Above the mountain the moon was nearing its zenith in the sky. Below, the wolves paid homage to it. The villagers unlucky enough to have awoken the curse had screamed through the agony into their animal forms hours ago and now prowled the land in their pack howling to the sky.

Beneath the mountain, in their cave, the Michaelsons tried to sleep through the noise and fear. Henrik had curled up close to his mother, the small pile of arrows he had been whittling lay discarded beside him. Esther, having poured over her grimoires with Rebekah late into the night, slept soundly, and Michael and Finn snored beside her. Eventually even Kol's weary eyes had shut, fatigue overpowering fear of the night outside.

Nik's eyes flicked open at the sound of Kol's heavy breathing and he sat up gingerly. Across the dim cave Elijah nodded at Rebekah, who still rolled, restless, on her mat. Stealthy as the wolves they hid from, Nik crept to the back of the cave, Elijah behind him. Taking one of the smouldering torches each, they slipped between the rough walls of the cave, treading deeper into the heart of the mountainside.

"Apparently the path splits," Elijah whispered after they had gone a little way. The torch flickered between them, throwing crazed shadows across the sloping walls. "One is a dead end and the other leads down some way to a secondary cave where the pictures are."

"Tatia did not happen to mention which path was which, did she?" Nik sighed as they reached the fork.

Elijah's silence infuriated him. Huffing in annoyance, he took the left path, leaving Elijah to take the other in the dark, and followed it some twenty winding paces before finding the way too narrow to continue further. Pushing his glowing torch before him, he squinted ahead to see if Tatia would have been able to advance further.

In the black of the cave ahead, dark eyes opened. The still air hung about her face as she took in her surroundings. The cave… the cave in the mountains where they would hide… and she remembered. Her sister. Grief tore up her throat and stung her eyes. No… no, this was just a memory of the grief that was. She lay silent on the rocky ground, barely breathing, weak beyond belief, and no tears fell. Time had passed, she felt it. Even as she had slipped out of conscious thought in the darkness of the cave, the years had tiptoed past.

Her throat was parched… and suddenly, with the sound of a shuffling at the entrance, she realised what had woken her. A werewolf.

Niklaus glanced back to see if Elijah was returning yet. Clearly his path had been much longer. He listened for a minute for movement back in the cave, but heard nothing. Turning once more to the dead end ahead, he realised that there was a way through. Tatia would not have taken it though; it required crawling under a large curve of rock, pushing the torch ahead. Stretching on the other side, Nik attempted to brush the dirt off his clothes- unkempt garments were punishable, he knew from experience. He held the torch up to examine the way ahead once more and found, upon rounding a corner, that the light was reflecting, not off the rock a few feet away from him, but from the back of a small cave. And he was not alone.

A young man. She smelled him before his torch came into view, the light burning her eyes. His clothes smelt of grass and memories of the outside world, his skin remembered a recent sweat, exercise or fear, and his heart beat strong with blood.
Holding a hand out before her to shield her eyes from the light, she rose slowly from the ground, stretching her sore muscles. She had startled him- that much was apparent. He stood frozen, open mouthed, and in that instant she recognised that the werewolf part of him lay dormant. Without thinking she stepped forward into the light to compel him.
"Do not be afraid."

Nik stared at the beautiful girl before him and knew that he was safe. He instinctively raised a hand to brush the hair from her face so he could see her eyes more clearly. Immediately, she flinched away and he dropped the hand.

"Who are you?" he asked, examining her in the light of the torch.

Her clothes were clearly well made, but old, dirty and creased, and her dark hair hung lifeless and dull around her face.

She stepped forward again to speak, blocking the light from her eyes, "the full moon shines."

"Yes," the man replied, without understanding.

She sighed; he did not know of the presence of the curse, had not awoken it. Yet she sensed it within him, the potential to turn. The only person to find her in this mountain, to awaken her in years, could easily become an enemy. It was a shame, for she realised that he was very handsome. He was tall, with a strong, muscular chest and striking features. Even in the dim torchlight she could see he had perfect sparkling blue eyes.

A whisper came from the cave entrance and in a flash she was gone, straight to the back of the cave. But a sniff of the air told her this was just a man, and the first one stood in shock, his eyes glued to hers.

Nik wanted to run, wanted to dart back up the tunnel to where he knew his brother was waiting for him, but what if it followed, this beautiful creature, to where his family lay sleeping. No human moved like she did.

He changed his question slightly, "what are you?"

She gazed at him from across the small space, eyes wide, and he could not move if he had wished to. Her voice had a strange lilt that reminded him of the old country, drowning him in nostalgia.

"I am one of the vampyr," she said.

"I do not understand. What is your name? Why are you alone in this cave?" Nik paused for a minute, almost dreading the answer to his next question. "How long have you been here?"

The whisper came down the passage again; Elijah was worried.

The beautiful girl smiled at him sadly and spoke, "call to him."

"My family must not hear us."

"Then go to him."

He paused to think; Michael must not know she was here, but Elijah… Elijah could be trusted. He turned back to her, "Stay here, I shall fetch my brother… I want to help you."

She sighed deeply and her memories swirled in her mind, unfocussed but melancholy. What purpose was there for her now that her sister was dead? She saw that the young man was still searching her face. He would help her…

"Why?"

Nik had no answer, he simply knew that she was important, that he should protect her.