Life as a wolf was, surprisingly, not too bad. For now, at least. The main problem during that time was that he was ridiculously bored. He had nothing to do except just waiting for his shoulders to stop hurting. He was always used to having something to do. Whether it be talking to others, or using his phone. In his past life, he was rarely bored for long amounts of time. But now, there was basically nothing for him to do while he was recuperating besides sleep. And sleep he did.
It took an astonishingly short amount of time to heal from his sprained shoulder, only around three hours. Once it healed, it took a few more hours for him to get used to his new body. He had started off by learning which thoughts would control which limb and to get used to their reduced movements. Generally, humans were much more flexible than wolves, with a myriad of diarthrosis and synovial joints that allowed for omnidirectional movement. This took a few hours with him flailing and rolling around on the floor.
Once he had figured out which thoughts controlled which part of his body and how far he could move them, he began to plan to stand up. The first step was to roll onto his stomach. Then plant all four limbs firmly into the ground. And finally to push off the ground with all of his strength. His movements were robotic and abrupt, but he had managed.
The first step was easy enough, and all he had to do was twist onto his stomach. The second step was also quite simple, and all he had to do was adjust his paws to be underneath his body. The third step, the one that he thought he would have the most trouble with, also progressed rather easily. With all of his strength, he pushed off of the ground, and there, for a glorious second, he was standing. But he had forgotten to plan what comes after step three.
He had forgotten to stabilize himself. His right foreleg slipped into him, causing him to fall over. And for the second time, he fell to the ground. Luckily, he was not hurt too badly. The next few attempts resulted in the same result. Unable to stand due to the lack of balance, usually tipping forward. He was confused about what was going on until he realized something.
He was not putting any force into his forelegs. To get up from a prone position as a human, there are two main steps. From lying down to on your hands and knees. And then from your hands and knees to standing up. Arms are only necessary for pushing your upper body off of the ground and are not required in the second step.
Getting up as a wolf only requires one step. Going from lying down to standing up. When Lucas was on all fours, he was still thinking about getting up. Which meant standing up on his hind legs. This caused him to no longer put pressure onto his forelegs, causing him to fall forward. After his little revelation, he tried to get up again and immediately succeeded.
The other good thing that came out of this situation was that Lucas learned to actually think about things. No longer would he be able to just impulsively attempt something, or he would hurt himself. He would have to think ahead and plan out what he needed to do.
After this larger revelation and change in his thought process, walking was a simple procedure. All he had to do was keep his paws and knees and elbows in the same position. Then follow the pattern of the right foreleg, left hind leg, left foreleg, right hind leg, and repeat. Luckily, it felt familiar to him, and he quickly got the hang of it.
The next few days were spent roaming around near the cave and playing with his siblings. It was a nice change from doing virtually nothing all day. However, most of the day still consisted of sleep. It was a little weird being nocturnal and with so little time awake. He spent at least sixty percent of his time sleeping, with eating and playing taking up the remaining time.
Speaking of eating, he hated it. It had completely slipped his mind beforehand, but when he saw that carcass for the first time, he realized this life was not going to be as fun as he thought it would be. Unfortunately for him, it only got worse. As young pups, they were unable to chew and eat food efficiently, due to their jugular muscles not being fully developed. Therefore, another wolf would have to chew up the food and regurgitate the food into the pup’s mouth.
Lucas was situated in the rear of the pack when the adults brought the food in. The rest of the pups waddled over to the food, but he stayed back, a little bit wary of the carcass. And then he saw it. He saw another wolf chew some food. And then vomit it back into his brother’s mouth, who eagerly awaited the meal.
Lucas stumbled back in terror as the wolf slowly went around to the other pups. Each one was crowding the wolf, trying to get its next meal. One by one, each of the pups was fed and went back to sleep. All of them but one.
As Lucas was the last one remaining to be fed, the impending doom slowly approached him. There were two choices that he could take. Either give in and eat vomited, raw meat or just the raw meat. The choice was rather simple, and he made his decision quickly.
He bolted for the carcass.
Or at least as fast as he was able to go. It was not really a bolt, more like a scamper with quite a bit of tripping. After stumbling his way to what looked to be a deer carcass, he tried to get something that would be easy to take. Luckily for him, one of its limbs seemed a little loose, only connected to the rest of its body by some fur.
He clamped down on the loosely connected limb and pulled upward. Which did absolutely nothing. He was still too small and weak to be able to effectively rip a limb off, even if it was barely attached. He could barely even lift the limb off of the ground, let alone gain enough momentum and force to tear it off.
Lucas then tried to weaken the connection between the leg and the main body. He gnawed on the bit of fur until he felt it get caught between his teeth. Then, he yanked his head backward, but only felt a slight tug. He needed a way to generate more strength. He anchored his feet into the ground and whipped his head sideways, finally managing to sever the fur. With his prize limb firmly clamped in his mouth, he slowly wobbled back to his little corner.
There was not much meat on the leg. It was not even a whole leg, just the fibula and tibia part of it. But it was enough for him. He settled down in his little back corner of the cave and started to gnaw on the leg. Surprisingly, it was not as bad as he had expected. It still felt like meat. It still tasted like meat. Mostly.
Honestly, it tasted pretty awful, and he was just trying to think that it was not that bad. The actual meat part was pretty good, but it was also mixed with the taste of dirt and grass. Which was not as pleasant. He closed his eyes and glumly sat there, lamenting the situation that he was currently in. He was starting to unironically enjoy eating the bone. Until suddenly, it was ripped out of his mouth.
His eyes shot open and he saw another pup scampering away with his bone, while the other ones chased after them. He decided to call him Chuck. He was the biggest and to Lucas, just felt like a Chuck. Chuck was currently being chased by his other four siblings, whom he decided to name later. Another smaller wolf jumped onto Chuck and managed to wrestle the leg, which was now basically a bone, out of Chuck’s mouth.
Very well done Leroy.
Deciding enough was enough and wanting his meal back, Lucas joined the fray. Chuck had managed to jump on top of Leroy and reacquired the bone. But the rest of the pups were hot on both of their tails. Lucas was not the fastest or strongest one out of the group, having been able to walk only a few hours ago, but he was previously human.
Chuck had managed to loop back around the cave and was running back inside with a fair bit of a lead. He saw a chance, and he took it. As Chuck was passing him, Lucas bit onto Chuck's left foreleg and rammed into him. Using his momentum, he pulled Chuck’s leg off of the ground and managed to flip him. Chuck flopped onto the ground, and the bone flying out of his mouth. Lucas managed to grab the bone and ran off, with the other pups quickly closing the gap.
In the end, he hadn’t managed to keep the bone for long. He was still unused to movement and was rather slow, compared to the rest. Leroy had managed to steal the bone from him. But then Chuck rammed into Leroy and kept it for the remainder of their time playing. Eventually, they all just got tired and lied down, with the bone forgotten in the corner.
He was a little miffed that his food had been stolen from him, but it was some of the most fun that he had experienced in a long time. Both this new world and his past one. Although there were many ups and downs, mostly downs, living as a wolf, did not seem to be that bad. Nothing really happened in the next few weeks. They slept, ate, played, and grew.
That is until he started exploring.
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