"So ye think that me mother's a fake, boyo?"

Sniper rolled his eyes as he sipped his coffee. Demoman sat across from him and was glaring at him as well as he could with his one eye. He was gripping some old pagan looking book in his hands and rage radiated from his very soul.

"I didn't say that, mate," he said. "I just said that it's all a bit of shonky business, is all. Really, magic? How old are you again?"

Demoman leapt up and kicked his chair aside in anger.

"I'll have ye know tha' me mother is th' best at her art. Th' very same art runs through me veins, an' I'm no' afraid ta be using it on ye!" Demoman waved the book in a threatening manner, but Sniper just yawned.

"Sure thing, mate. Do ya need ta go get your wand too?" He stifled a chuckle and took another sip of coffee. He should have been paying attention to Demoman.

If he had… he would have seen Demoman raise that chair at him.

Sniper woke up with a throbbing headache. He opened his eyes and looked around with blurred vision. He tried to put a hand to his head, but soon realized that his hands were bound. Immediately, he started to struggle, but the ropes were too thick and the knots were too tight. His wrists and ankles were tied to the chair he was sitting in. He looked around and saw that he was outside, far away from the base, from the looks of it. The only light was from a fire, and the last man he wanted to see was sneering at him.

"Ya gonna wish ye nevah said all tha' shite ya said. I'm gonna show ya wha' 'appens when ye say tha' magic is fake." He opened the book and idly began to look through it.

"Bloody wankah!" Sniper shouted, struggling again. "You're really gonna do this? When I get outta this, you're gonna wish ya nevah got that book in the first place!" Demo ignored him as he gave a wicked grin.

"Oh, this one. Ya know, boyo, th' other lads all say tha' ya like some kinda animal. They see ya stalk across th' field like some beast. And then ya go back to ya den when it's all over. Well, if ya wanna be a beast so badly…" He pointed at Sniper's feet. Sniper looked down and saw that he was sitting in the middle of some kind of pagan rune.

"Tha' rune will channel any spell into ya tha' I cast. Let's see if ya still think me mother's a fake after this."

He began to read from the book in a language that Sniper didn't understand. Sniper stopped struggling and settled down to endure this, as he called it, very stupid affair. He rolled his eyes as Demo seemed to really get into it and began waving his arms.

"Ya look like a right bloody fool!" Sniper shouted. "Just come untie me, and I'll go easy on ya! I'll even give ya a head start! Just come untie…these…ugh…"

Heat.

Sniper was suddenly burning up with what felt like a bad fever. He began to shake and pant as the heat only got worse and worse until he was nearly gasping for breath. Demo saw what was happening and quickly finished the curse. He laughed wickedly as Sniper groaned in pain.

"Tha's it, boyo," he said, watching the rune beneath Sniper begin to glow. "Tha's th' curse. Now let's see how ya like it." He grinned as Sniper began to writhe.

"D-Demo," Sniper gasped. "St-sto-ARGH!" There was something inside Sniper. He could feel a great pressure, a great rush of energy fighting to get out of him. He wished Demo would just kill him and send him to respawn. Respawn sickness was better than this inferno. He felt as if he would melt or explode, depending on if the pressure or heat claimed him. He felt the ropes began to tighten and wondered if this was part of the curse. Sniper had no doubt now that SOMETHING other worldly was going on. Either that, or Demo had drugged him with a hallucinogen from the Medic. He couldn't think straight, his thoughts and memories all blurring and fading from his mind.

The pressure and heat were growing, and the ropes were tightening until he thought his hands and feet would pop off. Sniper looked down to see that the ropes weren't tightening; his arms and legs were simply growing. His eyes widened as he saw his muscles bulge under his clothes. Raw power was flowing into him from somewhere, and it was only feeding the agony he felt. His insides were writhing within him, giving him intense nausea. He saw his nails start to lengthen, and a clench of his jaw told him that his teeth were changing too.

"Wha- what the bloody…ARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Sniper let loose an inhuman roar as his pain tripled. The ropes burst off of him, and he fell forward hard on his hands and knees, his glasses and hat falling away.

Demo was frozen in awe and fear as he watched Sniper transform. He had failed to read that particular spell all the way through, so he had no idea just what kind of beast Sniper was falling prey to. Sniper continued to cry out and pant in agony as he grew and twisted. His clothes tore at the seams to make room for his new muscles and his bones audibly cracked and twisted around to form a new skeleton. His shreds of clothes fell away to reveal a dark fur that was growing and covering Sniper head to toe to… tail? His tail curled down on the ground and swept up the sand. Sniper's face lengthened into a muzzle, his voice deepening until it was nothing more than a growl. His transformation complete, he threw his head back and howled.

Demo finally realized that he was in deep trouble. He had single handedly transformed Sniper into a wolf that was large enough to stand on his hinds and look Heavy in the eyes. He gulped and slowly began to back away, freezing up when his foot loudly broke a stick. Sniper looked over at Demo, a flash of recognition in his eyes. Demo sighed in relief when he realized that Sniper still had his mind and remembered him. He smiled and opened his mouth to say something when Sniper growled ferociously.

Sniper didn't remember Demo… he just remembered that he was angry at him. Demo almost started to cry when he realized that he now had a very angry, very large, and very deadly wolf in front of him. He saw Sniper tense in preparation and quickly started running as fast as he could back to base. He looked back just in time to see Sniper lunge.