Turns out, the bridge was the only way up to the keep.
The thing about a keep, the important thing, is that you don't want to get overwhelmed by an outside force, right? You don't want people casually walking up to your gate because they got lost and went the wrong direction. You didn't, picking an example at random, want some random Werewolf walking up and taking your home for all it was worth, or at least... that's how it seemed. It was the only way up, and with the shards of poisonstone strewn haphazardly over the bridge, that didn't look like much fun. Some of those shards were wafer thin and looked ridiculously sharp. The waters below were fetid, and smelled... truly dreadful. I didn't know what that stuff was below the bridge and in the moat, but I didn't think it was anything I wanted anywhere near my hide.
It took me a little while to determine that there really was no other path before giving up with a shrug. Tomorrow, I'd put together a broom or something, and try to sweep the bridge clean of that stuff so I could safely approach the gate - better safe than sorry, right? Daylight was fading fast, and a growing unease had me looking over my shoulders as I made for the ruined inn. Something... was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on what, but... the grinning skulls and gleaming bones I could still glimpse occasionally were... more than a little spooky. I didn't want to be out and about when night hit properly - if playing games taught me anything, it was that at night? In the spooky dead village? Here there be monsters. The Inn was half-destroyed, but it did have a room I could shut against the night, and a door that could be bolted. It'd keep me safe through the night so I could sleep, I figured.
The sun was setting, and I found my pace picking up as I made my way through the town. My heart was starting to race, and fear - something primordial, ancient - warned me that something was terribly, terribly wrong with this place. My heart was pounding... would I make it? I reached the door just as the sun set, and even though there was still plenty of light, it was like a switch had been thrown. Not in the world around me - that was still silent but for birdsong and the distant music of the fountain at the center of town...
... But inside me.
It was like every muscle in my body locked up in a cramp, all at once, and I crashed into the doorway with a shocked gasp of pain! What was happening to me?! A prompt appeared, different from the other ones I'd seen so far. It had a spooky bats-and-moonlight motif, and bright purple text on it read:
> What a beautiful night to have a curse...
Oh. Oh fuck.
Distantly, I could hear rattles of stone as things started to move in the town. I could hear... whispers in the wind, voices that tried to speak to me, tried to... scare me? Soothe me? I had no idea - all I knew in those moments... was agony. I crumbled to my knees, and my breath came in panting gasps as vision narrowed to a dimly lit tunnel and my blood pounded in my ears. The agony focused on the core of my body first and then spread from there as I felt things... moving inside me, growing, stretching my ribs, my body, outward steadily as I seemed to be expanding from inside, stretching my skin. It felt like I was being dipped in liquid fire as bones shifted, as my form... grew. And grew. And grew. I tried to cry out, to speak, to say anything at all, but the noises that escaped my throat... were anything but familiar.
I don't know how long that first transformation took. All I knew was agony in that time, and the whispers of ghosts, of phantom voices that spoke to me from the darkness that enveloped me like a cloak.
When at last the pain began to subside, when at last I could move again, I found I was whining continuously, the sound resonant, fearful in my ears, like the noise a dog in pain and terror might make, only... deeper. And it was coming from me. The clothes I'd made... were destroyed, and where the knots had been pressing into my body, the... the flesh under the... fur I had there - golden, like my hair - was tender, like it had pressed on me until it burst. I guessed that in the future, I should probably be naked when I changed shape? If I wanted to keep my clothes and not feel like something tried to pinch me in half? I lifted my head, and tried to get to my feet. My body moved with ease now, though it still ached as if I had exercised vigorously the day before.
A few things occurred to me.
First, I could see in the dimness as if it were, not daylight, but instead of pitch darkness... merely gloom.
Second, I... was not human-shaped anymore. My feet were a lot longer than they had been... and so was my face. So, in fact, was my rear end - a tail swept behind me, moving on its own, seemingly in response to me noticing it.
Third, I was huge. The doorway had been tall enough that it didn't come anywhere near my head. Now... I'd have to duck and shift sideways through the door to enter.
Last, I felt... good. Like, really, really good. Endorphins pounded in my veins, and I felt... powerful, like I could... rip the door out of its frame. A notification patiently waited for me to notice it, and I gave it my attention.
> You have learned a new skill: Lycanthropic Transformation
> [MONSTER] Lycanthropic Transformation, Rank F: 0% At night your cursed body transforms into a powerful monster.
Not a very... descriptive description, but... it did get the point across. I would go through this... every night? And why was this a skill? Didn't that mean I'd get better at it, or just... more used to it? Probably both - I had to assume so. Either way, it was time to check my character sheet as I stood in the doorway of the inn, catching my breath. Distantly, I could feel my tail wagging because I was high as a kite - I felt amazing! Everything was so crisp and sharp, too - I felt like I could-
And then somebody stuck a spear in my side.
A hot pain flashed up through me and without looking, or thinking, I spun and brought my hand around in a furious arc. I caught a glimpse of... a skeleton! A walking skeleton! And then it vanished in a clatter of bone as my hand slapped across its bony jaw and scattered the monster like dice across the street, before the bones began to vanish into motes of light and dust, along with its weapons and the ruined armor it had been wearing.
The wound it left in my side was very real, though! So was the red hot anger that began to bubble in my gut. The wound hurt but it didn't seem terribly important as I rounded on a growing crowd of... skeletal guardsmen. As my gaze fell on them, they brought their spears up in a defensive guard. My blood froze in fright, but that anger did NOT abate. I felt a need to express my frustration, my fear, and my pain - so I intended to scream at them! What came out was a furious, bellowing roar that had my ears slicking back on my head and made the Skeletons actually take steps backward! A prompt appeared before me:
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
> A cursed cry pierces the night! Death is on the prowl! Your enemies are shaken!
This notification was like the one that had said it was a beautiful night - the window it appeared in had a moon-themed filigree with little bats on it, and through the red haze, I dismissed it as I looked at my wounded side.
> [Health: 86/100]
> [Stamina: 40/100]
> [Mana: 54/100]
I could only guess that transformation took mana and stamina - the bars had been full when last I looked, but that didn't matter either. I found myself rushing the line of spears in a red haze! That didn't seem... a great idea, so before I hit the formation, I turned to the side. The buildings near me had been a lot taller than me before, single story as many of them were. That wasn't the case now - I could reach up and touch most of the ruined gutters now without much difficulty, so I figured I could probably jump up onto one of them. I felt my muscles bunch up and I overshot with ease and threw myself bodily twenty feet into the air, my legs and arms pinwheeling until I landed with a CRASH, bursting through the roof into the building with frightening ease.
My jaws spread and a wolfy tongue lolled out in a savage grin as a panting breath escaped me. That... that had been kind of fun!
> [Health: 91/100]
> [Stamina: 50/100]
> [Mana: 55/100]
I was healing... very quickly. Looking at my side, the wound was almost gone - just a little tender, but I could barely feel it. I could see the skeletons rounding on the doorway of the house, starting to try to file into the room after me. While they were in a bottleneck, I found my furred, clawed hand gripping a rafter and pulling it down with a very satisfying crunch and a shake of the roof as a bit more of it collapsed inward, roof tiles hitting and sliding off my head and shoulders with a clatter to smash on the flagstones beneath my paws - I barely felt it. But now, I had a weapon! The thick length of wood in my hand had some decent heft to it, and it came down on one of the hesitating skeletons to crush it utterly with a crunch. Then I just... charged. A skeleton doesn't have a face exactly - it just has bones! I don't even know how it said
"Kraaah!" as it swayed away from my onrushing form, but it didn't have a chance to escape back out the doorway. I swatted this one too, and its bones scattered across the floor with almost comical ease before dissolving into dust and lights.
Two things occurred to me at this point: The first was that it wasn't ME who should be afraid tonight of the ghouls and ghosties in the haunted town. It was the ghouls and ghosties who should be afraid!
The second... was that I was a lot bigger and moving pretty quickly. I would NOT stop in time.
I crashed into the wall with a slam, and to my shock, the masonry lost. I figured it was old and decrepit, not well maintained at all, but still - I came through the wall like the koolaid man to find a group of skeletons standing around the doorway, waiting for me to come through... just not like that! I inspected one in the brief mutual confusion.
> [Skeleton guardsman of Lambstock, level 1]
Then, my hand closed on a brick and I hurled it as I closed the distance on them. The throw wasn't accurate, but it didn't really need to be - it whizzed past the face of the skeletal guardsman I'd hucked it at, and I crashed into the group. I felt a pang of pain as one of their spears stuck me a bit, but it didn't seem important really. SWAT! One of them shattered to dust. SMASH! Another was flattened under my fists. Red filled my vision in the moonlight, and by the time I came back to my senses after my killing spree...
... the skeleton guardsmen were gone. I was panting, alone, bleeding from a dozen wounds, my tongue lolling out of the muzzle at the end of my face.
> [Health: 68/100]
> [Stamina: 18/100]
> [Mana: 60/100]
A number of notifications were waiting patiently for me to notice them.
> Good Girl! The Undead Guardsmen of Lambstock were no match for you!
> You have shuffled x8 Guardsman of Lambstock level 1 off this mortal coil.
> Bonus XP was gained for fighting a large number of combatants.
> Bonus XP was gained for fighting monsters above your level.
Okay. That was... a thing. Game mechanics - right. But... what was up with the system calling me a "good girl"? That was more than a little weird in my book, but I was a... big... wolf monstery thing at the moment, so... maybe that was it? If not doggo, why doggo shaped? The next notification was new!
> Ding ding ding! Your Lycanthrope class has reached level 1!
> You have gained 1 skill point!
> Health +10, Stamina +10, Mana +5
A hot wave of tingles rushed through me, and despite my injuries I felt a wave of exultation, I felt... energized! Distantly, I could feel my tail wagging behind me! I'd leveled up!
> Your [MONSTER] Bestial Vigor skill has improved, and is now eligible for rank up. Rank D is a free rank.
> [Monster] Bestial Vigor, Rank D: 0% Your cursed body teems with life force! You recover quickly from injuries, and are even harder to hurt.
Awesome! I guess that skill... would more or less grow on its own, just by me... existing. As I got hurt, and recovered, it'd grow on its own.
> You have learned a new skill: [MONSTER] Savagery
> Due to Synergy, your [MONSTER] Savagery Rank F skill has evolved from a Synergy into [MONSTER, COMBAT] Bestial Might. Any skill points invested have been refunded and the skill is reset to Rank F.
> [MONSTER, COMBAT] Bestial Might, Rank F: 0%, Your cursed body surges with monstrous strength! Jump higher, run faster, hit harder, in any shape.
Just like that, I'd gotten my first fighting skill, and filled up my class skill slots for Lycanthrope, all in one go. I looked at myself as I stood in the street, and found wetness streaking through my fur to the ground. My legs were longer, and ended in paws that adjusted and spread as I shifted my weight to support my body, and it didn't take much for my hands to touch the ground. Didn't even feel weird, walking like that, using my hands to assist the movements. I didnt' feel thirsty, I figured I was still in the grace period... but I wasn't scared of skeletons anymore.
The worst thing in Lambstock, as far as I knew, was me. I was going to get a drink of water.