Leo and Mila dozed off after about an hour of talking before being rudely awakened by Leo's alarm that went off at 6am. Mila opened her eyes to see herself buried in a chest of fur. "Hm?" She hummed as Leo gave in to the alarm and awoken himself. "Wow... It really wasn't a dream... Why are you still a kangaroo though?" She asked halfway yawning. "Right... While the moon does force our transformation, I can change form any time I want." Leo stood up stretching his exhaustion off to demonstrate. "Observe." He says as fur started to recede into his body leave pale skin. His ears moved down his head and became short and round. His muzzle retracted as his nose turned from black to pale taking it's human shape. Mila watched in amazement as his large tail became shorter until it was fully receded into his back. As fur disappeared from his hands, his claws and paw pads did the same as well as his feet shrank and grew two additional toes. The last of Leo's chest fur was now gone and Leo's stature shrunk back down leaving him looking completely human again.
"Wow... That was something..." Mila said still astonished. "Yeah... A bit weird isn't it." Leo said scratching the back of his neck. "Still pretty cool though." Leo smiled at Mila's comment showing he still had fangs. "Wait, your teeth are still sharp." She pointed out. "Oh yeah. I don't know why, but that just seems to be the only thing I can't change." Mila stood up from the bed and put her arms around his neck. "Kinda makes you look fierce." She placed her hand under Leo's chin. "I thought we were taking this slow." Leo said. "Sorry. I can't help but get excited." She said brushing his blond shaggy hair. "Well relax a bit then. We still have to explain things to Marcus. I wonder if he's woken up yet."
Marcus's head rattled in pain from his trip down a tree last night. His conscious was finally catching up to him as his blurred vision showed two silhouettes of familiar people. "Ow... My head... Where's my glasses..." He asked the two strangers in front of him. He saw one move to the right in hopes that that was the one who was grabbing his glasses. The stranger came closer with an object in his hand as he saw his vision become more clear the closer the object moved. It was definitely his glasses as they were placed on his face. He stood up from his resting place and looked around to get a better idea of where he was. "Thanks... I can see much..." As his vision returned, he saw a problem as he was slightly impaired due to a crack in the lense. "Damn it! Theses were brand new too. What will I tell-" He froze as the one of the silhouettes wad revealed to be his friend Leo staring at him... Or as he used to refer to him. "AHH! STAY BACK YOU MONSTER!!!" Marcus yelled backing away only to flip over the couch he lied on and land on his head. He flopped over and shook his head in pain.
"Could you calm down please? I'm not gonna hurt you. I promise." Leo said slightly annoyed. "Stay away! I saw you! What have you done with Mila you-" Before he could ask, Marcus saw Mila standing right behind Leo. "Oh... Mila. Your okay." Mila gave him an annoyed look as well. "It's cool Marcus. He's not a monster. At least, not the one we thought he was last night." Marcus's breathing calmed down a bit. "Oh what then? He's supposed to be some sort of friendly werewolf?" Marcus asked. "Werebeast." Leo corrected. "Were... beast?"
Leo gave a glimpse of his transformation to Marcus by changing one of his arms. After a few seconds, Leo had a furry muscular arm with claws at the end. "See, totally in control." He says while making hand gestures with his paw. "You have to understand that nobody else can know this though, alright? I don't want to put you two in danger." Leo requested as he shifted his arm back to his human form. "Okay... Fine. But can you explain why it would be dangerous for us to find out? You said your in control right?" Marcus asked. "I'm not the beast you should be worried about." Leo sat down on the couch. "In order for you two to understand, I think it's best I tell you how I was turned to a werebeast." Leo started to imagine the day his encounter happened.
"About a year ago before I enrolled to university, I did a couple of odd jobs to raise a bit of extra money. From mowing the lawns of various neighbors, to picking up trash at the local parks, I did just about anything for a quick buck." Marcus snickered. "Anything, eh?" Leo rolled his eyes. "No prostitute jokes! Get your mind out of the gutter!" Leo's eyes started to glow gold yellow for a split second before Marcus decided to stay quiet. "Anyway, the local parks were pretty close to the forests where wild animals would live, and one late evening during my trash run, I just happened to notice one of my neighbors wander in. Not on a set path or anything, almost as if he didn't want to be followed. But my curiosity wouldn't stop that. I followed him from a distance to see what he could possibly be doing." Leo paused. "When I lost track of him, I nearly gave up and went back, if it weren't for the strange three toed footprints that came after the boot prints. Then after following the trail, I stumbled upon a gathering of a bunch of animals standing on their hind legs, only to see my neighbor Zach turn into a kangaroo right before me."
Mila sat next to Leo. "So your neighbor bit you didn't he. That's why you're a kangaroo right?" Leo nodded. "That's basically how the process works. Whatever creature bites you is the one you become. With the sheer shock, I hadn't really watched my step when I backed away and I snapped a twig from under my foot. They all looked in my direction... All of them had glowing eyes of different colors, and bared their fangs in intimidation. I was held captive by a bull and a beaver as Zach came closer to me. He told me 'Sorry Leo. Don't take this personally.' and bit hard into my shoulder." Leo showed the bite marks on his left shoulder. "Ouch. Why'd he have to go so deep?" Marcus asked. "They need to penetrate deep enough so the saliva would flow through my body. Werebeast saliva is basically like an infectious venom. If it was deep enough to flow through your veins, you'd transform instantly."
"I could remember vividly what it felt like for the first time. And while it did hurt, and it still kinda does, the changes felt invigorating. Fur sprouting across my body, my skull pushing forward into a long snout, my ears climbing to the top of my head, even my spine getting longer giving me a strong thick tail... I felt..." Leo paused. "Turned on?" Leo eyed Marcus after another smart remark. "As much as I hate to admit, yes. I felt strong, powerful, wild, like nothing could stop me even as I lied on the forest ground in pain. Zach came up to me and offered me his paw to help me stand. 'Welcome to the werebeast society. There's much for you to learn.' he told me." Leo gave a glance at each of his friends. "He explained that I had to turn because outsiders couldn't be trusted with these secrets, so to cover up he made me one of them. That's what I mean when I say you could be in danger."
There was a long gap of silence between the three friends when Marcus would be the one to break it. "Right, but your only here to attend school right? And those other werebeasts are back in your home place. Not like they'd be able to follow you this far out." Marcus tried to assure Leo. "They're not just there. They're all over the world. Even her in Phoenix. I already found another gathering just within a week of living here." Marcus slouched in the couch in response. "Granted, the numbers still don't compare to the overall human population, but they do exist in just about everywhere in the world. This is why you guys should be careful. You two and my aunt are the only ones to know and even that could spell trouble for me." Marcus and Mila glanced at each other and back at Leo.
"At the very least, it puts me at ease that I'm able to be myself around you guys." Leo stood up again. "Cause I kinda like my werebeast form. If anything, I'd like to maybe stay in it more often if you guys are okay with it." Mila looked at Marcus. "Well, you still haven't seen his full form." Marcus pointed at his broken glasses. "Not like I'd get a good view or anything." Leo laughed. "Hey, you wanted to see what I was hiding right? I'm willing to show you broken glasses or not."
Leo felt the changes begin as his body started to tense up with pressure. His muscles already started growing along with dirty blonde fur the same as his hair color. As it spread up to his neck, his face started to push into a large muzzle with his sharp fangs showing in his wide toothy smile. Fur continued to grow up to his hairline as his ears started to grow long and pointed to which they started twitching. "Ugh... Okay, her comes the painful parts..." Leo grunted as the fur traveled across his arms and his hands started to form black pads on his palms and fingers while his nails sharpen onto black claws. Leo bent down to one knee and held his abdominal area as the fur continued to spread to his lower body. His legs thicken and his lower back starts exerting pressure. "Okay, I admit... I love this part the most." Leo fell to his hands and knees arching his back out as his tailbone started to lengthen out getting longer and thicker at the base of his spine. Finally his fur reached his feet as they extend forward leaving his middle toes to grow in size while his other two merge together into giant ones with black claws growing out of each of them.
Mila, and Marcus to the best of his ability, watches as their best friend now took the form of a muscular kangaroo man. Leo couldn't help his instincts as he threw his head back and let out a loud growl followed by heavy breathing. He attempted to stand on his new digitigrade legs still slightly weak from the transformation. "Take it easy now. Don't hurt yourself." He heard Mila walk behind him as if she were some sort of spotter. "I've done this plenty of times. I know what I'm doing." Leo used the weight of his tail to help balance himself on his new feet. "See, nothing to it." Leo started flexing showing how big his muscles have grown. "Guess the benefits outweigh the deficits of turning into a mythic creature." Marcus commented trying to get a good view from his broken lenses. "Maybe. Just barely." Leo added as he let Mila stroke the fur on his pectorals.