This was written when I had an idea for a visual novel. It’s become the first part of the introduction to “In Moonlight”
For characters see the “In Moonlight” page.

“In Moonlight” Intro

By MoonWolf Games
Copyright 2023-2024 All Rights Reserved

Night:

Zayn stared at the campfire. Out with his college friends at the start of summer, the full moon lit up the national forest they were in. They arrived this morning and had setup their tents and camp that afternoon. After eating a simple dinner they enjoyed the evening. Well, Zayn at least tried to.

The last few years at college had brought lots of changes. No longer the skinny kid. He had taken to weights and swimming. Surprising himself and everyone, how much his body had responded to the training and his eating plan. Not quite good enough for the swim team, he enjoyed the water and the results.

Following the changes in his body were now the attention of some of the girls. He liked it at first, this new experience of having someone see him as attractive. He found though that it really wasn’t what he wanted. This past year had him questioning himself as he went from denial to now acceptance that he likes guys. Hasn’t been with anyone yet, but hoping that will change in the coming year.

He wants to tell his friends but is unsure about their reaction. He has never heard any of them talk badly, but it also hasn’t ever been the center of conversation. Still not sure what to do, he stares deep into the fire, hoping some inspiration will come to him.

The guys are laughing and Jake sees that Zayn isn’t really paying attention and joining in. “Hey Zayn, what do you think about Sheila?”

Zayn is broken out of his contemplation, then looks at Jake. “She’s okay.”

Brent chimes in, “One of the hottest girls in school and she’s okay?”

“Maybe he has his eye on someone else? Huh, Zayn? Who is it?” says Chris.

Zayn sighs, “No, don’t have an eye on someone yet.”

Brent jokingly asks, “So do you even like girls?”

Zayn’s eyes go wide, he wants to tell them but that could change everything. He freezes.

Chris looks at him, “I think you may be on to something…”

Zayn resigns himself, “This past year I’ve been grappling with that. No I don’t like girls that way.”

Brent narrows his eyes at him, “So, you’re a homo?”

“Brent! Behave,” said Jake sharply.

Zayn shrugs. “Not the word I would use.”

Chris nods. “This explains a few things.”

Brent moves his chair slightly away, “Now don’t go getting any ideas about me or us.”

Zayn frowns. “I’m still figuring it out myself, you don’t have to be a jerk about it.”

Brent replies, “I just don’t want you coming on to me.”

Zayn angrily stands. “You don’t have to worry about that. Not even interested in you!”

Brent retorts. “You couldn’t handle a real man like me.”

Zayn starts walking away, “A real man isn’t a homophobic asshole!” He walks out of the camp and into the forest.

Chris looks to where Zayn went “Good going Brent.”

Jake looks concerned, “You happy now Brent, that can’t have been easy for Zayn to tell us. Should I go after him?”

Brent looks at the other two. “What? I just don’t want him after me.”

Chris rolls his eyes. “He wasn’t after any of us, he was trying to let us know more about who he is. And even if he’s into us, I’d just treat it like any girl that I’m not interested. Flattered but no.”

Jake stands. “That is how a real man would react Brent. I’m going after him.”

Zayn can hear Jake calling for him. He isn’t ready to talk or go back yet. He keeps walking. Up ahead he can see a small clearing. He makes his way there. He moves to the center and looks around.

The moon is almost overhead and illuminates the clearing well. He notices four stone piles spaced around the clearing. They aren’t all that tall just a foot or so. He likes seeing the stars and the moon so he sits down and thinks what he wants to do next.

Very subtly a droning sound has started and is gaining volume. At first he thought it was some insects but it doesn’t sound right for that. He looks around and the sound seems to be coming from all around him. As it gets louder he starts getting nervous and stands. Before he can move there is a bright light that blinds him for a moment.

He sits back down to try and clear his eyes from the flash. It takes several minutes but his sight and night vision are regained and he can see in the moonlight once again. He stands and starts to head back to the camp. In the distance he can see a shape walking towards him. He feels well enough to talk with Jake and go from there.

“Jake! Over here.” He start walking towards Jake, wondering why he hears no response. As he gets closer he starts wondering why the shape doesn’t seem right. The figure is too tall and wide to be Jake. He slows down and the figure gets close enough that he can see it more clearly.

It must be tall, well over 6 feet, dark gray with some light gray fur. It look like a wolf-man. Zayn panics. He turns and runs away.

Making it almost through the clearing and trips and falls. He looks behind to see the figure approaching. Tries to keep moving but his way is blocked by a tree. He finds a piece of wood a few feet long and backs up against the tree.

Zayn murmurs, “Please don’t eat me…please don’t hurt me…”

The figure stops a few feet away and then crouches down. “Why would I eat you or hurt you?”

Zayn looks in disbelief. “You talk? How does a werewolf talk? Where did you come from?”

The figure laughs. “Yes I talk. I may be a wolf but I’m not a werewolf. I was camping nearby in the forest and heard the droning sound.”

Zayn shakes his head trying to make sense of all of this, “My friends and I are camping nearby, I need to get back to them.”

“That is going to be impossible.”

“Why? What are you going to do to me?”

“I’m not going to do anything. The droning you heard was the sound of a portal opening. You are no longer in your world. We know the portals open but do not know how or why, it seems to be mostly random. But occasionally we get a visitor like yourself.”

“Wait, that sound and the flash of light was a portal? Where am I? Who are you?”

“From your perspective you are in an alternate universe, similar but not your own. My name is Jacob.”

“Nice to meet you Jacob, I’m Zayn. This feels like a dream, it has to be a dream, right?”

Jacob shakes his head. “I’m sorry but this is real. We can walk back to your camp to show you. Then we can go to mine. I have an extra sleeping bag if you don’t mind sharing the tent”

Zayn nods his head. Jacob stands and reaches out a hand, paw? Zayn grabs it and feels the rougher pad on one side and the fur on the other. Not like a dog paw since it has longer fingers but not really a human hand either.

Jacob chuckles and looks at his hand, “Not used to beastmen, huh?”

Zayn drop his hand. “It’s different, nothing like that were I come from.”

Zayn leads them back to where he thinks the camp is. He finds nothing, but unblemished forest. “I thought it was right here.”

Jacob turns a full 360 and then puts his nose up in the air. “I don’t see any fires close and don’t smell any either.”

Jacob leads him back to his camp. The remains of a fire are barely glowing. Nearby is a decent size three or four man tent. Everything looks like he’s here alone camping.

Jacob asks, “Did you want to talk or try to sleep?”

Zayn yawns before answering. “Both, but I guess sleep would be good.”

Jacob goes over to a backpack and pulls another sleeping bag from it. He goes inside the tent and unrolls it there.

“Luckily the tent is fairly big so we aren’t too close. I’ll try to be quiet in the morning, sleep as long as you need.”

Jacob takes off his pants and is just wearing some shorts. He then crawls into his bag. Zayn follows suit and is soon trying to fall asleep himself. He closes his eyes and hopes that in the morning things will be back to normal.

Day 1

Zayn is on his side and as he opens his eyes he can see the wall of the tent in front of him. Hard to tell exactly what time it is, but it’s well after sunrise. He stretches and as he rolls over, Jacob enters to grab something on that side.

Zayn flails backward and cries out inarticulately. Jacob pauses and then crouches down again. “Zayn, it’s me, Jacob from last night. I hope you don’t see me as a monster.”

Zayn tries to calm his breathing. In daylight he can see Jacob more clearly. A wolfish head, bigger skull and more expressive eyes and face. The rest of the body looks like a man, although the lower legs are more canine, all of it covered in fur. He’s bigger than a human but it looks to be muscle and not fat, hard to tell with the fur though.

Zayn tries to smile faintly, “Morning Jacob…I guess I thought it was all a dream last night. But it’s not…”

Jacob nods. “No it’s not. I’ll start some breakfast, join me when your ready.”

Zayn watches him leave the tent and hears sounds outside. He finds his clothes and puts them on and then leaves the tent. Outside he can see that another chair is around the fire, he goes and sits. Jacob is moving between the fire and his pack a few times to get everything he needed.

Jacob smiles. “Bacon, eggs, and toast. Simple but good. After breakfast I can pack and take you into town with me. You will have to register with the police and start the process of becoming a citizen.”

Zayn nods. “I wondered how things would work. So this happens often enough that you have plans to deal with it?”

Jacob replies, “There are a handful every year. So we know it happens and try to be accommodating to the newly arrived. I expect its going to take a while to adjust to everything.”

“So there is no going back?”

“Not that we know of.”

Zayn thinks of his friends and family that he’ll never see. His eyes start to tear up. He knows Jake was looking for him last night, now they will never find him. There are tears falling down his cheeks now.

Jacob turns to see him and silently moves and give him a hug. Zayn doesn’t think about it and hugs him back pressing his head against Jacob’s shoulder. He’s not sure how long he cried but eventually the tears slow and he pulls back.

“Sorry, I got your fur wet.”

Jacob responds gently, “Don’t worry, you needed that. I can’t imagine being in your place.”

“It’s hard thinking I’ll never see anyone again. It’s harder when there were angry words said and I know Jake was looking for me last night.”

“Friends don’t stay mad for long. Do you want to talk about it?”

“It was kinda personal and embarrassing.”

“Interesting, beastmen tend to be fairly open about things and nothing is usually embarrassing.”

“Huh, are all beastmen like you?”

Jacob shakes his head. “Not all wolves, there are so many different kinds.”

“I meant more your build. Nothing to be embarrassed with a body like that.”

Jacob looks down at himself and then back to Zayn. Realizing that he only has shorts on while Zayn is fully dressed.

“I’m so sorry Zayn, I should have put more clothes on. We tend to only wear shorts or pants for most things. We do wear shirts for more formal things. I guess most beastmen are more built like I am, it does vary but more than the humans I have seen.”

“Oh, I can see why not much would bother you. Last night I told them that I didn’t like girls, I like guys. One of them took that badly, words were exchanged and I walked out of camp and found that clearing.”

“I can see that being personal, but it shouldn’t be embarrassing. We have no issue with that at all. There is a big imbalance between males and females here. It varies but the female population is only a third to a quarter. So male-male relationships are common. We have big litters so no issues with population.”

“It’s still not very accepted, so it took a while to come to terms with it.”

“Won’t be a problem here. You could find a beastman for a boyfriend, no issues there either.”

Zayn blushes. “I’ll leave that for the future. I’m still not sure about being in a new world.”

Jacob finished cooking and hands a plate to Zayn. He takes a plate for himself and starts pushing things into his jaws. Zayn follows his lead as there is no silverware to eat with. He doesn’t have as big a mouth so takes him a bit longer to eat than Jacob.

After eating Zayn helps Jacob with cleaning up the campsite and packing everything away. With both of them it doesn’t take all that long. Once everything is packed up, Jacob puts on the backpack and they make one more round through the camp leaving it as good or better than they found it. Jacob makes sure the fire pit has enough water to ensure any coals are out.

Its a hike back to the parking lot. Zayn doesn’t recognize any of the cars and the brands are all different. Jacob opens the back of an SUV and throws the backpack in. They both get in the front and Jacob starts driving out of the park and into town.

Jacob motions to the car, “I assume all of the technology is similar enough?”

“I recognize everything, some minor differences here and there.” said Zayn, nodding his head.

“That’s what everyone tells us when they get here, I’ve always found it interesting that things are close but not quite the same.”

“It does seem interesting.”

Jacob turns his head to look at Zayn for a moment, “Try to prepare yourself for being in town. I know you were scared last night and startled this morning. None of the beastmen will hurt you. A little secret is that beastmen often take after their feral animal. It’s not exact since we are sentient but things are similar.”

Zayn doesn’t make any reply. They have gotten close enough to town that there are buildings and people around. For Zayn it reminds him of watching a cartoon of zoo animals walking upright in a human town. He pinches himself to see if he is really awake

A little while later they pull up to the police station. Zayn is a little nervous, never been in trouble with the law. Now it feels like he’s done something wrong. Jacob parks the SUV and Zayn is relieved when he gets out to walk him into the building.

At the front counter sits a rhino, wearing a typical police uniform. He glances up from his paperwork, he raises an eyebrow when seeing Zayn.

“I didn’t think there were any humans in town.”

Jacob shakes his head, “There aren’t. I found this one last night coming through a portal. His name is Zayn.”

The rhino extends his hand, Zayn takes it and feels the roughness of the skin. “Nice to meet you Zayn, I’m Dave. This has to be difficult for you. Although you seem to be taking it well.”

“I’m trying. I don’t think it has really sunk in yet.”

Dave sits down and starts typing on the computer. After a few minutes the printer nearby starts up. Dave grabs the papers and a clipboard with pen and hand them to Zayn. “I need you to fill out this as well as you can. Jacob can help with his parts. This will get the process started for you living here and becoming a citizen. Jacob, if you want to earn a bit of credit you can help him to his appointments over the next few days.”

Jacob responds, “Oh?”

“Yeah, it’s not a lot but as the one finding him, you are to be given some credits and then more if you help out with his initial first steps. If you decline then one of us will do it, so no worries.”

“I’m on break so I can do that.”

Jacob walks with Zayn to sit and fill out the forms. Identity, schooling, history, medical history, interests are all to be filled in.

Zayn asks, “Why so much detail?”

“So they can place you into the best programs or areas that match you.”

“I haven’t finished school yet, all my grants and student loans won’t help me here.”

Jacob looks at him quizzically. “There is no cost for school. Here we educate and train people for what they are good at. Occasionally for what is needed but that is not often.”

“Sounds like a better system.”

Jacob fills out his parts of where and how he found Zayn. It took a while to complete. Once done Zayn takes it back to Dave. He looks it over and sees everything is in order. After scanning it into the computer he types for a while. Eventually he is done and stands to get another few things from the printer.

Dave goes over the pages, “Several things to go over. Several medical appointments in the next few days. This is to make sure you have no hidden injuries and to get you vaccinated against our common diseases. Temporary lodging for now. Credit for a mobile phone so you can be reached.”

Zayn reaches to his pants pocket and realizes his phone is gone. “I had a phone, but it’s gone.”

“Things like that don’t come over in the portal. Clothes, most jewelry, even mechanical watches do, but nothing with electronics for some reason.”