She sighed when her stomach growled. She might have to throw caution to the wind and jog towards the bloodthirsty crowd. What she needed right now was some answers, food, directions, water and a sensible covering to replace her nightgown. Not necessarily in that order. But she got cut off mid-stride as low feral rumbling began to vibrate in the air reaching her even at a great distance.
The tension was palpable and the two warriors were circling each other like vultures, heated eyes trained on the other. The crowd grew silent, holding their breath. The two competitors had their lips pulled back in a devastating growl, showing their teeth elongating to larger fangs.
Blinking in disbelief, she saw how their faces were beginning to pull forwards to a furry snout, ears started sprouting at the top of their heads springing up like a dog's, and their claws got insanely longer and larger.
She had to step closer, the warrior with the steel studded armor rose up in his two feet like a normal bi-pedal human, but the similarity ended there. Because everything else about him resembled a beefy grizzly bear. His steel armor managed to adjust to his transforming change into a body full of fur with a bigger cuddling density, although thinking twice about it, there was nothing about him that invited cuddles. He was ferocious and riddled with rage. He was the one to charge forward as the other guy who turned into a werewolf ducked under his guard and raked a vicious claw across the werebear's stomach. Steel armor got cut open smoothly like butter with blood spurting from its opening. The werebear collapsed to the ground, red liquid pooling beneath him as he clutched at the wound.
The crowd clamored, the battle was over in just a matter of seconds like it did with the previous matches. The triumphant cheering turned to howling and it was rippling through the mouths of the spectators and that is when River realized that they were all werewolves. Creatures from stories. The crowd turned feral in forms bearing resemblance to wolves as they howled, she began noticing they had transformed their faces into animals and their skin into fur. Despite the changes, they still stood on two legs standing upright like a human. Half-human. Half-wolf. Werewolf.
In a stunned daze, her mouth dropped open, feeling a prickle of awareness coming up her spine. She found the winning warrior, who previously had his back turned, was now zeroing his direct gaze at her over his shoulder. Just like the others, he was a werewolf and was staring at her with narrowed calculating gaze, looking like a feral starving monster and she was the finest item on the menu.
The moment her eyes landed on him, he snarled and she felt fear seized her by the throat. Compared to his human form, his werewolf eyes looked larger and soulful with pupils blown black overwhelming the whites of his eyes. His breaths started coming in hard and fast, tension wringing up his whole body with impatience. Horrified, she watched him turn even more wolfish, his back arching in a bigger growth spurt as he doubled over to the ground on his four paws followed by longer and thicker blonde fur covering each inch of his skin. Through his painful transformation, he never broke eye contact and by the end of it he bore no resemblance to a human. He was a full damned golden wolf the size of a Toyota truck.
An overwhelming silence reverberated around the arena. Spectators with jaws gaping open began glancing next to each other in confusion as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. The bleeding competitor whose fatal wound was healing faster than she has ever seen now has his eyes widening at the sudden appearance of a giant golden wolf in the center of the arena. It looked like nobody knew what to make of this latest development.
Through the confusion, River took small careful steps backward. The golden wolf didn't like that. His wolfish eyes darkening in fury. He didn't look friendly.
Not bothering to suppress her primal instincts anymore, she let her body take control and flee away from the bloody arena. From the grueling day she has had, it was only a matter of time before her feet and legs refused to bear her weight anymore. Actually, it hadn't taken long until the strength of her legs gave out in surrender, the gathering speed of the sprint had her falling forward to the amber grassland headfirst for a faceplant.
In a breath of a second, the golden wolf was behind her, growling. She twisted, landing on her elbows as she came face-to-face with crazed black eyes. He towered over her and she couldn't help but take in the tropical scent of peachy fragrance surrounding the wolf. The overpowering smell was like freshly plucked sweet mangoes under a summer sun, reminding her of a fruity breakfast buffet of sugary waffles and buttery croissants.
To her shame, a pathetic growling noise mewled in her stomach, producing a miserable cry of help. Great, she thought, I'm dying with no small shred of dignity.
The wolf glanced down to her belly and growled at it. Before she could stop herself she had reacted in outrage, slapping his nuzzle away and he seemed chastened. Slightly. Then he was back to giving warning growls but not directed at her.
Some of the werewolf warriors have followed after him and she noticed they were staring hard, looking like she had sprouted another head. They spun their gazes back and forth to her then to the wolf and it took them a full moment before it hit them.
"Behagthi" one of the warriors said before transforming back to human.
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