"What.. what would have become of me had I gone to the inn?" You had heard of magic often described as being one of two coins, flowing from one side of the coin or the other, sinister and divine, or, natural and primordial. It was all far beyond you and this was your first encounter with any of it, besides card tricks which you thought might be magic though others told you its just not the same and you'll know it when you see it.
Tamara pondered thoughtfully for a moment, "Leland often gets first pick of those who enter the town, the inn is quite the lure for travelers, you see. If you were rude or unkind in any way you'd become a feed animal, led to the slaughter last night and the rain would have washed your blood away. As it is though, I'd guess you'd become an apple tree, or possibly a dairy cow. A hen would do nicely too as far as daily rations go, maybe a goat or a pig. Female of course to diversify the genetic stock. We're big into proper animal husbandry here as you'd imagine, its in our souls. We do like a bit of chance too, its on the same coin ya know. He may have left ya to get yourself cursed by something in town here and just see what you become."
"But," Ahem. "I'm a guy and I like it that way?"
"Tis no matter, wolves are cunning and use strategy, they're intelligent and you nearly lost yourself. What deep introspective thoughts do you think a hen has? Caught unaware, you'd have panicked, flapped around for 2 minutes, then gone to happily pecking the ground for the rest of your life. Plant forms are even harder to revert from but since they live so slow, we'd have to watch you for a season."
"Why ARE you helping me? It seems like your whole town has a system here and you're betraying them."
Tamara smiled graciously, "So, it's a story you'll be having with breakfast. Very well." She set the bowl of potage down and began. "This town was founded eight millennia ago, the mortals and the fae folk were at war and this town became a supply outpost for our front line. Even more unfamiliar with human nature at the time, we had prepared for war to go on for at least 3 centuries, but to our surprise, after just a year a treaty was signed. It was obviously some sort of trick, so in the withdraw, this town was left inhabited, along with others, to learn more of the human race and this strange realm. Our magic easily deceived you, and after just a few generations the people of this town were all kin. Our ancestors began procreating with humans to avoid inbreeding. As you can imagine, it was easy enough to become a woman, and make a traveler a man for a night."
Tamara took your empty bowl back to the cauldron and refilled it. She returned and resumed her story. "By this time our town had quadrupled, but the humans had grown hundreds of times over. A great city had grown to the east and had collapsed in a war between your people. The political strife and hardship made times lean and people became bandits, stealing and attacking small villages like ours. This was the first aggression our town faced in generations and as a town of half breeds, far removed from the military and offensive primordial magics training of our ancestors, we suffered losses to the savagery and desperation wrought upon us."
You watched as your host sighed heavily and looked out the window, it was obvious she was looking back in time. Tamara suddenly seemed older than she appeared and it struck you she was carrying a burden from potentially hundreds of years ago, perhaps more.
"Our town had been taught that human strife lasts but a year, so the next year we recovered and redoubled our efforts only to have it happen again, and again the following year. I had lost my father, we had lost faith in our teachings, and as a town we decided to make our stand and preemptively strike any who come to our town with savagery or desperation in their hearts."
You gasped in horror... "So, just because I was cold, wet, tired, and hungry when I came to your town... I was nearly..."
"Brought to live a very different life, yes." Tamara finished for you as you struggled to keep thinking coherently. "Our kind doesn't value the life, we value the life cycle. If you became a cow, gave birth, raised your young, and gave the town milk, your cycle would have been fulfilled, and that is beautiful. Incomplete cycles are what unbalances things. My father was unable to raise me due to the raids, but his cycle was completed by neighbors in his place. He however never completed a cycle, thus, loss is felt."
"Wait, so, if your dad was turned into a butterfly and died an insect instead of being murdered..."
Tamara instantly beamed, "That would have been such a beautiful and fitting end for him, if only."
"But he still would have been dead! You would have still been alone? How can butterfly sex replace your father!?!?" You took a deep breath collecting yourself. "Humans," your voice shook with the multitude of emotions you were feeling, "... do not think that way. Having the humanity unwillingly ripped away from someone would be seen as fundamentally evil... in human society."
"Really?" Tamara pondered, "Even if they complete a different cycle."
"yEs!" your voice didn't want to work for you, it felt like you were explaining to a necromancer why someone might not like seeing their loved ones corpse animated by magic.
"How strange of you humans." Tamara commented aloud. You nearly fell out of your chair. "To finish the story, the town set traps for humans and posted the warnings everywhere but they went unheeded. If you eat our stolen apples, you become an apple tree. If you steal water from our well, a frog in form you shall be. Well you know what the signs say... Anyway the town maintains the signs for bandits and raiders but travelers come in, violate the clearly stated rules, and per our pact with the spirits, we must follow through with the transformation or risk angering them. So here we are."
"Signs?" You ask cautiously.
"Yes. The warning signs. They glow like raging wildfires in the night. 'Be ye not of desperate heart for come the morn, your known life, ye shall depart. A savage soul we shant abide, for we'll eat your meat and tan your hide.' Ringing any bells?"
"No?" It was dark but you didn't even see the name of the town as you entered let alone anything glowing.
She dragged you to the window and pointed. "What do you see when you gaze at the well?" After a solid amount of back and forth you both realized humans couldn't see the magical script, the glowing beacons of light, nor anything but the small scratches etched into the stone as the mundane component of the enchantment. "Hmm, that might explain why humans seem so eager to ensure they stay with us for the rest of their lives. I was so surprised you had such a strong negative reaction to it."
"Huh." You muttered. "None of this explains why you're helping me though."
"Well isn't it obvious?" Your blank stare made her sigh heavily. "The bandits have long since stopped raiding us, turned into things to help us recover our losses. Humans however keep coming, and we don't multiply like you do. It used to be one person every few years but now its 10 or more per season. The apples rot upon the ground, the eggs go un-gathered, the cows left un-milked. Our ancestors were at one with nature and we are at risk of losing our connection all together because your people can't seem to read a stupid sign!"
"So the chance to become a wolf was in hopes I'd kill some chickens, a sheep, or maybe join a pack and take down a cow or two." Tamara nodded solemnly. "But even that would barely stem the tide of humans who get caught up and turned into more livestock..."
"Good, you see what a problem your people are! Things are out of balance and my people react so slowly to change while your people are nearly as promiscuous as rabbits."
"So, there are more transformative traps I'm unprepared to resist, and now I understand, wolves out there... what is to become of me?"