"OH MY GOD!" The young woman screamed, walking into the yellow nursery that had abstract pictures scattered about the wall. She dropped the warm baby bottle she had carried in and ran to the crib where a small dingo pup ripped the bedding, surrounded by torn and slightly bloody clothing. She groped behind her for the phone on the changing table as the pup squeaked and jumped out the open window, clothes in tow.

The woman stuck her head out the window looking into the dark forest behind the house. "A DINGO ATE MY BABY!"

The woman was accused of child abuse and taken to court when a neighbor's child found the baby's blood clothe scraps in the forest. When officials came to confront her, they found the baby safe in her mother's arms, a little three month old girl known to the world as Alexandria "Alex" Lynne Harpford. One of the officers, a hidden wolf, came back to visit Mrs. Harpford at the conclusion of the initial inverstigation. He spoke with her, comforted her, assured her she wasn't crazy just because she believed her daughter could somehow change into a dingo at the most inappropriate and random times. He told her about the man he had met who had worked with one woman like that before, but he lived in the United States-across an ocean or two.

And so the child ended up on the doorstep of the Marrok, a frantic single mother explaining she was unable to care for the girl.

Now, almost eighteen years later, the teenager looked around her room for the last time, a backpack slung sloppily over her shoulder. She smiled and ran down the stairs. She kissed an older man on the cheek, he appeared around thirty or forty.

"See ya, Pops." She hugged him and ran out the door, speeding down the sidewalk. She wasn't watching where she was going and accidentally ran into a seemingly young couple who were walking towards the house she had run out of.

"Alex!" The woman laughed, catching the teen before she fell. "Leaving before we got the chance to say good-bye?"

"Never!" The girl laughed, giving the other a hug."I'm gonna miss you guys!"

The man laughed a little, pulling them apart and wrapping his arm back around the woman's waist. Alex rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Oh come on, Charles, I wasn't going to eat her, steal her, or harm her in any way." She sighed. "Neither Anna nor I are Bi or lesbian, no worries, honestly."

Anna laughed and pulled something out of her own backpack. She handed the wrapped parcel to Alex.

"Here, it's for you."

Alex cocked her head to the side and took it.

"You didn't have to, Anna, I'll visit or something." She smiled.

"Doesn't matter if I had to or not, open it." Anna pushed the younger girl playfully.

Alex shook her head disbelievingly at who seemed to be her only friend's stubbornness. She opened the gift carefully and looked up at Anna with a shocked expression.

"Anna...I can't take this." She whispered.

It was a bracelet, similar to Anna's necklace, with a dingo's face carved into the gold and it had the brightest green eyes made from real emeralds.

"Yes, you can." Anna grinned, putting the bracelet on her friend. "Easy as that."

"Oh...wow...okay I owe you five gazillion!" They hugged again much to Charles' despair.

"I got gold to match your locket." Anna said softly, picking the heart up and fiddling with it carefully. She let it go and Alex's hands traveled to the gold locket that hung from her neck. She always wore it, never took it off. It had a key in it, but no one knew that except for herself, her mother, and Anna. The key was to a journal that her mother had begun about her and never finished. Alex had never read it, but she wrote in it herself. The book was in her backpack along with two changes of clothing.

Alex nodded.

"Thank you."

Anna smiled.

"Now get going!" She laughed and Alex gave her one last fleeting hug before heading for the forest.