So. It's been an interesting and rather busy break from school. I was hoping to get a lot more written but clearly that didn't happen. So, as an apology, I've got a bit of an extra chapter. It's actually one I wrote for the edited version of Elemental, and it takes place back in that novel between the chapter Yukiya (Tomiji here) collapses and Selene takes him to the nurse's office. It's essentially the endlessly looping nightmare that occur when he doesn't see the full moon and transform each month. And, in addition to this chapter, I've put up another for Warrior. I'm hoping to have another chapter of Halfling up by next month. But for now, enjoy!

Tomiji's Fearscape

"Tomiji! Look what I caught!" The aforementioned boy looked up from the apple he was carefully cutting up to see Nico run in from outside through the open kitchen door, a plump rabbit limp in his hands. "The snare that Uncle Sean taught me worked! Can we please please please have rabbit and dumplings?"

Almost-thirteen-year-old Tomiji smiled at his younger brother, nodding as he ruffled Nico's hair, which was the same shiny black as his. "Just clean it first."

"Aww…do I have to? It's so gross!"

"Now, Nico, part of being a hunter is being able to gut and clean an animal. You want to be a hunter, don't you?" Mama Shima stood in the door, three-year-old Rosa fussing in her arms.

"Rabbit and dumplin's!" Six-year-old Cyrene ran into the room, the dark blond hair a rat's nest from her nap, brown eyes—the same shade everyone but their father had—sparkling with excitement. "Rabbit and dumplin's!" She continued to chant as she danced around the room, much to her mother's frustration—how she'd manage to get the girl to calm down long enough to brush out her hair, she didn't know.

A half asleep Idabelle, Cyrene's twin sister, made her way over to her oldest brother, and tugged on his sleeve.

"Snack?" she asked

Tomiji smiled gently, and handed her an apple slice while Nico sullenly tramped outside to clean the rabbit and Mama Shima attempted to wrangle Cyrene with Rosa crying. As Cyrene ran past Tomiji, he whipped out an arm and caught her, throwing his over his shoulder.

"Miji' put me down!" she squealed.

"Nope. You're a sack of potatoes now."

"No I'm not!"

"Will you let mama brush your hair?"

"No! It's hurts!"

"Then I guess you're a sack of potatoes."

"Nooooo! I don't wanna be a sack of 'tatoes! I'll let mama brush my hair!"

"Good girl." He shifted to here he had her perched on a hip, and held out an apple slice, which the girl gleefully took. Tomiji traded his mother Cyrene for Rosa, who stopped fussing to gnaw on an apple slice. With in hand, he cleaned up the apple cores, which went into the compost bin as he absentmindedly munched on the apple skins his little sisters refused to eat. The knife went to the back of the counter to be cleaned later, and he took the place of apples to put it on the table for his siblings to eat while their mother got them ready for the day.

He couldn't remember getting to sleep in so late as the girls did. He'd been getting up before sunrise for years. But he didn't mind. The mornings were always the most quiet part of the day, before the littles woke up and chaos ensued. Setting Rosa down in her special chair, he went back to wash the knife and start preparations for lunch. The dough for the dumplings would have to be made sooner than later, after all.

He worked in silence for a while, listening to the bustling outside the house as a group of kids, including the twins, played games. Rosa seemed content playing with a doll while their mother embroidered something or another—she enjoyed it, and it brought in some extra money for the family, because the Kramer family was very good at selling them and very fair in the amount of profit they kept and the amount they gave back to the Shima family. It wasn't anything ludicrous, but it did allow the family to buy treats for holidays and nice clothes for the cold months, and it was Mama Shima's embroidery talent that helped her and her husband purchase a lovely two story house, a rarity, while they were preparing to have Tomiji.

Tomiji enjoyed cooking. It was soothing, and it always was wonderful to see everyone's faces light up as they tried something new. So he stirred together butter and flour, sugar and salt, and then milk to make it a soft dough.

And everything was perfect until the normal, everyday sounds were interrupted by approaching screams.

Nico, who usually spent his time between their uncle's house learning hunting skills and the cobbler's shop where his best friend was apprenticed, ran in the door looking terrified and a right mess. "Raiders! They're coming! They've already made it to the square!"

It had been almost two years since the last time raiders had last attacked the town.

"Get your sisters, Nico! Tomiji, help me gather the emergency supplies!" Mama Shima ran to gather some closed while Tomiji quickly and methodically gathered food into a bundle. Nico soon ran in pulling along a crying set of twins. They'd all practiced for these horrible events. That was a necessary part of being a border town, when the gangs from the neighboring country of Eclos were all too happy to steal and plunder from the simple Aprean towns. And of all the times for their father to be gone on a trail-leading trip.

Tomiji handed the bag of food to his mother, strapped his father's hunting knife to his belt, and scooped up a twin in each arm. Nico grabbed a screaming Rosa in one arm and the family's ax with the other hand, and they all ran out the door Tomiji glanced back and saw flames rising from some of the houses.

"Well, well, I told you lot we needed to circle round. Look what we have here, a nice little family." The laughter came from a man leading a group of men walking out from the side. Tomiji immediately put down the twins and pulled out the knife.

"Mama, lass die sachen. Schnappen sie sich die zeillinge und rennen. Nico, geh mit ihr. Ich werde sie abhalten. Bleiben sie auf numer sicher." Their father was originally from a town two countries to the east of Aprea, where they lived now, and he'd taught his wife and sons his first language.

"Nien! Ich kann helfen!" Nico cried as the men approached them.

"Mit Rosa in den armen? Nein. Gehen! Nwo!"

"Whatcha talkin' about?" One of the raider's sneered.

"Nothin', boss, they're just stupid country folk. Let's just get this over with. She looks mighty fine for a country biddy, might enjoy her for a bit."

Tomiji's blood boiled. A terrified Mama Reizen scooped up her twins and started running. A man made to chase her and Nico but Tomiji lunged with the knife, stabbing him right through the neck. He scrambled up, shaking.

"Little brat! Come on lads, let's teach this brat a lesson before we kill 'im!"

One thirteen year old boy couldn't possible fend off ten fully grown men at once. He didn't even have the advantage of magic, like some of the other people in town. So he ended up curled into a tight ball on the group as the men mercilessly rained down kicks.

And then everything went black. Tomiji opened his eyes to find himself standing in an eternal blackness. He was dead. He'd failed his Mama, his Pa, his sisters and brother. He couldn't save them.

'Would you like to save them?'

Tomiji whirled around to see a grey wolf sitting unemotionally behind him, staring him straight in the eyes with unnerving intelligence.

"Yes! I'd do anything!" he begged.

'Will you accept a contract with me to gain the power to save your family? Will you accept the price of this power?'

"Yes! I accept!"

And everything went black. But only for a moment. He heard screams and stumbled to his feet…four of them. He looked up and everything was in sharp, sharp color—the lines were more crisp than they'd ever been. He could smell so many things. Sweat. Filth. Grass. Dirt. Blood.

Fear.

Everything. He heard everything. And it was all so overwhelming that he roared. He was not a human. He was a beast. He looked to see men running away and lunged, and then lunged again. And again. And again. So far into a bloodlust he didn't realize they were all dead until he turned to face the only human he could sense left.

And it was a terrified nine-year-old with sweat-wet black hair, brown eyes dilated with fear.

Nico.

The ax slid from his hands as he scrambled backwards, tears streaming down his face.

Tomiji suddenly regained his sense of humanity and was horrified by the amount of blood that surrounded him, the death that hung on his entire body. But the worst was the aura of pure terror radiating off his little brother as he ran away.

Trembling under the weight of his horror and self-loathing, Tomiji tried to run until he collapsed, like what happened in real life. But here, in the ever looping nightmare that plagued the fever dreams at the full moon, he could not move as all the blood reached up to swallow him whole and reset the nightmare to the beginning once more.

Translations of the Phrases above (I chose German)

"Mama, lass die sachen. Schnappen sie sich die zeillinge und rennen. Nico, geh mit ihr. Ich werde sie abhalten. Bleiben sie auf numer sicher." = Mom, leave the stuff. Grab the girls and run. Nico, go with her. I'm going to hold them off. Stay safe.

"Nien! Ich kann helfen!" = No! I can help!

"Mit Rosa in den armen? Nein. Gehen! Nwo!" = With Rosa in your arms? No. Go! Now!