He couldn't breathe. Every part of his body screamed for him to do something. Pull the trigger, run away, scream, anything was better than doing nothing. Vash watched the beast with wide eyes as it stepped a little closer. This couldn't be happening, could it? It wasn't the full moon. It wasn't even night for that matter. How could this werewolf be walking into his camp as if it was just out for a morning stroll? It shouldn't be possible.

Vash tightened his grip on the rifle in his hands. He had jumped to his feet and aimed as soon as he heard the forest creature, but this was not what he had been expecting. "Is this real?"

"W-wha…?" Alfred gave him a strange look as he gaped at the wolf.

"Is this real? Just answer me Jones, is this real?"

"Y-yeah...I think so…" He didn't sound very sure.

The search party had decided to set up a small camp as their base of operations. They had searched as far as they could walk in one day for the last few weeks, so now they were spending the night in the forest to increase their range. Their objective was to find anything that hinted at the location of the werewolves. An animal carcass, loose fur, even a body. Vash didn't want to think about the possibility of finding Lili's torn and mangled body, but it was better than never finding her at all. That was what they had been doing for the past few days until the creature had appeared. No one moved or made a sound, too shocked by its sudden appearance to do anything else.

The wolf used that to its advantage. "Greetings," it said in a soft voice. "My name is Toris, and I have a message for you from my leader."

His voice seemed to break the men out of their trance, and they all jumped to their feet at the same time, weapons poised to strike. The only reason they didn't attack was for the same reason they had jumped in the first place. It was obvious the wolf had something to say, and they were curious to hear it. Everyone but Vash. He couldn't care less about what the wolf had to say. His sister was gone, and no amount of talking could ever change that.

"We're not here to talk with you, beast," Vash growled. He aimed his gun at the creature's heart. "You better run if you value your life."

He pulled the trigger, but the wolf danced out of the way of the bullet, which lodged itself harmlessly into a tree trunk. "P-please wait!"

"I don't have to listen to you! It's because of your kind that my sister is gone!" Vash pulled out a loaded pistol and shot again. Toris barely managed to move his tail to avoid having it blown off. "I'll hunt down every last one of you!"

The others finally seemed to grasp what was going on. The camp echoed with clicks as the men cocked their guns. Kiku raised his sword into an offensive position, and the others took aim. Their confidence was high. At seven to one, the odds were definitely stacked in their favor. Vash reloaded his rifle with the fervor of a madman and aimed again.

"Any last words?" he asked as his finger curled around the trigger.

"Your sister is alive!"

Vash's eyes grew wide. He lowered the gun from his shoulder and stared in disbelief. "She's...alive?"

"Yes! Yes! We have her at our home. She's just fine, I promise."

Vash wanted to believe him. With all his heart, he wanted it to be true. But the word of a werewolf was not to be trusted. "How do we know you're not lying?" He raised his weapon up into firing position.

"I-I swear I'm telling the truth. That's why I came here alone to tell you," the wolf explained. "Here, see?" Before their very eyes, Toris shrank down in size until he was a young man with green eyes and shoulder length brown hair. It would have been impossible to tell that he was a werewolf if they hadn't seen him transform. "I don't want any trouble."

"Then you shouldn't have taken my sister!" Vash shouted, his gun still aimed at Toris.

"Vash, I think we should listen to him," Francis said in a low voice.

"For once I agree with this frog," Arthur added.

They had both lowered their guns, and so had the others in the group. Everyone stared at Vash as he wrestled with what to do. He wanted revenge. He wanted to make them pay for having taken his sister from him, but if she was alive, he wanted her back.

"Where is she?" he muttered.

"In the eastern part of the forest."

"Bring us there."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Toris paled noticeably when Vash reacted by tightening his grip on his rifle. "B-but we will give her back to you on one condition."

"And what condition is that?"

The young man glanced around at the search party nervously. "You have to kill the other werewolves."

Vash finally lowered his weapon with a look of confusion and surprise. "Other werewolves?"

"There are two different groups of us," Toris began to explain. "My group lives in the east, and the other group lives here in the south. My leader wants you to kill the other group, and then he'll give you your sister back. It's very simple."

"Why doesn't he do it himself?"

"We're, uh...not very strong, you see, so we need your help."

Vash felt anger boiling in his blood. "So you kidnapped my sister?!"

"N-no!" Toris exclaimed. "We rescued her from the other group. They were holding her captive. They're very bad! That's why my leader wants them gone."

"And what if we don't help you?"

"Then they'll kill you. They're not tolerant of trespassers in their territory."

It wasn't an easy choice to make, but it was at the same time. Vash very much wanted to hurt the ones that had taken his sister. And if he got Lili back in the process, all the better. The only down side was getting the other men from the village involved. Would they want to do it? He couldn't attack a whole pack of werewolves on his own, even if he was the best shot in all of Schattenwald.

"I can't force anyone to come with me," he said, deciding to do it even if he had to go alone.

"Of course we'll come." Roderich stepped forward much to everyone's surprise. "We all know Lili, and it would be shameful to turn our backs on her now." He did his best to look confident, but it was obvious he was scared. Absolutely terrified.

"I agree," Kiku said with a nod in Vash's direction. "We must try."

"Yay! I can be the hero!" Alfred shouted with is usual enthusiasm. "HAHAHA! I'm going to kick some wolf butt!"

"Well you can count me out." Everyone turned to look at Arthur, who had his arms crossed defiantly. "I'm not going to get myself killed on a stupid whim."

"Don't be that way," Francis chided. He prodded the other man with a finger. "If you don't come, everyone's going to say you're all eyebrows and no courage."

"What?!"

"It's okay. We don't want you anyway. You're not fabulous enough to come."

"Why you! I ought to rip out those bloody chin hairs of yours! I'm coming and there's nothing you can do about it!" Arthur shouted.

"Magnifique," Francis said with a playful wink. It became clear that he had been goading Arthur into coming all along, and for that Vash was grateful.

He looked at the young man, who was watching the whole scene with a distant curiosity. "We'll do it," he informed him.

"Oh good! I'll let my leader know right away. Come to the eastern part of the forest when you're done." Toris gave them a tight smile before disappearing back into the shadows as mysteriously as he had come.

They were going to wait until the next morning to begin planning their attack. Now that they knew the werewolves could transform at any time, engaging them at night would put Vash and his men at a huge disadvantage. They needed to find an open place where they would have the best visibility and escape routes in case things didn't work out. Kiku and Yao found such a place during a scouting trip several days later. It was a large meadow full of wildflowers and berry bushes. They would have enough cover there behind the bushes, and could flee in any direction if they had to. It was perfect. Now all Vash had to do was lure the werewolves there.

That turned out to be easier than he imagined. The sun was setting on the fourth day since Toris visited their camp. They had moved their camp to the meadow to make sure they wouldn't be ambushed by surprise, and this proved to work to their advantage as they saw a large form running toward them in the fading light. There was general chaos as everyone reached for their guns and took up their attack positions.

Vash didn't bother to take shelter. He wanted the first kill, and the large wolf was an easy target. It's golden fur stood out in sharp contrast from the grass around it as it came closer and closer. Vash waited patiently. He knew he would be more accurate the closer the werewolf was. His thumb pulled back the hammer of his rifle, and he raised it to take aim. The wolf didn't even slow at the sight of the weapon.

A loud bang echoed around the meadow as the last of the sunlight died away. The wolf had dodged the bullet, but not completely. Red blood ran down it's flank where the bullet had grazed it, but the beast did not slow its pace. It continued to barrel straight toward Vash. He reloaded the gun with deft hands and fired again. This time the wolf was too slow. The bullet buried itself in the wolf's wide chest. The others also began to shoot, but the beast didn't bother to dodge any the shots. Hot metal bit into its back, shoulders, and legs. One bullet even opened a long gash across its muzzle.

Something wasn't right. Vash raised his hand to signal a ceasefire, and the puffs of gunpowder soon cleared from the air. Through an incredible feat of strength, the golden wolf was still standing, its chest heaving and its fur stained crimson with blood. Vash's eyes met with the beast's bright blue ones before it collapsed heavily to the ground. He knew it wasn't dead by the rising and falling of its massive chest, but he would change that soon enough.

He moved toward the beast's head and cocked his pistol. "Any last words?"

A low, rumbling voice emanated from the wolf. "Help…...have to...help…...save...Lili," it said. And then its eyes rolled back and it was very still.