Sheep and Wolf

Chapter 02

Gary grumbled while he swung his arms to get most of the water out of his coat. 'Da-amn it a-all.' he said, walking back to the edge of the park. 'Why-y me-ee? A-and why-y thi-is horri-ible a-acce-ent?' He decided to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the night and other nights, sticking to grumbling instead.
He had nearly reached the street when he heard a rustle in the thick bushes ahead of him, shifting his heart into overdrive. He held his breath, cursing himself for forgetting about the night before. He peered at the shadows around the bushes, then saw two yellow lights appear and stop his heart.
A few punches to his chest made Gary's heart beat again and he swallowed a big lump down his throat. 'Goo-ood do-oggy..' he said, stepping back carefully. 'Ni-ice do-oggy..' A snarl made him jump. 'O-okay. Ma-aybe no-ot so ni-ice.'
He only saw what he thought was the biggest frigging dog he had ever seen for a split second while he turned around before running away again. "Where the hell did that thing come from!?" he thought, kicking up a cloud of grass and ground after him. "Shitshitshitshitshit." He heard the growl and breathing of the dog getting closer to his left and ran to the right. It caught up with him to his right and he ran to the left, then left again, right, left again and nearly tripped trying to brake, tumbling into the thick hedge in front of him.
Gary pulled himself out of the branches, turning quickly to see he had been herded into a part of the park with a hedge enclosing it on three sides and the dog sitting leisurely at the open side with a wide grin on its face. 'Shit!' he said, distracted by the lack of accent for a moment, then focused on the situation again. There was enough light for him to see this was no ordinary dog. It looked a lot more like the huge wolf he once saw in a nature documentary. "You got to be kidding me.." he thought. "Not only do I turn into a sheep at night, but I also have to deal with a wolf now!? Did I skip dimensions and fell into a twisted cartoon reality!?"
The wolf stood up on all fours and Gary looked around quickly for a way to escape. His panic grew as it came closer and he saw no other way out but the one behind the wolf. "Imgoingtobekebabandtheresnotevengarlicsaucetoeatmewith." he thought.
He hopped from one foot onto the other, clutching his hands together in front of his chest when he saw a stick lying on the ground next to him. He froze in place looking at it, then at the wolf, then back at the stick. "Nooo." he thought and groaned at the idea taking shape in his head. "This can't be happening." The wolf moved closer and he sighed deep. "To hell with it then." he thought.
He grabbed the stick and waved it in front of him.
The wolf stopped and started wagging its tail slowly. 'Wa-ant to pla-ay?' Gary called out. 'Wa-ant to fe-etch?' The wolf started following the stick and growled playfully. 'Ca-atch it the-en.' he said and threw the stick as far as he could behind the wolf. It jumped up and ran after it. It took a moment for the realisation to sink in that his idiotic plan actually worked and Gary started the sprint to the other side when the wolf suddenly stopped, looked back at him and growled. "Oh crap!" he thought as the wolf ran towards him.
Desperate to get away he kept on running while the wolf came rapidly closer. "Makeitmakeitmakeit!" he thought, his vision narrowing towards the end of the hedge. He got close when he saw the wolf jump at him and instinctively put his head down and ducked underneath the wolf. The next moment he felt the impact of the wolf's body against his horns and saw how it tumbled over his head with a loud yelp, landing and rolling on the ground behind him.
Panic kept him going and he ran all the way out of the park, reaching the entrance to his apartment building in the blink of an eye and panted hard, leaning against the wall.
He looked up and down the street but saw no sign of the wolf nor heard anything but the usual silence of the town at night. "Made it." he thought, the adrenalin shaking his body while he tried to breath deep and calm down. When his legs felt strong enough to carry him upstairs he climbed up the stairs, too tired to care about the noise from his hooves. He walked down the hallway to his apartment when one of the neighbours opened the door, curious to see what made a noise in the middle of the night.
'What the..?' the balding, middle aged man in dressing gown said and stared at Gary from his doorway.
Gary looked at the man for a moment. 'I'm no-ot rea-eally he-ere.' he said. 'You shou-ould get ba-ack to be-ed and sleep.'
'U-huh.' the man said, and backed away.
'A-also, stop dri-inking so mu-uch.'
The man nodded and closed the door slowly.
Gary let out a sigh and went into his own apartment finding the cypher lock on the floor. Where it had been screwed against the door were now a couple of imprints of hooves. "Okay then." he thought and went to bed.