March Seventh.
It came so quickly. The full moons always did. The feeling of something crawling up your spine, like there was a hair tickling it, irritating it, only to realize that it was your own growing thicker, almost imperceptibly so but Thomas could feel it. The pit of his stomach. A hunger. He’d have an early dinner that night with the family, staying close to Scout, watching her. If things went wrong - this could be their last one together. Their last meal. She was excited for this. Excited for what was going to be the most painful night of her life. The one where everything would change. It was hard to keep the Fool’s Hope going, not with so much on the line this time.
Didn’t feel much like eating, at least not mentally. But he was hoping that if he filled his stomach, he’d be less inclined to take more chunks out of his daughter while attacking her and changing her life entirely, taking away any freedom she had to have the full moons to herself.
But just think of the connection that they would have if it all worked out. And she might get some cool scars in the process. She seemed to like those. And if she didn’t, she was skilled with glamor. She could hide them at school. It was no big thing. He breathed out, wiping his mouth. No big thing.
Okay.
“So my plan is...” He would start, seemingly out of nowhere. “- I’ll bring the pups into the usual meadow for them to change. They usually find something to hunt quickly. Lots of rabbits and squirrels out there. Birds. They’ll go after anything that catches their attention. But I’ll conduct my change off to the west side. I’m thinking you should come with me, so that we get through it quicker and it’s a sure thing that I’ll be the one that’s there. Not your siblings.”