Aralez

The trees grew thicker and thicker around me as I ran. Cawing birds and chirping insects were nothing to me. Scents of pine and prey invaded my nose, and I slowed as I saw my victim, my paws silent on the padded ground of the forest. Slinking through the underbrush, I prepared to pounce. But as I leaped, my prey disappeared and another sound penetrated my mind.
"Rachel, please answer the question." I picked my head up off the desk halfway, raising my eyes to look around the room. "Miss Lunaplena, please answer the question." As I realized who was speaking to me I sat up straight.
"Sir, can you please repeat the question?" I made my voice as innocent as possible.
"Surely, Rachel. However, I'd still like to see you for extra help today after school. I’d like to see you there too, Mr. Aralezner." I poked Noah next to me and he nodded blankly.
"Sure thing, Mr. Tarascus." I suppressed a laugh as his head ended up back on his desk. I prodded him a little with my finger, right in the ribs. That got him up. As he sat up straight, a mixture of sandalwood and Axe tingled inside my nose just as the piercing cry of the bell sounded.

Noah and I bolted out the door, laughing. "I can't believe he actually wants us to stay for extra help today. I mean he hates us and we’re not failing his class, so why do we have to stay after?" It was easy to tell from Noah’s voice that he disliked science.
With our hands interlocked, we walked down the hall. "Just go with me, Noah. Please don't get on his bad side." I looked up at my boyfriend pleadingly as he grinned back at me.
"Aren't I already on his bad side?" His tone was husky as I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him before I walked into my next class.
I couldn't focus in math because of last period in science. I too was wondering why Mr. Tarascus wanted us there for extra help. Nevertheless, I'd go just to stay on the fine line between being hated and being liked in his class. As the final bell signaled the end of school, I went through the motions of going to my locker and absentmindedly putting away certain notebooks, then waiting for Noah. But it wasn't Noah that came by my locker. I narrowed my eyes at Mark, one of the few kids at Subcinctus High that I didn't like. "Hello, Mark," I said in my snarkiest voice with my arms crossed over my chest. "What business do you have coming by my locker today?"
Mark and I didn’t have the best of history with each other. We were a couple during our freshman and sophomore years at Subcinctus. Everyone knew about us and thought we were the “golden couple” of sorts. It wasn’t like that, though. We broke up after a year and a half because he cheated on me with Nikki Patasola, a girl I’ve despised since fourth grade. Let’s just say after that we really didn’t get along.
“No need to be rude, Rachel.” Mark’s voice had daggers in it. “I just want to know if you and Noah are really going to attend extra help today with Mr. Tarascus. I heard you were invited.” He spoke the last word with an unrecognizable emotion that sent chills down my spine. I growled low in my throat as he continued talking. “His extra help is quite fun, actually. You learn a lot there.” Somehow, I figured that these words had a double meaning. He was a Kobalos, after all. They’re known to trick people.
I focused my eyes above his head as a figure strode confidently down the hall. It was Noah. “Mark, isn’t it?” His voice was low, and Mark turned to meet electric golden-gray eyes. I walked to Noah’s side and he protectively wrapped an arm across my shoulders. “If I ever see you being obnoxious to Rachel again, you’ll be sorry.”
As Noah and I turned to leave, we heard Mark shout something to us. I couldn’t make out every word, but it sounded eerily like, “You guys will be sorry later today.”

Noah and I walked to Mr. Tarascus’s room later that day. It was dark inside, but the door was open so we entered. All the shutters were closed, and we were plunged into pitch black as the door closed with a slight click. Noah found a desk and put his backpack on the ground next to it. I put my books and bag on the desk itself. I leaned into Noah’s chest as he securely encircled me with his arms. “I don’t like this at all, Rach.” His voice trembled and I felt his heart beat faster as we heard a click. The door opened.
Even with my lycanthropic vision I couldn’t make out who was in the doorway. The door clicked once more, signaling it closing, and a shiver ran down my spine as the room chilled noticeably. Whoever had just walked in didn’t want to turn the lights on. Noah’s grip on me tightened as I heard footsteps nearing us. Bravely, I loosened Noah’s grip and walked away from him a little. “Mr. Tarascus, is that you?”
The response I got was a chilling chuckle just before the lights turned on. My eyes narrowed against the suddenly bright room, but only for a second. As I adjusted rather quickly to the light, I saw Mr. Tarascus sitting at his desk, twirling something in his hands. It was a syringe, filled completely with greenish liquid. He got up, and some sloshed out the tip as his thumb pressed down on the release. Grimacing, I turned to look at Noah for comfort and support, but his face was ashen. I shot him a quizzical look just before I noticed what he was looking at. Sitting in the corner of the room was Mark. Well, “sitting” isn’t exactly the right word to use. Slumped in a chair was more like it. His breathing was shallow, and green foam was oozing out of his mouth. It looked like he was dying a very gruesome death.
“I see you’ve found my project,” he said. “Mark chose to be my test subject. He knew the risks.” Mr. Tarascus said this in a frighteningly calm voice. “Now I know that this,” he said, flicking the needle a few times, “works.” He advanced a few steps towards me, but Noah blocked my view as he blocked me from Mr. Tarascus.
“Don’t touch her,” he growled, eyes blazing. Mr. Tarascus just shrugged and put the syringe on the table.
“We could’ve done this the easy way, Mr. Aralezner, but I see you’d like a challenge.” Mr. Tarascus’s skin began to stretch and change color and a forest green shell with spikes appeared on his back. His arms enlarged and his hands changed to intimidating paws with talons on each toe. His legs and feet did the same thing, and another pair of beefy legs grew from his midsection. Mr. Tarascus’s hair blended with his beard, forming a lion’s mane. The last change that occurred was his eye color. It went from a deep, monochromatic gray to a fiery blend of reds and yellows. I backed away a few steps and realized what I was looking at: a Tarasque.
Though terrified, I managed to shift into my true self. My ears peaked and glistening white fur spread all over my body. My arms and legs turned into paws. A bushy tail grew, and my eyes turned to a blue purer than the water of the Caribbean. I watched as Noah took a step back. He said something, but I couldn’t understand him as a wolf. Pushing through my fear, I snarled at the Tarasque.

Baring my teeth, we circled. His heavy feet pounded the floor like a bass drum, while mine lithely glided across, my claws barely clicking on the tiling. He made the first move. Out of nowhere, a large paw slashed at my face, tearing my muzzle open. I shook my head, clearing some of the blood from my eyes. I leaped at him, attempting to tear at the underbelly of his shell, but he twisted, catching spikes from his armored back in my side. Fighting the pain, I got up. I was never going to win this fight. However, I had to try for Noah’s sake. I had to protect him from the Tarasque like he protected me from Mark. Then again, Mark was almost human, and this dragon was a hulking mass of destruction. Not exactly equal, but I had to do it anyways. As I lunged to tear open the Tarasque’s underbelly once more, a massive serpentine tail swatted me away, slicing my stomach open. That attack was the end for me. I couldn’t even get up. Shifting back to my human form was a painful ordeal, but I managed it nonetheless.

Through half-lidded eyes, I watched another scene take place. The dragon had turned back into our science teacher, but I knew he could still turn back to a Tarasque at any time. I was worried for Noah. He ran towards me and placed my head on his lap. Tears streaked his face. “Rach, don’t go. Please,” he begged. I tried to say that I had no choice, but all that came up was a bloody cough. He laid my head on the floor and turned towards Mr. Tarascus. “You did this,” he growled, but his voice cracked with emotional pain in the middle. “You’re a monster.” Our teacher didn’t even acknowledge him. Noah’s shoulder shook violently. I thought it was because he was crying again, but he was shifting. I barely kept my eyes open as a white light surrounded him. Out of his back sprouted feathery tawny wings. His hands and feet were exchanged with paws similar to mine. This seemed as much of a shock to him as it was to me, because just before his face changed into a hairy muzzle, there was a clear mask of astonishment there.
In front of me was a creature I’d only dreamed of seeing: an Aralez. They were said to be only a myth. Their saliva could bring back the dead and heal the severest of wounds, but nonetheless they were vicious fighters when angered. It walked over to me and licked my wounds, cleaning the blood off my clothing too. As the Aralez stepped back, I felt invigorated like never before. I knelt in front of it and wrapped my arms around its neck. “Thank you, Noah,” I murmured into its fur. It whined happily in my ear as I released it.

I shifted back to a wolf and silently padded behind Mr. Tarascus. “Any last words, sir?” The last word was sneered with contempt, and I knew Noah had shifted back. He seemed awfully calm about this whole mess. A shocked Mr. Tarascus turned towards us. Before he even fully laid eyes on me, I pounced and my jaws crushed his windpipe with a sickening crunch. Dropping his limp, lifeless body onto the tiled floor, I shifted back to human form. Noah walked over to me and took my hand in his. I knew we both had a lot to say, but I let him speak first. “So you’re a werewolf?” I nodded. “And you can change at will?” Another nod. “Can everyone here shift?”
“Not everyone. Mark was a Kobalos, or a trickster. He couldn’t shift, but he has power over normal humans.” I shrugged a little, knowing giving him this information was the least of our worries.
“What was Mr. Tarascus?” His eyes sparked with wonder.
“He was a dracothrope. He could shift into a Tarasque dragon, one of the most dangerous known to us here at Subcinctus.” Noah opened his mouth to ask another question, but I put my finger over his mouth to silence him. “Let me ask you something first, Noah. Did you know you could shift into an Aralez?” He shook his head adamantly. “I thought Aralez were only creatures of legends. I never thought I’d see one in my life.”
Noah looked at me quizzically. “I don’t know how I turned into that creature, but it saved you, and that’s all that matters.” I hugged him tightly for a long time, just savoring the fact that we were both fine. We broke apart, but kept our hands interlocked as we walked out of the room, one thought continually drifting through my mind: Sometimes life is stranger than fiction.