Jade Harley/Terezi Pyrope
Jade Harley had come into her werewolf inheritance when she was thirteen and a decade of experience taught her how to deal with transformation. On the day of the full moon, her schedule was clean. That afternoon, she would go to a certain national park near her university that was big enough for roaming around but not so big she’d get lost in it. She had a specific spot in the woods. In that spot, there was a rock crafted to hold her clothes and other important items. She would strip, stash her clothes, and let the transformation take hold. When day came, she’d come back to the spot and pick her clothes back up. This plan had worked for her for so many months.
However, this evening, when Jade hiked up, she saw another young woman sitting in the grove right on Jade’s special rock. In better times, Jade might have liked seeing the cute, busty red-headed stranger. Jade might have even asked her out for coffee. However, the stranger couldn’t disappear fast enough for Jade.
“What are you doing here??” Jade asked.
“I’m sitting here enjoying nature,” the redhead replied in a deep, crackling voice, “There isn’t a law against it, is there?”
“Yeah, but this is my spot.”
“Do you own this national park?”
“No, but this is my favorite spot. I come here to think.”
“You can think with me around, can’t you?”
“You’re too distracting!”
“You can go elsewhere then.”
“Why can’t you go elsewhere? You don’t care about this spot?”
“Who says I don’t?”
Jade searched into her jean shorts. “I’ll give you $5 to leave.”
“What is so important about this spot that you’d bribe me? And with so little money too?”
Jade waved the bill. “Are you going to take the money or not?”
“I might if you tell me what you plan on doing.”
“Okay, I’ll be honest. I’m going to strip.”
The redhead lifted a pierced eyebrow over her red sunglasses.
Jade continued, “It’s for a ritual. One of my Native American ones. But I have to be naked to do it.”
The redhead said nothing.
Jade went to hand the bill to the woman. “So are you going to leave now?”
The redhead answered, “I said I might leave. I never promised I would.”
“Well, I’m going to strip whether or not you’re here, so you might as well take the money so you won’t have to see me naked!”
“Is avoiding seeing you naked a positive? You sound like such a cute girl.”
“Um...”
The redhead tapped the handle of her cane to her sunglasses. “But I’m blind.”
Jade looked at the red-tipped cane. “Oops, I didn’t notice.”
“That is, I’m legally blind. But if you strip you’ll just be a brown shape to me.”
Until I turn into a grey shape, Jade thought. “Still, I’d feel self-conscious,” she said.
“Then I’ll strip too and we’ll both be self-conscious!”
“What? That would make me feel worse!”
The redhead got off the rock and Jade hoped the redhead was leaving but instead she started unbuttoning her teal blouse.
Jade asked, “What are you doing?”
“The same thing you plan on doing.”
“But you don’t need to do that! I do!”
“I’m striping for the same reason you are. The full moon is important to me too.”
Jade groaned. “Are you 1/16th Cherokee or something? Look, I’m full-blooded Indian.”
“And I’m 100% Jewish. But we do share a certain genetic quark,” the redhead said as she tossed her blouse, revealing a rainbow bra.
“What?”
“Your name is Jade Harley, right?”
“How do you know?”
The redhead unlatched her bra from the front, revealing her full breast. “You are very popular on campus and you are a brilliant physics student. I’ve heard much about you. However, I’ve also heard you have strangely-regular but intense periods.”
Jade didn’t know how much redder her face could get. Even with her dark skin, her blush must have been visible. “You’ve been stalking me?”
“I’ve only been researching you.”
“That’s really creepy!”
“Oh, I should introduce myself. My name is Terezi Pyrope. I study law at your university.” She held out her hand.
Jade took Terezi’s hand. It felt very cold and dry. They shook briefly.
“Please to meet you,” Jade mumbled before yelling, “But why are you stripping?”
Terezi bent over her shoes and started untying them. “The better question is: why aren’t you stripping?”
Jade looked at the horizon and then looked at her watch. It was later than she thought.
“Fuck! I mean, well, fuck.”
She decided to strip anyway. She took off her glasses, leaving her vision poor. Her vision would return when she transformed anyway. With practiced speed, she took off her clothes. Though her muscular body was nothing to be ashamed about, she was glad Terezi was blind. Maybe Terezi would be too blind to realize Jade was a wolf.
The sun finally set and then came the change. It wasn’t excruciating, but it was painful enough that Jade couldn’t keep an eye on Terezi. When she got her washed-out but still sharp canine sight, she turned to where Terezi had last been. Instead, the werewolf saw a seven-foot vaguely-blueish dragon curled on the rock.
“You see,” rasped the dragon in a voice that didn’t sound anything human, “We aren’t much different.”
The werewolf was not as well equipped to talk and only whimpered. This would be a very long night.