moon rising

A/N: This chapter was pretty hard for me to write, especially compared to the first few chapters which almost seemed to write themselves. But I got it done after a couple days. This chapter does contain some violence.

Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.

Chapter Four

"Where are you going?" Krista asks her upon seeing Kira load several from her cabinet into a backpack.

"Oh the headmaster wants me to help Trent with his first turn." Kira says while absentmindedly continuing to fill her backpack. Krista makes a face, but doesn't say anything more. "What's that look about?"

"Nothing. You just sure have been spending a lot of time with this Trent lately."

"He's new! And you know how hard it is for these recruits. Not everyone is lucky enough to know what they are from birth. I think he's in denial, and there's no telling how he's going to react tonight."

"You have a point. But are you sure it's a good idea to be alone with a wolf?"

"I'll be fine. It's not like it's a full moon, and he'll attack any and everything. Besides, I won't be alone. Conner will be there." Kira grabs her backpack, just as Krista makes a face. "What?"

"You're going with him."

"He's Trent's roommate and friend. We're his only friends, and he shouldn't have to be alone. Unless you want to come?"

"Spend a night with Conner McKnight? No thank you."

"Suit yourself."

Kira meets Conner and Trent at the front of school, as agreed earlier in the day. Conner takes a deep breath, "let's go to the woods."

Kira opens her mouth to say something else, but Trent has already walked off into the woods. "He's way too calm about this."

"I think he's in denial, and I don't blame him. Do you?"

"No," Conner sighs, "this is going to be a long night."

They follow after Trent in the woods, eventually stopping just far enough from the school, and deep enough in to still shield them from onlookers. Trent says emotionlessly, "let's get this over with."

"You um might want to take off your clothes." Conner says.

"What?" Kira and Trent say at the same time.

"You're going to end up naked anyway, and you could always put them back on after."

"Right. Can you at least turn around?"

They both turn around, and Kira looks down at her feet. "What now?"

"Just turn." Conner says as if it was obvious.

"You say that like I'm supposed to get it."

"Just get on all fours, and let your body do the rest."

There's some grumbling, then shuffling around before the distinct sound of a bone snapping followed by screaming. Then it happens again. And again. And again. For what feels like hours, and may very well have been hours. But the screaming stops, replaced by growling. They both turn around.

"What do we do now?"

"We wait until it's out of his system."

"And how long is that going to take?"

"Well, my first turn lasted about… three hours. When you're in wolf form, you don't exactly focus on the time."

"Three hours?!" Kira takes a deep breath, before kneeling down. She crawls towards Trent, who meets her halfway. She touches his snout, and he turns back into a human. He smiles at her, before falling to the ground. She reaches into her backpack, pulling out a blanket. She drapes it over him, both to keep him warm and cover up his naked body.

"Wow, that went way better than my first turn."

The next morning, Trent wakes up in his bed, with no memory of how he got there. The last thing he clearly remembers is sitting in the woods with Kira and Conner. He sits up, expecting to feel some pain considering the events of last night. But instead he feels nothing.

"Look who's finally awake." Conner says, sounding like he was on the floor.

Trent looked over the bed, and sure enough Conner was sitting on the floor at the foot of his bed. "What are you doing down there?"

"I'm sitting, and Kira insisted I keep an eye on you after last night."

"Speaking of last night, what happened after I turned?"

"You were pretty out of it after that. Kira put a spell on you that put you to sleep. You're a lot heavier than I would've thought, man."

"Nice," he deadpans, "how am I fine?"

"Werewolf healing. Probably happened in your sleep." Conner stands up from his position on the floor. "Let's get some food before class starts."

After getting breakfast, Conner and Trent head for class, taking a shortcut outside. As they're walking, Kira comes to walk beside them. Or more accurately, beside Trent. "Hey. How are you doing?"

"I'm good. Thank you for being there last night. I hope I didn't… scare you."

"No no, I've been around werewolves my entire life, and at least it wasn't a full moon."

"That's not what I meant." He mumbles, looking at his feet to hide his blush.

"Ohh! Well, I didn't really see much… I mean I tried not to look."

Conner laughs from in front of them, and Kira points her index finger down. A stream of fire hits Conner in the back of his foot, and he jumps with a yelp. "Ow! Okay, I'll be quiet."

They both share a laugh, what they had previously been talking about momentarily forgotten. Then another girl runs up behind Kira, calling her name. "Kira! I thought you were heading to class."

"I was. I am. We were just going to walk together."

"But you haven't moved in three minutes. You're going to be late."

"But aren't you going to be late yourself?" Trent interjects.

"Flying is faster than walking." She answers simply.

"Trent, this is my roommate Krista."

"The fairy?" He says a bit louder than he intended to.

"Yes, the fairy."

Krista smiles sweetly, before walking away. But when he looks back, she's gone. When he looks forward again, Kira and Conner have walked ahead of him. He catches up to them. "Where did she go?"

"Fairies can only sprout their wings when in miniature form." His face must show his confusion as Kira says, "you've got to visit the school library sometime. Has Conner not been telling you this stuff?"

"Not everyone spends most of their spare time hiding out in the library." Conner retorts.

"Have you considered that that's the reason why I get chosen for off-campus assignments, and you don't?"

"Off-campus assignments?"

"Are exactly what they sound like. One of the teachers ,or the headmaster in some cases, gives a student the chance to go off-campus for some lame lesson."

"How would you know? You've never been on one." Kira says.

Conner opens his mouth to say something else, but they've reached their class.