((A/N: BTW, read first fic. first, .net/s/4042244/1/Third_in_line : Third in line))

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Settling in

Kero looked over at Yue. 'How're we gonna get him home like this?' he wondered to himself. Yue was lying very still, trying not to hurt himself worse than he was already. Kero was tempted to bend down and give him a comforting lick, but thought better of it. Yue was real exhausted after the

Final Judgment.

A little too exhausted come to think of it.

"Yue, you're presence… it's real weak," he said, looking over to Yue. Yue nodded. "Without my second form my power is leaking rapidly.

I'm surprised you noticed already though." Yue turned his head a little to look over at Kero. Kero twitched his tail and nodded.

"It's probably because I've spent so much time living in the woods. I tried to pick up your scent so I could remember it for later, and I noticed it's not there. At least it's real faint."

Aura landed on the branch just outside her hollow and peered in. She reached in a paw and rustled around for what she thought she'd need. Star shade leaves for the cut, some hard, sweet smelling bark to use for a splint, and lots of bandages.

"There we go…" she said to herself. She crouched down, and sprang into the air. With a few flaps she was up in the air. She grinned and raised her nose to the air.

Her ears shot up. She sniffed, stored and sorted the scents hurriedly. She could smell a human she had never scented before, as well as a cat, with a similar scent to Kero or Aven, but still unknown. The human scent that almost reminded her of Yue, but not really. Blood, Kero's, Yue's, and her own? But the strongest smell the wind carried was the scent of the cards. She almost forgot to flap as the main scent warped. The scent of the cards started to change, and it gained part of her own scent to it. She blinked and started sniffing in surprise. The scent had vanished?

Kero and Yue looked up as Aura landed. She dropped the supplies down next to Yue and picked up the bark. She put it over the wing where she had broken it, and stared at the wing curiously. Somehow, it didn't look badly broken at all, if at all. She sniffed it and repressed the urge to poke it curiously. Kero leaned over.

"Magic?" he guessed. Aura shrugged and put the bark to the side. She'd put it back later.

She picked up the leaves and began to put them over the worst wounds, wrapping them in bandages. Kero repressed a snicker. Yue looked half mummified, and very ridiculous. Aura grabbed the unused bark in her mouth and walked over to a tree, stuffing it inside a crack in the roots.

"That wing sure heals fast…" she muttered as she looked at the sky. The sun was about to rise soon. Aura smirked slightly and looked back in the direction of the city. "Well, this should help quite a bit." She said. Kero perked his ears and tilted his head. Aura turned to him and explained. "Now that I've been out all night, maybe Ferguson will put me back where I belong." she looked back to the rising sun, noting that ironically it was in the same direction as the orphanage. She smirked and got up, stretching and giving a huge yawn. Kero shook his fur out and also got up.

"Just wondering, what are we gonna do with Yue?" Kero asked, returning to his borrowed form. Yue looked up.

Aura thought and tried to hide a smile. "Hmm… Well, can't leave him here, but I can't see how we could get him inside either. And come to think of it, school's going to open soon. But it's more important nothing else happens to Yue, so I guess I can skip school. If I went, then you Kero would have to come with, in case those punks attacked me, but Yue would be out all alone in the woods. So…"

Kero turned slowly and scowled at her. "Aura, you know I won't allow that. If you miss much more school you could flunk the school year," he said before pausing. "You aren't skipping school, take the cards with you instead." The tone of his voice suggested that that was an order.

Aura's ears sank and she sighed. "Darn, I was hoping you'd forget that option…" she pouted. Kero stared at her, straight in the eyes.

After a few moments, Aura spread her wings. "Fine, I'll get my stuff and head to school…" she moped, flapping into the air.

Aura landed silently in the field near the school and tucked away her wings. She strode into the rest of the school and walked up to the library. With a sigh she thumbed through the books, not finding anything she hadn't read, or would probably read. She glanced at the clock and noted almost an hour before first hour. She peered about and padded over to a secluded spot in the corner of the library, behind the last shelf of the non-fiction area. She curled up with her head on her backpack and closed her eyes, realizing she was tired from all the fighting last night. With a silent yawn, she drifted into a nap.

She ran through the woods, surrounded by wolves she had known. She howled up at the sky, as some of the others joined in. On her side ran a white furred one, tongue lolling. She slowed as wings came out of his back. The wolf collapsed, whining in pain, as the wings flapped, and slashed, cutting through him and pulling out a human shape.

A human…

She growled as it rose out, tall and glaring. The other wolves growled and yelped as cord wrapped around them, dragging them away. A yellow wolf, a blue one, a pink, a purple, a white. Wolves of all colors, her pack were dragged to the human. She lunged at the person in the shadows, but he flew away, and the other wolves howled and screeched as they began to float after him, disappearing. She cried out and yowled, as the nightmare, faded, and another dream took its place.

She flew through the sky and smiled. It was clear and crisp in the sky, the breezes were just right, and the sun warmed her fur. She looked down at the world below, spotting her pack of fifty- five. The cards and guardians all lounging about below. She flew closer and gasped at the sight. Her guardians were bleeding, and the cards were trapped in a fitful slumber, some crying out desperately in their dreams. They cried out, like a pup whining to be fed. She dove, and found herself dizzy and disoriented.

She caught sight of three figures, unfamiliar, as the wind careered her faster down, She howled as she struggled to slow her speed, but the wind slammed her down faster and faster.

She slammed down, and crawled over to her pack, licking Kero's wounds, trying to clean him. She licked her cards, trying to rouse them. Dash staggered over, forcing his eyes open. "Help us…" he pleaded, before falling over asleep. He whined and withered in his sleep the moment he hit the ground.

She opened her eyes in the library and looked up at the clock. It was about five minutes to first hour. She got to her feet, combed her hair back in place over her ears, and adjusted her tail again to look like a belt. Checking over herself, she walked into the main library, setting off to her first class. It was going to be a long day.

Her eyes drooped tiredly as the science teacher droned on and on.

Behind her the class yammered insistently, ignoring the 'be quiets' of the teacher. She struggled to stay awake, silently almost paying attention. She narrowed her eyes, and thought how she would love to be anywhere else. She could smell the frustration building.

"Okay, if you guys won't be quiet. What do I have to do? Look, if you don't want to be here, then you can just leave," the teacher said as he stood by the door he had just opened. Aura's eyebrows shot up in surprise, hesitant, wanting to be sure he was serious.

"Go on, I won't stop anyone. If you don't want to be quiet and stay here, leave," he continued speaking calmly. Aura reached over and stuffed her backpack up with her stuff, and swung it over her shoulder. She strode out the door and walked down the hall to the schools back entrance, weaving through the abandoned halls with a grin.

Reaching the doors, she strode out and bolted for the security the field would offer her in her escape. She ducked behind the currently empty baseball field's wall, and caught her breath. "I hate running on two legs…" she muttered to herself, putting her backpack on her chest and dropping to all fours. "Much better…"

She took off to the woods, not glancing back to the building she had just left behind.

Kero looked up in surprise. "Aura? How can you be back already?

It's only noon!" he asked, getting to his paws. Aura looked to the side, sitting down on a tree root.

"The teacher let us out early." she said calmly.

Kero frowned, giving her a long steady, and very unnerving stare. She fidgeted and looked over. "Okay, he didn't mean for us to take up his offer and make a break for it, but technically he said if we didn't want to be there we could leave," she explained. Kero slapped a paw to his forehead and groaned. "Aura, you can't afford to miss more school, you'll get held back at this rate!" he moaned. Aura just shrugged. "Well I'm not a human. And with a lifespan best counted in centuries, I don't think I have to worry about that yet," she reasoned.

"You chose a master that skips school? On more than one occasion based on what I heard…" Yue whispered at Kero. Kero nodded. "She's not perfect, but who is?" he defended her. She twitched a furry ear at the two.

"I can hear you, ya know!" She chuckled. Kero grinned apologetically.

Aura looked around wearily, making sure no one saw as she crept into the backyard of her new 'home'. Thunder hopped out of a wire, giving the thumbs up, signaling he had taken the security system down for her. She hopped into the house, and opened the window to 'her room' for Yue. He crawled in and looked around the bare space. Aura had moved all the furniture out, leaving only an empty room and a bed.

"Okay, Thunder, keep the cameras here off no matter what. Yue, here's that illusion we used during the fight. If any one comes in, crouch down and they shouldn't be able to see you. I'm going to look for Silent."

With Kero perched on her shoulder, Aura took off into the sky, heading to the old building where Silent stayed.