He ran through it again in his head... Everything he knew about
werewolves.
Cursed men who apparently took on the form of a humanoid wolf-man.
Nearly seven to eight feet tall when fully erect.
Elongated lupin snout and teeth for biting and tearing, lupin fur, long lupin tail, upright but with digitigrade hind feet suggesting both bipedal and quadrupedal mobility, clawed hands and feet meant for gripping mobility in natural ground and tearing flesh, possibly good for digging but less adept at climbing.
Broad humanoid chest and shoulders with what appeared to be similar musculature.
An infectious bite to propagate and form a pack, natural propagation unknown.
He didn't dare look down into the fire as he kept watch, doing so would destroy his above average darkvision. Wolves were nocternal, and everything he knew about werewolves said that they only transformed on a full moon, suggesting the same nocternal tendencies... But the creature that bit him in the light of morning seemed to defy that legend.
Perhaps he was a special case, and if so, would Tzuriel be prone to daylight transformation as well?
Vampirism had many sorts of strains with different abilities that were passed down from the sire to the spawn, would this prove to be the same?
That was speculation, he left that alone, choosing to focus on what he does know.
Heightened emotional sensitivity seemingly conducive to knee jerk reactions and uncontrollable temper, possibly related to the similar condition known as lunacy, with its victims known as lunatics, those who go mad at the sight of the moon...
The moon... Would the moon forever rule over his life? Would the sun forever represent death to him, or only a momentary solace before madness takes him?
He could see the light of the moon being cast above the trees, it seemed the gods saw fit to curse him with a cloudless sky on this night, and from the brightness approaching the tops of the trees he knew that it was also full.
He sat by the fire, naked except for his coat around his shoulders and his sword beside him... His anticipation grew as the moon continued it's slow climb into the sky, and with it his anxieties grew as well.
It had been an hour since he left Divina's side, but he still felt warm, the fire burned but it could not account for the disregard for the cold that he felt.
His heart thumped in his chest like a savages drum, beating out a war tune and his anxieties made his breath short and labored, terror and strange excitement filled his heart and mind as the large full moon broke over the treetops and he could behold it against the unfiltered curtain of stars.
Wolves howled in the distance...
The moon... The moon... The moon...
Tzuriel straightened his back, as if he could sense that something was upon him, something was about to happen, waiting. Almost as if the very air had shifted to announce something to come.
His coat fell from his shoulders, leaving him in nothing but the bandages around his shoulder.
He was a pale man, in spite of his travels the sun seemed to not wish to leave a mark upon his flesh, not a freckle nor a tan could be found on him, and very few scars remained since his vampirism removed many other blemishes and imperfections.
He didn't notice that he was sweating.
At first there was nothing, nothing happened, there was no sound but his labored breathing and the slow sleeping breaths of his wife-to-be laying on a cloak and a bed of moss.
Tzuriel watched the moon continue to climb... And when the sight of it completely cleared the trees everything seemed to happen all at once!
Tzuriel suddenly doubled over and cried out in pain, it felt like a hot poker was shoved into the wound of his bite marks.
That pain shot through every nerve in his body all at once and he nearly fell into the fire as he slumped to the cave floor writhing and screaming in agony. Lightning flashed in his mind again and again till he opened his eyes and the moon once again filled his vision, that moon seared itself into his mind.
Tzuriel cried out again and continued to thrash about, he gained his feet at one point only to slam himself against the wall of the cave again and again!
Visibly his flesh began to change, his muscles swelled in size, his bones audibly popped and grew, changing in size and shape.
Pain filled his world and madness seemed to fill his mind as his screams turned to growls and gnashing of teeth.
He suddenly bolted out of the cave and fell to the rocky ground where he would complete his transformation.
His muscles and bones would continue to change and swell till his skin tore, revealing a soft fur as dark as his natural hair color beneath. The structure of his face and skull grew lupin, with an elongated snout and his face became covered with short black fur. His arms were elongated and ended in sharp claws, his legs digitigrade and also ending in claws, and a long furry black tail grew from his posterior.
When at last he had shed his human skin he stopped thrashing about, no longer a man now... But a beast.
The creature looked up at the moon, put its pointed ears back flat against its skull, and let out a long, mournful howl.
When the creature looked back at the cave, its eyes remained the same blue.
