By The Light Of The Moon

Chapter 25

Shane paced back and forth with frequent glances at the sun disappearing behind a mountain peak. I remained sitting on a rock, assuming he wanted me to observe this shift since he hadn't gone into the forest as was his usual habit.

Despite all of his earlier attempts to communicate, he wasn't able to speak or even claw legible words in the dirt. He'd been restless all morning, forcing me to tether Milly farther away once I saddled her.

When the sun beams around us faded, he finally stopped to face the disappearing light. The gentle warmth on my skin disappeared.

But nothing else happened.

The seconds grew longer, and Shane shifted side to side restlessly, on the verge of pacing again. His paw swiped at the air a few times, but the necklace never materialized.

He stared hard at the horizon, then, suddenly, orange and green shimmers appeared. I furrowed my eyebrows; instead of being mostly orange with just a bit of green, the colors were mixed about half and half. Nor had any convulsions been present this time.

Shane's werewolf shape took the place of his wolf form. After shaking out his fur, an expression of concentration crossed his face as the shimmers reappeared, shrinking down into his wolf form. After half a dozen shifts back and forth, I rubbed my eyes as a headache threatened to appear.

He rose to his back legs, once again in werewolf form, and as his hand moved through the air, his necklace appeared. The same shimmers – half orange and half green – cloaked his body before Shane stood in his human form with a deep sigh.

"I have no idea how you don't get dizzy shifting like that," I commented.

"It's a bit disorienting," he admitted, turning around. "I think the day form is gone for good, although I suspect I'll be stuck in the wolf form during that time. It looks I can shift into any form at night."

"I thought you never turned into a wolf during the day before?"

"I've been thinking about it a lot, but I think the curse itself shifted when I took that arrow for you. Just before it hit, I felt something change. A blood curse can't truly be broken, but they sometimes have partial releases built in – and that might have been what the sorceress was doing at the end. I thought that was what the necklaces were for, but something more was probably needed to release me from the day form."

"Is that why the colors changed? Because the curse changed?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, his gaze focusing on me.

"Whenever you shifted in the past with your necklace, the shimmers were mostly orange with just bits of green. Every time just now, the colors were about half and half."

He frowned. "That could be a reflection of it." With an annoyed sigh, he ran his hand through his hair. "I wish other sorcerers or sorceresses could see the details of a curse. I even went to the King's court, but both of the ones I talked to said the same thing. They can see a blood curse was cast, but they don't know what it does, and they can't remove it or change it."

"That's a shame."

"It is what it is," he grumbled. "I got off lucky. Blood curses are the ultimate revenge spell and are almost always designed to cause pain and suffering on a daily basis."

His tone turned sour at the end, reminding me the curse had interfered with his life for years on end and still interfered with it. Being a massive wolf might be better than being a mummy, but even that form wouldn't let him walk through town, talk, or carry on a normal life. The curse, even with the latest change, would still cause him misery.

His muscles shuddered, and he winced. At my concerned look, he explained, "I just tried to shift to wolf form, but the necklace is clearly more powerful than that new shifting ability."

He pulled his necklace off, letting the curse change him into a werewolf. The silver chain disappeared as he lowered his hand.

"Wait here while I check the area. There's bound to be soldiers around, and I don't want to miss any that may be skulking in the underbrush. I'll shift into my wolf form so my tracks don't stand out as much."

I nodded, and with his necklace now off, he shifted into his wolf form without any problems. With one last look at me, he disappeared into the shrubs.

~

   Shane gave a quiet huff as he emerged from the trees ahead, barely speaking loudly enough for me to hear him. "Take a left here and try to keep Milly on the rocks. She hasn't left any tracks for a long time, so we might be able to lose them for a bit."

"Are there still lots of soldiers around?"

"The forest is crawling with them. They've definitely figured out we're moving at night, but unless they stumble across us or find our trail, they have no easy way of locating us."

The brown werewolf disappeared into the shadows once again. He definitely favored his werewolf shape over the wolf one. I wasn't sure if his hearing and sight were better, if it was a case of familiarity, or because he could talk, but I wasn't about to ask. He might be far more willing to speak about his curse now, but it was still a touchy subject.

I guided Milly onto the next trail. Faint tension in her sides followed by plopping sounds made me rein her in. With a sigh, I tethered her to a nearby tree branch and broke a different one off to sweep the road apples off the trail and under a shrub.

With that done, I got back in the saddle and tapped my heels to her sides, making sure she walked on the rockiest sections.

"Stop. There's a group nearby," Shane hissed from the shadows.

I promptly stopped Milly and dismounted, giving her plenty of ear scratches to distract her. Milly was all in favor of a scratch break and contentedly shoved her head against my chest while I listened to the crackling of branches getting closer.

Shane didn't give any other warnings, so I remained where I was, giving Milly the attention she adored in exchange for her silence. The dull metallic clacking of horseshoes on stone grew louder. I wasn't sure how close someone had to be to hear each step the two horses took, but it was way closer than I wanted to be.

My breathing grew shallow as my eyes strained to see anything in the darkness. A mere eighty paces away, a horse entered a patch of moonlight. The rider was clearly a fighter of some sort. Even in the darkness, I could see the curve of a bow and the outline of a sword.

A second rider followed, peering into the forest on either side. They kept going, their horses' footsteps slowly growing fainter. I sighed quietly in relief but didn't stop scratching Milly's ears.

After far too long, Shane finally spoke again. "They're out of earshot. Let's keep going."

Milly's scratch break was over for now, but I knew it wouldn't be long before we'd have to stop again to avoid detection.