Vivi slowly stroked the fur of the wolf in front of her. It was six feet long from head to tail, body four feet off the ground. It's fur was whitish grey in the low light of the dusk. It kept looking from left to right, occasionally purring.

A few minutes ago, while Vivi was pestering Lupa with questions, without being discouraged by the fact the all she was getting were nods, and the sun had just set, Lupa suddenly looked up at the sky. Her eyes glowed a shade of icy blue.

Then, in the blink of an eye, she fell onto the ground and turned into a ball of fur. That ball of fur, just as quickly, grew bigger and bigger, until this giant white wolf is stood before, it's ear raised in attention.

Now, Vivi definitely didn't get startled. Of course she didn't fall back on her butt with her hands raised. And that undignified squeal that was probably heard all around the camp absolutely did not issue from her.

Now, she was closely examining her. And her conclusion is-she's a wolf. A big wolf.

Despite all the dirt and stuff, her fur was smooth and silky; and sort of cold.

As she continued stroking her neck, she could feel the tension slowly drop. The wolf's ears twitched once or twice, then slowly dropped to the sides of her head. The icy cold glow in her eyes dimmed and went off. The wolf, Lupa, growled and brushed her head on vivi's hand.

Vivi herself would've slipped off to sleep, if not for the slight tap on her shoulder. She looked behind her to meet a pair of hazel eyes.

The owner of the eyes had light cocoa skin that took the color of freshly baked bread in the campfire. Her brown hair fell from the sides of her head in coils. She was smiling but her expression was masked because of the scarcity of light. There was a tiny scar on her left cheek.

Vivi was confused for a second, then she saw the scar on the left cheek.

"Rayla!" Vivi threw herself on the older girl, " oh my God! I thought you were dead! Where were you? How did you survive? How did you get out? "

"I wanna ask the same questions!," Rayla's voice was high pitched and bubbling with excitement, "Back in the capital, there was this elf guy. When they attacked, he got us out through a tunnel," she lifted her face to look at Vivi, "How did you get out? Where in the name of Gorgoa have you been?" Then suddenly her smile faded, "did Russell..."

"Oh, he made it. Although, he would've been dead if not for me. I saved his life twice!" Vivi said with an air of pride.

"Oh," Rayla sighed, too relived for a reply. Then she saw Lupa.

An "ack" escaped her as she stepped back. The wolf judged her curiously.

"It won't bite, right?" Rayla whispered into vivi's ears.

"She, not it. She's a person." Vivi said, "Lupa, change back."

The wolf stared at her.

"Change back. Like you did before!" Vivi said louder.

Staring intensified.

"Okay," Rayla said in a doubting tone.

"But she can do it!" Vivi wailed, "she just turned into a wolf a few moments ago!"

Rayla lifted her hands in defensive, "Okay, okay. I believe you."

Then, suddenly remembering something, Vivi looked around.

"Where's Marianda?" She said, still looking.

"Mother didn't...", The look on her face was pained.

"Oh," Vivi's voice started to break, " I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Rayla wiped her eyes, "she tried to protect us when we were running and the soldiers were catching on. After the dragon got free, we got scattered. Then I found Fey, the elf," she pointed at an obscure direction towards the encampment, "and got out of the capital. I don't know what happened to the others."

The stood in silence for a while, Lupa looking from one to another and occasionally growling in a low voice.

"Do you have any news on Arlo?" Rayla said in a whispered tone.

"No, we haven't seen him yet." Vivi's stomach fell as she said it.

Rayla sighed out in a quiver. Her back hunched forward as if in a great burden.

"Don't worry," Vivi put a hand on her back, "we'll figure something out. We'll bring him back."

Rayla responded with a nod.

She took a deep breath and seemed to pull herself together, "Okay, then. Where's Russell? There's someone he has to meet too."

"He just went to look for Elli and Arron," Vivi also pointed at an obscure direction, "He'll be back any moment."

Rayla arched her eyebrows, "Who are Elli and Arron?"

"Hey, have you seen Arron?" As if summoned by her name, Elli's voice sounded from behind them, "and, again, who is that? And what's a wolf doing there? And why is it that every time I meet up with you I get introduced to somebody new?"

Vivi turned towards Rayla and begun saying, "Rayla this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth Forthfire to be exact. She's the..."

"You!" Rayla shrieked as she lunged forward, tackling Elli to the ground. Blows of fire shot out of Elli's hands but Rayla already had Elli on the ground and her hands around her throat.

After she got over the shock of what happened, she ran forward, yelling, "what are you doing?"

But before she could reach there, a gust of cold wind hit her from behind and something big and white rushed past her at blinding speed. It tackled Rayla and together they rolled for about fifteen feet before coming to a halt.

Lupa was on top of Rayla. She pinned her down with her paws. Her head hung over the older girl's. Her eyes glowed deep icy blue.
Her mouth was opened in a snarl. And along her jaw...

Oh God.

Vivi gasped. A hand instinctively covered her mouth. Her stomach searched for something inside to retch, ended up growling sickeningly instead.

Lupa's mouth wasn't full of sharp daggerlike teeth. That wouldn't have made Vivi sick.

All of her teeth were small and human length. And Vivi, as slow as she can sometimes be, could tell they were not meant to be that way.

The pink colors of her gums could be seen at the tip of them. Her canines ended with a flat end, like someone had cut them off with something sharp. All the other teeth were short and dull, with pink gum sticking out from the center. It looked like they had been grinded to dull them. A scar ran on the pink gum right above the upper teeth, as if to suggest that there had been "accidents" with the saw in this operation.

Rayla stopped struggling. Nothing like two rows of disfigured werewolf teeth to diminish your fighting spirit.

Rayla shot Elli a questioning look. Then she looked at Vivi.

Forcing herself out of her trance, Vivi rushed forward and tackled Lupa. Well, less like tackle and more of a really aggressive hug. Lupa whinnied confusedly but moved away.

Rayla tried to scramble to her feet, but Vivi stepped on her shoulder and pinned her down.

"Rayla, mind explaining why you were attacking Elli there?" Vivi looked down on Rayla with a cold expression, still hugging the wolf.

"Why am i attacking her? Why are you even defending her? She's from the royal family! The royal armies are the ones who cut us down in the capital! She's behind all those deaths!" Behind her hazel eyes was pure and absolute loathing.

"Elli didn't have anything to do with that. Neither does Arron," Vivi, uncharacteristically, tried explaining, "They are running away from the kingdom, just like all of us."

Rayla was having none of it, "You expect me to believe that? They're the king's family! Of course they have a hand in everything the army does."

"For goodness sake, girl! The king killed his own wife!" Vivi snapped, "You think he cares about his family? We're all refugees here!"

Vivi looked around a little nervously. They were turning quiet a number of heads.

Rayla didn't say anything. She only kept looking at the princess's direction with fire in her eyes.

Apparently, even though the princess wasn't used to getting choked, she was used to being glared at. She simply looked Rayla in the eye and talked to Vivi.

"Let her up."

Vivi did so. Well, it's not like she was gonna stand there stepping on Rayla's shoulder for all eternity.

Elli rose to her feet and walked to Rayla.

"Look, I know you are scared and confused and right now you just wanna know what happened. If I myself knew what this is about, I would've announced it to the whole camp. But the thing is, I'm just as lost and confused as you are. I know it's supposed to be my duty to know the problem and have a solution, but I'm sorry, I didn't do my job this time. So right now, I can't do anything else but ask you to be patient and trust me. I'm sorry." Elli said slowly and held out her hand to Rayla.

Vivi wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault, that there was no way she could've known. She wanted to scream that she was a good person and that she had nothing to apologize for. But she couldn't. Some odd knot in her chest held her back.

Rayla looked at her for a moment. Then she rejected the hand and stood up by herself.
"I don't trust you." She said and turned around. Then she walked into the crowd.

"Who was that? And w~h~y is there a wolf over there?" Russell had appeared just in time to miss all the fun.

"This is Lupa," Vivi pointed to the wolf,"and that was Rayla." Vivi pointed to the crowd, "and I am too tired to explain."

"This is Lupa?" Elli side questioned.

"Hold on, that was Rayla? Why is she walking away?" Russell turned to the crowd And started walking.

"Did you find Arron?" Elli asked from behind.

"No," then suddenly remembering something, he turned back and handed Elli a paper bag, "here's the bread." Then he walked away again.

Elli looked into the paper bag.

Vivi looked at her for a few seconds and at last said, "I swear, It's a bread short because Russell ate one."