It has now been one moon...month since Clark found me.

I have learned many things about living as a wolf girl. Many words. How to use grammar.

Despite all I know about it, all of the lessons about it seem to go away when I get scared. It's like fear and grammar don't mix for me.

Clark says that it's an idiosyncrasy. I have a few.

Like wiggling my ears, which I hide, when I'm nervous. I also growl when I'm angry and howl when I'm pleased.

As you can see, I still act a little like a wolf. I have a pretty obvious reason for still liking them.

I also like being out in nature, warmth, being read to and, with one exception, instrumental music.

That exception is a song that I came across by a singer called Aurora and it's called Running With the Wolves. It brings back good memories of time spent with my wolf family.

Yes, I still call them that. So what?

I most often sleep curled up like one and I still feel like a wolf at heart. I am part one, after all, which likely explains why my favorite color is gray.

I'm actually wearing a gray hoodie with wolf ears that Linda said I could keep right now. The black T-shirt and pants that I have on along with it aren't from her but the latter cover my now healed leg.

I'm also wearing gray shoes because Clark insisted. I'd rather go barefoot but I'm light on my feet either way.

Anyway, now for my dislikes. They would be rain, getting my fur wet as a wolf, feeling cooped up and the song Hungry Like The Wolf. It feels insulting in a way that I don't really feel sure how to explain.

Oh, and I don't really care that much for vegetables. No, I'm more of a carnivore and I have a very fast metabolism which means that I'll often have snacks in my pockets. Berries are a common pick for me because I really like all of them.

I'm also mostly nocturnal, even though Clark keeps trying to change that at least a little bit. Pretty sure you can't get a wolf girl to accept that night time is for sleep.

I have also answered a few questions about my life before I was a wolf (got that from the Jungle Book, I forgot to mention that, of what I've heard, Mowgli's stories are a favorite). There's one question that I just can not give an answer to, no matter how hard I try.

I can tell Clark that my fear of drowning is from a combination of my pyrokinesis not being able to work if I'm wet and it being how I lost Smoke, one of my wolf brothers.

I can't tell him how the fire that led to life with my wolf family started. I wonder if I'll ever know.

Clark says that he has a visit to his parents planned today. That, some day, he'd like to adopt me which means that I'd be a part of his family.

"Before you take me to see your parents, I have a question for you."

He smiles. "Go ahead."

Please let him say Yes to this.

"Can you promise me that I'll see my wolf family again? I do like you but..." I let out a low and mournful howl. "Clark, I really miss them! Please take me back some day."

I wiggle my ears. "I need to know that they are safe. I've had one taken from me by a man with a noisy stick."

He breathes out slowly. "Oh. You mean a gun. Ember, I'm sorry to hear that."

His smile widens and turns warm. "Of course I can promise you a reunion with your wolf family. Can I ask you to promise to come back to me?"

I nod. "Deal. Now about the visit to your parents and the adoption..."

I do a happy howl then, grinning, shift into a wolf and pounce on him, knocking him flat.

He laughs. "I'll take that as a Yes to both. Now can you get off me and shift back?"

Just before I do, I find myself fighting the urge to lick him. I'm so happy!

Oh, and did I mention I know he's Superman? Well, you can't fool my nose.

I know the two of them have to be the same person. They smell the same.

Clark's P.O.V.

"So this is where you're from?" She sniffs, just as I thought that she would do.

"Yes, Ember, this is Smallville."

She looks around. "It's quiet."

A wolf girl's experience of Kansas. She does have a point though.

We head inside and Ma looks at me. "Clark, you brought a guest!"

I close the door behind me. "Ma, this is Ember. I found her in the forest a month ago and she'll likely be part of the family soon."

She raises her eyebrows."Good heavens. You're going to adopt a feral child?"

I nod. "She's lived with wolves from the time she was 12 years old and she's 15 now. I didn't have you meet sooner because I wanted to give her some time to adapt. She's had some trouble with grammar but she speaks just fine now."

She nods. "Clark and Linda taught me English. I only have a bit of trouble with time now. I'm used to telling it by the moon and sun. I like nature." She grins.

"Well, your teeth certainly seem to show your wild side."

I guess she likes the way Ma put it because her grin widens and she howls.

"Land sakes!"

I laugh. "It's all right, Ma, that means she's pleased."

Ember nods, making her hood fall down and showing her ears which Ma's eyes widen at the sight of.

"Clark, her ears are pointed."

Here we go again.

"Yes, apparently she was born with them that way. Her "wild side" is actually due to her being part wolf. I actually found her in the form of one."

Ma laughs gently. "I guess being born with wolf genes gives you ears like a Vulcan's*."

She musses my hair. "I've raised a child from another planet, I can certainly deal with having a granddaughter who's part wolf and a Meta."

She looks at Ember. "Do you mind telling me what, if any, other powers you have?"

She shakes her head. "I can see in the dark, not just as a wolf, speak and understand the language of wolves and all birds." She shivers.

I guess she must be a little cold so I build a fire which she lights. Looks like somebody wanted to do a power demonstration.

I can't exactly accuse her of showing off, I've developed my powers here.

"As you just saw, I also have pyrokinesis. That's all my powers."

Ma whistles. "Well, it certainly looks like you're not just named Ember for that bright red hair of yours. My boy may have heat vision but I've never met a girl who can summon her own fire. That just beats all."

She looks at me. "Just you wait until your father hears about this child you've taken in."

Ember's stomach growls.

Ma heads off to the kitchen, saying that she'll go fix up some lunch.

Just after she leaves, Pa enters the house.

Ember wiggles her ears as he makes his way over. Sounds like he's in his work boots.

Just as I'm about to say that he'll like her, he appears, having gotten a brief explanation from Ma.

He smiles and I can tell the sight of it has relieved Ember. "You must be the wolf girl. Are you hungry? I've just been told that lunch is almost ready."

Her stomach growls again, this time much louder, causing him to laugh. "I'll take that as a Yes. Bet you'll like it."

She sniffs then licks her lips and grins, wide and toothy. "It smells a little different than I remember but I know that it's deer from time spent with my wolf family."

She smiles at him once we're at the table. "You hunt too."

He laughs. "Well, I'm probably nowhere near as good at it as a wolf."

She nods. "My wolf family are very good hunters. They taught me, Starlight, how to hunt. I miss the hunt. I would like to again."

So her wolf name and her middle name are the same. I wonder if that's also the case with her wolf Dad and her actual one.

Ma raises one eyebrow. "Starlight?"

Ember smiles. "That's a rough translation of my wolf name. It's also my middle name. I have a wolf name for Clark too." She says something in Wolf, reminding me that I should probably start learning it as soon as possible.

I smile at her. "So what does my wolf name roughly translate too?"

She giggles. "It's your new one, actually. Your old one would have roughly translated to Watcher." She grins. "This one, that I came up with for you today, roughly translates to Protector."

I smile at her then tell her that I like it and ask if she'll teach me to speak Wolf.

She nods. "I'd like that."

After lunch, Pa leads Ember to the gun rack and tells her that, one day, she can use one of them to hunt.

She wrinkles her nose then sniffs. The smell causes her eyes to widen.

She takes a step back then, in a kind of scared whisper, says that he uses the noisy sticks.

Pa raises one eyebrow but, before he can say anything, she shifts into her wolf form and pounces at him with her teeth bared, knocking him flat.

My eyes, like his, widen. "Ember!"

I try to pull her off but she nips me, as if to tell me I should back off, then growls in anger at Pa.

"You dare say me use what kill one my wolf brothers?"

I know that talking is harder for her as a wolf.

He tries to tell her that he didn't know but she cuts him off with a snarl.

This is my first time seeing her like this. It's alarming enough to watch.

"I never use such thing. You no make me."

She bares her teeth again. "You never make me use noisy stick. Never!"

He nods.

She gets off him then shifts back into a girl and apologizes, telling him that she'd prefer to hunt her way.

He looks at her. "I'm sorry about your wolf brother. Do you want to tell us his story?"

She wrinkles her nose again. "Not in front of the noisy sticks...I mean guns."

He nods. "Fair enough."

She breathes out slowly once we're in front of the fire. "I will tell you about my now dead wolf brother..." She says something in Wolf. "You will now remember him with me. His name would roughly translate to Bramble."

Ma raises one hand. "Did you have any wolf sisters?"

Ember nods and holds up four fingers. "Now for Bramble's story. He was 5 and we were hunting a deer. It was being hard to catch. As I followed it with him, I fell and landed hard, breaking my leg."

So that's how she broke it.

"I was trying to get up when men came."

Hunters.

"I hid from them but I saw one shoot our deer and..." She gulps. "One shoot Bramble as he ran away. I called for my wolf family to come find me. They do, scaring the men, who took the deer with them. My wolf Dad, Night Wind, took me to Bramble."

Her eyes well up with tears. "I tried to help him but I could not do anything for him."

Tears slowly fall down her face. "I tried so hard but I could not heal him. All I could do was watch as he went where no living wolf can go."

He died in front of her. Oh, Ember.

"I didn't really get to say goodbye to him because you found me soon after that when I was hunting with his sister."

Now I know why she was chasing a deer. Her wolves needed food.

It also explains her wanting to know if they're safe. She hasn't seen them in a month, she must be so scared for them, especially since she's already lost two if not more.

I take her into a hug, telling her that I'm so sorry about what happened to Bramble.

"Why are you squeezing me because of it?"

I let go then look at her. "Ember, that's a hug."

She repeats my last word. "Right. I remember those, it's just that wolves don't hug that way. They do it with their teeth." She grins, showing hers. "But different is good."

I smile and nod, then she hugs me.

She lets go and looks at me. "That's a hug for..." She says my wolf name.

Ma and Pa smile and I can't stop my smile from widening.

That's my Ember, the...She laughs, seeming amused at some private joke.

I raise one eyebrow and ask her what's so funny.

She shows her ears. "You mean to tell me you don't get that you took a wolf girl to grandmother's house?"

Oh my God.

"Ember!"

She starts laughing again.

*No one will be able to convince me that Clark and his Mom aren't Trekkies.