Aurada ran, the beast right behind her now. They had been playing this deadly game of tag for the last half an hour. She pushed some of her red hair from her eyes as she continued running. She knew she could not keep it up much longer. Her breath was short and her legs felt like jelly. She tripped and fell, just managing to roll onto her back as the creature emerged from the tree line into the clearing.

The beast was no ordinary animal, it was a wolf crossed with a human. A Werewolf, as her teacher back in High Rock had told her. A Lycanthroupe. Her eyes looked up at the full moons, Maser and Secunda glowing in the night sky. She wondered if she had made it to morning, would she have lived.

She and her parents had fled High Rock a month ago. Her father had angered someone very important in Daggerfall and they had left everything but the clothes on their backs as they fled. At first, it was fun. Like an adventure! This last week, she had been horribly homesick. They had made camp in a spot her parents thought would be safe. She had gotten up to answer a call of nature. On her way back to camp, she had heard a noise. There had been the Werewolf, licking it chops as it looked at her.

She had a choice then. Run back to her camp and hope the creature would be scared off by the fire or lure it away from her parents and three younger siblings. She wondered now, laying on the ground and unable to run another step, if they would appreciate her sacrifice. Would they even know what happened to her?

Then, she heard footsteps behind her. The Werewolf paused, backing away a step. Aurada managed to look around and found a tall, muscle bound Redguard man bathing in the light of the moons. He had the darkest skin she had even seen before, despite all the Hammerfell towns they had stopped in on their way to this point. He wore nothing but torn up pants, cut above the knee as he approached, his golden eyes not leaving the Wolf person.

"Enough, Lorelyn. We have spoken of this before. You need to lock yourself away on the nights of the full moons, to prevent this from happening. Until you can control this form. You know you must not hunt children." The man scolded, his face netural as he advanced on the beast.

Lorelyn, the Werewolf's name apparently, howled at the man and looked at Aurada again.

"No, you cannot have her. It is not right to hunt the young. Hiricine understands that the young must grow older first. It is the same with any creature." The man stepped between the fallen Aurada and the about to pounce Lorelyn.

"Mister," She heard herself say, unsure where she got the strength to speak from. "The beast is going to tear you apart."

The man laughed, a joyous sound. "Oh, poor little prey. If I was so easily killed, I would not run the House of Secunda, the home of manbeasts."

The wolf pounced at the man. He started to grow, black scales appearing over his body. As the wolfs claws reached him, the man was gone and replaced with a large black scaled Werecrocodile. Lorelyn's claws raked helplessly off the scales on the reptile's hand. The beast made one single punch to the Werewolves core and she watched the beast topple to the ground. The dark creature began to shrink and was a man once again. Then the wolf also started to shrink, leaving a beautiful bosmeri girl not much older than Aurada herself, which was very young for an elf.

"Sorry, she isn't much more than a child herself. She will eventually learn how to control her form; she's just having trouble adapting. I was watching over your parent's camp, to make sure she didn't wander into it. I didn't see you slip away and by the time I heard her hunting howl, well you were already running away. That was a noble thing you did, sacrificing yourself for your kin."

Aurada blinked the tears away. He seemed to know what she had hoped he would not catch. She looked down at her thigh where the skirt was torn, and impressions of Lorelyn's jaws were in her skin. She was infected with the Lycanthropy.

"You still have a month, before it becomes permanent. I can cure you, if you desire. Or, you can stay here, with me and Lorelyn. Now that you are one of us, she won't attack you again. You are part of her pack, whether you accept the curse or are cured. She will never hunt you again."

Aurada thought about this. What life awaited her in the Empire, that her parents were fleeing to? She ddin't want to go to Cyrodiil and hope no one there forced them from whatever new home she might find.

Aurada rose to her feet. "I wish to stay with my pack, then. I will be a Werewolf."

The man smiled and offered her his hand. She felt so safe as she touched his skin. "My name is Fasier at-Stros M'kai. I am a Pack Leader for Hiricine. I swear I will see that you are cared for and happy."

She nodded. "Thank you. Will I need to do any rituals or the like?"

Fasier laughed. "If you like. Hircine is not too picky with how we worship him, little shifter to be. Only that we hunt in his name. I prefer the deer that are abundant in this mountain. Very fat and juicy. Not many hunters get up here."

The man scooped up the Bosmer girl and the three of them left in the night.

Elder-Scrolls*

Aurada made sure her family made it to Cyrodiil in one piece. She owed them that much. She and Lorelyn would clear they path of obstacles and make sure they could find food and water. Fasier had approached and told her parents that he had found Aurada's remains, half-eaten and in no shape to be given back to them. Her father and mother had wept but had given Faiser permission to bury her here. The parents were being a lot more careful with the other children. If only they knew three Lycanthropic creatures, two full and one fledgling, made sure nothing harmed them as they left.

Aurada and Lorelyn both hugged Fasier as they got back to the House of Secunda, a place only a Werecreature could find. They were his adopted daughters, after all. Fasier looked at the half-constructed building.

"One day, my girls, this place will be a haven for people like us. Especially for children forced into the gift. Now, I'm famished. Let's see what bounty the woods will provide for us today."

Aurada and Lorelyn fetched their bows and the three of them set out to hunt in the name of their father, Hircine.