As soon as she closed the cabin door behind her, Hermione transformed back into a wolf. Prowling around
the cabin, she sniffed here and there. There was Nikomel's scent, Dumbledore's, and her own. A rabbit
seemed to have come about a few days ago, and there was the very faint marking of a dog or some sort.
In her best judgement, it was about a year old, give or take a week.

Then she sniffed the air. A centaur was wandering around, probably in the clearing over by Hogwarts.
There were a few deer close by, but nothing worth the effort of chasing down and killing something. She
could smell a bear not far off. Male brown bear, and a big one at that. And the only other thing she
could smell was...a wolf pup?

Not just any pup, but a pup from Nikomel's den at that. It had the same odor mark. Strong, and somewhat
musky, like a moose. What was a pup doing this far out in the woods at this time of night?

Calli, as she now was, leaped around and started to run northward, towards the den. If the pup was old
enough to be marked, hopefully he was smart enough to stay on the path.

Calli had only been running for a few minutes when she found trouble. There was the bear, up ahead,
standing over something that was clearly a small wolf pup. A growl rising deep in her chest, she sprang
onto the beast.

He put up a tremendous fight, and Calli soon saw that she wouldn't be able to handle it on her own.
Clinging deperatly to the huge bear, she spoke to the frightened pup cowering in the bushes.

"Go north up the path. Don't stop. Get to the cabin. Nikomel is there. Send him here. Hurry!"

The pup looked at her curiously for a minute, but with a loud bark on Calli's part, he set of down the
path towards the cabin, and, hopefully, help. She watched his retreating figure, praying he would get
back in time, and that no other danger would meet up with him on his way.

It was the wrong thing to do. Taking advantage of his foe's distraction, the bear cuffed her across the
head and slammed her into the trunk of a tree.
~~~
Panesh stopped running for a moment when he heard the other wolf hit the ground, and turned around. The
bear had swatted her into a tree, hard. It was turning into a one-sided battle, and he couldn't do
anything to help! Hadn't Nikomel said that he, Panesh, could do anything? But he could go out into the
woods at night, and he definently couldn't fight a bear, so what could he do. As the bear turned towards
him momentarily, Panesh got his answer.

Run.

And run is what he did. Tucking his little fuzzy tail between his legs, a jumped around and raced in the
direction the other wolf had indicated. He hoped she was OK. She must be a really brave wolf, to jump on
top of a bear like that, and fight him herself. Surely she could fight him off, right?

After running at top speed for a few minutes, Panesh nearly ran into a small wooden cabin as he turned a
corner. He dashed all around it, whining and barking furiously. As he went around again, a man's head
popped out of a hole in the wall, with Nikomel right behind him. Panesh stopped abruptly, his little legs
dragging into the ground, trying to slow himself.

"Nikomel!," he cried. "Nikomel, please come, there's a bear, and another wolf, she saved me! She wants
you, the bear hurt her! Please come!"

Nikomel didn't hesitate or question Panesh. He ordered him inside the cabin, gave to urgent barks, pawed
the leg of the man next to him and took off into the woods. Before following him, the man turned to Panesh.

"Stay here," he said quietly. "Don't leave, or make any noise. We will be back."

Then he hurred off into the woods after Nikomel.