The hunger and irritation that Prudence had been feeling for the last two days seemed to be reaching a critical point at the moment. She had devoured every bit of food she had found in the house, and then at the Pour Judgment (She still wasn’t clear on what sliders or tapas was but she could say she loved them now) and had destroyed more than one cushion around the house. Perhaps one upholstery or two.
There was a tingling in her body, and she felt the need to growl every so often as she stared out the window. As Dob walked in she tried to greet him, but a growl came out instead.
--
It had been a weird day. First, he’d gone to the kitchen, but there hadn’t been any food except for some vegetables. Which was strange, because he was sure they’d done the shopping. Then he’d gone by the Pour Judgment and most of the food was gone there as well. Had he forgotten to do a lot of shopping? Oh well. He guessed he’d have to go do more shopping. So he’d done that and that had taken up a lot of his day. But that was fine. Food was important.
Then he’d gone back to Necropolis-Non-Sea, and noticed there were several cushions around the house that looked less than great. Huh. Maybe a raccoon had gotten in. He’d shrugged it off and put the new food away. Then he’d walked into the main room and noticed Prudence staring out the window.
“Oh hi, Prudence,” he said cheerfully. He was a little surprised when she growled at him, but hey. He wasn’t going to judge. “Huh. Okay. Grrrr to you too? Is that a thing we’re doing? Do you miss Merilwen?”
--
“Do you have any meat on you?” Prudence asked without preamble, a growl here and there between her words. She looked at her friend, eyes slightly wilder than usual. Her nostrils flared as she sniffed the air before turning back to Dob. “You smell of meat.”
In an uncharacteristic move, Prudence approached Dob and started sniffing the air around him. “Yeah I’m really hungry. Nachos? Also, annoyed. Like, more than usual, I think I'm angry, possibly.”
She growled again. Her fingernails itched, which Prudence was pretty sure was absolutely not a thing. “Dob, I’ve been hungry for hours and I’ve eaten everything, I think there’s something not quite right with me.”
--
“I mean, I suppose,” Dob said, tilting his head, “if you think about it, we all have meat on us. I mean...it’s people meat, but it’s still a kind of meat.” His eyes widened as she came closer and began smelling him. He was starting to think that maybe there was something wrong with Prudence.
“Um…Prudence,” he said hesitantly, because Prudence was one of his best friends and if she wasn’t somehow out of her mind, he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. And also she was absolutely terrifying. “I think...yes...I definitely think something might be wrong with you.”
He considered options. “Did you get bitten by one of the many, many snakes?” he asked. “Or...touch something especially evil? Or differently evil than your usual stuff? Or maybe upset one of terrible house ghosts?”
--
“You do have a point but it’s not half-orc meat I smell it’s food meat.” Prudence explained despite being somewhat distracted. It didn’t make any sense. Most of the time Prudence wasn’t even hungry, she held black coffee, cigarettes and hatred as the staples of her diet and that wasn’t just grandstanding. Mostly.
“No! No snake’s ever bitten me, they’re my sweet moving adornments, I have one as a bracelet right now!” She showed the tiny snake coiled around her forearm, then shrugged. Nothing like what Dob was suggesting came to mind. The ghosts didn’t even bother her anymore because they knew she wasn’t going to be terrified or killed by them.
Suddenly, Prudence could feel something growing out of her fingers. Her arm still outstretched to show Dob her snake adornment, Prudence stretched the fingers of that hand and scratched it with her other hand...then vice-versa. “My fingers are itchy. Is that… is that hair?”
--
“Oh, right.” Dob nodded. “I mean I went to the store, on account of how we didn’t have any food. Which I’m guessing might be because you ate it, which is a bit weird since you don’t usually...eat food.” This was really strange. It was almost as if...but no. Definitely not. It couldn’t be. But maybe.
Living with Tom had taught them all a fair amount about werecreatures. Well, really, it hadn’t taught them much of anything at all, given they were all terrible when it came to learning things - except for Corazón who was very smart. He was even learning magic! From books! He was so proud of his nerd boyfriend. None of the rest of them had learned anything from a book ever, probably. All of Prudence’s books were just evil.
“Prudence,” he said gently. “Do you think there’s a chance - a tiny, small, insignificant - chance that...remember that time you got bitten by a werebear? Do you think that maybe, just maybe, you might now be a werebear?”
--
Dob was correct. She did not usually eat food. Other than getting in the mood after copious drinking, it was virtually unheard of. And yet she was impossibly hungry. Prudence thought Dob was making an impossible amount of sense at the moment, which was also quite strange, but probably unrelated.
When he started mentioning the werebear bite, Prudence’s instinct was to be dismissive but again, he was making sense. Too much sense. Prudence’s eyes widened as she looked from her suddenly hirsute hands. And arms.
“Oh. Oh no.” Prudence murmured, and it sounded very different. Her face felt different too. She felt for her sharp canines and found what felt more like fangs. “Dob I think- grrrrraaaauuuuughhhhhh!”
Her mouth could no longer make people sounds and it felt so weird. “DOOR!” she shouted, hoping Dob could understand she meant he was to open it as she half stumbled half ran towards it.
--
Oh. Oh dear. That was certainly a thing. Prudence was almost certainly a werebear and they were definitely not prepared for this. Dob knew he should just follow Prudence’s direction, open the door and get out of the way. It was the smart thing to do, the safe thing to do, and what anyone else probably would have done faced with their friend turning into a werebear.
But he couldn’t. What if Prudence hurt someone? What if someone hurt Prudence? If he let her out of the house, anything could happen and it would be his fault. He knew Prudence wouldn’t be overly bothered if something happened while she was changed, but other people would be and there were a lot of people who could possibly hurt Prudence if they had a mind to.
Instead, he pulled out his lute and started strumming, focusing on his Sleep spell. “I’ve got something to tell you,” he sang hesitantly, really hoping this would work. “I’ve got news for you. Gonna put some wheels in motion, get ready cause we’re coming through. Hey now, hey now, hear what I say now. Happiness is just around the corner. Hey now, hey now, hear what I say now. We’ll be there for you.”
He really hoped this worked and that she fell asleep, because he was pretty sure that both Corazón and Prudence would be quite cross with him if he got himself mauled to death by a were-Prudence.
--
Oh, it worked. Sure, Prudence felt herself becoming quite huge and furry and full of power and fury (what else was new) but she was also full of sleepiness and her brain was quite foggy. Whatever a bear sounded like when it yawned, she’d made that noise. She’d also tumbled slowly down onto the floor, eyes struggling to stay open.
She wagged a paw at Dob, sort of a “sleep now, bye bye” gesture, and finally fell thoroughly asleep.