Friedrich of the Forest
By: Andrea Geiss
Once in a time where people had to hunt for food and craft their own clothing by hand there was a man named Friedrich von Wald. Friedrich had a wife and a young daughter. He would go into the forest every day to hunt for food (such as rabbits, deer, and moose) for his family. One day when he was out hunting he spotted a strange creature and chased after it into the deep forest to see the creature stop at a cliff. He walked closer, bow ready, aiming at the creature. He was about to fire his bow, but before he could he stopped once he saw a shimmering light come from the beast.
The strange animal soon started turning into a woman, who was holding a bow. Friedrich starred at the woman, wondering what was happening. Once the woman was done 'transforming', she turned around and faced Friedrich. Friedrich starred at the woman, eyes popping out in disbelieve. The woman sat down on a nearby rock and spoke 'I am Artemis, the goddess of the forest. Tell me now why you have chased me.' She said in a somewhat booming voice. Friedrich blinked for a few seconds and started processing this into his brain. He bowed and stated he chased her for thinking she was a new creature who had inhabited this forest and was simply hunting for his family.
Artemis starred at Friedrich saying 'I shall overlook this once, but since you are hunting for your family I shall grant you powers.' Friedrich looked up in awe at the goddess and nodded. Artemis's hands started glowing as she placed them in front of Friedrich. She let out a beam of light that went inside Friedrich, giving him incredible sense of smell, speed, and strength. Artemis turned to leave before saying 'Be careful for you will face extreme side effects.' and left.
After about a week of having his new 'powers' Friedrich had started growing enormous amounts of hair on his arms and legs and even his face. He figured these were one of the side effects and decided to ignore it for the time being, that is until the second week came. His nails had become much longer the normal, and were surprisingly rather strong. This made it slightly difficult for him to eat. So he tried cutting them but for some unknown felt pain every time. He gave up trying this and hoped this was the last of the side effects. Though he was wrong, once the third week came his teeth had grown much sharper, his 'nails' now had the form of claws, there was hair everywhere on his body, head to toe, and his entire body structure was changing into that of an animal. He realized on the 5 week that he had turned into an animal known as a wolf. He knew this when he was woken up by his wife when she shouted 'Wolf!' He looked around for the creature only to face a mirror and realize the creature was him. He had no idea what to do at the time, fearing if he came into contact with his family or any of the villagers that they would fire arrows at him. Nonetheless he still would hunt for his family and drag the food to the front of their house at night, not wanting to have them starve with him 'gone'.