Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to the second chapter. This one has Raphael meeting more of the students, as well as starting to realise just how skewed Fόdlan's views on werewolves are. I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Meals and Reactions

Raphael soon realised that there was a lot he was going to have to get used to.

Human society was very different and had a lot of odd things that were considered 'normal'. He'd heard of some of them, such as wearing more clothing, the lesser extent to which humans engaged in physical contact, and their odd method of supplying food and supplies amongst the people. However there seemed to be even more cultural norms on top of the few he knew about, and he was having trouble keeping up with them.

After Lorenz and Hilda, no one else seemed to be interested in engaging him directly, but many of them were staring at him intently. He guessed he shouldn't be too surprised, his pack mostly kept to themselves, so maybe many of them hadn't seen a werewolf before, but it wasn't just interest they were displaying, some of them seemed to be glaring at him, and he wondered what he was doing wrong.

Eventually, he finished his meal, giving a little growl of satisfaction as he did so.

Someone near him gave him a strange look at the noise and he tried to smile but they looked away. Shrugging, he stood and took the plate to where Seteth told him to leave it for cleaning, placing it on the pile and then turning towards the door.

Seteth told him where he could wander freely, encouraging him to explore, so the young werewolf set out to acquaint himself with his (hopefully temporary) new home, namely by trying to learn as many scents as possible.

Smell was a vital part of werewolf society, their keen noses letting them identify many things via scent. Things like family connections, heavily populated or lesser populated areas, locations of potential prey or threats, even (to an extent) another's mood. So, when somewhere new, it was instinct for a werewolf to try and learn the scents of their new environment, including those of the people that lived within it.

Sadly, it was going to be harder to memorise the scents of people around him, not only did humans seem to like burying their scent under artificial ones or layers of metal and cloth, but his Da had once told him that they had different views on close proximity. Even in the last couple of hours, Raphael had seen that humans seemed to keep a form of distance between themselves and others. Werewolves basically hugged when they met someone, it was the best way to memorise the scent and get to know the other werewolf, but humans seemed to reserve hugs for certain times, favouring words instead.

This meant he would have to memorise scents at a distance, not impossible but difficult, it could be a while before he could easily separate different people's scents out the way he could with his own pack.

As he explored, he soon gave up on learning everyone's scent, there were far too many people around to do that and he started lumping groups together for ease instead. Knights smelled largely like metal, those in the white robes (priests, monks and nuns he thinks Seteth called them) smelled like the cloth they wore, etc. Instead, he focused on learning main thoroughfares, seeing where most scents congregated and indicated heavy traffic, as well as the different scents of different rooms. The Dining Hall smelled like food and cooking, the Entrance Hall smelled like a mix of outdoor and indoor scents, the garden area mostly smelled of flowers and grass, and so on.

His path took him around the side of the Entrance Hall, and he perked up at a recognisable scent.

He was certain he could smell horse, as well as pegasus and wyvern. He guessed he found the stables and his curiosity was piqued.

He knew that humans domesticated and trained other animals, but he'd only seen a few humans riding such creatures in his lifetime, though he had encountered dogs and cats before (which seemed to be all over the place here). He'd been taught the scents of the three main human mounts, since his pack had a policy of not hunting them, even if they were wild, but he hadn't been especially close to any of them before.

Turning his walk towards the scent's source, he soon came to the large stable complex, and briefly stopped to look around, seeing another student nearby tending to one of the horses. He made to move towards them but stopped when the animal's nostrils flared, and it gave a warning whinny. In response, other horses poked their heads out of their stalls and watched him warily. Raphael mentally kicked himself.

He should've known they'd be uneasy around him, while his pack didn't hunt horses, the horses themselves didn't know that. Of course, they'd quickly pick up his scent and identify him as a predator, as far as they were concerned, he was similar to a regular wolf.

The student looked surprised, gently stroking the spooked horse's nose, "What's wrong Dorte?"

The horse whinnied again, and the girl (Raphael thought she was a girl, he was still relying on scent to separate male and female out) turned around to stare at him. Immediately jumping and looking as spooked as the horse.

"Oh! Who are you?"

Raphael smiled, "Raphael." He grimaced a little, "And, sorry about the horses, I guess I scared them."

The girl seemed flustered, "Oh no, its not your fault, I probably did something wrong…"

"No, you didn't!" Raphael just stopped himself from shouting his words out, having just got a better knowledge of the girl's scent.

For some reason, it had a sour tang to it, the scent tainted with a lot of self-guilt that he didn't understand and really wanted to fix. He didn't know why, but this girl seemed to have very little confidence.

He explained gently, "Its definitely me. I'm a werewolf, so the horses will all have caught my scent and be scared of me. They think I'm a predator."

The girl glanced at the horses, noticing them all focusing their gazes on him, then she looked back at him, "Oh, I see." She then looked down, "So, you're a werewolf, we'd been told a werewolf was joining the Academy." She briefly looked up, "I'm sorry, I am Marianne, I'm also a student here."

He grinned at her, "Great!" He then noticed Marianne's horse, Dorte, anxiously stamping the ground, "Anyway, I should probably get going, I'll only make the horses more anxious if I hang around. Sorry about that."

"No, don't worry about it…its fine."

He gave her a farewell smile then carefully moved away, hopefully giving the horses some peace of mind. As he left, he committed Marianne's scent to memory, he didn't like how it indicated she felt so much guilt, and he hoped it would improve soon.

Leaving the stables behind, he wandered past the marketplace and fishing pond, finding himself at the other end of the dormitories.

As he walked up the wooden path in front of the doors, he took note of the scents leading to them. Each one seemed to belong to one person, though there was evidence of different people going in and out of some of them, and he made note of the scents, meaning to match them to actual people later. He then spotted another student ahead of him, a purple-headed girl standing outside one of the rooms, talking to herself.

"Okay Bernie think. Where did you leave it? The training grounds…? No, I definitely had it afterwards… The Dining Hall…? No, not there either. Maybe I dropped it when Ferdinand dragged me to the Training Grounds…"

"Are you looking for something?"

"EEK!"

She gave a shrill scream, causing Raphael to actually wince at the pitch, and spun around to face him, "Who are you!?"

Worried that he might have inadvertently scared her, he spoke gently, "Erm…Raphael. Sorry if I scared you…"

If anything, she apparently became more distressed, staring at him in horror, "Oh no, I've really done it now! You're the new werewolf student, aren't you?" She turned away from him, still ranting. "This is it Bernie, you've doomed yourself! You've got a werewolf mad and now they see you as a Bernie-sized snack!"

Not sure how his attempted apology had made her even more scared, he spoke in bafflement, "Erm…why would I…?"

"EEK!" With another piercing scream, she sprinted into her room and slammed the door, "DON'T EAT ME!"

He stood where he was in complete confusion. Humans didn't actually think werewolves ate them, did they? Considering Lorenz and Hilda had been completely unaware of his race being male-only, he started to think that he wouldn't be surprised if humans did indeed think that. He considered trying to convince her that werewolves didn't eat humans but considering how his apology had seemingly caused her to go into hysterics, it might be better to simply leave and not make things worse.

As he continued towards the Training Grounds, he called back to the girl's shut door.

"Sorry for scaring you."

He soon came to the Training Grounds, finding a large number of students there in different groups, and he stopped in surprise for a moment.

His Da had been right, humans used a lot of different weapons.

As a werewolf, Raphael had always relied on his beast form and natural strength (not that he'd ever been in serious combat before, in fact, he wasn't old enough to join a hunt yet) and that was how his pack worked. He'd not seen human weapons, but he guessed they needed something, since they seemingly lacked decent natural weapons.

His arrival prompted some of the students to turn and stare at him, several whispering to those near them, but one, sinister looking, student approached him, their eyes appraising him carefully.

"Ah, you must be the werewolf. Alpha Fenrir's son."

Raphael attempted to take in his scent, and nearly wrinkled his nose as he did so. The boy's scent was one of…wrongness…like he'd been dabbling about with something sinister and dark, it definitely marked him out as untrustworthy. Making note of his scent as one to be wary of, he gave a small smile, "Hi, I'm Raphael."

The other boy inclined his head, but did not smile back, "Hubert, I am the vassal of Princess Edelgard."

"Who?"

Hubert's eyes flashed, "Are you telling me you do not know who the heir of the Adrestian Empire is? I find that hard to believe."

Raphael shrugged, "I've never needed to know, Da likely did, but I never asked so he never told me."

Hubert seemed taken aback, "How can you, the Alpha's son, not be aware of the identities of other heirs?"

The werewolf frowned, "What does me being Da's son have to do with anything?"

By this point, other students had joined them, and another boy spoke up, ending the conversation.

"A werewolf, I've heard that you're all very powerful fighters. I would like to spar against you."

Raphael frowned, "You mean, right now?"

The boy smiled briefly, "I am Felix Hugo Fraldarius, and I have no issues with sparring now."

A blonde girl (he was getting better at identifying genders quickly now) protested, "Right now Felix, he's just got here, and you know nothing about him."

"Exactly." Felix answered, "What better way to understand someone than to cross blades with them."

Raphael shrugged, "I don't mind."

It wasn't a new concept, a lot of his interactions with his packmates had been through play fighting and wrestling, it was their main source of play, even into adulthood. This didn't seem too different, and he was looking forward to being in his beast form for a while.

Felix's smile grew at this, "Good."

He turned and walked to the centre of the Training Grounds, arming himself with a wooden sword along the way, before facing Raphael once more, "Arm yourself."

Nodding his understanding, Raphael began unbuttoning his shirt, which caused the blonde girl's eyes to widen in horror.

"Why are you taking your clothes off!?"

He stared at her in confusion, seeing equally shocked looks on the other students faces, explaining his actions, "Because I'm going to change into my beast form. If I do it wearing this, then I'll wreck my uniform."

He continued removing his uniform, ignoring the students awkwardly looking away (some of them flushing a deep red) and placed it to one side. With the only his small cloths left, he stood and faced Felix and, with the same ease as breathing, transformed.

He heard the gasps and cries from the students, as his body grew bigger and his muscles bulked out, fur swiftly grew and covered him, as his nose and mouth elongated into a snout, his teeth becoming longer, and more pointed. Claws grew upon his hands and feet, as his ears became wolflike pointing towards Felix to focus on his opponent. Soon, he fell to all fours, shaking himself off and giving a small growl to indicate his readiness.

A werewolf's beast form was something of a cross between human and wolf, while first glance made him seem to be a very big wolf, he could stand on his hindlegs and swing his foreclaws if needed. Doing so also revealed a more human-esque torso, though covered by his blonde fur.

Felix seemed briefly shocked by the transformation, but the boy soon readied his own stance, and nodded to a red-haired boy, who swung his arm down.

"Begin!"

Immediately, Raphael ran forward, his four paws crossing the arena in moments. He launched himself and swung one of his forepaws, claws firmly sheathed to prevent real injury (he knew human skin was not as hardy as werewolf fur and skin). He dealt what he thought was a light tap, which sent the other boy skidding backwards.

"Felix!"

The blonde girl cried out and made as if to interfere, but Felix gave her a vicious look, "Don't even think about it!" He grinned at Raphael, "I see, you werewolves are very powerful."

He went onto the attack, moving forward with surprising swiftness, but Raphael was quicker, and the werewolf jumped back, avoiding the blow and swinging his other paw, once again causing his foe to skid backwards. Felix took a more cautious approach this time, circling around him and looking for an opening. Raphael did likewise, his senses turned towards the other boy, in preparation for a strike.

Felix soon obliged.

The boy suddenly shot forwards, some sort of symbol briefly flashing behind him, as he swung his wooden blade done. Unfortunately for him, Raphael was ready, and the young werewolf jumped to the side, completely avoiding the swing. He then pounced, throwing himself at Felix with a playful growl and causing them both to tumble along the floor. Soon, he pinned the boy, and looked down at him victoriously. In werewolf spars and playfights, the first to get pinned lost, so he was pretty sure he'd one this one.

Suddenly, a wooden haft cracked across his back, and he gave a yelp of pain. He'd been focusing on Felix, so he'd been ignoring the other students, hence why someone had managed to reach him unnoticed. Rolling off of Felix and facing his sudden attacker, he was surprised to see the blonde girl wielding a wooden lance at him.

"Get off him! What are you trying to do!?"

Raphael quickly shifted back, he didn't know why she was so riled up, but he couldn't speak normally in his beast form and he tried to explain himself.

"We were just sparring, when werewolves playfight they try to be the first to pin the other, that's all!"

"Enough Ingrid!" Felix was now standing, and he snapped at the girl, "He was only sparring. His claws were sheathed the entire time and he only pinned me down, the way anyone would if they wanted to end a fight."

She rounded on him, "How do you know that!? What if he was thinking you were fighting to the death!?"

By now Raphael was really confused, "Why would we be fighting to the death? A spar isn't too different from a playfight, and I do that all the time."

Fighting to the death was a completely foreign concept to him, only in extreme circumstances were werewolves killed by werewolves, they didn't have enough numbers to afford reckless loss of life. They rarely killed humans, even in defence.

She glared at him, "Werewolves like you are dangerous, who knows what half-beasts like you think is normal."

Felix snorted, "If you want to see a beast, then try watching the boar in a real fight. Raphael is nowhere near as much of a savage beast as he is."

These words seemed to strike something in her, and she glared at Felix before storming off. For his part, Felix nodded in approval, "That was a good bout, I hope to face you again when you're using your full strength."

He turned and walked away, leaving Raphael in confusion at Ingrid's words. Werewolves were dangerous? Well, they were much stronger than humans, but they didn't seem any more dangerous than anyone else. It wasn't like they roamed the land slaughtering anyone they came across, in fact, killing people was kind of rare for them.

"Umm…you might want to put these back on."

A quiet voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he found a short, silver-haired boy holding out his uniform to him. Raphael pulled a face.

"I guess I should do that."

He didn't like the uniform; it was going to be a huge pain if he had to undress every time he felt like taking on his beast form. He reluctantly took the clothes back.

"Thanks."

The boy nodded, "No problem." He was silent for a while as Raphael forced himself back into his uniform, awkwardly looking away. Eventually he spoke up again, "Umm…my name's Ashe."

The werewolf grinned at him, "Raphael."

There was another period of silence as he struggled into his shirt, until Ashe spoke once again.

"When you transform…does it hurt?"

Raphael laughed, "No, not at all. It's a natural part of being a werewolf, so I don't see why it would hurt."

"I guess not."

Again, silence reigned until Ashe spoke up a fourth time, "About Ingrid…please don't take what she says to heart. The Kingdom doesn't paint werewolves in a positive light, so she doesn't actually know any better."

Raphael frowned, "What do you mean?"

Ashe shuffled awkwardly, "Never mind." He smiled, "Do you want to meet the other students?"

"Why is he allowed to roam freely? Is it even safe for him to be around people?"

"I've heard that his kind kidnap woman for breeding, since they only have males."

"Well, I've heard that they eat people, apparently he's already been sizing one of the students up for a meal."

"He didn't even have any real clothes when he arrived, he didn't even know what they were!"

"Honestly, I think he should be grateful that the Alliance is even bothering to try and civilise him, he and his kind are a lost cause if you ask me."

The whispers and mutterings followed Raphael around wherever he went, people spreading rumour and speculation, and emphasising just how little humans seemed to know about werewolves. In a way he wasn't much better, but he at least accepted he knew little and tried to observe and learn. The humans were not only ignorant, but seemed to be determined to create wild theories that they shared as fact. Perhaps this is what Ashe had meant when he said werewolves weren't painted in a positive light.

By the time he left the Training Grounds after meeting many of the other students (several of which were fairly cautious) the tale of his spar with Felix had somehow become one of a pitched fight where he tried to rip the other boy's head off, at least amongst the gossipers. The monastery knights all watched him with unnerving closeness, as if expecting him to suddenly begin rampaging and tearing people to shreds.

As such, by the time he returned to the Dining Hall for dinner, he'd become used to being stared at by everyone he went past.

The expected hush fell over the room when he entered, and he tried to ignore it and the eyes watching him as he joined the queue for food. A pair of knights who'd been obviously following him from a distance for an hour now, stood at the doorway staring at him, and Raphael resisted the urge to pull faces at them.

Once he got his food, he noticed that his portion was considerably smaller than earlier, in fact it was smaller than other people's. He gave a small whine but said nothing, feeling that trying to ask for more would just break some other weird social rule he didn't know yet.

He glanced over the room then chose to sit at the table with the most students, many of which he'd met earlier. Several looked uncomfortable at his approach, so he sat at the end of the group and applied himself to his food with gusto.

He'd been eating awhile before someone finally addressed him.

"Raphael, must you make such noise when eating?"

He swallowed his mouthful as he looked at Lorenz, who was frowning at him in disapproval (he did that a lot, maybe it was his normal expression).

"What noise?"

Lorenz gave an irritated sigh, answering as if speaking to a child, "That growling noise, you've been making throughout your whole meal."

Raphael smiled, "Those are growls of appreciation, it means it tastes good. We growl when eating to communicate, don't need to stop eating to talk that way."

Amongst werewolves, it was rare to speak with words during a meal. Their growls could indicate a like or dislike of a dish, as well as act as a compliment to the cook. Their growls could also deliver basic greetings and actually starting conversation was usually a sign that you'd finished eating. Why talk when food was available, and you were still hungry? The process was so natural to him, that he didn't really notice when he was doing it.

He grinned, "If a werewolf isn't growling, or spends a lot of the meal speaking, then it means you've made a really bad meal. It's actually considered a bit rude to delay a meal by speaking instead of eating."

Lorenz seemed a bit thrown by that, but he quickly responded, "That as it may be. Making such noise while at the table is rather uncultured."

Raphael shrugged, "Not in a werewolf pack."

As he returned to his food, he heard Leonie give a snort of laughter and he glanced down the table at her. She gave him a smile and a nod which he returned.

Maybe there was someone here who'd actually understand some things about his people after all.

PS-So, there is some of his first interactions with the other students, as well as a small look at a werewolf's combat abilities. Please let me know what you thought.