The cool wind swept Rosie’s long blonde hair back as she drove down Scotland’s country roads. It was her first time in Scotland; she was studying abroad to be a doctor. As she sped past meadows and lakes she thought about turning around to go back to the hotel, thinking she had done enough sightseeing for one day. Then she saw it - in the distance a large castle seemed to have appeared from nowhere as if it had dropped from the sky! Large squares of gray stone formed the castle’s eerie walls. Rosie couldn’t resist the urge to go and get a closer look. She drove up the long driveway to the gate. Slamming the blue Chevy cobalt’s car door she went up to the rusting black gate. She peered through the black bars to see the castle better, but a sudden white fog had rolled in making it hard to see what was right in front of her nose. She pressed her face up against the cold metal gate hoping to see the details on the castle’s walls and doors. A large creaking noise and a bang interrupted Rosie’s thoughts. She felt herself falling as the ground came rushing towards her and everything went black.
Rosie woke in a dimly lit room and her head ached. She stumbled up off the cold stone floor to her feet, her head was spinning and everything was blurry. She was in a room with stone walls and floor, and a large door at least eight feet high stood off to the left. Rosie’s heart was in her throat as she rattled the handle. But it was no use, the door stayed put. She thought about knocking it down but a small, skinny girl had no chance against a hard solid oak door! She didn’t know where she was or how to get out, but she knew she had to escape. She ran her hands over the walls looking for another way out. She reassured herself by thinking, “Castle’s always have secret doors and stuff right? But maybe for now it’s best to stay quiet.” Rosie stopped pacing the room and listened. Footsteps. She was too scared to stick to her plan of staying quiet. She ran to the door and pounded her fists on it until they hurt. The footsteps faded and all she could hear was her heavy breathing, hot tears running down her face as she yelled “ Help! Help Me! Someone! Help!” Her yelling turned to sobs. Then a woman’s voice, cold like ice, came from the other side of the door. “Ahhhh, so you’ve woken up! Pardon me, I’m Dr. Jamie, it’s nice to meet you Rosie! You are at the Scotland Institution of Genetic Sciences! We have changed you into someone totally new! The first of your kind!” Rosie gasped. “What did you do to me?!” Dr. Jamie laughed. “We made you better Rosie! You won’t understand now but our experiments are…good for you! We are trying to help you! All you need to do is wait a few hours until you change!” Rosie yelled “What!? What did you do to me?! Who are you?! Let me out! Change me into what!?” She pounded on the door. “As I said before Rosie I’m Dr. Jamie. I am a scientist who tries to change humans into another species. I have made you another animal by doing a simple genetic experiment, I don’t know what you will change into yet, but it is for the better of mankind! If you are good I will let you out and we can have a nice conversation over some tea. I’m sure you are hungry and I know that you will remember your manners,” she sneered.
Rosie was quiet for a moment taking in all she just heard. She stammered “O-Ok.” Rosie listened to the locks click. The old door creaked open, and standing before her was a perfectly normal woman She had a mousey look about her with dark hair and piercing green eyes. The only thing wrong was… she had wings. Rosie just stared. The wings weren’t feathered, they were brightly colored, but there was something evil about them. They looked more like bat wings. Dr. Jamie broke the silence .“It’s rude to stare girl!” She turned and walked down the hall motioning for her to follow, her black high heels making a clicking sound that echoed down the stone halls. Rosie followed and neither one spoke. They came to a large door. Dr. Jamie pulled keys out and they walked into a huge library. Shelves of books towered over them and a warm fire blazed in a brick fireplace. Dr. Jamie’s wings fluttered and she flew up to the top of an old book shelf. She handed an old book to Rosie saying “Page 21 please”. Rosie wiped the dust off the cover ,turning the book from dusty gray to scarlet red. The title printed in gold letters read “Wings”. She flipped the book open to page 21, where a picture of a Pegasus covered the page. “This is what we do here ,we turn people into new creatures. This wont be what you turn into…no one knows what you will become,” Dr. Jamie said. Rosie looked up, her eyes large and full of fear as she said, “Please let me go!” The Doctor just smiled and said “It’s too late.”
Rosie ran to the door, but she was too slow. Dr. Jamie flew in front of her and blocked her way . “Look! It’s amazing the change has already begun!” Rosie looked at her hands. Her nails had grown long. “What did you do!?” she screamed. Dr. Jamie left the room slamming the door behind her. Rosie just cried, she had nothing else to do so she let the tears come. “Ow,” she looked at her arms which had black hair thickly covering her normally invisible blonde hair. Her hands were paws with long claws and she felt a sudden pain in her shoulder blades as two large black feathered wings sprouted. She yelled and fell on all fours howling like a wolf. Rosie paced the room waiting, her heart pounded and a growl erupted from her throat.
Soon she heard footsteps. Her ears pricked up and her growling became louder as she heard the locks clicking. Dr. Jamie came through the doorway but now her wings were gone. “Oh! You look wonderful! And with my help you will be able to change back and forth,” she crowed. Rosie’s low growling changed to snarling as Dr. Jamie talked. Her long muzzle wrinkled and her black lips pulled back showing large fangs as she growled, “No more lies!” Dr. Jamie laughed, sending chills through Rosie’s spine and making her fur stand up. “You may understand me girl, but I never learned to speak wolf!” Rosie felt her tail lower and her pointed ears laid flat to her head as she whined. Dr. Jamie stepped away from the door towards her saying, “It’s okay, we can be a team now”. Taking advantage of the door being unguarded Rosie leaped up and pushed the Doctor to the ground. She ran through the door, her heart was pounding and her legs were shaky, but her paws knew what to do. She saw an open door leading to a court yard . As soon as she jumped through the door she heard people shouting “get that dog”, “catch the mutt”, “don’t let it escape!” She lifted her wings up and spread them as she ran, a howl erupting as she lifted into the sky. The wind ruffled her silky fur and she felt the hot sunlight burning her fur. “Free!” she howled. Rosie landed in a small forest clearing. Every night she whined wishing for a friend, but she knew that if anyone found her she would be put in a zoo. So she concealed herself in the shadows.


In small villages children told stories of a wolf that could fly, the black wolf they named Luna, who would fly over the villages a dark spot in the sky, and if you listen, you can hear her call into the night, howling into the wind.