Once upon a time, there was a Godly valley with mountains that could touch the sky and trees that cast long shadows. The people who live in the small mountain town are hardworking and happy, so long as they never stray into the forest where the wolves lurk in the darkness. Adults brave the trees in groups to hunt the vicious pack as they have for decades, the conflict is deep with no sign of victory for either side. But wolves are not the only threat, nor the village's only secret - and the link connecting them is a simple cloak of Red ...

Every night, from the highest peak of the uninhabited mountains, a single Wolf howls to the good folk of the valley – as a warning, as a message, and as a reminder of what they did:
"Beware, beware, the Path where the Witch once stood. Beware, beware, of the Wolf in the Wood."

"Cloud."

Cloud tensed, awake in seconds at the strange voice in the clearing. He growled, leaping from his happy doze of watching his companion sleep to standing ready to defend him, both hands tensed to strike out at whoever was too close. However, his fight was soon lost to him when he saw who it was.

His body lost the defensive tension but not the stance, both arms uncurling and his face adopting one of surprise. "Zack?"

The dark haired teen, a few summers his elder, stood at the edge of the clearing and didn't seem inclined to step further. He appeared a little out of breath, he must have just arrived, Cloud silently scolded himself for being caught unawares, even by a friend – they were supposed to be connected, how had his missed his arrival?

Zack's eyes glanced at Leon, the blue orbs becoming guarded and hard as he took in the slumbering teen. Leon slept, oblivious and deep in dreamland, he didn't make a sound and had hardly moved all night. That worried Cloud, Leon slept with the instinct to hide and remain unnoticed, what had caused that?

In the present, Zack's eyes were not kind and Cloud didn't like that. As he spoke, Cloud shifted to stand in the way of Zack's eyes and their judging, unwelcomed coldness. "What are you doing, Cloud?"

"I told you I was going out." The blond tried to evade the question, answering a different query though he was caught red-handed.

Zack looked unimpressed "I was right when I thought you were meeting someone, but I never thought it would be one of them." He looked Leon over again and rubbed his forehead "Really Cloud?"

Cloud chuckled nervously "Wasn't my idea of you finding out, I swear."

Chuckling too, but bitterly, Zack agreed "Yeah, I expected you introduce me to the one who was calling you away alone all the time, I thought it would be someone dependable at least." Cloud growled angrily and Zack snorted, "Guess you haven't been thinking straight for a long time."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Cloud objected.

Zack hissed "After that stunt you pulled last night? Howling at the moon? You told the entire forest where you were and who you were with," his eyes looked at Leon. "Angeal was ready to set the whole pack on the stranger you were calling with. He was so mad. And worried about you." His eyes were dark "Despite what you told us in song it makes no difference, Angeal's mind won't be changed, Cloud, we can't interact with these people. He's one of those that hunts us, and you've got no business with him."

Cloud stubbornly held his ground "He's different."

"How do you know?"

The blond felt his chest swell with pride "I've watched him. He's my Squall."

Zack's expression lightened in interest. Cloud imagined him recalling the songs and tales he'd howled to the night sky about him, all wordless and to human ears meaningless, but everything to his people. They knew he had been yearning for this stranger a long time.

Zack stepped a few more paces forwards but still looked at Leon from a fair distance away. "That's him?" Cloud nodded, a small smile on his lips. Zack raised an eyebrow at Cloud, analysing his smile as much as Leon. Cloud saw the tension leave him and knew that Zack had just gotten a good impression of Leon's character, he knew that he was different too.

Zack tilted his head "He's not bad to look at, I'll give you that." he gave Cloud a sad look "Too bad your man's a Hunter."

Cloud shook his head "I know him better than you. He's never fired at a wolf, not once. He told me that if he had the skill that we had for hunting with our hands that he'd never pick up a gun again. He despises the Hunters, and they hate him almost as much as they hate us."

He looked his friend in the eye and said clearly "I want to take him as my mate."

Zack's eyebrows rose higher the more Cloud defended him, his jaw unhinged the slightest bit and he only brought himself back to normal with a small wince "You … Cloud, give up. Angeal won't hear of this," he stressed, looking twice as worried now.

"I hope not, keep it quiet Zack. I need more time."

Zack ran a hand through his mane of hair "It's hard to keep something in the dark when you were howling at the moon with him last night!" His voice gentled when Cloud looked alarmed.

"What's he gonna do?"

"Nothing … he's not doing anything yet," the older wildling sighed "It's a good thing I love you, kid, or I'd have never rolled over for Angeal like I did. I convinced him that I should be the one to bring you back, that I would do it with the least anger."

Drawing himself up to full height and buffing his shoulders Zack imitated "You'd better bring that irresponsible pup back before noon or I'll drag him back with my teeth!" He held a hand out to Cloud "You have to come home. Now."

Cloud wilted, Angeal, in his long and respected reign as leader, was a someone he was both reluctant to disobey out of a profound and long-standing loyalty, but when angry he was terrifying, demanding his respect rather than earning it. Cloud felt his courage shrink at the idea of facing his great leader when in a rage. However, one glance at Leon's peacefully sleeping face and he felt just enough opposition rise to half-heartedly whine, "There's nothing you can do?"

The elder shook his head regrettably "No. I'm sorry Cloud." He gave Leon another look, one that was uncertain and still guarded, just because they were strangers. He glanced between them and inhaled deeply, tasting the air. Cloud frowned at him for doing so, tempted to snap at him for prying into their business. Zack looked interested, his eyes calculating "Does he know?"

Cloud shook his head disheartened.

"We should go," Zack said as the silence grew uncomfortable, Cloud's heart got heavier with every passing moment. "If we're fast maybe Angeal won't break your legs to keep you put."

With a small pout, Cloud protested "He would never."

"No, he'll likely put you on a leash and ground you." He chuckled as Cloud shuddered, horrified. Zack bumped his shoulder "Hey, I'll try to take a few shifts with you to give you a break."

The blond nodded, still upset that he was walking away so easily, but he couldn't fight the order from Angeal. He hated to think of the action his leader would take if he was out here in person with a sleeping 'hunter' in his sights … to protect him he had to go.

He turned and faced Leon again, he reached for his knife and put it next to him, covering his exposed arm with the cloak again. "I … I'll see you, Leon," he murmured, unable to make a promise that he'd return soon when he was not sure when he'd be allowed to run free again.

Zack peered around at him as Cloud absently pushed Leon's bangs from his eyes, "What's that smitten look for?"

Cloud blushed and yet he didn't bother to hide it "Zack …"

"Yeah?"

"He forgot me …"

Cloud lowered his head and Zack put both hands on his shoulders "I'm sorry Cloud."

The blond, now he had started, croaked "I waited … I waited so long, and …" he breathed unsteadily and Zack's hands held him tighter to keep him together. Cloud looked up at Zack "He's so much like before, now. He's happy, I don't want to leave him to go back the way he was," he saw Zack's resigned eyes before he looked away and blocked out Zack's arguments for leaving to admire Leon for these last few minutes.

His pale skin had a rosy glow to it with the chilled morning air, his body was lax and Cloud remembered how it felt alongside his own and how warm it was. He also remembered how Leon looked howling at the moon with him, at first so unsure but soon he was taking his first and uneasy notes into the song, simply saying over and over again 'I'm here'.

You'd make a good wolf, Red. If only they could see it too …

Leon woke cold, and alone.

When he was awake enough to realise why this felt wrong, he realised that Cloud had vanished. He sat up stiffly, his muscles stiff and his body heavy. He looked around hoping to see the blond step out of the trees with more firewood or traces of his usual pranks, but there was nothing. Leon had waited for a good hour before he realised that Cloud was truly gone, then, confused and hurt, he reluctantly gathered his things.

He moved slowly, packing up with every hope that Cloud would walk out, apologise and smile. That he'd have another excuse to stay with him, another walk, another hunt, another round of pranks. But there was no one.

When Leon had finally put away everything and strung the deer up by the legs to haul home, he spotted Cloud's parting gift.

The flint dagger rested on the ground near where he had been sleeping. Leon held it and felt the new roped handle with a small sigh. It was Cloud's. The flint looked like a natural cut that had been attached to the bone handle – bone or deer horn, Leon couldn't decide. The charms hung from the handle and rattled gently in his hand as he turned it both ways to admire it. In many respects, it embodied its owner. The dagger was all natural, it looked wild and interesting. Leon turned the knife in his hand and knew that it was the wrong shape for him, his hand was too large for the custom grip. His wrist pressed on either the blade or the charms, and both were uncomfortable.

He put the knife into his belt and wondered what this meant as he trekked through the lightening wood. The blade looked personal, he hoped that it was something Cloud would eventually come back for, that he hadn't been abandoned and discarded just like the knife. Not after all those weeks of having the blond by his side, he could barely stand the thought of being alone now.

The trees began to thin and Leon halted, he listened and reached out with his senses but felt nothing. Cloud wasn't here. Heavy hearted, and low spirited, he stepped back to village life and felt his normal masks raise to hide what he was thinking and feeling. Masks that were familiar and sadly so.

When he entered the village, he received several awed glances for the catch he brought back, but he felt no pride or gratification for the glances. It was not his kill. The deer had been Cloud's right, Cloud's hunt and he had taken none of it. Leon just wasn't wasteful; it would be an insult to the deer to leave it to rot.

Leon sat on the doorstep of his shack, resting in the sunlight and letting the deer bleed out next to the house, strung up on a pole by its hind legs. Often his eyes admired the wound upon the deer's neck and in its skull, so precise and so full of killing intent too but with the respect and the right of a kill earned. It was poetic and beautiful, and in many ways like the dagger, like Cloud.

Leon looked up at the mountains, full of questions and a silence that was suffocating, and a cold that was isolating.

Cloud looked down into the valley from his elevated view, the wind pulling at his hair and his hands resting on the sheath of the dagger. He felt the new hide where it had absorbed the shape of the flint, he felt the missing hollow where the blade was as clearly as he could feel Leon's missing presence from beside him. It was a pitiful link, but his watchdog would not let him slip away to see the other half, she knew him too well.

Tifa sat beside him and watched the trees and little houses where the village was, her eyes followed his she was patient enough to let him be for long enough for Cloud to forget she was there. She eventually gave him a look and asked, "Are you going to mope here all day?"

"Yes."

What else was there to do?

"You're really childish, you know," Tifa sighed, settling back on her hands to watch the sky instead of following Cloud's longing gaze down in the valley.

Ignoring her with as much dignity as he could while suffering from separation Cloud continued to admire the village where Leon must have been at this time of day. He hoped he had gone home and not stayed in the woods, he hoped he was sensible and intelligent and – well it was Leon, and he had instincts almost as good as Cloud's. He had to know that it wasn't intentional … this separation.

With his near constant sighing his watchdog finally spoke of the elephant in the room, "Did you think nothing would happen when you sang to us?"

The blond tensed and shrunk in on himself. He pulled himself into a smaller position and continued to sigh.

Tifa patted his back. "Angeal was so worried about you."

Cloud sank miserably "He never listens!"

"I feel sorry for you both, you know," the brunette admitted, her shirt a little tight on her and her skirt a little too short and revealing her lower shins and ankles, her feet bare and a necklace of teeth hanging from her neck. She tilted her head and bared small earrings, fresh over the old scars, of teeth as well. "I feel sorry for you because, well, look at you! You're moping like a five-year-old. And Angeal had to make you this way, he hates getting us down. Bet he feels stuck between a rock and my fists," she cracked her knuckles casually and Cloud hid a small grin at the thought.

"He's gotta think of all of us, as pack leader. Your boy might not be a threat to you, but what about us, all of us? And what if he knew about you? What then?" she raised a hand, holding an invisible musket "You sure he'll keep thinking of you as he has been? He was raised a dumbass Catholic after all."

Cloud groaned "I've been thinking of that for the past month," he admitted. "I just wanna tell him, but – damn it – he's gonna hate me, and so will Angeal!"

Tifa rubbed his back with surprising gentleness "You're whipped alright."

Cloud didn't even bother to deny it, he curled up into a ball and kept staring down into the valley, knowing that Leon was down there probably missing him and feeling so confused. "I wish he could just remember. It would be so much easier."

"Yeah?" Tifa lay down behind him and spooned against his back for warmth, the mountain was cold, her fingers digging under Cloud's arms to keep warm. "Why?"

Cloud rubbed at her colder hands absently, aware that he had vented to her already over his frustrations on Leon's blank past. Life would have been so much simpler if he had just remembered, why did he have to forget? Why Leon? Hadn't he suffered enough?

"Because he saw me back then …"

Tifa gasped "What? Then that changes everything!" she sat up, looking in part shocked and in part excited and her brain working overtime to find a solution to Cloud's current problem. "If he knows already-"

"He did." Cloud put his face on the ground and sighed "He got pneumonia, he was too cold that night, I didn't help him enough … and he lost his memories, all of them!"

The girl's voice was wavering and soft "Poor guy …"

Not paying much attention, Cloud mumbled, "He knew it was me … I found him when he was lost and … he knew." Cloud smiled, sighing deeply. "Ten years, Tifa … I waited ten years."

"We all did."

"You didn't have something to look forwards too." Cloud snapped, impatiently.

"True, I didn't have a potential mate waiting in the future, but I really missed my old self you know. I didn't even get my old self back in the end, I had grown up." Cloud felt her uncomfortably poke at her generous curves and he snorted, glad that his body was the least of his concerns. "Ten years was a long time for everyone and we all looked forwards to our light at the end of it, I'm sorry yours wasn't all it cracked up to be."

Cloud snarled and pulled away, fed up of everyone making assumptions of his opinions. True, Leon hadn't been what he expected, and his memory loss explained a lot of his behaviour in these past ten years, but if everyone thought that this little problem had made Leon more of a chore than a joy, then they were dead wrong. Cloud felt like ripping his teeth into them the moment they tried to suggest that Leon was even the slightest part disappointing for him.

To cover his anger, he snapped, "I need to run this off."

"You have to stay in my sight," Tifa reminded him, standing to see what he would do next, Cloud was faster but Tifa could run for longer and would pursue him to the ends of the Earth if he tried to slip away on her watch. "We could run through the old climb routes; bet they'd be a breeze now the ice is thinning."

Cloud agreed, with nothing better in mind, but not without a sad glance back at the village the size of pebbles "Leon …"

"Would you like some tea, dear?"

Leon shook his head but didn't look up at Edea when she asked, too busy turning the dagger over and over in his hands. Unable to stick the village, he had dissected the deer for all rich meat and salted as much as he could as fast as he could, the rest he stored in the deer hide and carried to Edea. Her presence was soothing and understanding. She knew at once that he was glum and had waited until he was ready to speak before asking.

Leon tried not to cringe at the ineloquent, emotional whine he had gone on. It was a miracle, in his opinion, the Edea hadn't just shut him up with a sleeping draught. Now he was staring longingly at the forest with not a clue what to think or what to do.

Edea's hand rested on his shoulder gently. Her smile was tender. "He'll be back."

Sighing deeply, Leon asked, "How can you be so sure?"

Edea touched the dagger's tip with a careful tap on her forefinger "You can see how it's made. It's new, and yet it's been created to last. It was unique enough for him to tie these charms to it," her fingers brushed over the teeth and the other little talismans. "Charms for luck, for skill, for silence and for mercy- oh, patience too," she held up one of the teeth, a tiny rune carved into it. "He's a strong magic user for sure."

Leon smiled at each charm, reading a different part of Cloud for every single one. "Good fortune, patience, skill, mercy and silence … they're all the things he praises me for," he admitted.

Edea squeezed his shoulders "There, you see? It's special to him, he trusted you to have it and he'll come back for it." her job done and Leon feeling better she returned to her house and left him on the outside bench, smiling at him when she saw his smile.

Leon heard her enter the house and exhaled long and slow, a little smile on his lips when he reread all the signs on this dagger. It was a work of art. The wildling had even dyed the rope on the handle red, it made Leon chuckle, Cloud must like colour coordinating. Though he missed him and was a bit sour with him for just disappearing while he slept, Leon felt warmer towards Cloud now. He trusted that it was for a good reason.

Cloud wasn't like that. He knew.

Leon rubbed at the handle of the knife absently for such a long time that it began to unravel at the edges. He cursed and tried to retighten it, but he pulled the wrong way and even more came loose. He sighed, and hoped that Cloud would forgive him for wrecking it, the red rope slid down and revealed the bone handle and yet another charm.

Leon wondered how many one man needed, the blond teen must have really felt superstitious to have included yet another hidden one. He gently pulled it free to look at it, but instantly he was stumped for a response.

This one was a health and wellbeing charm, it had been broken and was tied tightly around the interior of the knife handle but once it would have made a perfect circle bracelet. Twine made from plaited grass and twisted around small coloured and different shaped pebbles. Oval for well-roundedness, green for life and health, red for blood and passion and fertility, grey for the uncertain future, and a sharp triangle for the fight for life.

Leon blinked, this was exactly like the charms that Edea made.

But Cloud has never met her … she never met Cloud.

Leon stared at the charm and suddenly felt a jolt of recognition. He realised where he had seen this before, a part of him numb and a part of him hyper as a child. He saw it! The charm before him, his fingers twisting and turning, the thin little cuts he got whenever he mishandled the blades of dried grass …

And he remembered!

He remembered the wisp and spirit-like figure that he spotted through the trees for the first time, so long ago in his youth when he was gathering wood. He remembered the thoughts that haunted his mind, all focused on the forest spirit in the shape of a boy.

He remembered the 'spirit' coming back to abduct him the next day, beckoning him from the edge of his vision with broad smiles and whispers that lead Squall deep into the forest depths. He also remembered the sadness, the distress of the boy, no longer a fleeting ghost, when Squall realised he was trying to lead him astray. He remembered the boy convincing him to keep his secret and his silence. He remembered their promise, little hands twisting together in a knot that started their friendship.

He remembered their third initial meeting when he had run from the cruel words of Hojo's church and the village people. Cloud appeared as he cried and was the first to prove the town wrong, that the wolves never killed people, that Squall was just a normal boy – "But even better, Squall, you're my friend! No one's ever been friends with a Wolfe before."

"Wolfe?"

Cloud sat across from him, Squall at last running out of tears for his sad day and Cloud's slightly dirty fingers catching the ones he missed with care. Sensing his lightening mood Cloud happily explained, "That's my people's name, Wolfe, sounds just a little different from a Wolf, right? They're our friends. They protect us and feed us and we protect and feed them, we're like … um … kin, Mama says, but I don't know what that means!"

Squall giggled "That's why you're not scared."

"They're always watching me and keeping me safe, Squall," Cloud grinned "I'm never scared of anything."

He also remembered when their long playful days began to change. No more pinecone wars, no more hide and seek and no more stories. It all changed like the freezing of a pond, small creeping icy warning at the edges of their lives starting with little mentions of trouble in the mountain village, a minor bout of illness. He remembered the deeper chill when cures proved to be a lost cause. He remembered the day the cold of reality gripped.

"Squall … Mama's sick."

Squall gripped the boy's blue shirt and looked into his eyes, they were dull and full of tears – he could still feel emotions, that was good. It was the only positive thing he could think. The sickness had caught one of Cloud's closest family, and now the blond was showing signs of the illness he mentioned to Squall several weeks ago.

"I'm scared Squall …"

Cloud spoke dully, the word not ringing with the normal sincerity. He may have been scared, but he was quickly losing the ability to feel anything. It had struck so fast! He was only a little tired a week ago, and had insisted on a nap yesterday and now …

The brunet was at a loss. How do I help you? What can I do? "I …" he bit his lip "Matron knows how to make sick people better, I could bring her to your Mama."

Cloud shook his head "No … we don't let outsiders near us, it's not safe, the wolves might hurt her," his voice was deadening too.

Squall shook him, scared and desperate. "Then … Then I'll make you and your Mama a charm, something that will make you better. Please, Cloud, don't die …"

Cloud looked up at Squall with dim surprise "Die?" he murmured, testing the word like he saw it new all over again.

The snow was heavier now.

Squall paced around their regular clearing for hours, from the dawn of the sun to the mid-afternoon, he had only finished one charm, one he intended to give to Cloud as promised. He had put all his feelings into it and was confident it would work. It was a promise bracelet, and a healing spell, and a charm for Cloud's well-being all in one, and Squall was determined to give it to Cloud, to protect him.

But he hadn't shown up.

When the snow started to fall, he ran through the trees with dread gripping at his soul as he thought about Cloud vanishing forever, and leaving him alone. He had no idea where to go but that critical fact was not enough to stop him. He walked and walked until he was lost, until the forest was all white, and until he couldn't tell the mountain peaks from the grey sky. He shivered, and walked, it was all he knew to do. His fingers were red and cold, his nose hurt, and his clothes were getting damp, but he pressed on.

Got to get to Cloud, got to get to Cloud, got to … got to … to …

He tripped often, but now, too cold and too numb to move he fell and lay still in the middle of a small, circular clearing. The snow swiftly began to bury him, running in cold streaks down his unfeeling cheeks and forehead. His breath no longer misted and his vision, so white, began to look dark.

"Cloud …" he gasped again with an exhale, his cries long since faded. "Cloud …"

He barely remembered the howling, the odd glow from the mountains, or the chill in his bones now, making him ache from inside out. All he knew was the warring forces of white and black across his vision. Shapes battling for dominance, running like hares, mixing like the water into the sea, stalking like a wolf.

But then there was a wolf.

A big wolf, with large teeth and large eyes, big ears and big paws. Standing on all fours, it was already taller than the little eight-year-old fallen in the snow, and still taller if Squall managed to stand on his tip toes. It moved silently and Squall didn't realise it existed in reality until he had stared at it for a good few minutes.

No fear left in him, Squall merely croaked his friend's name and weakly dragged one hand forwards, offering his trinket as his eyes stopped seeing. "Cloud … he needs this."

Reality slipped through his fingers like sand, and he almost lost himself in the dark behind his eyes.

A warm tongue pushed his bangs from his eyes, a wet nose pulled his head up from the snow and nudged him to one side. The touches pulled him back from the darkness, so unexpected it roused the last parts of a child's curiosity. Squall opened his eyes a few degrees and saw the wolf looking at him … eyes so strange for an animal's.

The wolf then did something stranger than looks. Whimpering, it pressed a paw against the trinket again and again until it was slipped on at the ankle. The process took some time, a paw not made for sliding on bracelets or other delicate tasks. The determination was alien in a face so wild.

Not thinking right, Squall raised his numb fingers and touched the bracelet, and by extension, the wolf's dominant front leg – something so dangerous Matron would have screamed at him. But the inside of his head was dimming and darkening, he forgot the peril and the stupidity of his gesture and instead only insisted, "It's for Cloud …"

The wolf barked and stared him long and hard. Eyes so blue, blue like Cloud's … like the Wolfe boy … Wolfe … Wolf!

"Cloud?"

Without another word between them, the Wolf told him; yes, it's me. And Squall smiled.

His friend stayed with him that night. Squall's strength finally failed shortly after recognising the Wolf for the soul he really was. The young brunet spent his last energy weeping for joy, his friend was no longer dying, his eyes full of life once again. He had no strength to raise questions or puzzle answers, Cloud was here and that was all that mattered.

But Squall's soon closed in the deepest of sleeps, and neither human nor Wolfe could dissuade it.

He remembered Cloud curling his new body around him, tucking both tail and head to his small body, his teeth unable to loosen his clothes and his paws too clumsy to assist in that matter either, but the wolf fur was warm and dry and Squall was safe. For the first and last time in all his years and in the following ten years, Squall was completely safe …

Edea looked up from potting her latest concoction as a shadow suddenly blocked the light from her front door. Leon stood in her doorway, his face ashen and a hearty but clumsy charm bracelet on an outstretched hand, he leant on the doorframe to catch his balance, his steps to her had been fast and clumsy. His lips trembled a few times before he whispered: "I remember …"

She could only gasp his name.

He held up the charm, he looked up at her and his silver eyes were wide, turbulent and yet clearer than she had ever seen them. They were alive. He gripped both bracelet and dagger and his voice was sincere. "I remember him."

Edea dropped her latest potion.

Thanks for your comments, please leave another. No double update this week - week been busy. BUT comment for the next week, it's a good one! I promise, and you'll want to know what Cloud meant last chapter and what Elmyra's got Aerith into next. Be lovely people and you'll know BOTH answers on the same Strifehart Sunday ... if not ... you'll have to wait Seven Whole Days till the next answer.