Wolf's Gift

Logan smirked and started it up.

Wolf observed the robotic arms that came to life. Then he calmly crouched down. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He let his mind go to that place. The place where his most primal instincts lay dormant; where the beast was held back. It couldn't be locked away; no, some of it still leaked out. But he could at least make it sleep.

Now was the time to wake it up and let it loose. He mentally unleashed it, and he felt it take over and change his body. Fur covered his skin and clothes. His ears, nose, and mouth elongated. His two fangs grew longer and sharper. His fingers shortened, his voice box disappeared entirely, and a tail emerged. When he opened his eyes again the world was grey. He was looking through a wolf's eyes.

"Whoa," Kurt breathed.

Then there was a short silence as his teammates let this sink in.

"He's so…" Kitty said quietly, "so PRETTY!"

Wolf grinned as much as his now-canine face muscles allowed. In this form he did not look the average wolf. He had all of the anatomy, minus a larynx, but was slightly smaller, about the size of a golden retriever. His fur was composed of four different colors: white, two different shades of grey, and black, all swirled together in many patterns and all with a bluish tint to them.
His eyes were still the same brilliant blue as before, and on his forehead there was a distinct bluish white star. (How does a colorblind animal know what color it is? Simple: he set up a video camera once when he was curious so he could see himself later. Problem solved.)

"Are you done showing off now?" Logan called, "Because in case you forgot, there are things attacking you."

Wolf gave him a silent snarl, then dodged out of the way of the first robotic arm. Jumping and running away were easy in this form. Logan couldn't catch him from behind because he could always smell the objects before they got close enough to attack. Soon Wolf got bored. The next time a missile came his way he pounced at it, catching it in his teeth and crushing it.

"Wolf," Logan growled, "Your job was to dodge, not attack. I told you not too let anything touch you."

Wolf turned back to a human so he could speak. "I was doing that fine! I don't need any more practice with dodging!"

"You getting bored? I could change that if you want. However, if you need to be in wolf form to dodge, you shouldn't go back to human form while I'm still running the program."

Wolf quickly turned around and just managed to dodge a missile.

"Dammit!" he yelled, "I can't talk in wolf form!"

"So growl at me all you want. And watch your language."

"I can't growl! I don't have a voice box in that form!"

"Really? No voice box? Good. The rest of us don't want to hear you whining. I'm about to make this a whole lot harder, just for you, so I suggest you become a wolf fast."

Wolf cursed, but went back into wolf form. Logan was making it harder. Wolf had trouble dodging everything, and a few times Logan managed to hit him. He also noted that Logan kept him in there for a lot longer than five minutes, which the other people had. He was getting pretty worn out by the end.

When it was over he stalked out of the room, changing into a human as he did so. "What was THAT for?!" he snarled, panting for breath.

"Cool it, kid," Logan said, "You wanted it harder, didn't you?"

"Oh, the challenge was fine," Wolf said, glaring into Logan's eyes, "I was talking about the length. Why the f*ck did you keep me in there so long?!"

Logan gave him the look. "I've told you once already, watch your language. I kept you in there so long because you were so wound up, I figured a little exercise would calm you down. I guess not, though."

"D*mn right it didn't," Wolf growled.

"This is the last time I'm telling you, kid, stop the cussing and lose the attitude."

"Why the h*ll should I?"

Logan growled, then took a deep breath to calm down. "Go to your dorm and stay there for the rest of the day. This is your last class for today, so you don't need to worry about the other teachers."

"What?!"

"I said go to your dorm. Now. I better not find you out and about later."

Wolf glared at him a little longer, then spun around and started walking out. "Fine. Not like I have anything better to do."

"My class is third period tomorrow. You better not miss it," Logan warned as Wolf left the room.