He remained on the cold ground which became even colder because of the water dripping from his body, finding his situation laughable.
Lying on the ground, he looked at the beautiful red moon in the sky, sighing. "We don't know if we should laugh at our pitiful situation or cry. Tell us, Moon God? Are you laughing at our pitiful situation?"
After a long silence, Artemis let out a deep sigh. "No, we can't be sad. It's not the time to brood. We need to find the person who did it to us. And we need to get back to our body so we can punish that person for toying with us and tainting our soul!"
Artemis clenched his fist as he stood up, determined to find his real body again, along with the truth behind what happened.
But first, he wanted to make sure if his assumption was actually true or not. He needed to see his face. Was he truly in someone else's body or was his old body weakened?
He dragged his weak body closer to the pond and looked at his reflection in the water.
As soon as Artemis looked at his reflection, a disappointed look appeared on his face.
"As expected... This is not us. The face does look similar but it's not what we looked like. We can see differences. Albeit, our biggest fear came true." Even though he still had a handsome face, it was nowhere close to his real face.
He once again looked at the red moon in the sky, sighing. "First, we need to find our people. They should be able to help us. It'll be troublesome to make them believe we are us even if we find them."
He pushed his body up, standing. Turning around,he started walking away from the pond. "But without knowing where we are, how can we find them?"
"That's right. First we need to find a nearby village which can guide us to our Empire."
The red moon was still shining brightly above his head, letting him bask in its moonlight while he tried to choose a direction to go to.
"The Moon is in that direction. So the south should be there. The Empire should either be in that direction or in that one."
"We have a fifty percent chance of walking in the right direction and another fifty percent chance of just increasing the distance between ourselves and the Empire. It seems we can only trust our luck."
Selecting a direction, he again started walking.
He walked on the rough terrain, advancing ahead as he tried to take guesses about who could have done it. Did someone actually find his body or did his trusted person betray him and lead the enemies straight to him? Or was it because of a long distance spell?
Hundreds of questions plagued his head. His head which was already occupied with his own thoughts was invaded by the foreign voice again which once again started talking to him.
"Huh? Side effects of Werewolf? That is preposterous!" Artemis responded sharply. "We aren't a Werewolf! Why would we have that?! In fact, we personally killed thousands of werewolves in our time to protect our people! We are a proud Vampire! Moreover who are you in the first place?!"
"Instead of talking to us, why don't you tell us who you are?" he further asked as the voice went silent. "Are you a being created by the Royal Witch? Did she send you inside our body? Tell us the truth!"
Unfortunately, the voice didn't appear again. After giving the warning, it disappeared.
"Disappeared again. As expected, we can't get answers from him without finding out what he is. And he won't answer that either. We'll have to help ourself."
"If only we could use our spells, we could have found the person who put us through this tormen- huh? What? What's happening?"
Artemis was talking to himself as he kept walking but he soon stopped as he felt something really strange in his body.
Dark Brown hair had started growing all over his hand and his legs. Even his chest was getting covered in hair for some reason.
"This! Why does this feel like the transformation of a Werewolf?! Don't tell us that voice was right! We're going through a transformation? That bloody witch made our soul occupy a Werewolf's body?! Argh!"
Throughout this whole incident, Artemis had been calm but only now was he truly upset. It had been a really long time since he lost his composure like this. Finding out that he was a Werewolf enraged him. He couldn't believe that he was a Werewolf!
These wild creatures that were no less than an animal were the ones he found most hateful since they couldn't control themselves under the red moon. So many innocents had died at their jaws during his reign when they lost control! And tonight was the blood moon!
"That witch couldn't have chosen a worse day for this!" Artemis roared in anger.
"Arghh!"
He started yelling, partly because of the pain his body was suffering because of the transformation but mostly because he was enraged about the things that were happening to him.
The mysterious voice finally returned as the transformation began, as if giving the commentary.
"Stop this right now!" Artemis yelled as his eyes turned red. His pupils started getting bigger and so did his face and his entire body.