This is a little taster of the next story, which will be called 'Out of the Shadows' when I get round to polishing it up enough to post.

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Never had a more beautiful autumn day dawned. The entire country had been gilded by fallen leaves and chill sunlight. Paper-thin wisps of red, gold, umber, yellow and brown clung vainly to their past homes before the light breeze whisked them away in multi-coloured swirls

The sky was a pale, hazy blue and a cool zephyr rustled the crispy undergrowth and stirred the bare branches from which the leaves had already flown. Black rock changed to subtle shades of pink and purple with the rising sun, yet the shadows between crags seemed to become deeper and more impenetrable in contrast to the lightening morning.

One shadow alone moved against the passage of the sun, a shadow that leapt from rock to slippery rock once it had emerged from the dark forest at the foot of the mountain. Small and slight, it slipped like a ghost between crag and over jut down to the lake.

Raven had been travelling for months. If she'd taken a direct route from the castle she could've been here in days, but she hadn't felt it right and so had wandered wherever her heart had led her. She had acquired the loose- limbed gait natural to all true wolves from her travels. She had visited places she had meant to for years – hard, terrible years of pain and solitude – her parents' grave, the old Council Tree, the Wolf Stones, the Sacred Spring, long-forgotten places, always alone and hidden.

She hadn't eaten, slept or even stopped for two nights so she could reach Dragon Mountain today, the eve of the full moon. She'd run flat out for the last seven miles or so and the sweat was steaming off her sleek black fur. Stowing her quiver, bow, belt and dagger safely under a bush, Raven dived headlong into the pool beneath Snow White Falls. The iciness of the water took her breath away. She should have expected it due to the enchantment of the Ice Dragon above her.

She savoured every needle-like stab of cold refreshing her tired muscles and submerged completely into the freezing depths to feel the turbulent waters wash away the accumulate filth of hard travel.

Finally, she completely rejuvenated, the black wolf swam to the gravely shore. Once there she shook the majority of the water out of her sooty fur like a dog before sunning herself on an exposed flat rock already warmed by the new autumn sun that was almost as strong as summer.

As she lay there she reflected on why she had never let herself do this before. She'd always been on the move, even in prison she'd kept herself ludicrously agitated and ready for anything. Now she knew why. All the hurt and pain she'd experienced over the years that she'd buried deep in her heart came racing to the surface in a sickening rush.

But worst of all was the loneliness – a terrible, aching, overwhelming emotion that gnawed and bit and ate her soul alive.

Since her parents had died she'd always felt so alone. Her brothers and sisters didn't understand – they weren't wolf enough. Luath had tried, and she loved him for it, but it didn't work. He could walk through life pretending to be human if he wanted to, but unlike him she couldn't hide what she was – and what's more she didn't want to. She needed a pack to make her whole, but she'd always had solitude forced upon her, and what pack would accept her now?

Her single raven companion wasn't much help, but she knew how much Rab always tried to cheer her up. She wasn't the easiest to get along with, but the raven cared not. He watched her, concerned, as her body began to shake with the sobs of years of pent-up anger, frustration and downright pain. Her scar glowed red in the new sun, fresh scar tissue blistering over the old rams head where it had been burnt to obliteration. It now looked like just another wound, not an identification mark.

Wiping away the tears, she walked back up to where she had secreted her weaponry. Buckling it back on, she picked up her bow and breathed in the air of a fresh life and a new task. With an agility that would have put a mountain goat to shame, the wolf set off up the mountain to meet her destiny whilst great black raven wheeled and cawed high above her in the clear sky.