"A dog?"
Weiss, Blake, and Yang all nodded in unison from where they were crammed onto Tai's small leather couch. Tai rubbed his palm across his face and opened his mouth to speak before thinking against it. He seemed to be in deep contemplation before speaking again.
"Really, a dog?"
The chorus of affirmations he received sent him shoving his head into his hands.
"Dad, the full moon's tomorrow and she's changed twice already. You're the only one who can help." Yang said, leaning forward on her elbows.
"Summer was a shape-shifter." Tai said softly, more to himself than the girls. Tai looked up at Yang and smiled sadly. "She's just like her, even down to the transformations."
Yang stood and hugged her dad to her side.
"I know, Pops. But we need to figure out what's going on. You've gotta help us. For Ruby." Yang hugged her father tighter. "And for Summer."
Tai's thumb lingered on his bottom lip as he thought carefully. He closed his eyes for a few moments, and wheeled his chair over the expansive library behind him.
"Let's do this, then."
"Alright." Tai balanced a massive anthology of Faunus across his entire palm, and licked the tip of his thumb. " 'After a cycle of full moons – two hundred is the most commonly recorded number – the Faunus in our aforementioned patients' blood will awaken. The change will happen around the same time – a pregnant moon turning two legs into four and teeth into ivory daggers. Dr. Blanco of Mistral's United Doctors has overseen five patients of these kinds – and has seen three destroy their holding cells in Menagerie. While some are not violent, most have a violent transformation, and often lash out at humans.' "
Yang looked down at the small group from her perch on a library ladder, the name of a book and its author scrawled across the inside of her arm. Blake was leafing through a few stacks of books that Tai had assigned to her, and Weiss was looking over a half-crumbling newsletter addressing rare Faunus.
"Oh, this is interesting." Blake began, following the line of text down the page with her finger. " 'Every once in a while, a Faunus is born without ears or a tail, and have the opportunity to live normal lives without the token oppression that comes with the heritage.' "
"Oh!" Yang plucked the book from the shelf just above her head, and waved it in victory. "Dad, catch!" Tai lifted his hands above his head without even looking up, and continued to mutter a few pages aloud to him. Yang lobbed the book down, and her father caught it neatly and flipped open to a bookmarked page.
" ' These Faunus have been known to thrive in society, while others had been forcibly put down after their rampages on villages.' " Weiss's enthusiasm tapered out slowly.
"Lovely." Blake shot back dryly, the rasp of her voice a twin tune to the crisp sound of a page turning. Weiss held her tongue, preferring not to throw back some snarky remark in front of Ruby's father.
Tai ran his tongue across his lips and set his eyes on a new page of the book Yang had thrown to him. His eyes moved quickly, lilac irises magnified through his glasses. He nodded and smiled excitedly until he stood up.
"Ah-hah! 'These types of Faunus are carried on through genetic makeup – ' "
"Which would explain why Yang doesn't transform!" Blake exclaimed. Yang leapt down from her ladder and followed her teammates to crowd behind her father.
" 'And are fairly consistent through generations. The full moon inspires the change in all of our rare cases, and have been given the official name of – ' "
"Lycanthrope." The ancient Latin word fell off of Blake's tongue into the silent room, and all remained quiet until Yang spoke up with a mutter.
"My sister's a werewolf."