I will not get into details about how the girls criticized me for leaving alone, as I walked inside, painted red from head to toe- and how Markus simply fell on the floor, and laughed so hard he started crying, seeing my serious face, with a bloody puppy in my arms, as if I went to a pet shop and bought a dog.
I didn't hear even one word from them, I'd fought a giant wolf- and definitely wasn't in the mood to hear sermons. I simply walked to the bathroom, with the wolf- yes, the wolf.
There's no way in hell I'd let it run around without giving it a bath first.
Entering the bathroom, I found the MedKit on the wall, got some local anesthetic, line and needle.
But when I was about to apply it to my arm, I noticed the blood on the injury had already clotted, wich was strange. I removed the crust over it, but pink skin had already formed below.
Two possibilities. One: the DNA changes enhanced all of us, our metabolism. Two: I got this during my fight with the wolf.
Anyway, I only used the medical supplies on my wolf. I stitched the cut on its neck, probably given by its mother, pushing it away when she smelled me.
Done with the stitching, I pushed it inside the shower, and took of my clothes.
Rumor has it that I used an entire shampoo flask trying to get rid of the wet sock smell that emanated from the fur.
During this bath, I found out the wolf was a female.
I scratched hear ears, rubber her back, scrubbed in between her toes... and then began searching for parasites, and goddamn, did I find them... Hundreds of fleas and ticks, all around her body... it was time to genocide.
Done washing her, and leaving a trail of dead insects over the drain, I put her out of the shower, on the carpet, and finished cleaning myself, watching her roll around like crazy on the floor, trying to dry herself.
I left the shower, and put on my casual clothes, similar to the last ones the seed had provided.
But, before leaving the bathroom, I looked at my arm in the mirror, and saw there were three lines marked in white on my skin.
The wolf claws left a scar.
I took a hair dryer from a drawer under the sink, called the wolf, and left the bathroom with a towel over my shoulder.
Markus, that had managed to stop laughing while I showered, fell on the floor again, seeing the little she wolf on my heels, and a hair dryer on my hands.
Scarlet joined Markus- and I have to admit, the scene was too much even for me to handle, and I started laughing too.
Karah was frozen beside the eletric jack, by my bed, with sparkly eyes, waiting for me... or rather the wolf...
She whispered repeatedly
"Hairy baby..."
"Heyo, Karah, wanna meet my new friend? It's a she, and doesn't have a name yet, wanna help me pick one? "
Her face lit up in a wide smile and she blurted
"Diana!"
"So fast?" I asked
Her cheeks got a little red when I asked, then she started fidgetting with her hands before saying
"When you came all bloodied, with her, the only thing I could see well was the bright white fur on her face. It looked like the moon, thus the name Diana appeared in my head- a moon goddess. But if you didn't like it, I have lots of others you can choose from like Omega, Artemis, Lupa, Selene..."
Then she continued rambling a list of names that seemed to come out of werewolf movies and books. I'd rather give a goddess name to my little pup
"It's alright, i like Diana!"
Then I turned to the little wolf that lay between my feet, scared of Karah, and said
"And what do you think? You like Diana?"
Strangest of all, is that my feelings stirred a bit, when I called the her Diana, and she barked at me. I felt... acceptance?
Nah, I must be tired from the fight
Still looking at the wolfie at my feet, I remembered the need to dry her up.
Put the towel on the floor
Put the wolf on the towel
Put the plug on the socket
Put the dryer over the wolf
Groom the wolf
And like that I spent one full hour drying Diana
During this full hour, Karah sat beside me, and petted Diana. It was funny seeing both girl and wolf faces in bliss.
Scarlet and Markus soon joined the petting session, and we got a very happy Diana.
When she was fully dry, I let her run around the place, and said
"Recognize partner: Diana. Race: Wolf"
The seed flashed a scan across the room, and answered
"Partner acknowledged and recorded"
"Well, now it's over. We all have a pet wolf, and she'll be protected by the seed"
I told everybody, and smiled
When I said that, Scarlet approached me, and punched me in the stomach. She didn't know how to control her strength yet, and I was sent tumbling on the floor, not able to breathe.
"What the hell, Nathan! The seed will protect us at night, there was no need for you to fucking go out of the defense perimeter! What were you thinking?!"
She yelled
Then Markus joined in
"Yeah, man. It was uncool of you to leave us here like we were of no use at all. We could've helped you, you know?"
Karah was still lost in Diana's fluffiness, and didn't join in the conversation/beating. And Diana couldn't come to my aid, because she was trapped in Karah's arms. She yelped, and barked twice, but stopped when I got up again.
I felt more worry than pain or confusion as I was thrown by Scarlet, wich, again, is very strange. It was like some things I felt didn't come from me.
Anyway, I stood up again, breathing once more, I was greeted by a very worried and still angry Scarlet.
She had her blue, teary eyes right in front of my mine, her reddened face suggested shame and worry
"Nate! I'm so sorry, I don't know how I did that!
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I sighed and answered
"This is precisely why I didn't take you. I've been awake much longer than you- and got a hang of controlling my strength. And I left the perimeter because some animal have a pack mentality, such as wolves. If the one that caught our scent were left alive, we'd have an entire pack waiting around our camp, making it hard for us to explore and train ourselves."
Scarlet pouted and said
"Alright, but promise us next time you'll take us along to help"
I took a few second to consider, but agreed to it, realizing I'd be helping them get used to their bodies in the following day
Markus punched my arm weakly and said
"Don't worry us like that, bro."
Then walked away to his bed.
I did the same in the direction on mine, and declared
"Okay people, no more trouble tonight. Let's have a good night ourselves, and train tomorrow.
I laid down on my bed, and looked do my left, where Karah slept, only to find Diana sleeping in her arms, being used as a plushie, while she too slept.
That got a smile on my face, and my thoughts drifted to how Diana must be feeling... and when I did this, I got a calm and warm feeling...
This isn't mine- I think, certain that those feelings weren't born in me.
Maybe I have some link with the wolf... It's better to leave this issue to tomorrow morning, I though, as exhaustion took me over to dreamless slumber once again.
This time all of us got at least seven hours of sleep.
I was the first to wake up. Why, you ask? Because of the damn loud noises that echoed everywhere.
I opened my eyes, and once again was blinded by the light, the same shit that happened on the pod- I was beginning to get angry.
It sounded like three giants snored right beside my ear, and tempest raged outside on the blades of grass. I had my eyes closed, and tried to stand up, fearing I had lost control of my muscles again. But it was fine, the only problem was my balance- I felt every change in my body. I felt too much.
I stumbled around until I hit the wall, and punched it, out of anger. I felt the metal of the wall deform a bit, and let myself fall on the floor, frustrated with my regress. Again I'd have to force my eyes open, again I'd have to endure the pain.
Just before I opened my eyes, I felt something being put on my face. I couldn't even hear anything anymore, it was chaos.
Opening my eyes slowly, and preparing for the pain, I realized it never came.
Over my eyes were the same sunglasses I'd put on my teammates to reduce the light sensivity, and in front of me were four pairs of eyes. Blue, Greeny-Hazel, Gray, and Blue with green threads...
Wait. Blue and green?
Focusing on the face, rather than the eye, I noticed whose eyes they were: Diana's
Ah, I finally understood what happened.
The bite, her blood, my blood, both mixing. My unstable DNA, and her favorable characteristics. Dammit
"I became a fucking werewolf"
I said ironically, not even hearing my voice
This earned some strange looks from everyone, so I said
"I got a DNA mutation, give me some time to get used to it. In the meanwhile, each one go to your respective pods and listen to the fucker's message, you'll understand what happened to me." Dismissing them.
Seeing everyone hurrying to the tanks, worried, I crawled over to the balcony, accompanied by Diana, and tried to get used to the hyper-sensitive hearing. After twenty minutes, the sounds started to fade. I could select what I wanted to hear, filter sounds, and control the volume somewhat.
"Hell yeah! I did it, dammit" I screamed, joyful
With the pain subsided, I could feel worry, and a comforting feeling, in the back of my mind.
Looking down, I realized Diana had her head over my legs all this time, and looked at me worriedly.
"Is this coming from you, Dia?" I asked her
She lifted her head, and sat down, looking at me and tilting her head slightly to the side, just like those little dogs did back on Earth
Confusion, again in the back of my mind.
Yeah, this was definitely coming from her.
Using my cultural knowledge on animal talking, I tried to "direct" a feeling to her.
Affection, I tried send, while looking at her fluffy ears
She whimpered, and tried stick her nose on my hand, that supported me while I sat.
"One success, girl." I said, becoming happy, and petting her. She'd become really fluffy after all that shampoo and hair conditioning...
Resuming the experimentation, I tried sending images this time- I sent the image of my dogtag, that was around my neck.
A second later she barked, and playfully took my dogtag in her mouth.
I smiled and said in a funny voice
"Two sucesses! What a smart girl you are!"
Whilst messing with her fur.
After i stopped, she took a step back, and looked into my eyes.
Then it happened.
My mind was assaulted by a vision of my fight with the giant wolf, seen from between strands of long grass. The streaks of blue that travelled up and down around the glove, giving an eerie glow to the surroundings, my sidestep and killing blow. Everything seen from where Dia had been.
When the vision ended, I pushed myself away from her, and screamed
"Holy fuck!"
Catching the attention of my comrades, who ran towards me as fast as they could, afraid something bad happened
And in the meanwhile, Dia bombarded me with "curiosity" and "worry".
Markus held my shoulder, because I was shaking, and Karah asked what happened.
"Holy shit... I saw it" I said
"Saw what, Nathan? Calm down!" Karah pleaded
"I saw through Diana's eyes"