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Bayne stretched across his bed, reading from a stone tablet. When he tapped the corner the runic symbols vanished and were replaced by new ones. It was an old method, most people preferred crystals, but Bayne liked the weight of the tablet. The indent of each symbol in the seemingly unchangeable stone enhanced his reading experience.
Chad floated through the door with his arms folded across his chest. Dragoste Academy prided itself on diversity. Every five years students were given new roommates so people from different backgrounds could get to know one another. When Bayne found out he’d be rooming with a ghost, he thought it would be like having a room to himself. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Chad may not have been corporeal, but he made his presence felt.
Bayne had learned to anticipate Chad’s mood by how much effort Chad put into appearing alive. Chad hovered two inches above the floor. It was going to be a bad day.
“It’s 7:20!” Chad’s emerald green eyes glared at Bayne. His sleek build was quite enticing. Bayne would have made every effort to seduce him, if he had a body. Chad was one of the few guys at school safe from his advances.
“So?” Bayne asked.
“You turn in twenty minutes. Remember the time you fell asleep right before a full moon? You wrecked the place.” Chad floated even higher off the ground. If Bayne were standing, they’d almost be eye to eye.
Bayne took his tablet and flung it at Chad’s chest. The gray rectangle flew through Chad and landed on his unused bed. “Why do you care?”
“Because I’m the one that will have to clean up the mess and while you can just pick things up and throw them around, I have to do it with my mind. Do you have any idea the kind of effort that takes? It’s not like I’m asking you to pick up your socks.”
Chad was so different than anyone Bayne had ever known. Bayne had met other ghost in his time, and they weren’t anything like his roommate. Chad had come from a realm called Earth. Bayne didn’t know much about the place. Chad’s strange attitude could have been cultural. Maybe everyone from Earth was anal retentive.
Standing up Bayne adjusted his shorts. It was the only piece of clothing he wore as the school dress code required he remain covered. He didn’t understand why. Back home people walked around in human or beast form with little concern about things like clothing. But the academy was different. There were rules. So many rules.
Bayne strolled down the hall. His lengthening nails scratched the cherry wood panels as he ran his fingers over them, but the damage vanished before the wall was out of view. In the common area, guys sat around talking and playing cards, winding down from another day of a classes. Several people invited Bayne to join them, which he politely refused, unlike Chad most people didn’t keep up with the moon’s cycle.
The wane between the end of classes and the start of nightly activities left the campus nearly abandoned. Bayne had picked a dorm near the edge of campus, only a few minutes’ walk from the surrounding forest.
Fire emerged from the brass torches that outlined the path to the forest. With a grin, Bayne threw back his head as the moon called to his beast. He slipped into his werewolf form as easily as changing clothes. His already large build began to expand. His arms and hands grew thick. Claws replaced nails. His face stretched. Teeth became fangs. Smooth brown fur, that matched his hair sprouted from his skin. His dark blue eyes changed shape becoming more feral.
The star shaped pendant that hung from his neck sensed his change. The magic in the pendant dissolved his shorts, and reshaped itself into a collar around his neck. The enchanted pendant became any type of garment Bayne desired. Once, Chad had told Bayne he’d look good in something called ‘genes’. So he instructed the pendant to manifest a pair of these genes. They were like wearing tree bark. No, the ghost was no friend at all.
In his beast form Bayne ran free through the forest. He was glad Chad had thrown him out of the room. It would have been a stifling cage, driving the beast mad. This was much better. The ground moved quickly beneath him as his body tightened then expanded thrusting him forward at incredible speeds.
He stopped in his tracks. What was that smell? It wasn’t food. Not the blood of some wounded animal. It was more like fresh dew on leaves after a hard rain. But it hadn’t rained and this smell was coming from a specific direction. Bayne crept towards the sweet aroma, standing on his hind legs to sniff the air from time to time.
From the shadows he watched the source of his distraction. A forest nymph danced naked among a circle of trees. Bayne had seen a great many nymphs give praise to the gods they descended from. And every dance was beautiful. He once stood on the shores of Tani and watched in awe as waves rose high as mountains and fell beneath a sea nymph’s feet, effortlessly. But that paled to the beauty of what was in front of him. The dance of this nymph was different from any he’d seen before.
Nymphs were usually a happy, free loving people. But the forest nymph’s movements told tales of agony and imprisonment. Vines rose from the ground, encircling the nymph’s wrists. In his dance, he battled against the pull of the vines, twisting and struggling. But even in his helplessness, every movement was sublime. His sorrow was pungent but alluring.
The nymph was radiant. Light brown hair swayed in the air as he glided across the grass. His well-defined muscles tensed as he pulled against the vines. His amber eyes glowed as the power of his element filled his body.
Bayne’s chest hurt. He didn’t understand why, but more than anything he wanted to stop the nymph’s pain. Make him dance for joy like his brothers and sisters. A creature so lovely deserved to be happy.
The nymph collapsed. His dance had ended. Bayne couldn’t take his eyes away. He was wasting a full moon. Instead of hunting, he was watching the rise and fall of a nymph’s chest. The creature even panted with ethereal grace.
“I know you’re watching me.” The nymph said between breaths.
Bayne stood frozen.
“All I can see is two glowing blue eyes in the darkness. It’s creepy.”
Bayne glanced around not sure what to do. Most people were scared of his werewolf form and for good reason. Usually when werewolves turned in front of outsiders it was to fight and kill. The more of themselves they gave over to their beast the stronger they became. There was a good chance a turned werewolf was running purely on instinct. Bayne had turned because of the moon and was mostly in control of his faculties but he had no way of conveying that.
He approached the nymph slowly, trying to appear as unaggressive as an eight-foot, four hundred pound monster with three inch fangs could.
The nymph
showed no fear. He didn’t even have the strength to stand, but he stretched out his hand toward Bayne. “See now. That’s much less creepy.”
Bayne watched in disbelief as the nymph scratched behind his ear. No one had done that since he was small enough to fit on his mother’s lap. Bayne closed his eyes and a strange sound rumbled in his chest. He was purring. Werewolves didn’t purr. Nonetheless, he found himself using his fur covered body to shield the nymph from the cold night air, watching over the nymph as he slept.
Morning came and Bayne woke up in his human form, alone in the clearing. He had to find that nymph.