He honestly didn't think they would have made it this far, but luck had been on their side tonight. Turning back to his companion he grinned as they carefully moved away from the cave entrance. They didn't speak until they made it back to their small village.

"Come on, Lokar. We need to make our way to our hiding spot before they gather." Henrik spoke in a quiet voice to his best friend.

Although his father had chased out most of the men and women who turned into beasts, it was commonly suspected that a few of their neighbors were similarly cursed. Not that he or his friend intended to expose them to his father's wraith. Henrik shivered, knowing how cruel his father was even towards his older siblings, especially Niklaus.

Even now he had no real clear understanding of why his favorite brother received the lion's share of their father's wrath.

"Henrik? Come on, we have to go before the moon reaches its apex!" Lokar hissed, drawing Henrik out of his thoughts he hadn't realized he'd stopped moving.

"Sorry. You're right, Lokar, come on, and remember to keep quiet!" Henrik answered back once more, taking the lead toward their pre-selected hiding spot. From what his mother had once explained to him, not everyone sought shelter in the caves, most of the villagers prior to his family's arrival from the old world knew how to fortify their homesteads.

It had taken Lokar and himself several weeks of snooping around, but they believed they found one of the gathering sites hidden in the forest where the men and women from their community would wait for the moon to change them all into beasts. Henrik had noticed the large pine tree the first day they tracked footprints leading away from the village. It had helped that the previous full moon had rained a few hours prior.

He'd always loved to climb trees even when he climbed so high that he'd be afraid to come down. The last time it had happened it had taken his older brother to climb up and help him find his way down. The particular tree he'd picked as their hiding spot was large enough to support both of them. Although they had to secure the branches around them to provide adequate concealment. Elijah had once called it a hunting blind and promised to take him hunting when he was older next season.

It was a decent trek out to the clearing; all made more annoying, at least to him, when it took several tries to help his friend climb up into their blind. Lokar had never been good at climbing made even worse by his childish fear of heights. But even Lokar understood hiding behind a bush or a tree to watch the werewolves were a surefire way to meet a rather gruesome end.

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait very long before others from their community started to gather in the clearing his blind overlooked. Keeping as still as he could, they waited. He couldn't help to recognize every one of them and it only confirmed what he and Lokar had long suspected. His father had sworn to have eliminated or forced out all that was known to have been cursed, but both he and his older brother had long suspected that wasn't the entire truth. A part of him felt a swell of pride they had been right in their beliefs that some of the men and few of the women in their village changed with the coming of the full moon.

Glancing sideways at his friend, he noted that Lokar had to clamp his own hands over his mouth as they started to disrobe for the coming changes. Henrik counted four men and one teenage girl in total to his own surprise he knew her as one of the girls he fancied.

Henrik didn't exactly know when it had happened, but his appreciation of the opposite sex had started to change, although he wasn't entirely clear on what that really meant other than his father's proclamation that it heralded his coming entry into manhood. Whatever it was he felt his cheeks grow hot as he watched her hesitantly remove her clothing. Almost as if she was embarrassed to be around others, but one of them was her brother, which confused him. It wasn't like he hadn't seen his own sister's nakedness. After all, the family's Longhouse was only so big.

His stray thoughts stopped with the first sharp crack of what only could be bone breaking as the first one, then the second man knelt to the ground in pain. Greta followed, collapsing to the bare earth seeing her in such pain almost made him want to approach to offer whatever aid he could but even he knew that would be foolish.

Lokar and he watched in awe as they shifted with the exception of Greta shifted into their wolf form with ease. His brother had once suggested that some of the werewolves embraced their curse and allowed the change to overtake them. Henrik didn't entirely understand how Niklaus seemed to grasp such knowledge, but based on what he was witnessing he had to agree.

But then there was only Greta who, as far as he could guess was still in the process of changing. While her other companions had finished first, each of them departed, leaving her alone.

"Why is it taking her so long to change?" Lokar whispered, kneeling very close next to him. When they had crafted their hiding spot, they had made it as small as they could to avoid drawing too much attention to it. However, its size didn't make the time they spent waiting for a pleasant experience.

"I don't know," Henrik lied, his brother had explained that the curse was triggered by killing someone, and considering Greta hadn't been the same since her mother died in an accident by the falls. If he had to guess, something had happened between Greta and her mother that fateful day.

"But-"

"Shh… You fool, she might hear you!" Henrik hissed.

As his admonishment slipped past just beyond his thinned lips, he suddenly felt the fine hairs on his neck stand straight up. Feeling an icy ball of fear form in his gut, he glanced down at a pair of golden iris staring directly into his own. Greta was still in mid-shift but enough of her form still retained their human quality he vainly hoped would be enough. Although the being watching them both was at that point closer to a beast than their former neighbor.

Lokar must have thought there was enough of Greta's humanity to dicker with because he started to desperately plead for forgiveness.

"Greta! I… I mean we are sorry that-" Lokar's plea halted in his throat at the loud snap of Greta's bones breaking, driving her paw at the earth with her forelimbs. Not once did she look away from either of them. Henrik didn't have time to process what actually happened one second his best friend was beside him the next he was crying for him to help pull him back up into the tree.

Instinct took over and Henrik leaned precariously down the trunk, trying in vain to grab hold of his friend's sweaty hands. Every time he thought he had a firm hold of a friend his fingers slipped uselessly away. Growling in frustration, Henrik wiped his hand on his tunic and reached down one final time.

To both of their surprise not only did they connect, but Henrik was able to start pulling his friend up into the tree once more.

"Thanks… NO!" Lokar started before he was pulled back down by a dark, looming form. As Lokar fell back down, his grasp of Henrik refused to lessen. Henrik felt his own body tumble out of the tree pulled along with his friend.

Somehow, he'd turned mid-fall to land on his back temporarily knocking the air from his lungs. Greta's wolf was already mauling his friend her teeth had already ripped open Lokar's throat. It didn't take her long to finish off his former friend before he to found those same golden eyes watching him. Lokar's blood coated the wolf's fur around her mouth.

Knowing what was coming, Henrik closed his eyes and offered a silent prayer to the spirit for them to watch over his family. He was still praying when he felt Greta's hot breath on his hooded eyes just before a guttural growl erupted from her maw.

"Nik-"

"Klaus!"

Jeremy's chest ached as he tried to regain control of his breathing. Even before his eyes had snapped open from his nightmare, his treacherous heart had threatened to beat itself free of its protective cocoon.

He really needed to get a hold of his turbulent mental state he noted still feeling somewhat disconnected from reality.

Drawing in a calming breath to ease his nerves. He offhandedly observed that the door to his room was still as he left it the previous evening. He still locked it every time he retired for the night, not that the tiny mechanism would keep any vampire out for him it was the principle of the implied security. Which considering his verbal outburst, he hadn't realized how useful it was to actually have all the rooms magically silenced.

When he was still dating Bonnie, she was still learning to magical heritage and hadn't quite mastered silencing spell that could encompass an entire room. The best she could do was in a tight circle that was just large enough to fit a twin sized bed, which in hindsight was all they had really needed. Elena was going through enough supernatural drama no need to concern her about what her little brother and one of her closest friends was doing in the next room.

His mental meandering helped calm his frantic heartbeat to more tolerable levels. With a groan, Jeremy freed himself from the bedding his thrashing had entangled his lower body.

He peeled off his damp sleep wear before stepping into his suite's bathroom to start his morning ritual.

Jeremy held the towel around his waist when confronted by someone he hadn't seen for several days now.

"So Anna, I haven't seen you for a while now, what have you been up to?"

Instead of speaking she remained silent, studying him with a expression he couldn't mistake for anything but longing. An evil part of his mind was severely tempted to drop the remaining obstacle to his utter nakedness until the thought of why torture them both with a useless gesture. Would do more harm than good.

"I… I was trying to keep a eye on things. For instance, your sister, Kathrine and Tatia are talking about something, but Elena erected some ward that not even I can cross."

Jeremy looked up, considering her statement. For a brief moment, a flash of another dream he had a few days earlier came to the forefront of his thoughts before he ruthlessly pushed it away. He didn't want to become distracted more than he already was. He needed help to understand why he was having these confusing dreams lately.

"Jer, you don't look like you've slept well do you want to talk about it?"

He was almost tempted to take her up on her offer, but something in him prevented Jeremy from doing so.

"No I… Still not used to sleeping in my own bed," Jeremy lied not realizing that despite Anna being a ghost she still had some of her vampiric traits.

"If you're not comfortable talking to me about whatever is bothering you. Maybe you should talk to your sister or your former girlfriend!" Anna declared before turning away her form disappearing into the ether.

"Anna wait!"

His pleas fell on death ears, leaving him alone. Anna was right he hadn't had a decent night sleep for days now and it was only getting worse. He could talk to his sister, but for the last several days she'd been busy with his niece and nephew as well as teaching her ladies maids magic.

Pulling on a pair of jeans, he opted to talk with the only other magic user he had experience with. Like Bonnie and Caroline, Jeremy was still going to school. His sister, for obvious reasons dropped out of school. With the holidays coming, school would be closing until the start of the new year.

Having no other options, he donned a school sweatshirt before heading off to the kitchen to grab something to eat on his way to school.