"Calm down, Alice!" Heather replied. "We can't be sure either way, but there's got to be a way to keep you safe."
Before she could say anything else, the girls were startled by a rustling outside. Sharon peeked out a window to investigate A nude woman without any clothes on staggered up to the cabin. Looking up, she sees Sharon in the window.
Panting, she asked, "You there! Did you find my letter?"
She was a brunette, her hair a lovely burnished chestnut hue. She looked to be about the same age as the others, though streaks of silver at her temples looked out of place with that. She otherwise seemed to have been affected the same as the rest of them, prodigiously endowed and bearing an overgrown thatch of pubic hair.
"Are you Jennifer?" Alice asked.
"Yes. You found the cabin. Did you read my letter?"
"Yes. Scary stuff."
"You have no idea."
"Are you the only one left?"
"Yes and no. It's...complicated."
She seemed to not know how to explain it to them, pursing her lips as if looking for the words.
"What do you mean?" Heather asked.
"Well," Jennifer said, "Let's start at the beginning. How long have you three been here?"
"Ever since last night."
"Then you've changed?"
"Not much, but we fell asleep."
"Well, that's probably for the best. As you've probably noticed, the changes are like something out of a horror movie. Every night the moon is full here, but every morning, you change back. It's a curse, and it seeps into you slowly. Unfortunately, we found out that while there's land on the other side of the forest, you take the curse with you when you go."
None of the three liked the sound of that.
"Still," Jennifer continued, "I know more now than I did when I wrote that. First, even though you haven't changed much yet, you will. It's an ongoing process each night, until your wereform develops fully. I found out the reason Nicole, Laura and I didn't go that far that night is because we hadn't drank the water or had anything to eat from the forest."
The nervousness of the trio increased, their erstwhile breakfast churning slightly in their stomachs.
"I take it from your expressions that you did. No matter. It can't be helped. All that would have done is slow the process down, not stop it. The other thing we found out was that our friends, the ones who changed so drastically that night, weren't lost to us. They were human the same as the rest of us when the dawn came. What's more, they weren't any danger to us that night. None of us can die now. Cuts heal in a matter of seconds. Really, at least as far as we know, those bestial forms aren't necessarily monsters, either. They're just what you would be if you lacked inhibitions. That night when they went fully into their wereforms was mostly just the shock of what had happened. Being totally unfettered like that can be scary."
"So what you're saying," Heather mused, "is that this isn't a bad thing at all?"
"That's where it gets complicated. While we were in the caves, we discovered we were all city girls. We knew what civilization was, and we knew where we fit in it. The trouble with this place is that it gives you so many ways to be uncivilized. That's why I'm here alone. The longer we were stranded here, the more our personalities changed. The items scattered around here certainly didn't help, and the...incidents...when we were inhibitionless at night didn't either."
Jennifer blushed as she said that comment, but didn't elaborate.
"That doesn't answer the question," Alice said nervously, "where are the others?"
"Well, bear with me. It'll all make sense in a moment. See, beyond that forest is a land that, as nearly as I can tell, never left the dark ages. The most high-tech thing over there is forged steel. Over there, they have a name for those that come out of this forest. They call us the 'Wild Women of Wolfsmere Wood.' The people with me...well...as time went on they just sort of fell into the role. They took on different names, started wearing stitched-together animal skins, and began to act like the Amazons out of Xena, Warrior Princess. I barely know them anymore. I came back here hoping I could find people that remembered being kidnapped, so we could try to find a way out together."
"This..." Alice said, trailing off, "this is all a bit much to absorb. Can I talk with my friends a minute?"
"Take all the time you need," Jennifer said, "but we have to move soon, or else they'll find us. I've been holding out for a long time, but if they were here again, I'm not sure how long I could avoid becoming a barbarian myself..."
Fri Feb 28 22:13:03 2003