Kierra

For the next few days, we spend most of our time training in ways of fighting in both wolfen forms, as well as Asher teaching me how to do partial shifts, which is basically only shifting parts of your body or adding on more muscle. Even Bastion helped out, as much as he could anyway. I'd have him climbing onto my back so I could build up my strength against being weighed down. Kid doesn't weigh very much, but it was helpful, even if I did feel like a damn horse.

When we weren't training, I was given crash courses in tracking and identifying scents. Even ran Bastion to the store to pick up some essentials he needed. My jeep's getting less and less usage, but hey, saves gas. While at the store, I picked up lots more plain t-shirts and sweatpants, seemed like a good idea at the time. I wasn't worried about shoes.

Also picked up floor rugs, old blankets, and pillows for the basement from the Salvation Army store in town. Bastion and I had a talk about the extra room, but with it being where it is, I don't want him to feel caged again. He said he'd try, so I've made future plans to get some furniture for the area.

With the water-heater and piping below the stairs, it leaves the rest of it pretty much opened. The area in front of the staircase has been rearranged, the storage tubs and boxes stacked into a more contained, smaller space which leaves plenty of room to come down. It's left a wider room without feeling like you're going to run into or step on anything.

That basically leaves one giant open area. Going through it in my head, the spot for the boy is on the opposite end of where the pipes are, so he should be just fine on that part if he chooses. Don't want to give him reminders of where I had found him. The larger corner space I cover with the rugs, tossing the old blankets and pillows around haphazardly.

During the day of the first full moon, I became antsier then I've ever been, having to bite my tongue before snapping at Bastion several times. Yelling at my cat and scaring him half to death with the scent of wolf being so close to the surface was funny at first, but it was mean. Doorways were getting rubbed on as my skin itched, but it didn't really help.

My skin was hot, more so than what it usually is, which was part of my being so cranky. My insides ached, feeling as if I needed to stretch but no matter how much I did, it didn't help. Out of the corner of my eye, I'd keep catching Asher's gaze on me, but ignored it as much as possible.

After the fifth or so time finding myself staring at him, I let him know it was time to scoot. Damn near booting him out with words not to come back till tomorrow's sunrise.

My hunger picked up as well, eating just about everything meat orientated in the house. Thankfully, Tigger has learned to stay away from me for now, eating my cat is not something I want to do. Once all the meat was gone, everything else in the kitchen became fair game. Poor kid would watch me as if I was insane, putting barbecue sauce on peanut butter and cheese crackers and gobbling them down. Amazingly, it didn't taste that bad.

Bastion and I once more go over what will be going on, Asher had only been able to prepare me for so much since each female is different, no matter the species. Giving the boy the option to either stay upstairs or come with me, several books had been taken below for him to keep busy.

Just getting ready for sundown is driving me nuts with the feeling of confinement, so I step out onto the back porch for the last few minutes that I can. Breathing deeply as I count in my head, my skin has been very warm all day, to the point I'm constantly sweating, which just makes me even more irritable. I hate being too warm, I prefer to stay cool. Summer heat is forever my bane, and by the looks of things now, it's just going to get worse.

The wildlife is settling in for the night, it's going to be a cold one. During my teachings in the woods, I found that there's an opossum that's claimed a tree in the front 'yard', several rabbit burrows, an abandoned fox den, and several deer trails. I looked for it all, now knowing the placement of each one by heart, knowing the smells that make up my piece of land.

Asher and I had gotten into it a couple times over marking territories, granted he has most of it marked already, being here as long as he has, but still. He did bring up a good point though, that keeping his scent everywhere would hide mine that much better. Couldn't totally obliterate it, but it was as good as we were gonna get. The one thing I could not help but do anyway, and I think he understood, was marking directly around my home. Rubbing my scent on everything from the front porch railings to the back steps and doorways.

It's weird taking on instincts that aren't originally your own, but they're steadily becoming more normal feeling to me. Adaption at its finest. I can smell my wolf all around the house, inside and out, nose being stronger and all. It wasn't a bad smell, just different, and much better than Asher's pissing on everything.

Chewing my lip as I watch the sky, I then head back in and lock the door, getting confirmation from Bastion on where he wants to be. Shouldn't have been surprised when he said with me, he's really taken to my natural wolf shape. We both head down after securing the upstairs.

I had put a lock on the basement door, one inside and one out. Bastion is to keep it locked from this side till sunrise, keeping me down here. He has the key on a chain around his neck and he's very proud of that key, telling me it's the first one he's ever had. It symbolizes home to him. My body starts itching as I make my way down the stairs, heading for the mounds of pillows and blankets.

Bastion tucks the chain behind his shirt and follows after me. We had developed a system that I would say a specific word and he knew to turn his eyes away, as it meant I was about to go nude. Shifting in clothes either shreds them, or you get tangled in them, which can be a serious downfall if you're in a fight. I found that out the hard way. Definitely going to have to look into those clothes that have snaps, that just pull apart and off without destroying them.

The trigger word being 'silver', I say it just as I get to the bedding, ripping my tank top over my head, the removal of the heavy feeling material is a blessing to my hot skin. Unclasping the bra, shoving down sweatpants and underwear, just stepping out of them is when my body starts shifting. The feeling isn't awful, nor painful. More disconcerting I guess, as you feel your bones alter their shape.

No more feeling them break after that first shift, no lava-filled veins or boiling brain. Now, it's more a sense of freeing yourself, shedding the troubles of being human. The whole thing takes only one to five minutes, the speed of it depending on if you're forcing a faster shift. Let's hear it for confusing magics.

I'd been practicing a faster shift time for my upcoming encounter to save my sister, but even forcing it, I'm only at three minutes, which is a lot of time when you may only have mere seconds. One saving grace is that you don't have to hold still for the altering of your shape, so you can be in the middle of fighting and still do it. The only issue I could see with doing that is your eyes are also changing, which can cause disorientation.

I don't force the change now, but with it being the full moon, the shift is already sped up from wolfy chemicals going all nuts within the body. Don't know if that's the actual meaning, but that's my reasoning. Pretty sure there's much more technicality to it than that though.

I fall to all fours as my spine and body structure contorts, feeling a pressure in my ears and face as it elongates. Closing my eyes as they reform so I don't get dizzy, the shift itself is pretty quiet, only noises being heard is if you grunt or groan during it from pulling muscles and such. I stay pretty silent.

Shaking my body as it finishes its last touches, my fur settles and ears swivel, raising my nose to catch what the air has to tell me. The burning low in my body is a constant annoyance as it clenches and twitches. I look over to Bastion who's still facing away, looking through the books I had set on one of the lower tubs for him.

Padding over to him silently, I tuck my head under his arm then nose it up. The first thing he always seems to do after I go into this form is to bury his hands in my fur. I figure his love for dogs has swung to wolves more so. Either that or he just loves to play in fur. He wraps an arm over my neck, fingers going deep into my scruff, a smile breaking out over his face.

If for no other reason, I'm commonly in this shape just to see his smile. It lights up his face more than anything else I've yet to find, reading books a close second. He's even taken to playing in Asher's midnight fur when I'm not around or when busy.

I get the feeling we've become his security blankets. I just hope it's helping and not hindering his forward progress. Still too early to tell I guess.

All through the night he reads to me, my body a pulsing live wire as I rub against everything. Several times wondering if I've somehow gotten mixed with a damn cat. I get called back from the stairs without realizing I'd gone to them several times.

Initiating play with the boy when I see him starting to get bored or tired of reading, I roll around and rough-house with him, taking my mind off my need to go outside. Think I need to pick up one of those teddy bears you get your dog when it's a humper, because this is just ridiculous. I think I now know what those poor dogs are goin' through.

About an hour before sunrise finds me curled up in a nest of pillows, Bastion tucked close to my side with a hand in my fur. It's so adorable I'm loathed to move, but unease is coursing through me, the feeling being what woke me in the first place. I nose at his face and lick his cheek, careful not to startle him. Granted it looks much different, but we're still in a basement, which could translate to hell for him.

He nuzzles his face into my side before I see him open his eyes, body stiffening slightly. I know not to take it personally, being here only a few days, he still has bouts of fear and nervousness. Asher had curled around him one night as his nightmares battered him unmercifully. His head rises as I whisper in his mind that something doesn't feel right.

I refuse to baby him and treat him like a brainless child, instead letting him know everything that's going on, trying to keep as little from him as possible when it could impact anything around us. He sits up as I stand, my size just a little shorter than Asher. There are very small windows high up in the concrete walls, level with the ground outside, but they'd been blackened out before we moved in, and I'd never seen the point to change that.

Circling around the stairs, nose raised as I try to find anything before I walk into it, I don't detect any foreign scents, not from down here anyway. Deciding to go for stealth instead of brute, in your face badass, I stay as wolf and I tell Bastion to slowly and quietly unlock the door. Having him back up so I can press an ear to the door, I don't hear anything out of the ordinary, so I have him open it. A thought goes through my head, causing me to scoff to myself, the thought that I should invest in some large doggy doors. That does kinda defeat the purpose of coming down here, doesn't it?

He opens it slowly, body pressed to the side as I poke my head out. Nothing different in the house, so it has to be something outside. The basement door leads right into the kitchen, making the stalking steps to the front door a short trip. Keeping low and away from the windows, I tell the boy to do the same. Him being a good study and always watching me has him already doing what I want before I can say it.

As he slowly opens the front door, I make a note to myself that I need to do something with the screen door. Either taking it off completely or disabling the locking piece on it. I freeze and tell him to do the same before he moves to open it, a breeze coming in brings me the scent of... other.

Don't recognize it, so it's not from around here. I nod for Bastion to unlock the screen, going through it low. When on the porch, I peruse my eyes over everything I can see from my position. The new smell is faint, like it hadn't gotten too close or had been here hours before. I don't pick up any new scent from Asher either, so he took me at my word for going away.

So of course since he's not here, I wish he was, and I don't know what to do or even how to do it. I push my anxiety to the back of my head as I stand, going for an approach of how a dog would act. I shake my head, lick my lips, and yawn.

Putting my nose to the ground as I start sniffing around, there's nothing on the porch. On the steps, however, is spore of something not from here and not a prey animal. My ears swivel backward as I hear Bastion go to the window next to the door.

Ignoring him for now, I start my search, going back and forth over the porch steps to try and pick up a direction. Following it to my jeep were it had circled, to the dirt path that leads out to the road over a hundred yards away. It had brushed up against several trees, catching tufts of fur on them. The more I find, the deeper my heart sinks. I know what I'm tracking.