Russell (or Russ, as he preferred) finished his walk and went back to the cabin. Looking at all the unpacked boxes made him groan in disgust.
"How do I have so much shit?" he asked himself. "I'm just one person."
Grabbing the boxes that were labeled for his room, he set off to unpack at least what he would need to sleep tonight. Bed linens, pillows, an alarm clock so he didn't miss church tomorrow morning. Russ wasn't the most religious man. He believed in God and Jesus and being a good person, but he didn't always follow the rules.
For starters, he was gay and an alcoholic. Not exactly the kind of person you would expect to go to church. But he had gone since he was a kid, he still affirmed his faith, and how hard was it to get out of bed at 9:00 on Sunday morning? He usually ended up sleeping most of the afternoon anyway.
As Russ was thinking about this, he went to put some clothes in their drawers. The furniture had already been moved in, but this beautiful antique dresser had been left by the previous owner of the house. When Russ opened the top drawer, he found a note.
Dear Mr. Knight,
I hope you are enjoying your new cabin. I spent many happy years here with my husband Roy and it tears me apart to sell it. But there are too many memories here and I am no longer able to give this house the proper care it deserves. Please promise me that you will keep this cabin in good condition. It would mean so much to me if you would. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ruth Bradford
P.S. I almost forgot to mention: if you see an otter by the stream in the backyard, his name is Seth. He is very friendly and will help you if you need it. Also, do not go outside after dark. Whether you are brave or not, these woods are frightening at night and some of the forest's creatures aren't as friendly as Seth. But take care and don't worry, the cabin will keep you safe.
"Well that was odd," Russ wondered aloud. "She tells me she loves the place, but she doesn't want me outside at night. Must be a pack of wolves or something. Oh well."
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That night, a noise outside woke Russ up. He crept over to the window to see what it was. Barking and howling along with a group of large, dark shapes told him that his guess had been right. He tried to get a better look at the wolves with his binoculars, but it was too dark and the wolves were too deep in the forest.
"Those are pretty big wolves, though," he thought to himself. "Maybe the old lady was right. I should probably stay indoors at night."
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The next day, Russ came home from church and finished unpacking. Afterwards, he cooked himself some supper of fish fillets he had caught at a lake not far from here when he first bought the house. He decided to eat outside at the nice pavilion he guessed Mr. Bradford had built. It was right next to the large stream that flowed past the house.
As he ate his meal, he heard some splashing and saw an otter coming up from the water and moving towards him. It stopped a few feet away and looked at him warily, but curiously. Russ held out a piece of fish and tried to coax the otter into coming closer.
"Here little guy, have some fish," he said. "What did she say your name was again? Oh yeah, Seth."
At the sound of the name, the otter stood up on it's hind legs and seemed to be surprised that Russ knew it. With what looked to Russ like a shrug, the otter finally came closer and took the fish. As it sat and ate the fish with it's front paws, Russ finished his own meal.
When he finished, Russ got up to throw his paper plate away. He was surprised that the otter didn't run away when he moved, but he figured that it was used to Mr. and Mrs. Bradford.
There was still a little time before sunset, so Russ sat in the lawn chair he had brought down to the fire pit and relaxed. The otter followed him and laid down beside his chair. Russ smirked at the creature, then looked up at the fluffy clouds in the perfectly blue sky. It had been a long day, and Russ soon fell asleep.
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A hand shook Russ awake, but he couldn't see anyone. It was dark, and the fire pit was a good distance from the house.
"Hurry up and get inside!" a voice came from behind him, but when he turned he didn't see anyone. "Go on! Quick!"
The voice sounded frantic, so Russ decided to listen, even though he didn't know who was talking to him. He began to walk quickly back to the cabin when he heard the sound of the wolves.
"RUN!!!" the voice told him.
Russ began sprinting towards the house. He was only ten or so yards away from the porch when a hand grabbed him from behind.
Russ looked around and gasped at what he saw. Ten anthromorphic wolves stood there, but they ignored him. Instead, they pushed him behind them and formed a semicircle between him and his cabin facing the porch.
"Show yourself, coward!" the one that was obviously the alpha male said to something underneath the high porch. "You wanted to kill something so bad, why don't you take us on?"
"No," a deep and sinister voice said, "I want the human."
"He is defenseless," the alpha wolf said, "It would be shameful to attack him!"
"I don't want to attack him," the voice laughed evilly.
"Of course not," another voice came from behind the group. Russ quickly looked to see the otter from earlier, only now it was anthromorphic as well. "It wants to use the human as the vessel to bring its master back."
"My master can release your curse," it said in much the same way a car salesman tries to give you a lemon.
"Your master was the one who put the curse on us!" the otter yelled angrily. "Go back to your hole, demon, or I will take you on!"
"Ha, the likes of woodland creatures does not scare me. I will go for now, but only because I do not feel like fighting all of you. But the human will be mine!"
Suddenly, a giant black shape flew from underneath the porch and into the night.
"Those were brave words from an otter, Seth," the alpha wolf said, "Would you really have tried to fight him?"
"I may not look strong, Alpha," the otter replied, "But I know the demon's weakness."
"Good, then you shall look after the human," the wolf said.
"Don't I always?"
The pack of anthro wolves left and Russ was thoroughly confused. The otter turned back to him and noticed the scared and bewildered expression on his face.
"Come on, human," he chuckled, "Let's go inside and I'll explain everything. Besides, you shouldn't stay out here much longer anyways."
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"I trust you received a note from our dear Mrs. Ruth?"
Russ nodded a affirmative to the otter's question.
"Well, just to be sure you know everything, I'll start from the beginning. My name is Seth. This forest was long ago placed under the curse of an evil sorcerer who wished to rule the world. His shack was deep within the woods, and he made it so that the animals of the forest became half-human each night in the hopes that they would keep any other humans away from his shack. However, he didn't expect us to gain intelligence, and the plan backfired. We learned of his evil doings and decided to put a stop to it. However, one animal was intrigued by his powers and agreed to help him; a vulture by the name of Condor. He alerted the sorcerer of our plan and was transformed into a demonic creature in order to protect him. However, he was not powerful enough to fight all of the forest creatures at once, and we overpowered and detained him. We killed the sorcerer, not knowing that the curse would be made permanent by his death. Condor got away and seeks to resurrect his master with a human sacrifice. Seeing as the magic only works withing the boundaries of the forest this wouldn't normally be a problem. But this one house is within the range of Condor's reach. As such, we forest animals have sworn to protect whoever lives in this house from being used by Condor to resurrect the sorcerer."
Russ leaned back in his chair trying to absorb all of this information at once. Seth just smirked knowingly and waited for the human to finish sorting out his thoughts. Meanwhile, he got up and started pacing around the kitchen they were sitting in. It looked bare to him without all of the old keepsakes and knick-knacks that the Bradfords had kept there. He picked the man's wallet up off the counter and looked at his driver's license.
"So, Russell," he began again, setting the wallet back.
"Oh, call me Russ."
"Alright, Russ," he said before continuing, "Do you have any questions for me?"
"Yes, are all the animals in the forest as nice as you?"
"Well, it depends on what you consider nice. None of them besides Condor would try to kill you, if that's what you mean. But there are some that I wouldn't exactly suggest inviting over to tea. You see, even though we keep our intelligence when we return to animal form, we are still part animal and tend to be a bit...set in our ways."
"So a badger would still be as mean as a normal badger, even though he becomes part human each night?"
"Exactly. If anything, our attitudes are more pronounced as half-creatures," Seth explained.
"Okay," Russ said. "What about when we were outside and you said I shouldn't stay out much longer?"
"Ah, well, if you stay outside too long after dark, you will become a half-animal as well. You will become one that matches your personality and physique. The only problem is, you wouldn't become human again after nightfall. You would remain an anthromorphic animal for not one night, but two. And if you are not back in your house by the second morning, you will become a full animal. I should know."
"You mean you used to be human?"
"Yes," Seth nodded, "I was the one who built this house."
"What? But this cabin is like 100 years old!"
"And I'm 120 years old. I built this house when I was 20 years old. I was the first human victim of the sorcerer's curse when I stayed out in the woods hunting. The curse gives you immortality, but at the price of becoming an animal by day and a monster by night. If I were to leave these woods now, I would age rapidly until I matched my real age and probably die. I was the one to discover the sorcerer's plans and rally the animals to defeat him. I imprisoned Condor with one of the sorcerer's spells for 50 years. When the family before the Bradfords moved in, the husband somehow accidentally broke the spell and Condor was freed. I had to protect his family, the Bradfords, and now you. I will continue to protect whoever lives in this house until Condor is killed. Then I shall follow him."
Russ couldn't believe what he was hearing. Just a few minutes ago, he was admiring Seth's young, strong, lithe body. Knowing that he was 120 years old was completely unexpected.
"Well, I can see this is all a little hard to believe, so I guess I'll just have to prove by example."
Seth grabbed Russ's arm and led him outside.
"What are you doing?" Russ asked.
"The best way for you to understand is by going through the transformation. That way you will realize how serious it is. Besides, I'll make sure you return home in plenty of time. And Condor won't want you as an animal, so he'll leave you alone."
That made sense to Russ, so he agreed to stay outside and become and animal for a couple days. He had taken the rest of the week off of work anyways. After a while, he began to feel strange and said so to Seth.
"Then the change has begun."