The rogue slowly looked at the camp, trying to guess if anyone else was coming. There was only one horse grazing nearby, and in the leather tent there was room only for one. The owner of the horse slept merrily, judging by the soft snoring coming from the tent. The campfire was burning out, with loud cracks coming from the burned coal shattering to dust.
Morning was coming soon, the rogue thought, looking at the slight bluishness of the horizen. He fingered his 2 short swords, and decided to act now.
He sneaked from behind the dark trees into the light, looking for danger. The horse suddenly percked it's ears and looked up. Without thinking, he threw one shortsword, and before the horse could make the sound it's neck had no air passages. It jerked, tried to leap into the air but fell with a muffled thump on the grass. The snoring of the man in the tent never slowed of stopped.
The rogue looked around and listened for a long minute, just to be careful. Then he came to the tent, trying not to block the light and wake the one inside. Suddenly the snoring stopped, and the rogue halted, as always carefully judging what to do.
The tent silently opened, and a man in plain scholar's robes appeared. The rogue felt confident again, and came into the open, knowing scholars were'nt allowed to carry weapons.
The man looked about 20 years old, barely a man actually, looked at the rogue, his sword, and then the horse. Suddenly he shouted, "Gally! My colt..you..why..". The rogue grinned, and came toward the frail-looking scholar, swinging his sword.
The young man cried, "Gally!" again, but this time the rogue stopped, surprised by the unhuman quality of the voice. The scholar was slowly changing before his eyes! The scholar's eyes started to glow with an angry golden color. He was growing taller, but as his shape changes so did his stance. He dropped to the ground like a cat, looking bigger and bigger before the stunned rogue. It's not that his mass changes, but his limbs got longer, his fangs already showed from behind his growling lips. And the hand that was just as soft as a baby's with scars only from papercuts, was now something resembling a big cat's paw. The nails were now claws, the fingers now crushed a pen they were holding. The clothes all fell away, except for the soft-leather half-pants, that were probably on for that purpose. So this wasn't the first time... The light from the campfire glinted on the relfecting eyes of the beast, off the fangs, and off the curved claws.
All those things registered in the rogue's professional mind, far far behind his consciousness, but now, the rogue was trying to think what to do: run? too late... fight? yeah right... beg for mercy?
The rogue stood there for a few seconds, wondering, until he saw the hunger in the beast's eyes. That was when he lifted his sword and held it before him. He whispered, "Get away!", and for a second there was understanding in the beast's eyes, and the eyes wandered around. But then the eyes focused on something behind the rogue, and the beast growled, "Gally!"
Suddenly, in a blur, the short sword wasn't in the rogue's hands anymore, but mostly on the floor. All the rogue had was the hilt, scratched in a few places with the blade broken off in that split of a second. The blade itself was on the floor, bitten through in many places by the beast's sharp teeth. But when the rogue looked at the beast, the beast just stood there, looking.
The beast said, "Well, attack me!!!"
Now understanding creeped into the rogue's mind, and he shouted, "You can't attack me, you're a scholar! You scholars can only fight in self-defence! Under all this you're still just a scholar!"
The beast growled, and whispered," I don't know what I am anymore! And now Gally, the colt I was raising since childhood, the colt that was my only true friend, is dead!!!!" The beast screamed in rage, and leaped high into the air, as a cat does. Then he crashed into the rogue. The rogue thrashed for a while, punching and kicking the air, but soon the silence of death prevailed.
Then a crunching of bones on teeth sounded, and the 2 corpses were all gone in the eager,hungry mouth. The beast said, "How hungry! Must eat... or I die. I cannot die... I have a purpose... I must live... and kill." Then the beast ran of to somewhere, much larger now. And then only blood stayed on the ground, for travellers to see.