The clouds were drifting by lazily and I felt about like they did. I sat on the porch of the small farm shack that Clemen and I shared and let my feet dangle off the side. I loved how the loose, dry dirt felt under my bare feet, and I kept burying them in it and revealing them, a darker color than they had been previously.

"Are you going to help me or play in the dirt all day like a child?" I heard my brother chuckle.

"Sorry Clemen!" I jumped up, startled. I didn't realize anyone was around.

He laughed harder this time. "Your feet look like they belong to a redguard." The dark elf laughed, and his red eyes continued to laugh at me as he set down the bucket he was carrying. "Could you go to the chickens and collect their eggs for me?"

"Of course!" I smiled. Clemen wasn't my biological brother, anyone could have seen that. But I had lived with him since I was young. The hunter who discovered me in the forest when I was little had taken me home, and Clemen was his son. They had become my family, the only one I had ever known.

I picked up the bucket and made my way down the small dirt path to the pen where the chickens stayed. The sweet smell of the wheat hung in the air as I passed the fields and I had to keep myself from plucking a head off the stalk and eating it. Hearthfire was coming and the harvest would be soon, it was my favorite time of year. We spent long hours outdoors with our hands in the dirt and noses in the wonderful crops. It didn't take me long to reach the chicken pen, and they were all there waiting for me, expecting to be fed no doubt.

"I don't have food for you right now chickens." I told them as I swung my leg over the low fencing. "Maybe later, okay?" Despite my informing them of the lack of food they still swarmed around my feet and legs as I walked across the pen and began to root through the nests. There were over a half dozen eggs, and I couldn't help but wonder if the chickens were feeling as happy as I was. I smiled down at them. "You have no idea why you're happier than normal do you?" I asked the one chicken that was staring at me. "I am going to tell you a secret." I bent down so my face was near hers. "I don't know why I am either." I grinned at her from ear to ear.

I began to carry the eggs back to the house so I could clean them with the water from the river I had collected earlier that morning. The sun was warming my face and I couldn't help but feel overjoyed. I felt the warmth returning to my chest as I thought about that morning in the clearing with my companion. I wanted to sing, but I only knew the songs I had heard father sing when I was little. I tried to remember the words to my favorite.

"Brother Sun, and Sister Moon
sister star shine day and night
see them shine, beautiful
radiant splendor of light

Brother wind, and brother air
fair in storm, all weather's wounds
colored flowers and healing herbs
heavenly grace flows through you."

I sung the words quietly to myself as I neared the shack. Singing had never been something I had done during the day, or around people. I had always kept it between my friend the moon and myself.

"You sound like you're in a good mood, I never hear you sing." Clemen said, as he leaned on one of the posts holding up the awning over the porch, arms crossed.

I jumped. "Damn you and your Dunmer sneakiness!" I yelled as I laughed at myself, having been caught.

"So..." He shrugged his shoulders, arms still crossed. "Are you going to tell me about this lad or not?" His eyes studied me.

I sighed and placed the bucket of eggs on the ground. I pressed my mouth into a line and looked him over, trying to decide if I should tell him my secret. He was particularly tall and light skinned for a dark elf. Our father, Yustas, was a nord and his mother a dark elf who's family had come to Skyrim after the eurruption of the Red Mountain in Vvardenfell. They had lived primariarly in Windhelm, but she had been exiled from her family when she decided to marry a nord. I imagined Clemen looked a lot like her. Our father had often spoken of her sweetly, telling us about her gracefulness and warmth.

"Come on now." He uncrossed his arms, allowing them to fall to his sides. "You tell me everything. I know you'll tell me sooner or later, might as well be now."

He was right. He was my only family, and my best friend. We had grown up together and there was nothing about me he didn't know.

"Alright." I relented. "Do you remember last week when I went out for a run?"

"Yea, night of the full moon, right?" He lowered himself down to the porch and sat down.

"Yea." I picked the eggs back up and carried them over. Setting the bucket down on the porch, I joined him. "Well, I may have met someone."

"What?" His face scruntched up. "As a wolf?" Then his eyes grew wide. "It wasn't a hunter is it?"

"No! No, no." I shook my head. "It was another wolf."

"Really?" He was obviously relieved, but a little taken aback by the news of another wolf nearby.

"He's from Whiterun."

"Whiterun? You mean up north, past the mountains?"

"Yup. He ran this far south trying to escape some hunters." I thought about the cut across Vilkas' side. "He had managed to loose them by the time he happened across me."

"Hmm." Clemen was quiet. "I had never thought about what we'd do if you ever met another wolf."

"What do you mean?" My brow furrowed, I didn't understand what he meant. I didn't think we needed to do anything.

"Well, I assume he didn't hurt you." He turned to look at me. "So, I don't feel he's a threat. But I am not sure what to make of knowing there are other wolves out there when you go out at night."

It dawned on me that Clemen worried for me when I was out hunting. He only knew me in my natural form, as this small, frail nord girl. He had never seen the power being a wolf gave me, how strong I could become.

"I am always safe Clemen." I took his hand in mine. "You know me. I stay away from the towns and holds, where the hunters are."

"I know, but wolves are different. What if he comes back with a pack, and they see you as a threat? You remember the stories father use to tell us, about the wolves that turn and can never return to their natural state. They become monsters, killing anything that gets in their way, even other wolves."

Now I knew what he had meant. As Clemen was my only family, I was also his. If I was to go out one night and never come back, he would be alone.

"We could always go visit him one day." I tried to reassure him that I was safe. "If you got to know Vilkas, then you would understand that he's not a monster."

"You know his name?" He was a little shocked by this. "How much time did you spend with him?"

"A few hours, after the morning came. We just talked." I lied. I wasn't sure how my brother would handle the news of how close Vilkas and I had come to engaging in certian activities. I wasn't sure myself why I felt the way I did around Vilkas. So there was no way I could explain the burning in my chest.

"In the morning?" He asked. "You always come back naked..."

"So." I tried to play dumb. I knew what he was getting at, and I didn't want to discuss it.

"Sooo..." He smiled and pushed my shoulder. "You were naked while the two of you talked."

"I wasn't the only one." I mumbled.

"Tala!" He yelled.

"It's different when you're a wolf, Clemen." I was becoming annoyed, he was making the wonderful morning I remembered into a cheap affair. "It's different after a change. You feel at home in your own skin and you just don't think about it."

"Right." He laughed. "Tala, if this Vilkas is a true man then trust me, he noticed it." He pushed himself up from the porch. "Just promise me you'll be safe and that you'll tell me if you're not." He reached down to help me up.

"I promise." I took his hand and stood as well.

"So, I assume you're going back out again tonight." He picked up the bucket of eggs. "It's been five days."

"I am actually." I had to keep myself from smiling too big. It would only give my brother more chances to pick on me.

"Well, if you meet him again." He turned and began heading inside. "Make sure you tell him that if he hurts you I'll become a hunter myself."

I laughed, trying to imagine Clemen in fathers gear. "I'll make sure I let him know."


I breathed in the sweet smell of the forest and stretched my muscles. The change tonight had been swift and left me feeling energized. I could smell Vilkas beyond the trees in front of me. My tail began to move from side to side as I tried to reign in my excitement. My tail stopped as soon as I could smell the other wolf. There were two of them. I lifted my nose to the air again and sniffed. I could definitely smell Vilkas, but there was another one behind his smell. I heard a howl. My excitement finally got the best of my and I lifted my muzzle to the sky and howled in return. I watched the tree line in front of me and waited.

My fur stood on end when I saw him break the edge of the forest and enter the clearing. He looked exactly like I remembered. Taller than me and strong. I took a few steps towards him, but stopped froze when the other wolf broke the line of trees. He was huge! I had never imagined a wolf could get so big. His shoulders were broad and muscular, while his legs were thick and strong. He was almost a whole foot taller than Vilkas. I stayed where I was, unwilling to move towards this beast that was almost twice my size.

Vilkas made his way towards me, ears back in an apology for bring the new comer. His eyes were on me the whole time, he trusted this wolf he willingly turned his back to. Once he could he nuzzled me and licked my muzzle. I couldn't help but nuzzle him back, I had been thinking about him since I had left him alone in the clearing. The new wolf followed Vilkas over to me, his head low and ears back. He was trying to seem as least threatening as possible, it wasn't working. The closer he got the better I could smell him. He smelled so much like Vilkas. I allowed him to sniff my neck and I in turn sniffed his. The more I watched the two stand side by side it became more apparent that this larger wolf was the more submissive of the two. He didn't hold himself high, with the dominance that Vilkas did.

I looked at Vilkas, trying to convey my confusion. He must have caught on, because he leaned down and scratched in the dirt. I turned my head to see what he was scrawling. It read:

'Farkas, brother'


Hooray for another chapter done! Again, sorry about the wait! The lyrics are from a John Michael Talbot song... they aren't original and I don't own them. I hope you all enjoyed this! Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions or plot ideas! I would love to read them! :)