Under a Full Moon
My senses were lit up like a beacon tonight. The light breeze wafting over the hills and through the pines to tickle my nose only served to magnify my already sensitive instincts.
I had taken up my usual post at the top of a rocky outcropping where I could more easily survey my domain and track the various inhabitants and, occasionally, intruders that lurked in the shadows of the deepening night. Sometimes the forest was alive with noise and movement; other times, like tonight, it was mostly still and serene.
I sniffed deeply, and a cocktail of scents flooded my olfactory system. Combined with my sharp senses of sight and hearing, I felt as one with every molecule of nature, more intimately than if it were rolling across my mind on a vivid-color, ultra high-definition TV screen with the full 4D experience. This was what I desperately missed and craved with every second of being in my human form. The worst part was the moment just after I’d changed back; the acute awareness of my lost senses made me feel impotent and powerless. I’d do anything to experience these glorious times more often than once a month.
A shudder rippled through my frame and I instinctively shook my body, as if I could rid myself of my agitated thoughts like shaking the water free of my coat after a cool dip in the river.
A faint scratching sound pulled my focus back to my surroundings. Narrowing my senses, I zeroed in on the sound until identifying it as a pair of skunks burrowing down in their hole for the night a few hills over. Satisfied with the lack of threat, I altered my angle of focus, widening it to the diameter of the forest on all sides of my awareness. A desperate squeal of a mouse becoming a possum’s midnight snack; the muffled hoot of a restless owl high on its leafy perch; the whish of a rogue fox trotting through tall grasses; the thunk of a pinecone hitting the spongy turf below; the snorts and snuffling of a herd of cattle a couple of miles away. The sounds of a world settling down to sleep.
Then, a crunch of padded paws on dry leaves, much closer—too close.
My hackles rose with an innate sense of wrongness before I fully knew the cause. Then I scented a foreign odor that coated my tongue in acrid bitterness. A lone wolf had crossed the border into my territory. I didn’t know who he was or what his business was here, but that didn’t matter much to me; all I knew was that he was an intruder, and I would defend what was mine.
I rose off my haunches and stretched, excitement vibrating up and down my legs and spine. A low growl ignited deep inside my chest, growing in intensity and decibels until it erupted from my throat in a mournful howl that I couldn’t have contained, had I wanted to. The sound echoed across the valley, carrying with it all the angst and pent-up emotions that I could never express to my satisfaction as a human. The weight was sometimes unbearable until the moment of release. I lived for this moment.
The undergrowth crunched under the power of my paws as I took off down the hill. Gaining speed, I ran faster and faster until my muscles tingled with adrenaline and the thrill of the chase. My quarry was just ahead; I was ready to pounce. My ears pressed back against my head as the wind whipped over my fur to mingle with the dust of the trail behind me. Exhilaration suffused me until I could not separate the feeling from the sensation of pure and unadulterated freedom. Unleashed.
This was my night, and I had never felt more alive.
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