”. The rag had been crass enough to use a scene-of-crime photo of one of the Mearen victims at the end of the column. A young girl, I didn’t look too closely. Even a publicity still from Blood Moon Hunters or a similar pre-emergence horror flick would have been in better taste, and consistent with their habits.

I feared meeting people I knew. Who would be overjoyed being within their rights to shoot someone like me dead on sight in the right half of the month? For a long moment I considered looking into emigrating, but for all I knew it was only better on paper elsewhere. And I had to get ready for work, anyway.

Based on the prompt "Laws governing lycanthropes (like in that story where they couldn't hunt her once the moon changed), particularly their origins" by Clare K. R. Miller

That little kerfuffle last summer? Yes, I had my part in that. I was a bit down on my luck and squatting in an old house down towards the river, and one night I wake up to yelling and banging - sounded like someone was trying to take down the door, which made no sense since it was not locked.

So I take the big flashlight and check, and find some girl leaning against the door from the inside, holding up the handle trying to keep folks outside from getting in. She looked at me, eyes wide like anything and glowing, close to a panic, and when a racket started up in one of the rooms, I didn’t blame her. Sounded like quite a few, so if half circled through a window…

“Move aside a bit.”

“They want me dead.”

“I noticed. Move aside, and get ready to follow me that way.” I pointed to the back of the house, and she nodded. I wedged one of my hair sticks under the door - it was the closest to a wedge I had on hand, see? It bought us a bit of a head-start.

She could have outrun little old me, no problem, but she followed me, poor little thing. That house was a really old one, with a root cellar with a heavy trapdoor, and it seemed like the safest place to me.

“There’s no way out!”

“Stay calm. We’ll just wait them out.” It wasn’t all that easy. We had to both hang from the ring on the trapdoor, but the weight of the three of us was too much. Folks from the mob gave us a break sometimes, when they needed it, but we had to pay attention.

“We’ll die here. We can’t wait them out forever.”

“Werewolf, right?”

She nodded.

“Not from here, eh?”

To that she shook her head.

“We don’t have to.” Just then another attack on the door distracted us. I’m glad gravity was on our side, really.

After a long while we could not hear anything going on outside any more, but then, as I said, the door was thick and heavy.

“I’ve been running and hiding for days; they just won’t give up.”

“And what day is it now?”

“Tuesday.” No idea, the little pup.

“No, in moon-phase.”

“Waning, half moon.” After a moment she added, “Only just past.”

“Thought so. See, werewolf hunting season is only half of the month, half-moon to half-moon.” She didn’t look like she got my point, so I said, “Between waning half and waxing half, you are a person, even here.”

“But not yesterday? That’s crazy.”

“Yep. But useful, right now.”

We waited a bit longer, just to be sure. But we did get away without a problem. I just had to find a different place to stay.

Based on the prompt "Waning Moon" by Eliza Gebow, combined with the prompts "eccentric" and "deadline" from origfic_bingo

The moon tugged on Daaren's attention. Around this time of the month, time seemed to slow, and the world to come closer, right under his skin.

It is... peaceful, he told himself.

When Lilly woke up from fitful sleep, her lover asked, "Bad dreams again?"

"Yes. They say when you dream the same thing three nights in a row, it will come true."

He put an arm across her and pulled her close. Reassuring. "I hadn't heard that. What is it that worries you so?"

"Collins turned out to be a werewolf and killed my father and..." She shook her head. The man was an old friend of her family, and the idea, once voiced, seemed silly.

"No, he isn't."

Half-joking, not knowing why he suddenly was so tense and serious, she asked, "Why are you so certain?"

A pause, and a deep breath followed by a brittle whisper. "We can smell our own."

She had killed five of the mob, but just too many had come together against her, leaving flight as the only option. Through the ruin, barely more than foundation walls - only when on the far side another crowd waited she realised how well prepared a trap it had been.

The humans waited. A search of the area revealed nothing helpful, just a low ring wall, and a few - very few - stones scattered in the grass. All they had to do was keep her out in the open until sunrise, and the sky already grew brighter. She had a trick that would let her make use of the shadows for longer, and maybe, just maybe she'd get out of this.

By mid-morning some braves started searching the ruin, armed with flails and axes. One of them spotted the cat skulking in the shrinking shadows. She could see him thinking nothing of it for a moment, then glaring back at her with suspicion. When they tried to chase her into the sun, she hissed and spat, but eventually a kick landed. She hit the ground running, warmth on her fur, and very surprised she didn't burst into flame. The few of those still waiting outside that thought to try and stop her she dodged easily, and ran as fast and far as she could, leaving more confusion behind.