Hiding the fact that she was a werewolf was a lot harder than Lili thought it was going to be. She had to keep both her sensitive smell and hearing under close check, otherwise she might draw suspicion. There was more than one occasion that she almost answered someone's question, but then realized the person who asked it was not talking to her at all. In fact, the person was across the street from her and inside of a house. And on another occasion, she had almost asked Vash if they could stop at the bakery for fresh rye bread because the smell was driving her crazy. Then she remembered the bakery was on the other end of town and that there was no way she should be able to smell the bread from their house.

Other than those few disconcerting incidents, her secret was hidden well away and out of sight. No one knew except the other wolves in Ludwig's pack. On some nights she would find a way over the wall and join them for the moonlit romp in the forest. Feli had been overjoyed to see her, and Antonio would not stop apologizing for leaving her and Elizabeta alone on that fateful patrol.

Lili enjoyed every moment she spent with the pack. She breathed in the chill evening air and unraveled all the different scents with her quivering black nose. Sometimes she and Ludwig would go off on their own and see the various wonders the forest had to offer. They ran across glittering streams, skirted the shores of a lake, rose and fell with the hills and valleys, weaved between gargantuan trees, and chased prey from one end of the territory to the other. Once, they even stumbled upon something that looked like a large animal's burrow, but Ludwig had called it a goblin hole.

"They don't mind us," he told her. "We don't bother them, and they don't bother us."

Being a werewolf was better than she ever imagined it would be. There were no strange side-effects or telltale bits of fur poking out of her ears to give her secret away. Lili was happy having one foot in her human life, and one paw in her werewolf life. That way she could have all the people she loved around her, both werewolf and human. But she did feel guilty about not telling her brother the truth. It was true that she was always tired in the mornings because she had been up late the night before, and it was true that she wasn't coming down with an illness, but she still felt bad about not telling Vash everything. Maybe once everything was settled again between the werewolves and the humans, she could find the right time.

Things had been unusually quiet on the eastern side of the forest where Ivan and his pack were rebuilding what was left of their lair, or at least that's what everyone was assuming they were doing. No one had seen them for weeks, and their scents along the border were faint and stale. Lili could tell Ludwig was worried about the situation, but he wasn't going to cross the border to find out. That may have been exactly what Ivan wanted, or it could spark another battle that neither pack was prepared for. According to Ludwig, the other pack's home had been severely damaged by the fire that had quickly spread and consumed almost everything, but at least the rain had kept it from moving deeper into the forest. They were probably just rebuilding.

Thoughts like this were drifting in and out of Lili's mind as she sat looking out the window. It was a struggle to keep her eyes open, but she fought her fatigue for Vash's sake. She knew he was concerned about her, so she did what she could to ease his worries. She had even gotten up early to make him breakfast that morning, but she was starting to wish she hadn't. The time spent running through the forest made her whole body ache. Her lack of sleep wasn't helping much either. Vash walked into the dining room just as Lili's head was beginning to bob in the hazy motions of nodding off.

"I'll be out for a bit," he said as he slipped on his boots.

Lili wouldn't have thought much of it, except for the fact that he had his rifle slung across his back. "Where are you going?"

"Town meeting." He knelt down to tie his bootlaces. "There's something important that needs to be decided."

"Why do you need your gun?" she asked. A yawn threatened to ruin her appearance of being well rested, so she suppressed it the best that she could.

Vash stood and adjusted the rifle strap. "We're deciding whether to hunt the werewolves now, or later tonight."

Lili was wide awake now. She didn't even have to pretend. "What? But why wo-"

"Don't worry. We're not going after the group that helped us rescue you." Her brother shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think you know, but the treaty's been broken. We're just sitting ducks. That's why we have to get them first."

"But they haven't done anything, and it's already been almost a month. Please, Vash. Think about what you're doing."

"No, you think about it!" he shouted as he slammed his fist onto the dining room table. Lili jumped in her chair at the unexpected action, and he sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have scared you like that." He looked her in the eyes. "They're a threat to all of us, Lili. If we don't do something about it, who's to say that they won't try coming after us again? After you again?"

"There has to be another way," she said in a trembling voice.

"There isn't." Vash looked away. "I should be back in time for dinner, unless we leave tonight." The door slammed behind him as he left.

What could she do? There were so many things that were unaccounted for. It was possible that the villagers were going to walk straight into a trap. Maybe Ivan's pack was still recovering from the last battle. It could be one, both, neither, or any combination of the two. The whole idea of a preemptive strike seemed wrong to Lili. She didn't want to wait for Ivan to make his move, but this didn't seem like the right way. There had to be a way to stop this before it destroyed everything.

She got up from the table and left the house. Instead of walking toward the southern gate, which was the closest to the territories occupied by the two werewolf packs, Lili walked toward the northern gate as quickly as she could without drawing attention. She had no idea where the meeting was being held, but it was in her best interest to avoid it. It was unlikely that anyone would think she was going to warn the werewolves if they saw her, but she thought it best to not take that chance. The fate of the forest seemed to rest on her shoulders after all.

No one stopped her as she walked right out of Schattenwald, and she waited until she was out of sight before running. She ran until she got to the edge of the forest and transformed. Usually, she would be out of breath by now, but her new werewolf stamina guaranteed that she could run for at least an hour at the same pace without having to stop and rest. The forest became a green blur around her as she poured all her energy into running. Lili was the smallest wolf in the pack, even smaller than Feli, but that gave her the advantage when it came to speed. Sometimes she had to slow her pace just so Ludwig could keep up with her. She poked fun at him for that. Gently, of course. She didn't want to injure his pride.

Trees and low branches whipped past her as she changed her direction to a more southern one. Lili had decided to run around the western edge of the forest toward Ludwig's territory since it was faster than going the other way. She was so fast that her paws felt like they weren't even touching the ground. In a few minutes, the forest was starting to look familiar, and she knew she was in her pack's territory. There was still quite a distance to cover before she arrived at the cave though.

Lili nearly ran into Antonio and Gilbert when she skidded to a halt in the clearing in front of the cave. The two were standing in their human forms with no shirts on and were apparently trying to best each other somehow. It didn't really matter to Lili what they were doing because she was more concerned about not hitting them. She managed to stop just before colliding into the two surprised looking men.

"Is that who I think it is?" Antonio asked with wide green eyes. His eyes always made it seem like he was on a verge of laughing, and now was no exception.

"Well, well, well. It's rare to see you here during the day, kid." Gilbert grinned at her fondly. "I thought you were West for a sec, but you're much too small!"

"Where is he?" she asked them both urgently.

"I don't know. Probably out hunting or moping in the cave or something," the white haired man said with a shrug. "Toni and I were just gonna wrestle to see who's stronger. Wanna be the judge?"

"I don't really have time for th-"

"But that's not fair for you because Lili would pick me no matter what," Antonio told Gilbert.

"You wanna bet?"

"How does one week of dawn patrol sound?"

"You're on, curly!"

"Uh, excuse me," Lili said, but they weren't listening.

"You're never going to get out of this headlock, kesesesese!"

"Too bad it's as weak as your tan."

"Hey! Just because you turn the color of dirt in the sun doesn't make you stronger!"

"H-hello? Is anyone listening to me?" Still neither one answered.

"Then why don't you break out of this hold?"

"Strategy! It's all part of my super awesome strategy!"

Lili was reaching her wit's end. "I hate to interrupt, but there's something really important going on."

"Don't...sweat it...kid. We're...listening," Gilbert grunted.

"Looks like you're losing to me," Antonio added.

"You wouldn't know what winning looks like if it kicked you in the nose just like I'm going to!"

"I don't think that's legal in wrestling."

"Legal-shmegal! Sometimes you gotta fight dirty."

"So you're saying you can't win a clean fight?"

"Not when you're cheating, bastard!"

She had had enough. "The humans are going to attack the other pack!"

They both stopped and looked at Lili, who had shifted back into her human form, in shock. Gilbert appeared to be trying to stuff his foot in Antonio's mouth, and Antonio was trying to tickle him without getting caught.

"What?" they both said at once.

"They're taking advantage of the broken treaty to wipe out Ivan's pack. We have to stop them!"

A rustling sound came from behind her, and Lili turned to see Ludwig and the others step out into the clearing. Most of them had their eyes widened in surprise, and a few had their hackles raised aggressively. Ludwig didn't seem too affected by the news, but his eyes conveyed deep concern.

"When are they attacking?" he asked.

"Right now."

"Then there's no time to waste."