For my Pack...

There's a countdown - just out of hearing. I know it's there, I can hear it in the same way that you can hear the music when standing outside of a music venue, the words are not clear however the meaning is. I look around the room, a bed in the centre and closed drawers around the edges. The curtains are drawn and the light is off but I can still see - clear as day. I can still feel the moon outside, full and low. There is music, a rhythm that beats along with my heart, the source of it invisible.
"Are you ready"? the voice is female, soft and accentless.
"Yes." I reply, pointlessly as no words are needed at this stage.
The voice speaks again - still without apparent source, "then take your place and ready yourself."
Doing as I am told I lie with my back down on the bed, my arms at my sides and my legs straight. I raise a hand and look at my fingers, still clear in the dark. I put my hand down as the countdown becomes clearer - I can make out the numbers now. As it reaches zero, in the same female voice as before, my body jolts. The room seems to bend before my eyes and a great weight seems to cover my entire body. The music swirls around me, through me, flowing through my skin. The ceiling seems to buckle, a myriad of colours flowing down and through me. Some of the colour I could name, some of them I could not yet they all mean something. For a moment I feel as if I am flying, no longer on the bed. Suddenly it all goes dark, silent, still. I feel at peace, awake but with no sensations.
"Do not be alarmed - you are ready..." the female voice drifts in then fades away.
The room explodes. Colour, sound, music, shapes, light, a swirling maelstrom of radiance. In the middle of it all is my body. I can feel it starting to pull apart. No pain, just the release of my flesh as it blends with the cacophony around me. I no longer feel the bed, my limbs or even my breathing.
Images, memories and things perhaps still to be stream through my vision.
Slowly I feel my body starting to reform. This time differently to what it was before. I feel my arms and legs reassert themselves, followed by my body and my face. I feel stronger, more alive. The music would be deafening - if it were being heard by my ears. Instead it is part of me at this moment, the same as my thoughts, my body and the colours.
"It is done, it is time for you to return...."
The music fades back a little, becoming more actual sound than a feeling. The lights and colours start to fade and the room reforms around my prone body. Slowly I become aware that my eyes are closed now, I open them to see the ceiling as it was before. I can hear the gentle music playing clearly now.
I decide to sit up. The room is different, the drawers seem to be in similar places but not quite. There is a light too, a soft glow round the edges of the skirting. Looking back to the bed I see two legs - not naked as before - instead they are covered in a soft, grey fur. My feet seem to be out of proportion compared to my old feet, sporting claws instead of toenails. I look at my hands, also covered in fine grey fur with the points of claws. Flexing these I discover that the claws can actually extend, like a cat. I reach up and feel my face. This is not the face of a cat. Nor is it the face of a human. Instead the long snout, black, damp nose and pointed ears tell me what I may be. As I swing my new legs off the side of the bed and stand I also discover another new item, a tail. A thick, grey bushy tail that moves as I notice it.
There is a mirror. It is as tall as myself and attached to the door. Walking toward it my hopes are confirmed. I am Chris, the anthromorphic wolf.
Opening the door I step out into a different world to the one I left behind. In the sky I see dragons playing. Walking by are bipedal bears, cats, foxes and other beings - all anthromorphically proportioned. I hear a call and look up the balcony of a facing building. I see a large bear in a shirt, a blue wolf/husky hybrid, a majestic gryphon, a dragon and more behind them, I am home.