A traveller had come to the Temple in my home of Bruma. It was late eve, I was the only one in the main part of the Temple, my mother was asleep with my sister, she's still an infant. Father was down in another room of the Temple, tending to the ill and wounded. When the doors opened, I turned around and saw a man. His eyes were terrified, his clothing ragged and bloodstained, as well as several parts of his body. I assumed he was terribly injured, so I rushed towards him as he staggered in. I helped him to one of the benches. "What happened? Where are you hurt?" I asked, a healing spell readying in my hands. He looked to me, his eyes wide with fear, "I'm not hurt, but he is!" he exclaimed. "Who?" I asked, looking towards the door, expecting another traveller to come in. "I'll show you, follow me!" he spoke with urgency, and being the priestess I am, it is my duty to assist those in dire need of healing.

I followed him out of the temple and into the night. Bruma, being the quiet city it is, the guards were very relaxed, and they often took many breaks during the night, especially since the war had finished, there was no reason to be fully alert. He left through the East gate, closest to the Temple, with me following in his steps. He led me into the wooded area outside of Bruma, its where a lot of the food comes from, lots of hunters make their living from it. We didn't go very far before the coppery smell of blood came to us, then the stains started appearing in the snow. They just got larger the further we went, like someone was staggering away from something. That's when I noticed the prints. Massive beast paw prints, heading the same direction the blood went, the blood no longer in puddles, but a streak now.

I removed my eyes from the ground and looked ahead, and that's when I saw the maimed body of a man. He was no longer with us when we had arrived, I could do nothing. Nevertheless, I knelt beside him, the blood soaking into my robe at the knees. When I think back on that night, that was my biggest regret. My biggest mistake. The man who had lead me to his friend started sobbing, I assumed it was because he realised his friend was gone. What he said confused me a little, but those in grief say things. He had said, "I'm so sorry…" then his sobs started changing into whimpers, gradually becoming more… feral. I heard a thump behind me, so I turned and saw him on his knees, bent over on the ground, his hands supporting him.

I went over towards him and I placed my hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright?" I had asked him, but instead of answering, he shoved me back, so I landed on my backside, my hands supporting me on either side of myself. "Stay away!" He yelled at me, but it sounded feral, beast like. Then I saw the hairs. Through the shredded cloth he wore, I saw black hair sprouting across his skin, underneath that I saw his flesh convulse before it too started changing. I could only stare in shock at what I witnessed. I couldn't move. One moment there was a man, the next there was a monster. It stood up from all fours, it could easily tower over the tallest man I knew. With its wolf like head reared back, it howled. A howl that shook my very being, and with it, I screamed. That was a mistake on my part, because immediately it's head snapped towards me. A clawed arm reared back, then struck me across my abdomen, causing me to fall back as I gasped out in pain. It then jumped over me, it's horrid face mere inches from my own, it's saliva dripping off of the sharp fangs and onto me.

I thought I was done for, my blood already soaking through my robes, the beast over me, ready for the killing blow. I closed my eyes tightly, not wishing to see my end. I heard it intake a large breath before howling once more, its hot, reeking breath washing over me, ruffling my hair. Then, the weight was gone. I opened my eyes, seeing a tail swishing away from me. Slowly, I lifted my head to where the tail went, and I saw the beast chasing after an elk. As I watched, the beast and elk went further and further away before I could no longer see or hear them. My head fell back to the snow covered ground, and I gasped once more as the pain hit me. The worst of it being where I was struck. Looking down, I saw the blood leaving my body, and a wave of nausea hit when I saw the carnage left from the beast's claws, my flesh torn in jagged lines.

I laid my head down once more, my arms feeling around the ground for something for me to bite onto. My fingers brushed against something, so I grabbed it, it was a stick, thicker than two of my fingers held together, quickly I placed it between my teeth, and I wheezed from the pain flaring up from the sudden movement. Knowing what I had to do, I moved my hands over the wounded area, and I tore the ruined cloth from myself, my teeth clamping around the stick as I muffled a groan of pain. I had to have full access or my magic would not work as well, and I could not sit up in my current state, the blood flow would increase then. I took a deep breath and held my hands over my torn flesh. I concentrated as much as I could, letting the healing spell flow into me. I could not heal myself fully, but I must do enough so I can make it back to the Temple. I prayed to each of the Divines as I laboured over myself, my magicka quickly draining. After what felt like an eternity, my arms dropped to my sides, my breath heavy and I was soaked in sweat. I spat the stick out of my mouth and glanced down. My wound had stopped bleeding for now, but I must hurry back.

I struggled getting up before I finally managed to, using the trees as support. Then I started my slow trek back to Bruma. I prayed once more that help would find me before I collapsed. I came to the edge of the tree line, the city gate just in front of me. I let go of the tree I gripped onto and stepped forward, only for my legs to buckle underneath me, then I saw darkness.

When I woke up, I was in the infirmary of the Temple, my mother and father above me, their hands glowing with healing spells as they spoke as one in prayer. I grimaced from a pounding headache, my throat parched. My mother was the first to notice me awake, her concentration on her spell broken, she immediately knelt beside me, both of her hands grasping mine. "Oh my darling girl, thank the Divines you're alright," she quietly spoke, resting her forehead on our entwined hands. My father doing the same on my other side. I opened my mouth to speak, only to cough from the dryness. My mother quickly grabbed a goblet of water, my father gently lifting my head up as she pressed the rim to my lips. I drank greedily, feeling as though I had not drunken anything in ages.

When I could speak, "w-what happened…?" I knew what had happened, but I hoped it was only a nightmare fuelled from my sleep. Deep down I knew it wasn't. "You were attacked by an animal… what were you doing outside the gates this late at night? You know how dangerous it is, thank Mara the guard found you, or you…" my father trailed off. The three of us knew what he left unsaid. I would've died. I looked down and saw my stomach healed, but where the gashes had been were now large, ugly, pink scars, jagged just as before. What I hadn't realised before were the new scars on my thighs, I hadn't felt pain there, everything else was overwhelmed with the largest of my wounds. Out of the corner or my eye, I glimpsed the same tone of pink as my other scars, and when I looked on both of my arms, I saw similar scars, both on my upper arms, where the beast had gripped onto me.

I startled slightly as a goblet filled with purple liquid was held to my mouth. I looked towards my mother, "sleeping drought, Lyr… it'll help with the shock." I nodded, and slowly drank the liquid. It tasted of mixed berries and staleness. When I finished, my limbs and head felt increasingly heavy, my eyelids drooping as the potion already started it's job. I hardly felt myself being lifted up and carried. The last thing I saw was the ceiling of my room and my blanket being draped over me. I didn't even realise a long night shirt was placed onto me when we reached my room.

I didn't know this at the time, I had learned later, that my parents fully knew what had happened. They knew it wasn't just an animal that had attacked me, but a beast of Hircine. I didn't realise, as I was under the influence of the sleeping drought, that they had barred my room closed. I didn't realise, that as I slept, I had changed into a monster, that had control over myself. As I slept and the monster took over, it had destroyed my room in a fit of rage at not being able to be let out. My metal door had deep gouges in it from the beast's claws, yet it couldn't leave.

Eventually, from what my parents had told me, they heard the beast tire itself out, then a thump as it fell to the ground in a heap of fur. When I woke up hours later, I was on the stone floor, my night clothes no longer intact or even on myself for that matter. I looked around, my room in ruins. My bed, once fluffy with furs and linen, torn apart, claw marks decorating the walls and the door, all of my books and shelves torn down, pages ripped and scattered. I started sobbing, as I curled up in the middle of the carnage. I sobbed for ages, and then my door opened and my father stepped in. His eyes wide in shock at what lay before him, yet also in knowing. He knelt beside me and brought myself into his lap, cradling me as he sat on the floor, like he would when I was a child. He explained to me what had happened, how I had been inflicted with the curse of Hircine.

My life was shattered as I realised that I had become a beast, a horrid monster, a wolf like creature like the one that had attacked me, the one that had inflicted me. I felt crushed, my parents were too. When the twin moons would fill, I would have to be imprisoned in my room, so I would not inflict the same curse upon others, so I would not tear apart the citizens I vowed to heal, as that dead man in the woods had been. That was months ago… I heard rumours of beasts in Skyrim, legendary heroes known as the Companions being inflicted as I have been… the people who had whispered the rumours always shook their heads in disbelief and carried on with their lives, but they always stuck to me… so I made my journey in search of a cure…

Note: so… I've had this in my files for a while, and eh, I decided it'd be good to get some of my inspiration out. Yet another character of my many (heh… nearly 50) characters. woop XD