Sunsplash

Finny was undeterred by all of the trees as he ran through the forest, not even by the wet, slippery undergrowth or by the small stones that stuck up out of the dirt. Not even the still-dripping sky that seemed to constantly fall on his head. He was free, and running.1

He didn’t know when he escaped, but his legs weren’t hurting and he continued to scamper under the branches, zigzagging in case they could track his scent, but he knew they couldn‘t. Perhaps it was just that he could. It wasn’t his new-found freedom that made him pause. No, it was something else entirely, that he should have known to just ignore, or even turn the other way.2

It was the sound. The brisk, swirling sound that hit his ears just like the sound of the wind beneath his feet had. He couldn’t help but stop in his running and lift his ears. 3

Finny followed the sound slowly, taking careful, hunting steps. The sound stayed just a slight whirl, but he knew that it was coming just a short distance away. There was a certain smell that radiated from there, almost like after a beam of light strikes a tree, with a slight tone of something else.4

Finny paused and sniffed the air again. Yep, definitely human. What other creature would want to do something like that? And without another thought, Finny began to change.5

It was his spine that twisted first, then his thick, dark gray fur began to sink back into his now peach-colored skin. The rest of his bones stretched and meshed, until he looked mostly human. It had been so long since he changed, so long since the chemicals and pain had faded and they could no longer make him switch skins, so he couldn’t fully morph. He still kept his tail, though it was slightly smaller, and his teeth and claws. His ears were now half-way between wolf and human and nowhere were they should be, and his shoulders were hunched forward. 6

He felt awkward and unbalanced. And cold. Not all of his fur had disappeared, and Finny had thought that the clothes Doctor Tyler had given him that melded to his skin would keep him warm, but they were now in tatters. At least his dog tags were in tacked. 7

Doctor Tyler had given them to him so long ago. Finny couldn’t read the second one, but on the first were five claw-mark symbols that spelled W-o-l-f-e, which said wolf, but was different from w-o-l-f. He had once asked Doctor Tyler why that was, just after he had run on the machine.8

“Because it’s misspelled,” Doctor Tyler had replied, checking his data. He started most of his sentences with “because”.9

“Why is it misspelled?”10

“Because it’s a joke.”11

“What is a joke?” Doctor Tyler had then delved into a deep conversation about the definition of the word “joke,” which Finny had equated to be something like when you jump on a littermate’s head while he’s stalking a squirrel.12

This, though did not seem much like a joke. Finny considered it, but since no one was falling out of the sky, he dismissed the thought.13

His attention was brought back to the bright light. It had gotten brighter, or rather, bigger. It was now almost the size of a small, full-grown wolf. His nose started burning, and Finny couldn’t help but take a few clumsy shuffles backward and look away, since the light had grown too bright to look at.14

Suddenly, the faint whirling sound burst and Finny was jerked backward, just in time to look up and see a human crash into the ground. Yep. It was a joke.15