"Stranger the moon looks good tonight

Humming halleluiah in the night"

xXx

Morning sun hit her in the face gently, eyes fluttering open to a once again empty house. She'd been so tired from the night before that she didn't even hear Anna leave. Stretching and cracking her joints, Hana crawled out of her bed feeling good about the day despite the events the night prior. As she made her way to the main area, she stopped and rubbed her eyes for a moment. "Ame?"

He sat there, chin resting on his hand as he played with the spoon in his cup of tea. He took a deep breath and looked up at his mother "Goodmorning"

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah" He muttered.

"It's been a long while since you visited me like this" She stated with a yawn, sitting at the chair across from him with a tired smile "I miss it you know"

"Yeah, I know"

"What's on your mind Ame?"

He looked up at her, questioningly.

"Just because you chose to walk the path of the wolf doesn't mean I don't know when something is bothering you" She spoke, wide grin from ear to ear with crinkling eyes "I am your mother remember?"

At this, a small half smile cracked across his lips. It was subtle, but it was there. "That you are"

"So, what's on your mind" She repeated. "Are you hungry? I can get you some breakfast if you want—"

"Actually, I brought you something" He stood up, moving over to the kitchen space to pull the body of a dead pheasant out of the sink. "Thought you could use it"

In that moment, Hana had gone back to years before. Instead of Ame there was his father, standing in the doorway of their apartment with a goofy grin proud that he had caught such a catch. It made her heart ache but she smiled none the less. In fact, she laughed.

"What?"

"You don't realize how much you looked like your father just now"

He tilted his head sideways, eyebrow raising as his mother's laughter subsided.

"Thank you, it looks fantastic" She took the bird from his hands, hanging it up by its feet on a rack above the counter. "You didn't answer my question, are you hungry?"

"Uh"

"Ame, its ok I can make you breakfast." She put a hand on his shoulder

He sighed, scratching the side of his face where stubble had begun to grow again. "Yeah, okay" It had been so long since he'd eaten a meal with just his mother. The night before had been the first time he'd eaten at a table since he stopped visiting once every week. Why had he stopped? It used to be twice a week, then it slowly moved to once, and then he stopped all together. He didn't know why, but despite that fact he still guarded the area around the house as if it were his. He watched over her shoulder as she cracked eggs in a pan, boiled rice, and all together did what he remembered her doing. When she was done, she motioned for him to sit with her at the table again. Handing him a smaller portion than what was on the table; he went over and sat some down next to the picture of his father.

"Have you found anything out there?" She suddenly asked, finishing her food. Her eyes met her son's, and he knew what she meant.

"No, Mother" It was almost a sad sigh "I am the only one"

"It must be so lonely up there" She looked down at the tea in her cup "Have you thought about, oh I don't' know, moving into the city for a while? I know you consider it your job to protect the mountain and I am proud you do but" She sighed, "I don't want you to be so alone"

"I prefer it that way"

"Do you?" She raised an eyebrow.

Looking into her brown eyes like he had as a child, he felt it impossible to lie to her. He had always been so close to his mother back then, so much more than his sister but now it was as if things had reversed. But it was mostly his fault in the end. With a defeated sigh he answered "No, not really"

"Ame, I love you and I want to see you happy. It's why I let you go down this path" She said "Consider your options, even if it is for a little while. The mountain will always be here" She reached across the table and laid her hand over his with a smile. "Maybe you could go sit in on one of Anna's classes? You might learn something"

He rolled his eyes "I left school for a reason"

"University is so much different than elementary school. Trust me"

"She is a complete stranger"

"Now you are just making up excuses"

There was a long pause, he was thinking about that girl. There was something off about her, he just couldn't pin point what it was exactly and it bothered him to no end. He was about eighty percent sure that…that…"Has she done anything weird?"

"What?"

"Anna, has she done anything weird?"

"No Ame" She laughed. "What is this about?"

Again he made eye contact "Nevermind."

"If you insist"

"I need to go. It's going to snow again tonight and I want to make sure everything is set for it." He stood as did Hana, and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Thank you. Would you mind if I came back again?"

"You are always welcome here, Ame" She walked around the table and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "I remember when you were only up to my hips, and now I am only at your chest." She laughed "You've grown into a very handsome young man and a beautiful wolf"

He found himself slowly hugging back, just letting his Mother speak. "Well, If I was still as tall as I was when I was twelve I'd be worried."

Both of them laughed.

"I'll see you again" He said, moving toward the porch. He jumped off of it, landing on all fours and taking off into the frozen underbrush. She stood, leaning against the frame of the door as a howl echoed out on the wind.

xXx

She was lost in her own little world, headphones in both ears and forehead rested on the window of the train. She'd be back home in fifteen minutes, and she was glad. The train slowly came to a stop, and she slugged on her side bag, shuffling out of the long pathway to the platform outside. From there it was another twenty by bus, but she didn't mind. Long road trips made her at ease, which s a rather strange thing considering tight spaces usually made her anxious. If it wasn't cold outside, she would stick her head out the window and let the air wash over her face and through her hair. It was a bumpy ride, the road cracking from the freeze thaw of the harsh parts of winter. But now, parts of the ground had begun to thaw out with the ever steady rising of the temperature. She could feel it, the spring season knocking on the door.

Winding around the mountains the bus finally came to her stop. With a smile, she thanked the driver being the last passenger on, and stood at the end of the drive. She stopped though, looking down the road and into the dark forest. There was something there, he could feel it and just barely smell it. Her blue eyes squinted, trying to find exactly where this thing was and why it was watching her. The hair on the back of her neck stood up again, and she grew tense. Suddenly, she could see it—two yellow eyes watching her from the dark. She stared back at them, unsure if it was friendly, foe, or what exactly it even was. But she knew what it was, Anna was just fooling herself.

Slowly she took a step back, turning her own back to the eyes and moving up the drive as if nothing happened. It was unusual to meet other creatures, and it wasn't unusual for them to stare at her. More often than not they were quicker to sense what she was than the majority of the human population. However, the thing that bothered her most about these was the fact she felt she'd seen them before. But where? When she was inside, she relaxed and took several deep breaths. Her heart beat that had been raised went back to normal.

"Anna? Are you alright?" Came Hana's voice from further down the long house.

"Y-yeah there was just something out in the woods is all." She muttered.

"Something out in the woods?"

"Yeah, I saw it just a few feet out of sight of the road but I think it was just…" She shook her head. "I'm fine." She smiled, untying her hair from the pony tail it had been held in. "I think I am going to turn in early. It has been a long day"

xXx

The week continued on, every morning getting up before the sun rose and going from class to class until the sun decided to set. Yuki and Souhei came that weekend, spending it with Anna when they could and their Mother, taking them into the city to show Anna what it was really like. And before she knew it, it was time to go back to the university and the cycle continued once again. Classes from sun-up to sun down, coming back to eat dinner with her host mother, and repeating the next day.

The ice began to melt away, the snow turning to water and mud on the ground. Rain began to fall, and flowers began to bloom. This was her favorite time of year; it was always full of life and an energy that surged through every living thing. Before she knew it, Anna had already been there for two three months. By now, she had practically become part of this family, and it felt nice. They were so much more inviting than her own back home—not that her's was bad it was just, well, they didn't approve of her nomadic lifestyle. Anna never really could stay in one place for long periods of time. It's why she transferred so many times, and coming here to Japan seemed like it could break her of that habit. So far, it was working. However, the feeling was still there and it had intensified over the following months.

Every time she left the house she felt it, those yellow eyes burning into her. She tried to forget, and tell herself it was just her own imagination-missing a life she had left behind years ago. Sitting at the desk that had once been Yuki's as a child, she glanced over the things still in the room. Her eyes rested upon the small wolf doll that sat there covered in a layer of dust. In the other room, she could hear the muffled conversation of Hana and a local villager talking over a warm cup of tea. She glanced over to what she assumed was Ame's old desk and there was a similar doll there. She smiled at them, they were cute little things. Blue eyes moved back to her paper, looking down at it as she addressed her family back home with what she'd been doing and what she'd been learning. Anna tucked a few pictures of her, and her hos family in the city in the folded up paper as she placed them neatly in the envelope.

"Anna! Anna—" Hana burst into the room with a worried and yet somehow excited look on her face. "Yuki's gone into labor"