THE MOMENT
The girl approached the beast without a trace of fear. The setting sun cast a golden glow over the remains of the villagers strewn around, and it highlighted the creature's dark brown fur with a fiery appearance. It was hunched over one of the bodies, and still notably taller than the trembling girl. It had blood on its claw as it looked up at her.
"You should be running," the girl sneered. Her body was trembling from rage at the sight of the beast.
"What? No, c'mon!" It whined in frustration with a very human voice as she shrank slightly. Her snout seemed to recede and her fur retracted into her skin. In moments, she was a teenage girl again. She was notably shorter, but still taller than the village girl. "I'm not fighting a kid!" Lupe vented to no one in particular. She was questing by herself, and she knew the little girl wasn't human; but, she still didn't want to even pretend to fight the strange girl. She made a quick gesture with her hand and her Slate appeared in front of her while the girl looked on and continued to tremble with power. She was waiting for Lupe to say something.
Lupe made a handful of taps and swipes on the screen, then the girl disintegrated into white powder.
"That's not much better..," Lupe sighed with mild amusement. NPCs were random, and it couldn't be helped. She needed to complete the quest; but, she was willing to drop it and pick it up again hoping for an opponent she felt more comfortable defeating. "Okay, let's try again," she transformed into her bestial form again and turned to inspect one of the bodies to start the quest. She touched the same bloody corpse as the first time. Then, another girl appeared and walked toward her.
"You should be running," the girl sneered. Her body was trembling; but, at least it was a different girl. She looked slightly older than the first one, but still too young for Lupe's comfort.
"Noooo," Lupe whined, turned back into a human, then summoned her Slate again. After a few more taps the girl also crumbled into white dust. "Again," she said as she became a wolfbeast and reached down; but, this time she stopped herself before touching the same corpse she'd been inspecting. "Huh. I wonder...," She glanced around at the corpses decorating the village. The one she'd used to activate the quest so far belonged to a teenage girl. It might've been a coincidence, but she moved to a different corpse for her next attempt. This body belonged to an older man and Lupe inspected his blood.
"You should be running," a deeper, masculine voice spoke up as a trembling man approached her.
"Now this I can do," Lupe giggled to herself and approached the man to face off against him in her wolf form. "What happened here?" she asked. She felt at ease moving the quest forward now.
"I did," He answered softly with almost genuine remorse. His trembling became more apparent, and he shook his head. "You should've run....," he said. "I'm sorry." He growled and howled in pain as his body changed. It looked far more dramatic than when Lupe changed but, in moments she was facing another werewolf. "RUN!" he yelled as he charged at her.
"I'm running!" Lupe giggled as she dashed forward toward him to engage.