#and the infirmarer is dead when the story starts

[flockdog]

populating Modicia Abbey

[the-mediaeval-monk]

I wish you would write a story where... a monk gets bitten by a werewolf and starts terrorizing the monastery’s livestock on a full moon.

Here is the beginning of that story! I will eventually expand upon it and perhaps post it on AO3. Like my other works, it's part of the Tales From The Monastery universe :)

When I found Brother Wulfstan outside, he wasn’t even a man anymore, but a close approximation to one. His body was a bloodied pulp. His flesh was torn asunder and his face ripped anew. I thought for sure he was dead. Falling to my knees, it was only when I prayed next to his miserable body that I saw he breathed still. I scrambled to my feet and ran to fetch help. If we could not save him, at the very least he would receive extreme unction. The soul is more important than the body. 

…

By the time we–the infirmarer, the infirmarer’s apprentice, the abbot, and the prior–reached Brother Wulfstan, his injuries had lessened. His face resembled a face again. The slashes on his belly no longer dripped blood and gore. 

“It’s a miracle,” I whispered, “Praise be to God!”

“Hush up,” The infirmarer knelt beside him. He examined Brother Wulfstan quickly and thoroughly, shaking his head all the while. 

“What attacked him?” the apprentice asked.

“Werewolf.”

“Werewolf?” The abbot asked. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

If I had known Brother Wulfstan was now cursed or what would follow next, I would have left him to die. At the time, I crossed myself and prayed for God’s mercy. 

….

He woke up two days later. His wounds healed, his handsome face covered in furious cinnabar scars. During his comatose state, Brother Wulfstan’s blue eyes transformed into the tell tale amber of lycanthropy. His human canines shifted into the fangs of a wolf. His body hair grew shaggy. 

When Brother Wulfstan woke up and realised what he had become, he screamed. It echoed throughout the monastery. I was at my place in the scriptorium at the time. His howls frightened and relieved us all. It frightened my brethren and I because we knew not what kind of monster he would be. It relieved us because our fellow brother in Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was still alive.