The snow just barely bothered Erik by now, he was walking through the woods at the feet of the mountains to the north, hungry wolves were following him in safe distance, they could smell the death from his hands.

Power surged through Erik’s body, he could hear the steps of the wolves behind him, he could smell their fear and desperation. Killing their alpha had disturbed the others and when he absorbed the spirits of half the fallen animals they had scattered in horror.

Blood stained his hands and had left a red trail leading from the dead animals here, something inside of him had driven him here an urge, Erik knew came from the animals that now crowded his mind.

He sat down in the snow, his torn clothes trailing around his waist like a skirt a dark pelt covered his body and his hands ended in claws. Erik sat there, looking at his new hands deformed as they were he had no fingernails but claws sprouting from his fingers.

With a bit of concentration he could change his form back towards a more humane look, the hair retracted into his skin and his fingers shed their claws and grew back to normal human ones.

Erik looked up into the sky, the sun was setting already and the dark clouds seemed to turn into ash as the light faded. The boy got on his four limbs and changed completely into a wolf, it was time to hunt.

Spring was fighting back winter as Erik returned to his human form, with the snow in the valley melting he felt like he should go back to his house and bury the remainders of his parents.

The last months he had lived as a wolf and nearly lost himself not something he intended to repeat.

His mind was crowded with animal spirits, owls, squirrels and all sort of rodents he had killed as a wolf. Adding to that number were a couple of more wolves and a stag that had decided he would fend off the lone wolf rather than flee.

His wounds now healed fast enough to watch, a cut was gone in mere hours a broken bone was mended in a day, the later had been useful when he had fallen down a cliff.

Burying his dead parents was easier than Erik had thought, their flesh had been eaten and the skulls had little resemblance with the two people that had raised him.

Spring was pushing winter ever further back as the temperatures rose significantly. He expected the farmers back in the valley would start soon with the new fields to make up for this years losses.

The food stock of the village would be nearly depleted and if the people here had one quality it was their fear of what was to come. He had stopped wearing boots, the cold rarely bothering him.

His old clothes had stopped fitting him, so he was now wearing one of the black vests his father had loved so much. The transformation into a wolf had changed him, when he had seen his own reflection in the blade of his axe he nearly did not recognize himself. His black hair had turned dark grey and his eyes still held a yellow glow whenever his emotions got the better of him.

The changes made his already scary face a lot meaner, enough so that he had practised a less scary look not to scare the villagers and his friends to death. The last of his problems were his teeth, they had stayed the teeth of wolves fitted into a human's jaw. Which made them larger and biting his own tongue a whole more dangerous.

As he practiced looking less intimidating he heard someone fighting his way through the melting snow. Heavy breaths and the occasional curse sounded as Alaric followed the small path towards the house.

Erik was happy to hear his friend worried enough to make the entire way up the side of the mountain but he was worried Alaric had worsened his relationship with his dad. The man had never liked him or his family.

After a couple of minutes Erik's friend Alaric's head appeared out of the forest clearly visible since it was bright red. At the sight of Erik he stopped, studied him for a moment before continuing his way. On his back was a big leather bag.

"Hey there stranger, I'm looking for a small ugly kid about two years younger than me. You wouldn't know something about him would you? He should live around here somewhere."

Alaric had recognized him alright and judging from his greeting he had been pretty worried about him.

"We are the same age Alaric and I was never that small..." Erik was relieved the first meeting after his change went so casual, he had pictured a lot of worse scenarios.

"Even Cara was taller than you, you were the smallest boy in the village buz now look at you standing taller than I am! What have you been eating?" Alaric smiled but it did not reach his eyes.

"We both know you figured out my parents are dead, heck the food we had wouldn't have been enough for one person let alone three. I just buried what the wolves had left" The awkward silence that followed was to be expected.

"I'm sorry Erik, what happened?" the pain in his voice made Erik feel sorry about the way he had said it.

“It's okay, they chose to die so i could live. I’m guessing they were pretty happy about it.” he said with a sad smile, he had thought the time in winter had dulled the pain but admitting openly to it was like opening an old forgotten wound and pouring salt into it.

“We were low on food and mom had been sick for weeks, so i guess they thought it would be for the better if they left.” he tried to say more but his voice failed him, Alaric looked at him with this look he would get whenever he was very uncomfortable but didn’t want to say anything.

“Anyway what are you carrying in your leather bag?” Erik tried his best to sound interested but it was as if part of the things he had swallowed back down before he could say them and lose his composure completely were camping out in his throat.

Alaric jumped on the opportunity to change the subject, “I thought you could need some food, so i managed to smuggle some bacon, cheese and dried fruit out of the house. To be honest though i had hoped Cara was here as well, I haven’t seen the two of you in a while and with just you here i don’t feel all to safe-” He was interrupted by the huffing and puffing of someone further down the road, someone with a high pitched voice that was mumbling one curse after another in between breaths.

Alaric set his bag on the ground and turned around, his eyes glimmered. Erik took a few steps towards his friend and stood next to him, he had indeed grown taller than Alaric was now. Cara’s blonde top knot came into view, bobbing up and down with every step, then her nearly closed eyes focused on the path below her.

The green in her eyes was bright with the light reflected back at her from the snow. She was wearing a, probably self made, wool jacket. It was probably self made since one sleeve was longer than the other and the buttons were not lined up properly. All in all it was a typical, made by Cara, piece of clothing.

She was nearly standing on Alaric’s foot before she stopped and looked up.

“Thank the Spirits! Does that mean I am nearly there?” Cara, asked as she looked from one to the other.

“It’s good to see you too, as well as it’s good to know some things never change…” Erik said, pointing at the weird coat she was wearing.

“I would like to murder the two of you, but I’m afraid the exhaustion would not let me walk back down this dragon forsaken hill.” her voice was flat, the three of them exchanged glances.

Then all three sat down in the snow and started talking at once.

“Why did no one visit me?” asked Cara.

“What is up with that wool jacket? Did you try to beat a sheep into shape?” was said by Alaric and retaliated by Cara with a bit of snow in his face.

“Can we eat now?” was the only thing Erik thought to ask.

The three of them started laughing, and as they stopped a awkward silence settled in. Followed by stares at the ground and the occasional cough.

“Okay before we start talking to the snow i would welcome you into my house, I can’t have you lot sitting here and melting all the fine snow away.” Erik stood up and slung the leather bag across his shoulder.

The other two followed him inside, Cara opened her mouth as to ask something but Alaric stopped her with a hand on hers and a head movement outside where you could see two wooden stakes buried in the ground next to each other, the place where his parents were buried.

She paled, then quietly moved along, as Erik set up the table, he was glad about cleaning up the house the day before, otherwise they would have been forced to eat outside.

The window was still broken but he had managed to get most of the blood off the floor and wall.

They ate mostly in silence, other than the occasional thank you to Alaric for endangering his life for getting the food they now ate. After a couple of minutes Erik was stuffed, he was not used to eating that much, during the winter he had eaten barely anything and if he did eat it was usually still alive at the time he sunk his teeth into it.

The other two must have noticed his sharp teeth but decided not to ask, since the two of them quietly ate their food and kept their eyes on the wooden plate before them.

After they were done the sat outside on the small wooden bench and Erik told them part of the things that happened in winter.

He left out the things about absorbing spirits or him seeing his dead parents, but he did tell them about killing the wolf and eating it to stay alive. At the end of his tale he added that “him eating wolves must have triggered the change they now saw before them”, Cara accepted the explanation but Alaric could just as well have been shouting “Don’t lie to me Erik!” with the unsatisfied face he made.

Surprisingly he kept his mouth shut however and did not press the matter. After Erik had finished he asked how the others had fared in the winter and the two of them told about their suffering, ranging from awkward silences too a sneezing aunt that would not be quiet for more than five minutes.

Time passed and the sun crept over the sky above them until it was clear Cara and Alaric would need to get back not to get stuck in the dark.

Erik accompanied them and so the first dropped Cara off at the edge of the village where her aunt was already waiting shouting at the two boys for keeping her out that late.

When the two of them had apologized and managed to avoid further punishment they continued on towards Alaric’s house, the sun was now nearly set as Erik turned back towards the mountain.

Alaric snook inside not to alarm his father who was the opinion he had been reading one of his books for the day, as he turned back for one more look at his friend he only saw a shadow vanishing in the night, something was definitely wrong with Erik.