Chapter Ten:
"Unnatural Instinct"

Nathan was now a wolf; a wild animal. And, he now had to act like one. We still had Aura’s Jewel at the time, so Nathan could have changed himself back to human form, but with General Wyte and his troops looking for us, we had to stay low for a while. Knowing this, Nathan knew that he would have to hunt like a wolf. But he had little knowledge of wolves at the time, aside from tales of werewolves and the like. So we decided to try to unlock another power of Aura’s Jewel. If the jewel can change someone’s form, then it can change the mind as well. If the jewel did have such a power, then the jewel would be a lot more dangerous than we had originally thought. One could easily brainwash another with such a power.

The idea worried me for another reason, though. “Be careful how much you change your thoughts. Wouldn’t want you to completely turn into a wolf. Who knows what sort of trouble you’d get to with such an unpredictable mind.”

“Don’t worry, dragon. I already thought of that. I think I know a way around it. Hope this works.” The jewel made a blue glow. Obviously, some sort of transformation took place. But how much of one? “A human mind, and a wolf’s instincts. And now, I’m hungry, and I feel like going hunting.”

“Are you sure you still feel the same?”

“Aside from wanting some raw meat, yeah.”

“Good. But first, we need to hide the jewel. No sense carrying it around all day.” So Nathan took the jewel to a dirt patch by a tree, dug into the ground, and buried the jewel. He dug quite well, for no longer being used to his form. He then went around to the other side of the tree, and scratched at it to mark it, so we would know which tree it was hidden under.

And so the hunt began. Nathan left to go search for food, while I stayed behind to make sure nothing happened to the jewel. It might not have been so obvious being in a patch of dirt, but I could still tell that something was buried under that tree. However, it didn’t take long before I regretted staying behind. I wanted to see just how a wolf hunted. And I was worried that Nathan himself would become the hunted. I wasn’t sure how things were now, but back when I was human, wolves were feared and hunted like they were demons.

I started off to find Nathan, when I noticed a hawk sitting in a tree nearby. It seemed like it was staring at me. No, it was staring at the spot where the jewel was buried. I then remembered our last encounter with Blaque. He had somehow changed back to human form. A form different than his original form. What if this bird was him? True, the newspaper said that Blaque had been killed, and it sure sounded like it when we heard him yelling. But we never found out for certain. I decided to stay to guard the jewel, just in case. If anyone did try to take the jewel, I could only yell for Nathan, but at least it would have been something.

The hawk flew away. Not long after, I saw Nathan pass nearby, chasing after a jackrabbit. Those wolf instincts had helped considerably. I tried to catch up to watch the kill, but Nathan had already gotten to the rabbit. He brought it to the spot where the jewel was buried, and started eating. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but I couldn’t help but stare.

“You know, as a human, I probably would have been grossed out by this. Well, I still am, but this is too delicious to leave alone.”

“Don’t talk. You never know when someone might be listening.” Rather than argue about it, Nathan took my advice and continued eating the rabbit in silence.

That night, I went searching for Nathan, for he had started wandering the woods some time after finishing the rabbit. I had trouble finding him, until I heard howling not too far off. I followed the howling, and came across Nathan, howling at the moon.

“Why are you doing that?”

He looked at me. I bet he could have smiled if his wolf face would have allowed for it. “I don’t know. But I like it.”

The howling wasn’t the only thing I found odd. Over the next couple of days, I noticed that his personality was slowly becoming more wolf-like. At first I assumed that he was just having fun with his form. But not long into the third day, I realized that he had become somewhat hostile. It was then that I realized that something had gone wrong in the transformation. What I wasn’t sure of was what triggered it. Was it the moon, or the transformation of his mind? Whatever it was, it had to be fixed. I told Nathan of my worries, recommending that he used Aura’s Jewel to change his mind back to normal. But he just snarled at me.

I was afraid it was too late for him. Without a physical form, I couldn’t take the jewel and use it on Nathan. My only hope was that Nathan would soon come to his senses. Unfortunately, that time wouldn’t come soon enough.

It was dusk of the fourth day. By then, it seemed that Nathan’s mind had been completely turned into that of a wolf’s. I tried once again to reason with Nathan, trying to tell him to change back to normal. But he didn’t listen. It didn’t even seem like he understood what I was saying. Or at least he didn’t give any indication that he did. Instead, he ran off once more. I gave up hope. It seemed that there was nothing that I could do.

I sat at the tree, guarding Aura’s Jewel. It seemed like a waste of time, but there was nothing better to do. But then, I heard a shout. A human shout. I would have just stayed where I was, but a chill went down my spine, and I knew that I had to find the source of the shout. I quickly found out who shouted. It was a boy. Probably got lost in the woods. And, he was being chased by Nathan!

I ran after them, shouting at Nathan, hoping that he would stop. But he persisted in chasing the boy. And, judging by the barks that Nathan was making, he was intent on killing the boy. The chase continued, until the boy ran into a rock wall. We were no longer in the mountains, but there were still some hills here and there, and some rocky cliffs. I cursed the rocky area we were in. In a last desperate attempt, I rammed into Nathan as he charged in for the kill.

We were one mind and body once more. Immediately we noticed a strange feeling that we never felt when combining before. It was similar to the feeling of waking up from a nightmare, except stronger. With my mind now part of Nathan’s, our mind was not that of a wolf’s mind, but the wolf’s thoughts were still there. We could literally smell the fear of the boy, and wanted to go for the kill. But the wolf’s thoughts were no longer strong enough, and, though we still had to struggle a little, we were able to turn away from the boy and head to where Aura’s Jewel was buried. And as we were leaving, we heard a group of people heading our way, no doubt wanting to rescue the boy. Had we stayed there just a little longer, or had I not leapt into Nathan… I’d just rather not think about it.

We quickly took the jewel out of the hole we buried, and used it to eliminate the wolf thoughts. Relief from having a human mind once more was quickly followed by us being split apart.

“Dragon, I’m so sorry. I heard every one of your warnings, but I wouldn’t listen. The feeling of becoming a true wolf was—“

“Calm down. It’s not your fault. Neither of us had any idea that something like this would happen.” The combined feeling of fear and excitement lingered on within myself for the rest of the night. And I’m certain the same could be said about Nathan. We weren’t completely certain whether the trigger was the moon or changing Nathan’s thoughts. And, we never did want to try to find out.

There was something I didn’t tell Nathan that night. I didn’t think much of it at first. When I merge with him, there’s a split-second between going into his body and the completion of the merging. During that split-second, I felt something similar to a light headache. Except, it felt like it was pulsing.