The next morning, as the sun started to rise, I woke up, and saw that my brother and the girls were still asleep. I smiled at them and leapt off of Jinora's bed, where I had slept. I was still in the feral side of my werewolf form.
I exited the girls' room and started walking down the hall, changing back to my human form as I looked around. In my eyes, the place hadn't changed a bit these past two years that Tamaska and I have been away.
Wake up, little bro, I thought to Tamaska as I walked towards the front door. It's time for us to do yet another morning run.
I heard Tamaska run to meet me not ten seconds later. I looked back at him; he too, was in his human form, and boy, was he pent up and ready to run.
"Ready, little bro?" I asked as I got down, ready to run (I was so pent up myself that I could run at least five miles to get somewhere).
"I was born ready, big sis!" Tamaska gloated. I could tell he was excited for another run. Suddenly, out of the blue, he took off, and I was left dumbstruck for a second before running off after him.
"Wait up, Tamaska…!" I yelled, surprisingly laughing, panting rapidly as I ran to catch up with my little brother. I saw him jump and change into his feral form, and he looked back at me as he changed too.
We ran around the island five times, and eventually, I got ahead of Tamaska, jumping up a few ledges to reach the nearby cliff. Once I was atop the cliff, I threw my head back, pointing my nose to the rising sun. I let out a howl that seemed to carry for miles, the majestic tune beautiful enough to hypnotize somebody.
About a ledge below me, Tamaska joined in the howl, and our voices merged into one beautiful duet.
About two minutes later, we heard someone call up to us from the temple, "Anuri! Tamaska!" My brother and I cut our howls off and looked back down to see Korra and her friends waving up to us.
We smiled at seeing them, and jumped down to the barren ground, changing back to our human forms in the process. We ran up to meet them, as they started running down to us. When we met, I panted heavily. "Hey, guys, what's up?" I said as I caught my breath.
"Nothing much," Bolin answered for the whole of the group, "except we missed you two the rest of yesterday. Where did you go?"
"Well, Tamaska and I decided to disappear for the rest of the day and swim around the back of the island," I said, before I used peripheral vision to glance at my brother irritably. "I hate the water; it spoils my looks. Anyways, as I was saying, we hid at the back of the island until nighttime."
"Why?" Mako asked.
"We wanted to surprise Ikki and Jinora; see, we're really close to them, so we didn't just want to come waltzing through the front door like a couple of snoops," I said.
"But how did you get in without being seen?" Korra asked.
My brother and I used peripheral vision again and slowly, slyly smiled at each other, before we glanced back at our friends. "We snuck through a secret passageway I made underneath the temple three years ago," I said, the sly expression remaining on my face. "We have several other secret passageways that we created, and anytime you need an emergency exit if something attacks, they're always of good use."
Before I could say anything more, another voice called my name. All six of us glanced back to the front of the temple. Pema was standing there, a shocked expression on her face as she saw me and Tamaska standing in the light of the morning sun. "Anuri, Tamaska, is that you?" she said, and Tamaska and I nodded up to her as we smiled, this time being a normal smile.
Pema started doing a bit of a mix between a walk and a run as she came down to me and Tamaska, and we ran up to her. My brother and I embraced her heartwarmingly as Korra and the others watched.
When we came out of our embrace, Pema looked us over. "It's been two years; my, you've grown so much," she said, and I nodded.
"We werewolves start to grow fast once we reach our teens," I said, and Pema laughed lightly, as Tamaska and I looked at each other and did the very same. Soon, all of us started to laugh.
Once again, after endlessly berating myself for doing so, I upload this thing late at night, after I had promised myself repeatedly that I would no longer do that. Oh well, c'est la vie. *groans angrily and rolls eyes violently*
