Soulforge Legacy Series

At some point he moved closer. Close enough for me to see the golden striations through his brilliant amber eyes. In fact, he was too close. Way too fucking close.

I tried to scramble away. To put distance between us. But nothing worked. My feet didn’t respond right. They moved in ways that made no sense. Even my arms were off.

A soft whimpering reached my ears. Some poor creature was either in pain or so much stress they were calling out for help. Yet this male was standing over me. He should be off helping the creature.

Slightly scared, and a bunch annoyed, I looked down at my feet. Not because they felt weird but because they shouldn’t be sliding against the grass. They should be able to push through the grass and to the earth beneath. To gain traction.

Paw. I had paws. And a muzzle. How had I missed the muzzle?

I – where did they come from?

Wait. I remember shifting. The pain that was dulled enough to allow me to stay awake throughout the whole process. To watch as everything pulled, twisted, and broke as my body was reformed into some sort of fox. One with black feet and blue fur apparently.

Without warning, Liam reached past my head to grip the back of my neck. His grip was firm enough to keep a hold of me, yet gentle enough to not hurt. And with a soft tug, he lifted me to my feet and let me go.

I struggled to stand upright. Nothing seemed to work the way it was supposed to. Lift one paw and another started to collapse. And locking my knees didn’t work. Mostly because they didn’t seem to work the same as before.

Then there was the tilting. The world tried to throw me to the ground. To pull me to the dirt and to never let me go. I tried to stop it. to counter the tilt by shifting my weight in the other direction only for the pull to follow. For it to switch sides.

My tail joined in on the attempts to keep me upright. To counter the tilting. It spun wildly in one directly before switching as it tried to keep up with every sudden shift.

Then it stopped. The world stopped pulling me toward it and my legs stopped trembling. Not because of anything I did, but because of a single hand on my belly. It felt both nice and dangerous.

Nice because, somehow, I knew that whoever it was wasn’t there to hurt me. They were there to help and nothing else. Dangerous because even I knew that spot was the most vulnerable on any creature. If they wanted to do something to me, I couldn’t stop them. Not that I could have before.

“Let me help you get outside.” Liam’s voice was soft as he gently took some of my weight and slowly inched his hand forward. It wasn’t enough to lift me off the ground. I was almost forced to move my feet or they would have dragged at the dirt.

Each step was slow, agonizingly so, as we inched our way to the nearest flap. But with every step, I found my body slowly growing used to the movements. Learning. Adapting. Then we were outside.

Sounds, smells, and light attacked me from all sides. It was overwhelming and I doubted I could adapt to it. I mean, sure, I could adapt to my new feet, but all the rest, there was no way. It was just too much.

Especially when a ripple of excitement seemed to race across the clearing at what I had to assume was my appearance. The noise practicably doubled as a bunch of things raced in my direction. Who, or even what, they were, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to look. To see some creatures charging at me.

“Stop.” Liam’s voice, while still soft, radiated power. And with that one word, everything around me quieted and the racing creatures stopped.

That single word. That single command. It did more to help me than even his hand on my belly. Adjusting to the light and sights of the world around me was the easiest and fastest.

The world was awash with light and color. As though carried on an unseen current, colored motes of some kind danced through the air. Mostly around objects, but other times they dove into something and vanished. Only for a different colored mote to appear soon after.

While I took this in, my ears adjusted to the jump in noise level. While my ears in my Kitsune form was sensitive, they were only a quarter as sensitive as those in this form. Almost like this body was meant to use its senses over everything else. To use them to hunt down a target before switching to allow the other form to take it down.

The sensitivity was so high that I could make out some of what people were saying from wherever they were cooking food. “Why do we have to cook everything?” One of them complained.

“Because it is our week, plus, do you really want Murdoc to cook that boar?”

“Oh, for the love of god, never let him do that again. I still have nightmares of that meat.”

I tuned the small group out. Focusing on my surroundings. On adjusting to my last, most changed, sense. My nose.

I could smell everything. From the scent of freshly trimmed grass and even the dirt below, to the fresh scent of flowing water somewhere far to my right. Probably a stream or even a waterfall. Scents were everywhere and it was too much. I couldn’t handle it.

My brain couldn’t process it. Just trying to sort through them was proving to be impossible. And that was with me staying in one place. The thought of even trying this when out running — I just couldn’t do it.

I don’t recall turning my head let alone burying it into Liam’s side. Still, I didn’t complain. He smelled of trees. Of the woods in fall. The dirt, freshly turned and ready for winter. Scents I had no right to know but somehow knew.

And it helped. It overwhelmed and pushed back upon the deluge that the world forced upon me. Of each creature, each person, and everything else around me. His scent drowned it all out.

Then he pulled back. Slowly at first, before finally taking a few steps back. And like that, I was standing on my own. No longer struggling to keep upright. No longer overwhelmed by the world. I felt almost – normal.

His smile was warm. Reminding me of my father when he found me doing something he was proud of. “There you go.” Liam’s voice was soft. “Do you think you are ready to try walking?”

Was I ready? If standing had been hard, then just how hard would it be to walk? What about running? Could I do it?

Before I could overthink the question, to let my doubts push me into saying no, I let out a hesitant yip. Liam must have understood what I didn’t say. Of my doubts. “Oh, sweet girl. Don’t be like that. I know you can do it.” His words were soft, soothing, as he reached a hand out.

I flinched when it came into contact with my ear. They were so sensitive that even a soft brush against them causes them to twitch. Then his fingers found a hell of a spot behind the ear. No wonder dogs loved it when someone rubbed their ears.

A part of my mind, buried deep and too small to really matter, screamed at me to pull away. To not let someone touch me so casually, no matter how innocent it seemed. Lest they think of me as their pet. I ignored that part as my body leaned into his touch.

Eventually, that part managed to fight its way to the surface. To force itself forward until it finally reached the point where it could force me to pull away. Of course, that was the moment that he pulled away. The sudden loss of the touch pulled a pitiful whine from me.

To him, it probably sounded like I was mourning the loss of his touch. But now that it was gone and I was no longer under the influence, I was more disappointed at myself. Whining at the fact that I had not been able to stop myself from enjoying the touch.

My eyes narrowed as he took a few steps away. “If you want more scratches, you will have to come get them.” Hah, like that was going to happen. I was not some pet. I was a human. Well, mostly human. Okay, so I wasn’t human anymore, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be treated as a pet. Especially by someone who should know better.

With a chuffing huff, I decided I wouldn’t go toward him but toward the woods. The first step was tentative and didn’t go all that high as I tried to keep balance. To learn to balance on three legs.

Unlike when I had first tried to stand, I didn’t have any issues balancing. It almost felt natural. Like I had been doing it for a lifetime.

Excited, I shifted my foot as far forward as I could and set it down before repeating the process with my other front paw. The alpha chuckled. “You might want to alternate front and back paws.”

I ignored his unsolicited advice as the paw came to rest beside its counterpart. Other than feeling a tad stretched, I had no problems. In fact, the stretch felt nice. Similar in a way to how it felt to stretch the moment you wake up.

The moment I went to lift my back foot, I fell over. Apparently, the more one is stretched, the harder it is to keep balance. Something I should have known. My glare spears through Liam as he laughs. “What did I say? Alternate between front and back feet.”

Unlike the first time, I don’t have as much of a problem getting to my paws. And soon enough, I was ready to try again. This time, trying to alternate paws as he suggested. However, this time I only moved them a paw length with each step. Front paw, back paw, front paw, back paw.

While the distance was negligible, I managed to move forward for a good five feet without falling once. That fact was enough to cause my tail to wag with joy. Then I saw just how much further I had to go. At this pace, it would take me all night to even reach the edge of the woods. I either needed to take full steps or give up.

I chuffed in annoyance at the mere idea of giving up. I was going to do this and nothing was going to stop me.

As if the universe took that thought as a challenge, something tickled my nose. I tried to hold back the building sneeze. To force it to go away. My entire body shook with the effort. Enough that I missed a rock buried in the dirt. The next paw landed on it and slipped to the side.

The sudden shift shook my attention for a moment. Not long enough to cause me to fall, but long enough that the sneeze escaped my control. If not for something grabbing my middle, the force of the sneeze might have sent me to the ground. Before I could get a look at who it was, the help vanished and I was on my own once again.

I chuffed in annoyance at the need for help. I didn’t need help. Given time, I was sure that I could figure this out myself.

Annoyed, I pushed my paw further. Stepping farther and farther out with each step until, eventually, I was practically strutting toward the woods.

Ever present, Liam kept up. His smile was one of joy and pride, though something about it spoke of something devious.

Without a warning, the man reached for my head. Likely to pet me once again. I shifted out of the way. The fucker moved to follow me as he kept reaching. Kept trying. And he laughed. And given the chuffing and laughter around me, everyone thought we were playing.

Hell, he might have been playing, but I wasn’t. There was no way I would let anyone pet me. Never again.

Finally, someone’s voice ripped through the atmosphere. “Are we going to run or not.” They didn’t say it to be mean or anything. More like they wanted to join in on the fun but knew that they couldn’t do so with me. Probably out of some need to not overwhelm me.

Whatever the reason, the horde of animals voiced their opinions. Barks, yips, bellows, roars. Every animal in the space let out a cry that filled the space. Loud enough that the ground vibrated in response.

A loud roar cut through the noise. I don’t know how I knew but it was meant to get everyone’s attention and to tell everyone to follow. With it, the army of shifters took off. Raced into the woods. Leaving me with Liam and a horde of humans who looked on with wonder, jealousy, happiness, and other emotions I couldn’t place.

Liam noticed where I was looking and let out a sigh. Not how joy or sadness, but of acceptance. “They are not shifters. They have no animal halves. Most either have a mate or have a child that is a shifter. And while the majority of them cannot keep up with the pack runs, that doesn’t mean they don’t join in.”

But if they usually joined in, why were they all just sitting there? Not that I could ask him. The most I could do is tilt my head.

It was almost as though he heard my question as he answered it without prompting. “Any time we have a new shifter or someone going through their first shift, we ask that they stay here. Not so much for their safety but for the shifter. We don’t want to completely overwhelm them after all.”

I chuffed at that. What was a hundred more people when compared to the couple hundred that were now flooding through the forest. The reminder of the people racing into the forest, playing around, exploring, caused me to look in the direction of the joyous cries and howls.

While I knew I was supposed to join them, that didn’t mean I was welcome to do so. I mean, it wasn’t like I knew what this body could do. What would happen if I hurt one of them? Would I get punished? No, I needed to stay here. To keep my distance from these people.

Still, even knowing that, a part of me begged to be let free. To join them in their fun. To revel in it.

I was so entrenched in my thoughts and listening to the group that I didn’t notice how close Liam had moved until his hand brushed through the fur on my back. Unlike before, it wasn’t him trying to play with me but to give me comfort and for some reason I welcomed the touch,

“Go, run, be free.” Liam’s voice was soft. “I will be along in a moment.” I took that as the sign that it would be okay for me to join in. After all, I doubted that he would let me hurt one of his pack. And even if I did, something told me he could deal with me. Teaching rather than punishing me.

My run was sloppy. The path I took probably looked more like a drunken stumble than a run. Especially as my paws kept tripping over everything, including each other. Eventually, though, I figured out the timing and took off.

The forest enveloped me. Evening sunlight filtered through the trees, enough to illuminate my path but leave deep shadows over everything. It forced me to use more than just my eyes to avoid obstacles. I had to smell everything around me. To listen to how different noises echoed around me.

I jumped over various roots and ducked under logs as I raced to catch up to the group. But while I could hear them, it seemed as though I was still too slow. It almost sounded like they were pulled further away from me.

Not that I cared. I felt more free now than I had in a long time. Fuck. Maybe even ever. My body felt light and agile. It did what I wanted with nearly no effort or hesitation. There were even times where my body moved before I knew how or what I needed to do. Like it knew what was needed and just did it.

No wonder everyone was excited to go on a run. It was exhilarating and I almost felt like I could do this forever. And I could. I could just stay in this form and never return to the city. Just take off into the woods and live as a fox. No more dealing with demons. No politics. Nothing. Just me and the woods.

And of course, like every other time I found something that I could grow to love, something had to shatter the illusion. Branches shuddered and leaves shook as a low, menacing growl rippled over the area.