Complete Summary: A young woman comes to Tortall searching for a safe haven from those that hunt her

Complete Summary: Two of the wolves from Dunlath fief appear in Daine's rooms with an injured she-wolf. But what happens when the she-wolf turns out to be a person? Not just any person either, but a royal relative seeking sanctuary from her home land just as her cousin did so many years ago? Can the kingdom cope with such a relative? Can the girl find a place where she fits in? And what about her friend that most people fear? What to do about him?

Disclaimer: How in the world could I be Tamora Pierce? She wrote Alanna: The First Adventure before my older brother was born.

A/N: Okay, yes, I promised myself that I wouldn't start any more stories until I got the first chapter on my next Harry Potter story started, but this plot line kept banging around in my head and distracting me. So read and enjoy hopefully.

Oh and here is the language key:

"normal speech"

'animal speech'

personal thoughts

Chapter 1: An Unexpected Arrival

Daine and the dragonet Kitten walked wearily up the stairs to the room that they shared with Daine's husband, Numair, and their two children, Sarralyn and Rikash. The family had just arrived back from an envoy trip to the Copper Islands to assess the new queen and to visit with Alanna's daughter, Aly.

Numair had taken the children down to a small nursery for the day before his classes started, while Daine went to check on a horse that had been cut up in a recent skirmish with bandits. She had been able to heal the horse but was very tired and just wanted to collapse.

As she unlocked the door, Kitten started to whine, putting Daine instantly on guard. Numair had enemies that wouldn't mind using her and the children against him. She had enemies as well, but few were strong enough to get past Numair's wards. Opening the door cautiously, she looked inside. A thick fog floated out through the opening. This made Daine's hair stand on end, but Kitten stopped whining and sniffed the air before chortling a sound of both surprise and welcome and darted into the room. Daine opened the door fully and was surprised to see Leaper and Chaser inside her rooms being greeted by the young dragon. They were a part of a pack of wolves that inhabited a northern fief of Tortall, Dunlath. How and why they were here could wait for the moment, as they had a severely injured wolf held between them.

"Who is this, Chaser? And how did you get in here?" Daine asked, hurrying over to the injured wolf.

'We don't know her name. She came into our den like this. Brokefang asked Old White what to do with her because he knew that she would not survive without help and the two legger Healer left the castle a moon ago,' Chaser said as Daine moved to pick the wolf up and put her on a nearby table. She was young and light for a wolf, which was troubling enough. What troubled Daine more were the injuries. Crossbow bolts that had since been pulled out made some, but others looked like a Stormwing's claw marks.

Daine tried to heal her and was unsuccessful. Figuring she was just tired, she used a ready-made spell of Numair's to make the room cold. Still unsuccessful, she looked at the wolf more closely. She had Wildmagic like all animals did, but this was different this looked like a human's version of the magic, and there was something else as well.

Standing up in surprise Daine realized that this wasn't a wolf but a person in wolf form.

Why would the wolf god take an interest in someone that was not his own? she thought to herself. Putting the thought aside for the moment, she bandaged the girl wolf up the best she could before calling for her darkling friend, Raisin. "Go fetch Duke Baird for me, Raisin. Tell him it's an emergency." The darkling nodded once and rolled itself into a tight ball and rolled out of a window.

The Duke ran in soon after and looked over the situation. He tried to heal the girl wolf but couldn't; the magic rebound off of her every time. He ended up bandaging her the best he could.

"I don't know if it's just because she's in the form she is in or because of something else. Has she woken since she got here?" the Duke asked. "I think I can save her if nothing becomes infected, but this would be much easier if she were in human form. I'm not very talented with the healing of animals. If she wakes up, I think she'll survive. I've done everything I can," he finished with a sigh. Daine nodded and showed him out after they moved the wolf to a cot that Daine kept in the rooms for animals that took time to heal.

Back in northern Tortall, two creatures spoke to one another. This wasn't odd for the area, what was odd was that one was a Stormwing while the other was an elderly wolf. The Stormwing apparently got the answers to the question he had asked and took off carefully so as not to blow too much dust into the air. The wolf looked after him and shook his head before going back to the den, I'm getting too old for new things, Brokefang then laughed at himself remembering another old wolf saying the same years before.

I know that this is short, but it is just the first chapter I'm trying to get my bearings on this story. Also, the books tell us that Stormwings have a hard time bearing young but it doesn't tell how they are born so I will be taking liberties in the near future with the process. Just as I will be taking liberties with how they age. If you don't like it stuff it I really don't care. Have a nice day. :)