The forest was a blur of shadows and rustling of leaves as branches roughly brushed through Selara's skin. She didn't care about how much her skin was bruised and the agonizing pain, but it wasn't comparable to the pain she experienced at every other full moon; all she thought of was escaping, running far away before midnight hit.
Her feet rumbled through the underbrush, stepping on everything and even the thorns, her breath raw and hitched in her throat while she heavily panted, her body bloodied. She could feel that scent that was heavy and nauseating.
Behind her, she could hear footsteps heavily pounding on the ground. This time, it seemed like there were too many people who were after her and were doing perfect timing; they had been waiting in the shadows to strike her down when she was at her lowest.
Be it her Faction traitors, wolves, warlocks, hunters, witches, all of them were after her, hunting her like prey. She couldn't even fathom what wrong she had committed to be hunted by them like this, it was her own race.
Gazing up at the sky, the full moon loomed overhead like a merciless god since it was almost midnight, and she could feel it, the silverfire poison awakening.
It slithered through her veins, burning her blood like a valve beneath her skin. Her heart stumbled raving heavily, the burn beneath her skin couldn't be ignored; it was sharp, slicing, familiar to her, but tonight it seemed to be against her. Tonight, it was ten times more painful than usual.
"Not now... Not now...." She prayed and wished.
She couldn't lose her will to escape! She wasn't going to succumb to this silverfire pressure, with great force, she staggered forward, boots skidding in the mud as her left arm went numb. Her vision pulsed red. She bit down on her own tongue to keep from screaming and keep herself sane.
Those footsteps thundered closer and closer with time, and they were closing in. She could hear the growl of wolves behind her, the warlocks' spells like static in the air. A voice rang out, cruel and amused. Yes, they wanted to finish her off.
"The mighty Luna falls tonight!" They heavily chanted, and those happy chants rang in her mind, echoing deeply and getting etched.
She spun around, baring her fangs. "Come and try. I won't lose it tonight!" Before they could finish her off, she would have torn several of them into pieces with her fangs. She would go rampant and unbridled. The ground would be dyed red and form a stream.
With great willpower, she jumped off the cliff and landed on the foot of it. A normal wolf wouldn't survive that jump. She heavily thundered on the ground before sitting down to calm and gather herself. Where she was was a safe base inhabited by humans.
Gazing at the sky, the moon hung so low tonight and lit up the entire night sky, illuminating all over the greens and buildings, bleeding silver light through the tangled canopy of the village.
Wind rustled through the heavy tree branches like whispers of the dead summoning the roaming souls, was eerie and chilling, and the earth trembled beneath the weight of something ancient, something monstrous.
She got up and thought of finding one of the abandoned huts to settle in for the night.
Selara Fenmoor staggered into a clearing pathway, her breath ragged, her dress torn into pieces exposing her body. Her muscles convulsed beneath her skin, veins blackened, bulging as though they held venom rather than blood running through them.
She could taste a metallic taste of blood on her tongue, she had accidentally bitten it while trying to stop herself from screaming, she could hear the roar of her every heartbeat through the pathway until she occupied one depilated hut.
The poison was awake and gnashing her every existing bone and muscle. It was already midnight.
It always happened to her on the second Friday of every month, at midnight without fail.
She collapsed to her knees, succumbing to the lethal poison, her claws clawing at the dry floor, bleeding heavily. She couldn't resist it no matter what.
Her eyes burned gold, and her claws tore through skin as she resisted the shift. But there was no way she could stop this from happening, and not tonight with the way her blood boiled.
Bones began cracking at every second. Her antagonizing screams tore through the silence of the wild and nature, brittling and crashing against the heavy breezy winds, forming echoes, a part of her being human, and the other part a beast.