The night was long and cold. It was the first transformation in the new town and Finn had neglected to find a place to do it. He had only remembered to find somewhere when it was too late, then he cursed himself for not looking when he had all that time to himself earlier. How could he have forgotten something so important? Finn ran around in a panic with the night air hitting him. He could feel the transformation beginning when he was still in town.

It hurt trying to postpone the change, but he couldn’t transform around so many people. It was just dangerous. There were a few people still wandering around the streets for some reason. Mostly they didn’t notice him, but some of them did. They looked at him suspiciously, with curious glares. A teenage boy they had never seen before running wild in the middle of the night? It put them on edge, what if he was with the IRA? Did he have a bomb on him? It didn’t look like it but everyone crossed to the other side of the street when he came close.

Eventually he found a suitable place. He had found it just in the nick of time, half an hour later and he would have been caught out. The place wasn’t fantastic but it was great for his situation. It was a hill about a mile from the outskirts of the town. On it, a small forest area which he had decided would be the best place to hide out; in that was a clearing about the area of four trees.

The transformation was slower and more painful than usual; since he had tried to put it off. It always made it more difficult. He couldn’t figure out why, it shouldn’t make it hurt more. It was going to happen either way. Sometimes he entertained the thought that The Wolf was punishing him for trying to stop it. That always made him laugh.

The Wolf was unsure of its surroundings when it woke. Instead of immediately running around as it usually did, instead it sat and stared. Only then did it begin to carefully roam around the forest. The Wolf seemed to realise quickly that it was alone. This made it go back to normal. So long as it was alone, everything was fine in its eyes. It began searching for a bird or a fox to eat. The Wolf could feel itself growing restless after almost an hour of searching.

Thankfully it managed to find an abandoned flock of sheep just standing around eating grass or sleeping. It didn’t think about what to do about them; The Wolf cannot really think. It just does. It jumped and struck one of the sheep, latching its jaws onto the creature tightly. The other sheep ran away immediately. It began to eat the sheep it did catch. It ate it quickly and eagerly with a primal grin.

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When it was done it lay down beside the carcass. It was tired, the exploring had tired it out quickly. The transformation back was quick and painless.

Finn woke up and looked around him in a daze. He soon noticed the deceased sheep beside him. The blood was everywhere. He stood up carefully, checking for injury and being relieved at finding none.

The sheep looked like it had died quickly. He didn’t know how he could tell that but it just made sense to him. The sheep in front of him was not one that had gotten chased or tortured, it had died quickly then been tortured after.

Finn didn’t know who owned the sheep and had no plans of finding out. He just left the scene, the owner would find it before he needed to use the space again next month. It would be fine.

He was nervous as he snuck back home. It was a new area and he had no clue about the sleeping and waking patterns of the villagers. He didn’t know who he would run into. It wasn’t like he wanted to run into anyone either, he was covered head to toe in smears of sheep's blood and his clothes were torn and muddy. He looked a right state.

Unfortunately for Finn, it seemed like everyone was awake at this time. It was only six in the morning but there were at least seven people roaming around the town. It was difficult to sneak past them all; he almost got caught by two of them, but he managed.

He climbed back up to his open bedroom window and landed on his bed. He knew his parents would still be asleep so didn’t worry. He did need to get a shower though.

He quickly tiptoed into the bathroom and started the painstaking process of removing the dried blood from his body. It always seemed to know how to get everywhere. As usual the shower turned red as soon as he stepped into it, the still-wet blood dripping off immediately. The dried blood required a lot of shampoo and body wash. Grace was not going to be happy when she noticed how much of it was gone.

When he was clean he turned off the shower, cleaned up after himself, and crept back to his room. It was now seven o’clock and his parents would soon wake up. He decided to not pretend to be asleep, they would see the shower still wet and wonder why. He decided to say he went out on a run to clear his mind before school and took a shower after.