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That night, Alex had very weird dreams. Alex couldn't fully comprehend it but he saw repeated images of trees, bushes, and other plants. Everything looked the same to him, except for the fact that in a very select few of the bushes, bright pale yellow eyes were watching him. These eyes brought fear with them. That was about all that his dream had to offer before he awoke in the heat of the morning sun.

Alex sighed. He groaned as he lazily stood up from the bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. He was exhausted, and he had no idea why. He had gotten plenty of sleep that night. Once in the bathroom, he slumped onto the wall and rested for a moment before bending down to the sink and splashing a handful of ice-cold water on his face.

Within a couple second, Alex was completely awake. The beads of water clung to his face as he exhaled. He grabbed a towel, and dried himself off. He turned back to his bedroom and opened his window. A blast of fresh mountain air hit him in the face. "Yep, today's going to be another cold day" Alex thought to himself. He walked around to the other side of his bed, took off his pajamas, and threw them in the laundry basket. He then grabbed a short-sleeved shirt, some jeans, a pair of socks and a light jacket, and proceeded to put them on. He couldn't help but notice that as he closed the old wooden drawer, it made a high-pitched screech. He reasoned that it was rusted, but none the less, it made his ears ring.

After doing his daily chores, Alex decided to go for a hike through the town. He had been cooped up in the Browning's house for the past couple of days and needed some fresh air.

The frigid air buffeted any of Alex's skin that wasn't covered by his clothing and he was suddenly glad for his jacket.

As Alex walked through the town, he took in the beautiful scenery that was around him. The sunlight that cascaded down through the clouds and filtered through the leaves of the pine trees illuminated his surroundings.

For some reason, Alex felt constricted by the town. He wanted more than just to observe the nature, he wanted to be a part of it. He wanted to wander into the pines, the aspens, and evergreens and relax. Not to think about his problems, not to plan what he was going to do next, but just to relax.

On impulse, Alex veered off of the path he was on and simply started walking into the pines. His walk became a jog, which turned into a run. There was a smile plastered on his face as he felt the wind blow through his hair. He didn't care where he was headed, just so long as he was headed somewhere.

After a while, Alex came to a clearing. A small stream trickled downhill. Beside it, there was a large, flat rock. Tired and out of breath, Alex took off his jacket and sprawled out on the rock. He folded his jacked into a small bundle and used it as a pillow. Then he feel into a deep sleep.

When Alex awoke, it was the dead of night.

Alex closed his eyes. He listened to the leaves rustle and the wind howl through the trees. The forest had a clean crispy smell, like there had been a massive downpour and had washed everything away. Alex sighed and opened his eyes. Above him, the moon shone down brightly. It wasn't as full as it had been the previous nights, but it could be mistaken for a full moon at a glance.

The night wasn't too cold for Alex. The temperature was comfortably warm, but not too hot. Alex stretched out. He had spent a good seven hours lying on the rock and it had done a number on his back.

He shoved himself off of the rock, landing softly on his feet. He heard the large, aspen leaves crunch underneath his foot. He stretched out once more then exhaled. There was a soft thump as Alex's jacket slid off of the other side of the rock and hit the ground.

The breeze picked up speed, causing the leaves to rustle more harshly, and even making a few of the float down off of their branches to the ground. One of these leaves were caught by the wind, and thrusted toward Alex's face. Laughing childishly, he batted it down before it could reach him. Then he stopped laughing and froze.

Alex looked down to his arm, a confused look on his face.

"...the hell?"

His arm was covered in what appeared to be orange fur. Alex's breath rate increased as he became more confused, and more panicked. He pulled at the fur, and when that didn't work, he began scratching at it. However, he almost immediately stopped as a warm, crimson liquid began to pool where he had been scratching. He looked at his other hand and found that it was covered in fur as well.

Where his palm had been, there now was a thick, dark, pad, and instead of fingernails, Alex had large, dark claws that looked incredibly sharp.

Alex was too shocked to do anything but attempt to go over what happened and try to make sense of it, but it was to no avail.

With nothing else to do, Alex examined himself to see how much of his body had changed. He found that he was completely covered in bright orange fur, except for his hands and feet, which were dark black. He also had a lighter shade of orange that covered from his stomach up to his neck. He now had a large muzzle protruding out from his face. He had a bushy tail that stretched out to a total length of two feet and swung about as if it had a mind of its own, and his feet had turned digitigrade.

Alex slumped down against the boulder and buried his head in his hands. 'How is this even possible?' 'Why me?' and 'Why can't I just live a normal life' were all thoughts that passed through Alex head. Even the feeling of his own fur brushing against his head brought tears to his eyes.

"I don't want to be like this!" Alex wailed. The change of his voice momentarily shocked him, as it was of a much deeper pitch than his regular voice. Alex sobbed for a while longer and then tried to suck it up. He didn't want to cry. He wanted to be brave. For most of his life that he could remember, Alex had always been running. He had run from the company, he had run from the fire. He wasn't going to run from himself.

Alex wiped the tears off of his muzzle and felt them soak into the fur on his arm. He took a couple deep breaths and pushed himself up off of the rock. He knees wobbled and shook, but Alex remained steady. He took a step and nearly fell over, but he caught himself on a nearby tree.

He stumbled over to where his jacket had fallen and stooped to pick it up, almost falling again. He cursed to himself, snatched his jacket, then straightened up to a standing position.

Although his new digitigrade legs, while they acted much like a suspension system, were clumsy and difficult to control, Alex slowly mad his way over to the small stream. He cupped some water in his paws and began to drink.

He began to think about himself as a human, wanting to be back in that body. He wasn't afraid of his new one, but he wasn't sure how he would walk in public like that. He didn't want to be forced to hide in shadows for the rest of his life.

As he thought about his other body, he felt a numbing sensation pass through himself. It started at his feet and began as a small, almost unnoticeable tingling but soon transformed into a strong, unpleasant stinging feeling, and then finally, a complete and total absence of any feeling. Alex closed his eyes as the sensation spread up his body and lasted for several seconds.

Eventually, Alex was able to feel the ground underneath him again. Believing that it was over, Alex opened his eyes. The cold air began to make him shiver and everything seemed darker than it did before the feeling. Alex threw on his jacket and began to look for his shoes. He hadn't seen or needed them since he turned, but he didn't want to lose them. He found them at the base of the boulder, and as he bent down to pick them up, he noticed that the fur on his feet had disappeared.

Quickly, Alex pulled up on his jeans and found that there was no fur on his legs and that they had returned to looking human. Alex checked his arms. Yet again there was no fur. He was completely human. Alex hurriedly put on his shoes and began to head back to the town, just as the sun was beginning to rise.