Chapter 3 - The Change
((Disclaimer: Fair warning, This story, while eventually will turn erotic, starts out telling a story, as any good story teller will do, sets you up with a history, a back ground something to chew on. I promise though that if you stick with me you will not be disappointed. Also the legends and people in this story are of my own creation, they are not based on any other legends or stories or people, they have no basis of fact, just what lay inside my head. ))
His sleep was troubled with dreams. Running through the forest first on two legs then his nose lifting to the air and the scent of something so scintillating that he couldn't help but follow it. Soon he realized he was on four legs rather then two and racing after a small deer. One caught half way between baby and adult. He pounced on the small prey caught the back of it's neck, and started to pull backwards, but then that deer changed, no longer was it a deer but instead a snow white wolf, much smaller then himself and female. He let go, startled by the change. His gaze fell on the snowy little wolf and then she changed again this time it was just a face under his mammoth paws a familiar freckled face older, more mature but still young and vibrant and full of stubbornness and mischief, a face surrounded by coppery curls that had darkened and matured from the girlish curls he knew so well now.
He jerked awake with a sharply indrawn breath. He blinked his dark eyes rubbing the sleep from them. He was once more sitting beside his fire inside the cave, out of the elements for it had begun to rain. He wondered briefly if his friends had been lucky enough to find shelter for the night, for they too had been sent into the forest to complete their tasks.
He sat up and added a few more pieces of wood to the fire then stared absently into it wondering the meaning of his dream. Wondering who the white wolf had been and suspecting it was Fawn. But why her? Why a Female? A white Female no less. Perhaps that was precisely why. He shook his head a little bit and huffed. Even when on his path to adult hood that tiny little redhead was on his mind, interrupting his dreams.
Slowly his eyes drifted closed and once more he began slip into a deep slumber. This time when he dreamed he was already a wolf. He stood tall, huge compared to the normal local wolves. His fur was a dark ebony, inky black and around his neck still in place was the wolf's claw necklace given to him by Fawn. He lifted his huge shaggy head and howled, a deep lonesome sound. His dark ears perked forward and he listened intently.
Moments passed, hours it seemed, and then his head arched back and he howled again, this time he was answered by a higher pitched howl, but it was a voice he knew well. He gave a wolfish grin and trotted off in that direction his huge paws leaving deep indents in the dirt, indents that his long bushy dark tail swiped away. Soon he met up with a silvery male wolf. Drake. He nudged his shoulder good naturedly. His head lifted and Drake's dipped acknowledging him. As soon as that acceptance was made Logan felt his mind expand and envelope that of Drake's.
"About time you showed up Drake, I was beginning to wonder if my dreams had been wrong." His voice echoed in his own mind and he knew that Drake had heard him.
His laugh could be heard and he shook his shaggy grey head. "I was beginning to wonder if Brother Wolf would visit me. Already I had accomplished my task. And I was just waiting. I don't think He has reached Silas or Seth yet."
Logan shook his head and grinned. "Lets go find out." Then tore off at a run with Drake hot on his heels. It was then that he realized he was no longer sleeping, nor was he human. He let the spirit of the Wolf fully over take him then, rippling muscles bunching and rippling as their feet tore into the ground, free in ways they could not imagine in their human forms.
He skidded to a stop sniffing the air. He hunkered down in the bushes calling Drake to a stop. "Silas is not ready. He is still working on his task. Come lets go check on Seth." Drake nodded his head and moved slowly away heading off in the direction they had seen Seth take. Soon they burst into a tiny clearing barely big enough to hold them both and Seth who had indeed changed already, he was a tall brown and grey male, slender where Drake was husky, neither of them taller then Logan, who was taller in his human form as well.
Logan grinned at Seth and nudged his shoulder in greeting. Seth growled playfully and jumped against him tugging on his ear. Their barks and growls rang out the three of them messing around, but it was not until Seth dipped his head submitting to Logan as his Alpha that their minds expanded once more pulling Seth into the pack as well. They could now feel what each were feeling, could hear each other's voices in their minds, talk to each other through a form of telepathy.
By Midday Silas had joined them, his coat a dusky black, not quite as dark as Logan's and his frame was smaller then all the others and yet still unusually large for the wolves in the area. For the next day and a half the four wolves spent the time working out their pecking order, Drake became Logan's Second or Beta, and Silas and Seth shared the Gamma position. They also spent the time practicing shifting from one form to the other.
Late on that second night they all once more met at the ceremonial clearing. Each presented the completion, or the lack of completion of their tasks to the elders. Four of them, failed in their tasks and would have to return the next year. Two of them were given new talismans one of strength one of wisdom and were each accepted as Men of the Tribe.
The Pack stood at the edge of the firelight, Logan and Drake at their center then Silas to the left, and Seth to the Right. The Elders approached them almost warily. They knew that something had changed in all four of the boys, each were taller, each were more muscular, each looked more assured of themselves, more relaxed, more at ease in their own skins. They spoke first to Logan.
