The Werewolf's Guide to Life: A Manual for the Newly Bitten - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

RITCH DUNCAN and BOB POWERS have devoted their lives to aiding and serving the lycanthrope community. They live in New York City.

Illustrator EMILY FLAKE is a New York based cartoonist and illustrator who is grateful to have gotten close enough to study her subjects for this book without being torn limb from limb.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

CHAPTER ONE

The Basics

It was a nice night for a walk in the park. Bright. Big moon. Out by the picnic area, I heard this deep, low growling. Scared the hell out of me. Then I heard it circling. Rustling in the bushes. Moving around behind me. I began to think I was in real trouble. When I heard the howl, I knew it. As it exploded out of the bushes at me, I thought two things: It was a rabid animal, and I was done for. Wrong on both counts. We smashed straight through the picnic table, shattering it. I was found the next morning, barely alive, with a dead, naked man, impaled on a shard of the broken table, next to me. I've come around to believing that I was lucky. I didn't always feel that way.

—Marty H., Political Consultant

Age: 34, Lyc age: 10

GETTING STARTED

If you've been bitten by a werewolf or know someone who has been bitten, you probably have a head full of some pretty weird and wild questions. This section will go over the basics of what lycanthropy is all about.

WHAT IS LYCANTHROPY?

Lycanthropy is a biological condition wherein you undergo a cyclical physical transformation, experiencing sudden and drastic growth in all parts of your body until you appear to have been turned into a creature that is half-human/half-wolf. Those who have this condition are called "lycanthropes" or "werewolves." When you undergo this change you experience rapid hair growth; your teeth turn into large fangs and your fingernails grow into long sharp claws; and your body increases in height, girth, and strength, with longer limbs, a more pronounced brow, and in some cases, an extended snout. During the transformation, your mental state experiences a rapid deterioration, eroding all of your higher faculties until your mind is that of a bloodthirsty predator. You will become hungry for flesh and will maul and feed on animals or humans, given the chance. In your "wild" state you are extremely dangerous and hard to control. You remain in your wild state for approximately eight hours before you transform back to your normal or "dormant" state.

WHEN IT HAPPENS

You will experience a transformation three nights out of the month, on the evening of the full moon and the evenings before and after, when the full moon waxes and wanes. These nights are commonly referred to as your "Moons," and the monthly trio of Moons is referred to as your "Moon Set." On the morning following each transformation, you will wake up in your dormant state again, usually with little to no memory of the events of the previous night.

HOW ONE BECOMES A WEREWOLF

You can become a werewolf either by being born to a lycanthrope father or by having a werewolf's blood or fluids introduced into your bloodstream, usually through a bite. The fluids must enter your bloodstream while the werewolf is in his wild state. If you are bitten by a werewolf in his dormant state, or if the fluids of a werewolf are introduced into your bloodstream outside of a transformation day, you will not become a werewolf.

HOW IT HAPPENS

The blood and saliva of werewolves contain a contagion that acts upon the pituitary gland. After you've been attacked, this contagion travels through your bloodstream and causes your pituitary gland to release a rare and normally dormant thyroid-stimulating hormone called "lycantropin." Lycantropin acts upon the thyroid and other glands and organs to stimulate growth at a rapid rate, first by causing a breakdown of body structures and then by swift cellular regeneration and reproduction. This hormonal process makes the body grow to nearly twice its normal size and stimulates the hunger and rage receptors in the brain to such an extreme degree that you begin to behave like a starved, wild animal. The process continues for eight to twelve hours until the body counteracts the change and triggers another cellular breakdown, changing your physiognomy back to your dormant state.

For purebloods, lycanthropes who are born to a lycanthrope father, the pituitary gland is preprogrammed to automatically release the lycantropin hormone during Moon Sets after the pureblood reaches puberty.

WHO CAN BECOME A LYCANTHROPE

Any human being, male or female, regardless of race or background, can become a lycanthrope. However, the condition will not become active until you reach the age at which puberty begins. Nonhumans (animals) cannot contract lycanthropy.

WHY IS LYCANTHROPY TIED TO THE PHASES OF THE MOON?

The lycantropin hormone is released in measured doses throughout the month, hitting its peak after approximately _twenty-_nine days. During the first month, you will notice several changes in your body: hair growth, fingernail growth, and increased strength. Much more is happening internally, including a dramatic spike in the iron levels in your blood. The increase in iron changes the magnetic polarity of your chemical makeup, causing you to be far more sensitive to the phases of the moon. In the way that the ocean hits high tide at full moon, your body experiences a "high tide" of its own, triggering a sudden, massive surge of lycantropin to instigate your change.

IS THERE A CURE?

No, because lycanthropy is not a disease. It is a process involving the release of a hormone that is already present in the body.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE THIS CONDITION AND LEAD

|ANYTHING RESEMBLING A NORMAL LIFE?

Absolutely. Keep reading this book to find out how.

CHAPTER TWO

How to Determine if

You Are Really a Werewolf

My first month wasn't scary, just lonely. I knew something wasn't right. I couldn't explain what was happening to me. I actually thought my Propecia had gone out of whack. But I knew the thing that attacked me wasn't what the police said. They said it was a bear. In a suburb of Atlanta.

The second month though, that was scary. Once I got through my first changes, and I realized I had a month to just wait to change again, nothing was more terrifying. At least I didn't need the Propecia no more.

—Joseph H., Physical Therapist

Age: 33, Lyc age: 6

AM I REALLY A WEREWOLF?

If you suspect that a werewolf has bitten you, if it's been less than a month since the attack, and if you have not yet transformed into a werewolf, this is the big question. While it might be comforting to ignore the inexplicable signs, avoidance of this issue can be deadly. If you were bitten by a werewolf, you contracted lycanthropy the instant the attacking werewolf's saliva entered your bloodstream, and as such, there are numerous ways to detect your condition long before your first Moon.

Did Something Attack You?

The only way one can become a werewolf, other than having been fathered by a male lycanthrope (see Chapter 4, "Purebloods"), is to have the blood or saliva of a fully transformed, wild werewolf enter your bloodstream, in most cases through a bite. If a wolf-like creature did not attack you in the past thirty days, chances are very good that you are not a lycanthrope. But if a ferocious, hairy animal attacked you, even if you were told that it was simply a dog, a bear, a wolf, or a coyote, read on. You need to be absolutely sure.

When Did the Attack Occur?

Lycanthropic transformation only occurs on the night of the full moon, as well as the nights before and after (the waxing and waning). If you were attacked on a non-transformation date or during daylight hours, then what you encountered was not a werewolf and you do not have lycanthropy. (For detailed information on full moons and transformation dates, refer to Chapter 6, "When It Will Happen and What It Will Feel Like," or if the attack happened before 2011, the back appendix.) If an animal of some kind bit you during a known transformation date, it's possible that you were bitten by a werewolf. Keep reading.

TRUE LEGENDS?

THE...