"Aki, are you ready yet?" Yuki Sato called exasperatedly up the stairs.

"Hold on a minute Mum, I can't find my charger!" Her son's muffled yell replied.

"And you didn't think about this last night because?" Yuki rubbed her eyes. He was deliberately stalling. He had only started packing a week ago in the hope that the move wouldn't materialise, another throwaway plan like his father's brief attempt at learning the violin. The family had had barely ten 'big' arguments in thier life together and most of them had been in the past four months. Ever since her husband Sohei had lost his job at the magazine only a year after she herself had lost hers. With no money coming in, they had been offered a home with Yuki's mother until they got back on thier feet. The only problem with this arrangement was proximity to the city of Kamurra, or lack of it. Hana lived in a quaint house deep in picturesque, mountainous countryside with only a few close knit neighbours nearby. The nearest thing resembling a town was almost an hour's drive away. It wasn't ideal but Yuki and Sohei were practical people and were very grateful for Hana's offer. After all she was used to having her own space and, while she loved her grandchildren's company, living with them would be a lot to adjust to. Isshoni, her daughter was looking forward to the change of scenery and to seeing her grandmother. Besides, the ten year old was a very easy going person.

Yuki's older child, Akihito, was a different story. He loved the hustle and bustle of the city, his school and his friends and had reminded them all of his hay fever. "I won't be able to breathe in the country! It's too green!"

"Oh Aki, don't be a drama king!" Isshoni had laughed.

"I am not!" Akihito had responded dramatically.

Finally he emerged, hair over his eyes, headphones in and a sulky expression on his face.

Yuki flicked the dark head of hair "gonna have to get this cut when we get to Grandma's"

Aki grunted by way of reply and sat down next to Isshoni. "Bye, house!" She grinned.

"Do you have to be so cheerful about it?" Her brother snapped.

"I thought you had your music on?"

"We do kind of have super sensitive hearing you know."

She frowned "you know what you are? A misery guts!"

"Not"

"Yes you are! Misery guts!"

"Dad! Tell her!"

"Kids! Please. Can we have a nice peaceful trip?" Sohei called from behind the paintings lodged between the front and back seats "we're on the road for about five hours and I dont want to listen to you moaning all the way!"

"I wasn't moaning!" Isshoni said with an angelic smile, showing her wolf ears to enhance the sweet expression. Sohei's family brought a new literal meaning to the expression 'puppy dog eyes'. His wife and her brother were half Wolf Child and both the children had inherited thier mother's ability to transform to resemble the magnificent creature. However, their changes required more concentration than Yuki's, which were as easy as blinking. In fact, Isshoni had only recently been able to hold a partial wolf form for more than a few minutes, dispite having enhanced senses from birth. The night she had done it she had woken everyone in the house to show them. It was one of the few times in recent years they had seen Aki excited about anything outside of a computer screen. Despite thier bickering, he did like to see his sister's goofy brand of happiness. Just not today.


After a long, tiring but pretty drive, the family pulled into the familiar yard. As always, Hana was already outside, hard at work with her greying hair in a messy bun. This time, she was busy scattering grain to some new animals. "Chickens!" Isshoni loved animals of all kinds and found birds in particular fascinating, despite her heritage.

"Say hello to your grandmother first!" Yuki frowned.

"Oh sorry. Hi, Grammy. How are you?" Isshoni asked her with a hug.

"Better for seeing you, dear. Knew you'd like these guys. Now we can bake with our own eggs."

"Can we make a cake tonight, Grammy?"

"Slow down, Issy, let us all settle in first, eh?" Sohei called "hello Hana!"

"Sohei! You're looking well!"

Yuki nudged her son after greeting her mother. He pulled the headphones down to the neck and waved to Hana.

"My, my is that my grandson? He's at least a foot too tall!"

"Can we not do this Grandma?" He raised his eyebrows but hugged her anyway.

"Come on in, everyone. I'm making Grandad Special!"

Even Akihito's eyes lit up at that. When they were first married, Hana's late husband had showed her how to make an amazing chicken kebab like dish with a delicious sauce. It was still the whole family's favourite but none of them could replicate it like Hana. She maintained that she wasn't as good as Canis was at the meal. One of many reasons Issy wished she'd known him. "Hi Grandad" she said as she passed the ID card and vase collection that served as the family shrine "we're gonna be staying for a while so it might be a bit noisy."

"I told him you were all coming" Hana smiled, putting an affectionate hand on her granddaughter's slim shoulders "wanna test the sauce for me?"

She followed her into the kitchen, like a row of ducklings "hey, Grammy, guess what?"

"Ooh, the sky's turned purple?"

"No! I can do transformations now. Not properly but I'm gonna practice! And here's the perfect place, right?"

"That's great honey. You see, I told you you'd get there." Hana ruffled Issy's dark hair "maybe wait till tomorrow before you go howling at the moon, though, eh?"