Lesson 2 - Transformation

During our second lesson, we will look at transformation in more details. You will learn some techniques used to transform into a wolf, what can influence it, how often do you need to change and whether you will be a shapeshifter forever.

When do you transform?

As you know from our first lesson, you will start to automatically transform as a newbie during the first months of puberty. If you have become a wolf because of a bite, it can either start within a few minutes to even months. But what if you are already after your first transformation? Will the other ones come automatically or is it controlled? The answer is both. Let's look at the two categories - controllable and uncontrollable. 

Controllable:

Your transformation can be a controllable change but it does require a lot of practising and proper training, which is usually given face-to-face with your assigned teacher (more about the pack life in the fourth lesson). It is very challenging to teach a newbie about transformation as each wolf has a different technique and reacts differently to the proposed method. Most of the time, new wolves adapt their own ways of transforming but deeply depend on the original proposed methods. 

Transformation is often triggered by the emotions of the individual. The main reason for transformation is anger, but it can also be a result of fear, frustration or sadness. Whereas experienced wolves can transform on demand, newbies often need a bit of...'encouragement'. While some teachers use the full moon to speed up the training, most teachers are against this method, as it is often proven to be useless as most newbies are then unable to transform at any other time. The most common method taught to transform is the following 5 step instruction:

1. Try to focus on your breathing and clear your mind. 

2. Focus all your energy and breathing on your whole body. 

3. In your mind, try to imagine your whole body changing into a wolf (it can be as simple as imagining yourself and then a wolf straight away). Focus on certain body parts of the wolf, e.g. paws, fur. 

4. With the image of a wolf in your head, shift your mind on something that makes you very angry. Speed up your breathing and focus on the feeling of anger that grows both in your head and in your chest. 

5. You will start to have a feeling of your body burning. Let it spread across your whole body and mind and don't fight it. If done properly, you will turn into a wolf. 

Most newbies need more time than others to complete this activity successfully and quickly, with almost all failing it multiple times. This is absolutely normal and needs to be practised over and over again, with newbies becoming better and better at this activity with time. To transform back into a human, the process is very similar, but instead of getting angry, the individual needs to relax as much as possible and imagine themselves as a human again. This process is usually way quicker to learn and most newbies have very few fails. Experienced wolves usually don't have to go through the whole plan and just focus on them as wolves and their feelings. The typical transformation speed for a newbie is 5 minutes, whereas for experienced wolves is less than 10 seconds. 

One of the interesting aspects is the skin temperature of the wolf when changing. Most wolves before transforming recognise their body temperature raising to over 50 degrees (122 degrees Fahrenheit), which is way above the normal body temperature and would easy kill a non-shapeshifter. The drastic raise of temperature is also visible across all wolves who are about to transform due to anger but manage to control it and stay in their human form. The temperature goes back to normal within a minute after transforming into the chosen shape. FUN FACT: A wolf and human body temperature is similar with 36.4 degrees (97.52 Fahrenheit) for a human and 37 degrees (98.6 Fahrenheit) for a wolf. 

A rare ability within the wolf community is something called 'part transformation'. A part-transformation is an ability to transform just a part of your body into a wolf for a brief moment, e.g. tail, eyes, face. It's a very rare talent, mostly visible among alphas. All the wolves who can part transform are wolves by birth - no other type of wolves has ever mastered this skill. It's worth adding, it only work if the wolf is currently in the human form - it's impossible to turn half human while in the wolf shape. 

Uncontrollable:

In this category, you can find all moments where you transform into a wolf or a human without having any control over it. This is a very common thing for all newbies and it goes away as soon as you learn the transformation process. But sometimes even the most experienced wolves don't have a control over transforming. Here is when:

INJURY - one of the most common reason for the uncontrollable transformation. The body of the shapeshifter is an extremely smart organism, which is able to determine the seriousness of the injury on its own. If a wolf gets injured, the body quickly will assess in which form the wolf has higher chances of survival. Then, it will act accordingly to the body's needs and force transformation on the injured body. If the wolf is injured and remains in the human form, they need to be taken to the human/muggle hospital, however if they remain in the wolf form, the best option is to rush to the vet or animal hospital for the appropriate treatment. The individual will not be able to transform into any form without fully healing first. This means that one can remain in the wolf or human form for more than two weeks or even months (depends on the severity of the injury). In case of the wolf dying in their wolf form, the body doesn't transform back into a human and needs to be buried as they are. 

WINTER - happens among BITTEN shapeshifters only. These wolves that are native to North America are known for transforming for winter only. This means that they remain in the human form for as long as possible but change once it's cold outside. There is no escape from this, with many individuals trying to flee to hot countries/cities but ended up changing into a wolf due to air conditioning or accidentally switching cold water in the shower, touching cold things, etc.

TOO LONG IN THE HUMAN FORM - more about it in the section below.

Do you need to change back into a human?

Again, yes. It is required for you to change back into a human at least once per week if you prefer to remain in your wolf shape for the general period of time. You should remain in the human form for at least 20h before turning back into a wolf. The reason is also strongly linked with wolphia. The individual who remains in their wolf form for too long will slowly loose their human traits and become a wild animal. This is less relevant to born shifters but, as above, quite common among bitten wolves.