Y'know what I just realized, we (as in the three Issues) never realized that as Saiya-jins with tails, we run the risk of turning into the great Ape... thing... I forget it's name, during a full moon. So, in this little short, I want you to believe that for some strange reason, that can't happen on Terra! Our moon isn't special enough. Mwahaha. Um. Yeah. Just read, you monkey.

Clap for the Wolf

An Issues Short AU

The young Saiya-jin tossed over in her bed. Sheets askew, the woman found no comfort in sleep. The darkness in the room clung to her, along with the sweltering heat. Fans and limited clothing did nothing to ease the burning sensation she was feeling. Little did she know, but the heat had subsided long ago, and now she was burning up from the inside. The fever began as soon as she drifted off into what little sleep she would get that night. The woman had awoken deep into the night, restless and burning up. Occasionally her breath came short, and she took in deep breaths of air as if she had been starved of it for hours.

Finally, she sat up, running a hand through her moist lavender hair. Her skin was wet, and very warm to the touch. She had only sat naked in her bed for a few moments when a mark on her ankle seized up with a very sharp stinging sensation. She hissed a curse, and switched on the bedside lamp, showering the room with warm light. Turning her leg over, she took a careful look at the ring of red, swollen blemishes on her skin. The bite mark she had received earlier in the evening by what seemed to be a stray dog had swollen and pussed all night. Washing it relieved the pain, but only for a brief moment. She had finally retreated to bed, defeated in her attempts to dress the wound, and hoped in the morning she would be able to treat it properly. The wound had left her very lethargic and dizzy. The woman had not noticed when she laid down to bed that her fever had already begun developing, and it would plague through-out the night.

The woman slid off her bed, switching off the lamp in the process, and limped over to the window. Leaning on the window sill, she felt dizzy, and as if she were to vomit any moment now. Her head hung for a while, lazily looking at the ground below, breathing very slowly. Raising her head slowly, she looked towards the only source of light in the area, the brightest one at least. The moon, swollen and full, hung in the sky like a great stationary pendulum. It's great white light illuminated the land and the cloudless sky.

The moment she laid eyes on it, her heart fluttered, much as it did when she first cast a glance on her mate, but this... felt different. She couldn't look away from it, her gaze fixated on the bright orb. Her heart began to bump violently in her ribs, her breath coming fast and agitated. Control began to return and she slowly turned her head away from the light, as if a rope was holding her back.

Suddenly pain ripped down her spine and she cried out, her eyes growing wide. Her clutch on the window sill was growing tight and the wood split between her fingers. Her cries turned into moans and wails as she breathed. The pain pulsed through her, every muscle and every tendon pulled tight.

The bedside lamp suddenly switched on, and she barely heard the rustling of sheets behind her. There was a gasp, and the male spoke her name, in shock? Or in fear? The Saiya-jin's hands broke away from the window and she fell to the floor, gasping for breath. Before her eyes, her hands became bony and her nails grew into sharp claws.

"Wh-what's happening... to me...?" She groaned, a great fire burning in her chest. Inching pain grew upon every second of time that flashed by. Her skin was a-fire with pain and it was much like a plucking feeling, as if each and every pore was being invaded separately. A hand rested on her clammy shoulder, and she spun around, letting out a shout that seemed more like a snarl than anything else. Her lover stood before her, his lavender eyes wide with shock and his mouth sagging. He stepped away from her, tripping on a pile of laundry and falling onto his back.

The young Saiya-jin woman hissed again as the flashing pain returned, and she caught a glance of herself in the full length mirror across the room. Her face was contorted, her nose and mouth lengthening into a snout like shape. Her skin was no longer the pale peach it was before, but a darkening umber. Plucking up from her skin came thin tawny hairs, growing thicker as they grew. Her tail, no longer thin and slender, was now straught and bushy with long thick hairs. In her reflection, she watched her ears grow sharp and long, progressing towards her crown. With large shocked eyes, she saw herself change into the foreign anthropomorphic form. Finally, her eyes, once lavender, grew dark and golden, no whites at all. This was the last she saw, but not the last she felt.

The pain continued throughout the experience, but she also felt a strong hatred for just about anything that crossed her path, even if she was blind to the outside world...

...In the end, she found herself lying in a pool of blood in the street that ran by her home. Above her stood the golden haired elf, his bow limp at his side. His face was full of fear, the same as her lover's, but he also had the look of success on his grinning lips.

The Saiya-jin tried to move, but she found she couldn't. Her—now normal—body felt like is was made of lead, and very cold. She looked to the side, and this was when she first noticed the shining arrow embedded in her chest, blood seeming out of the wound.

Slowly, the rest of her grew cold, and the world around her slipped into darkness. She soon slipped into a long, limitless sleep.

Meh, nothing much, just something I felt like writing, and not going into full detail with. If you notice not once in the short was a name mentioned of any of the characters, so really you don't know who it involved, accept for the details of hair color and stuff like that.

August 15, 2005

Fira Flame