Tessa’s ears were ringing, and her vision was obscured by phantom spots as she peered over the hill. The coals from the bonfire were nothing but the occasional ember now. The only thing lighting the darkened woods was the low-hanging moon overhead.

She could hear her own heart thumping in her ears as she surveyed the carnage of strewn bodies and blood, her eyes locking onto the movement of a familiar shape in the distance as it seemed to pull something free with a wet grating sound which made her skin prickle.

The silhouette turned towards her in the distance and she heard Mr. Titanos’s voice call out to her.

“Tessa, you okay?!” The worry and concern in his voice were a stark contrast to the murderous scene around him.

“Uhm, I think so?!” she yelled back after examining herself briefly.

“Good. That’s good.” Mr. Titanos replied, slightly distracted.

“I’m gonna need you to do me a favor. I want you to head towards the camp. Just keep the moon to your right and you’ll get there.” Tessa instinctively stood up to approach.

“Tessa. I don’t think you’re entirely ready to see this side of our world yet. It would be best if you just do as I say and head towards the camp.” He reiterated, and Tessa halted.

“Okay... Will you be alright?” She asked.

“I’ll be fine. When you find John and Lydia, tell them not to approach this area until dawn.”

“O-okay.” Tessa stuttered and started moving, keeping the moon to her right.

***

“This really just isn’t my night, is it?” I asked no one in particular.

I waited until Tessa had made it about a mile before turning towards the ones approaching.

A man of medium build stepped out of the shadows ahead, pulling down a piece of cloth covering his mouth.

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Titanos.” The man said in a thick Asian accent matching his sharp facial features.

He had an air about him that exemplified honor and decorum, although his darkened light tactical outfit and the current circumstances didn’t exactly put me at ease.

“I’d say likewise, but I’m afraid I don’t know who you are.” I replied, while taking stock of my limited options. My energy reserves were only just beginning to refill and might as well be nonexistent.

“My apologies. I am Tokugawa Oda, and I represent our clan in extending an invitation to you for a meeting.” Oda said with a formal bow.

“You picked a hell of a time to approach.” I responded, looking around, trying to spot the several dozen hidden Sentires behind him, but found it impressively difficult.

“When sensing an opportunity, one must make a move.” Oda replied sagely, although he still spared a glance at the bodies strewn around the campsite.

“Listen, I’m pretty much done for tonight. If we have to do this, I’d have to tap into raw Astral energies and I really wanted to kick that habit and stay clean. Any way we could postpone this for another time?”

Oda seemed deep in thought for a moment as he considered what I’d said.

“Are these Astral energies truly so insidious?” He asked empathetically.

“Yeah. I’ll even throw in a penalty of your choice, within reason, of course.” I added.

“That is acceptable.” He nodded to himself, and I walked forward.

“Good, we’ve got an agreement, lets seal it.” I reached out my hand, willing the dregs of what I had gathered into my right arm. Oda stared for a moment, likely probing my mind for the meaning of this gesture, and I allowed the information to flow to him freely.

He clasped my hand with a queer look on his face as the oath bound us to our promise.

As I pulled away, Oda moved his forearm up into view to examine the Oath-mark on it.

“We will pull back for tonight and return at a time more convenient, although we will not pass up on an advantageous situation again.” Oda warned as he left into the dark woods crowded by the unseen Sentire of truly impressive ages.

***

Tessa ran as fast as she could without tripping, with only the moon lighting her way.

She tried to push down the tight knot of fear and emotions swirling in her chest and instead focus on moving as quickly as she could.

The training she’d undergone with Mr. Titanos had sharpened her senses and strengthened her body, she’d even been able to use her abilities freely throughout the day, even now she was lowering the wind resistance on her body and increasing the traction she gained on the ground beneath her by raising the friction of the soil.

Her field of influence had passed five meters and even Sophia and Natasha had marveled at the ease with which they could communicate telepathically while under its effect.

The rustling of leaves ahead of her brought Tessa’s mad dash to a sudden halt. Fear clutched her heart as she imagined what kind of terrible creature would attack her next.

Instead, she heard a loud yelp of a woman.

“Holy shit, what the fuck just happened?” The woman groaned. A low thrumming sound came from the direction of the woman.

“No, I’m fine. Just shifted way too quickly and lost my balance. I barely even thought about it before suddenly having to balance on two legs.” The woman explained.

“Whose there?!” Tessa called out, trying to sound confident, but the small quiver in her voice ruined any chance of that.

“Easy there, sweety, not here to hurt you.” The woman said in a calming tone.

“Can you come out where I can see you?” Tessa asked the woman.

“Uhm... No.” the woman replied before hissing in a whisper, “Stop laughing or you can shift and talk to her yourself. Besides, we gotta find Aleks before the Partials do.”

“Uhm, are you talking about Mr. Titanos?” Tessa asked apprehensively, and a long silence stretched out before a man stuck his head out from behind the bush, his torso suspiciously bare.

“We are. How do you know him?” The man asked.

“I’m his apprentice.” Tessa blurted out without thinking.

***

“Elder. Why did you let him leave like that? He was clearly in a weakened state?”

“Have you ever hunted a wolf, Jiro?”

“No, Elder.”

“When a wolf is cornered, it is at its most dangerous, as it does not care what manner of fatal injury it sustains, only that the hunter dies along with it.”

“I do not understand.”

“He was not worried, he was reluctant. There was no option for surrender in his mind, and should we have forced his hand, he was confident in challenging a group of our number and strength.”

“Is that not simply arrogance or ignorance?”

“He did not strike me as an ignorant man, and arrogance and confidence can often be mistaken for one another.” Oda examined the mark on his arm once more.

***

“So, you don’t change into terrifying half-wolf half-human monsters?” Tessa asked.

“No, those are Partial-Shifters.” Lydia confirmed, walking along in a T-shirt she’d borrowed from Tessa, the latter covering herself with her jacket.

“Then what are you?”

“We’re what’s normally referred to as Noble-Wolves. I don’t personally like the term, but hey.” Lydia replied flippantly, getting a chiding shove from John in his wolf form before continuing.

“Okay, okay, history lesson time.”

In almost all ancient cultures, there are legends of animals of great intelligence and size. Sometimes they even include them shifting into or from their human forms. These were our distant ancestors.

They lived in secluded societies, and in one with the Wilds. They would pass the gift to their children often shortly after birth. This went on for generations until one day someone was refused the gift.

There’s different reasons for each tribe, but what happened was the same: the child grew ill and died.

We know today what happens, cancers, immunocompromisation, major organ failures.

You see, by maintaining a steady succession of the gift throughout hundreds of years, we’d grown dependent on it. We could no longer live without it.

As time went on, mankind spread and so did we, scaling mountains and crossing oceans, falling in love and siring children unawares, or simply dying shortly after.

Whatever the case, the gene spread and became recessive. Only a small portion of the population today has it, although usually not for long.

It can skip generations and then suddenly one day manifest in an unfortunate child.

Now the name Noble-Wolves didn’t come from within the Therianthrope community, but from the mundane families of dying children offered the gift, each pack takes as many as they feel comfortable, but on many it weighs heavily that we’ll never save enough.

Now this is where the Partials come in, you see almost everyone carry this gene in its dormant state, but when they are offered the gift their bodies and minds cannot adapt, the beast and man resist each other, often leading to them retaining the worst qualities of both.

Their transformations are incomplete and painful, their minds addled, and each change pushes them further past their limits, where we accept the full moon and its beauty, they are shunned by it, violently forced through their transformation often shredding their sanity leaving them nothing but ravenous monsters.

They carry a hatred for us, whether it be because of pain, jealousy, or a sense of inferiority. It doesn’t matter. To them, we are not welcome.

That’s why we’re making a new start here. We were chased out of our ancestral home as the packs surrounding us were gradually pushed out or simply died out.

“Wow.” Tessa said in a heavy tone.

“Yeah... Now what about you, apprentice to a Titan? You must have a pretty neat story yourself.” Lydia said, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Uhm, not really.” Tessa replied uncomfortably.

“Come on, don’t be shy. You from some coven or something? Don’t tell me you’re some weirdo Titan, too?!” Lydia prodded pleasantly.

“Actually, uhm, I didn’t even know any of this existed a month ago.” Tessa revealed.

“You’re kidding.” Lydia replied with a look of shock.

“No, Mr. Titanos Found me on a- found me and apparently I was doing something without even realizing it. He’s been teaching me how to control it ever since, along with other stuff.” Tessa explained.

“So, what is it you can do?” Lydia asked excitedly.

“I don’t quite get it myself, but apparently I can change resistances.” Tessa said, unsure of herself.

“Got an example?.” Lydia asked.

“Well, like I can make gravel and dirt really solid, or keep ice cold, I can also make magic stuff easier by keeping the surrounding interference low.” Tessa rambled, making Lydia’s face look more and more confused.

“Can you try it out?” Lydia suggested, as the two kept walking ahead.

John stopped, having felt a weird sensation of whole-ness, like some of the blurriness was removed from his senses. He looked ahead at the tall brunette ahead of him chatting along with his sister and changed.

“Whoa!” John gasped as he nearly fell on his face as his change went smoother than it ever had before. He stumbled for a moment, arms spread out for balance, before looking up.

The two ahead of him now turned around Lydia, trying to contain her laughter as she looked at Tessa standing wide-eyed in a daze before suddenly turning bright red and spinning around to face the other way.

***

I stood up from my seated position, my reserves now at acceptably low levels, and started making my way towards the Oleson camp.

The moon was now squarely in the sky and although I couldn’t be sure, I’d wager a couple of hours had passed.

I went over the events of the day and couldn’t help but cringe. What had been meant as a bit of well-deserved payback had turned into a horrifying experience for Tessa.

Sophia had warned me some part of her was still in denial about the world we’d introduced her to and that she could suffer a breakdown at any moment.

I couldn’t even blame her if she’d run away screaming and hitched a ride as far away from here as possible, honestly if I’d been in her shoes, I’d done the same.

“What the hell am I gonna tell Sophia and Natasha?” I said in realization, they’d probably begun to worry by now.

I needed to hurry up and try to track her down, at least try to talk to her before she runs off.

Moving through the woods alone, I quickly picked up speed, easily reducing the distance to the camp to the point that I came bolting out of the tree line into the clearing, although my sudden entrance wasn’t noticed or at least acknowledged.

“Okay, one, two, three... GO!” Lydia stood in front of a row of teens who all wore expressions of varying degrees of constipation, one kid was so red in the face he was turning blue, Tessa stood a couple of meters in front of them with her back turned and arms spread out like when she tries to stabilize her domain.

Then, one by one, the kids sprouted fur and their bodies shifted fluidly into that of a wolf or, in some instances, pups. People around them quickly began to cheer, some rushing in to proudly hug their child.

“I hope you don’t mind. We found out her ability helps with the transformation and the first one can be hard to get a handle on.” John said, having snuck up behind me.

I didn’t take my eyes off the scene in front of me as Tessa was charged by a small pack of tiny wolves knocking her over and crowding her like any dog lover’s dream.

She was smiling ear to ear and happily laughing...

I turned to John, my relief flooding to my face.

“Thank you.” John’s expression turned slightly uncomfortable, and he looked a bit confused before shrugging it off.

“No need. After all, we’re neighbors now, right?” John said, putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

We turned back to the camp as parents and caretakers scooped up the rowdy bunch and freed a now very disheveled but happy looking Tessa.

“I hate to ruin the moment... But I have to ask, those Partials-” John started reluctantly.

“Dead. Except for one, Collin. I think his name was.” I replied, a bit of iron returning to my voice.

“Well, that’s not good.” John sighed, shaking his head. “Killing all of them would have been better, although I would have liked to deescalate the situation.”

“Had they been in your territory, then I would have given them the benefit of the doubt, even with the way they behaved themselves, but they were on neutral ground.” I justified.

“Yeah, I know. I think Nala made me read that damned contract a dozen times before signing it.” John replied, clearly not relishing the memory.

“But they won’t see it that way, I’m guessing?” I asked, a bit of weariness slipping into my voice.

“No... No they won’t. They’ll blame us no matter the circumstances.” John replied.

The peaceful scene in front of us slipped away from me and my thoughts drifted to violence and blood. I caught an instinctual shiver from some of the wolves ahead of us as they turned and looked worriedly in our direction.

“Got any attachments to them, relatives, friends?” I asked, reining in my emotions as best I could.

John stared at me for a moment with a conflicted expression.

“I was childhood friends with their current leader. I’d like him afforded the chance to surrender peacefully.” said resignedly.

“Done. Could you set up a meeting with them for me... Alone?” I replied.

“Should be doable.” Nodded hesitantly, clearly not liking the sound of that.

“Good.” I stated, feeling a smile tug at the corner of my mouth.