The breeze was gentle that afternoon when Kavi brought Troy out to the woods in order to begin training him. Troy wasn't sure what to expect. He didn't think this would involve anything physical. Mental training wasn't exactly his strong suit. Dietrich had tried training him back during the magpie incident. It worked, and Troy had thought that would be the end of it. He wasn't surprised to learn he was wrong. Nothing involving magic was ever easy, was it?

Kavi landed on a low branch, and motioned with his wing for Troy to sit. "How long can you keep a jackal active when you call on them?"

"I don't know. I've never had them out for very long," Troy replied.

"Alright. Bring one out. I would like to examine your endurance."

Troy shrugged, and drew in a breath before beckoning a jackal from his mind. The translucent animal loped out of the shadows of the woods, approaching Troy first and sniffing him a few times. He ordered it to patrol the area, and watched it trot off. The jackal glowed faintly in the darker parts of the woods. It paused to sniff the ground, and would occasionally stand with its ears pricked straight up. Around and around it went, seemingly tireless. About an hour passed before Troy started to feel strained. I haven't done anything. Why do I feel tired? Soreness seeped through him, centering first in his chest, then moving up to his head. Once the sore feeling enveloped his head, becoming unbearably sharp, Troy released the jackal. He smelled something metallic, and cursed when blood began trickling from his nose. "Is this what you wanted?" he asked.

"Not that in particular," Kavi replied. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine in a minute." Troy pinched the bridge of his nose. "That happens every single time I push it too hard."

"It makes sense, as you haven't really trained yourself with this. You have the basics down, but, like any exercise, you must continue to use it if you are to master it and keep it from atrophying."

Troy sighed. "Well, apparently, my grandparents really liked jackals, and I don't want to disappoint them."

"I get the feeling you still hold on to your previous feelings about this, though. Don't be ashamed of that—you have gone through most of your life feeling strongly that this was a mistake. Something like that is quite difficult to break."

Troy was glad Kavi acknowledged that.

The vulture was quiet, as if deep in thought. He shifted on the branch, glancing around for a moment before flying down and standing in front of Troy. "What bothers you the most about all this? I have my guesses, but I would like to hear your reasons first."

Troy took a moment to put his thoughts together. "Where to begin… I already felt like an outcast. I know Moffitt had similar feelings, but at least his family still loved him. I also know with… everything that I learned from those pictures, that wouldn't have been an issue with my grandparents. The problem is, they were never around to see this. I never knew about my relatives over here. I felt very, very… very alone. Learning about the jackal thing on top of everything else didn't help. That was the main thing. The other things… I didn't think I was the right fit, it wasn't a responsibility I wanted, I didn't want to go through what Moffitt went through, I can't stand how slow magic functions." Troy paused, a little surprised he was being open about this with a talking vulture of all things. He realized he was dancing around the real main reason. The reason he could never describe in words. The reason he would never admit to in wartime. The reason that he felt would tarnish his image to his team back during the war. "I'm… afraid."

At least he could count on beings like Kavi and Anah to listen with open minds and hearts. "What specifically are you afraid of?" Kavi asked.

"Everything about it. I was willing to accept it during the magpie crap because I was going to do whatever it took to keep Jules safe, even something I was scared of. I never thought about it, or talked about that part with anyone. It wasn't important at the time. I buried it as deep as I could. Let the magpies think there were other things I was more afraid of. I would rather deal with Beckmann again than… than myself."

Kavi stayed quiet, allowing Troy a chance to be completely vulnerable.

"I'm afraid of losing control of it. If Moffitt can lose control of his abilities, there's no reason I can't as well. I still remember seeing what that looked like, when he was angry about his brother's death, how all those snakes… were coming up from the sand and their dens and out of the darkness like someone was forcibly pulling them. Their eyes were hollow. They didn't have control of themselves anymore. I don't want that to happen to me, and I especially don't want it to result in Shauna or Antheia getting hurt."

Kavi nodded understandingly, and kept quiet.

"I'm afraid of losing sight of who I am, and things changing too much and too fast. I'm happy where I am. Back home, I'm doing what I wanted to be doing for so long. That was all I wanted. I have everything I ever wanted and then some. I don't need more, and I just want to be left alone." Troy closed his eyes, baffled that he was finally putting all of this into words. "It's like my dad and college. Not only was it supposedly about my grandparents' legacy and moving the family forward, but he thought it would be a better way to teach me discipline. 'It'd be good for you,' he said. 'You need to learn how to function better around people. You need to learn better manners.' Stuff like that. I thought I was fine beforehand. I had some issues at school, but never anything serious. Suddenly Dad says I'm a mess and I wasn't sure what to think anymore. It didn't take me long to stop caring, though."

"May I say something?" Kavi said.

"Sure, go ahead."

"How your father treated you in the aftermath of your grandparents' passing was unacceptable. I felt I should say that before telling you my thoughts. First, my guesses were correct—I already knew you were afraid of this, based on all your behavior I witnessed in North Africa. You are riddled with fear, which is something I suspect you don't particularly like, given how hard you tried to present yourself as tough and fearless to your team. You have let yourself be ruled by fear for a long time. What I do find interesting is that despite having a fear of losing people, you still made friends, and have a good marriage. You don't push people away, but rather fight savagely to protect them from harm. A trait you might already know that jackals have."

"Yeah. Dietrich tried telling me stuff like this last year. It's not that I feel jackals don't make sense, it's that… how to say it…"

"It makes you feel less human."

Troy nodded. "Yeah. That." A cold feeling passed through him. "I remember how humiliating it was after I bit one of the guards in Beckmann's camp for the first time, and they put me in a muzzle. They had me out in full view of everyone until sundown, wearing that stupid thing." Troy shook his head, smirking a little. "Didn't stop me from doing it again when they took it off." His smirk quickly faded. "Although that meant they would leave it on unless they were giving me food or water rations. On one hand, their treatment was understandable. I became the most dangerous prisoner to deal with. They were trying to break me and make me hopeless and defeated. I refused to quit. So, we both doubled down."

"I watched all seven days and nights of that," Kavi said.

"You know, if you're about as powerful as Anah, why didn't you do anything?"

"It was not my place. I was already aware you would make it out, and I was aware that Beckmann would receive justice in time. That didn't mean watching you suffer was easy. It wasn't. Far from it." The vulture was still and quiet for a moment. "At least I had been able to guide you to people who could help."

"Yeah. Thanks, even though I didn't even realize it."

"Not a problem."

Troy let out his breath. "So… what now?"

"Is there anything more you would like to discuss?"

"Not at the moment."

"Alright. Now, we train, with the understanding that we will be completely honest with each other. I will warn you that I am going to push you. You might not like it. Channel your anger and frustration into the jackal, but control it."

"Okay."

"When the strix attack, they will use their numbers to gain an advantage. You must use numbers as well. Unlike the strix, your jackals can multiply, but if you choose to use several groups, you must be able to command all of them at once. Understood?"

Troy didn't feel completely certain, but he also didn't think he had much of a choice. He nodded. "Yeah."

What followed were several hours of grueling mental work that Troy never would have thought possible earlier that morning. Over the last year, he had assumed the jackals in his mind were just something to call on. He hadn't given them more than basic commands while using them at the magpie castle. Now, he knew how to command individual jackals, send them far away to deliver messages—just because Kavi said it was possible, Troy sent a jackal off to give a message to Dietrich—and to summon more even while under the stress of combat. It wasn't perfect, but, like Kavi explained, they still had a few days until the full moon. There was time to train, though it didn't feel like much.

The sun was going down as the last jackal vanished. Troy took his shirt from a branch he had hung it on earlier when the work proved sweatier than he thought. It also meant less of a mess if his nose were to start bleeding again. Thankfully, Kavi had showed him how to apply less force when tapping into his abilities, so Troy didn't strain so much like he used to. It was still exhausting, despite how he had run around less compared to during the war or whenever he worked on the ranch. Troy would only admit to himself that he wondered if this was a sign of his age, or if he really did need to work on his endurance with the jackals. Or both.

"Now I really wish I had this in North Africa," Troy said while wiping the sweat from his face with his shirt.

"Well, it has been with you the whole time, but you didn't want to accept it," Kavi replied. "No matter. You accept it now, right?"

Troy nodded. "Honestly, I shouldn't think about that too much. I told Moffitt yesterday that I felt guilty about not having this to help him during… certain missions."

"I see. This is probably not helpful, but it is best not to let your mind get bogged down with things like that. It will keep you from focusing on what needs to be done, and what you can do in the future."

"I'll try." Troy put his shirt back on, then offered his arm out to the vulture. "Are you coming back to the farm?"

"I am. However, I will be switching between Andridis's and Kappoulis's farms at night to keep the strix from getting any ideas. They will get bolder as the full moon draws near."

Just like the damn magpies. "Fair enough. There's only one of you." Troy waited until Kavi had gotten settled on his left shoulder, then started walking back down to Andridis's farm. "Say, you're not going to… stick around, are you? After all this is over? You're not going to become my Anah?"

"I am not. Anah's circumstance is special. I may fly out to your ranch every once in a while to visit, but I won't stay for long."

"Could you at least scare off the hawks and eagles that like to pluck up my wife's chickens and nearly took my daughter's pet ringtail?"

"If I am in the area."

"Thanks."

"Don't forget that you have your own tools for that—and I am not just referring to your guns."

"Right. The jackals. Thing is, jackals can't fly."

"No, but they can ambush a swooping predator."

"Okay, okay. Makes sense."

When they reached the farm, there was only a sliver of light remaining in the western horizon. Kavi took off to perch and stand guard on the roof, while Troy entered the house. The others were just sitting down to dinner. Andridis pulled out a chair for him, and Troy took it, sitting across from Moffitt. He realized he needed to tell Moffitt and Anah about the photographs, but chose to wait until they returned to the hotel. For now, he enjoyed the more mundane topics being discussed around the table.

They returned to the hotel long after sundown. Troy showered first, then went out on the balcony with a cigarette while waiting for Moffitt. He looked over his shoulder occasionally, not seeing anything apart from Anah laying on Moffitt's pillow while waiting for him. She didn't move until Moffitt came out of the bathroom, and quickly slithered over to climb up his arm.

Troy finished his cigarette before going back inside. He sat on the edge of his bed, looking up at the ceiling for a moment before saying, "Do you have a minute before you go to sleep?"

"Yes. Why?" Moffitt asked.

Troy bit his lip. "I found out what those pictures are."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Not what I was expecting."

"What were they?"

Troy pondered for a moment how to introduce the topic, but quickly decided to get right to the point. "My grandparents rescued three jackal cubs a little while before they left Greece."

"Really?"

"Yep. Kavi said he wanted me to see these pictures to show me that no matter what, I would've been loved and cared for."

"Is that why you've been feeling off about this place?"

"It might be. Some connection I can sense with their descendants. Who knows?" Troy shrugged, then looked down at his lap. "One part of me feels bad about trying to reject what I was given. Another… Another just wants this to be over."

Moffitt was quiet, looking a little nervous. "About that. When I was talking with Lavrentis, he said… he said that even though he saw what you did for him last night, when the strix attacked, he feels a bit doubtful about whether or not you'll be able to help. It's largely because of your initial response to all this in the beginning."

"I can't say I blame him."

"Really? I thought you'd be upset."

"No. No, I get it. I was a complete jackass when Loukas brought up the seer's vision. Admittedly, the way he brought it up didn't help. That's changed. I know I've been spending a lot of time away from you guys. Hopefully when this is over, that won't be the case anymore, and I can do what I came here to do."

Moffitt nodded. "Have I been helpful at all, or do you still wish you brought Dietrich?"

"Well, Anah was really helpful during the strix attack. I think we'll need her in a few days for sure." Troy looked at Anah, and the broken, healed scales along the left side of her head suddenly became more noticeable.

Moffitt took a moment to think. "After what happened last year, I'm not comfortable with the idea of sending Anah to fight birds."

Anah glanced at Troy, not looking sure of what to say at first. "I would be willing to be in the fight, as long as I stay with Moffitt."

"So, does this mean we're ready to start coming up with a battle plan?" Moffitt asked. "This is a first for you."

"I don't know everything about how strix operate. I have a feeling they'll be like the magpies," Troy said. "Having wandered around the area with Kavi over the last few days, I have an idea on what we'll be doing. The key part is keeping the strix out of populated areas, which means leading them north—to the mountains. The other thing is, I don't know what all this is going to entail. How many of these damn things are going to be attacking? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? I have a rough idea on how to use the jackals, but some human backup would be nice."

"Well, you'll have me and Anah," Moffitt said. "As far as me being able to call on anything, we're out of luck. The venomous snakes here are limited to relatively small vipers. They don't move very fast, and they tend to be prey for normal owls anyway. There are large colubrid snakes, though, which could constrict a strix, but with no venom, they run the risk of losing in combat if they aren't fast enough. That, and constriction is slow. Too slow for a situation like this."

"Then we won't bother with them. No need to put their lives at risk. I'm going to ask Karolos and Loukas if they're willing to help out. Alekos, too."

"Let's hope Lavrentis is like Jules, and will stay out of this."

Troy nodded in agreement. "At least he doesn't have to be involved, like Jules was."

Moffitt looked lost in thought for a few long moments. "You know, when I asked if I've been helpful, I was also referring to emotionally. I know I'm not as good as Dietrich is at decluttering your head."

"Didn't we have this conversation already? I did tell you, yes, you've been helpful. Having someone is better than being alone." Troy pulled back the covers, and glanced out the window as he crawled in bed. The moon was getting fuller each night.

"There's nothing else you wish to discuss?" Moffitt asked.

"No. I'm ready to stop talking and start… start preparing for the full moon."

"Alright, then." Moffitt crawled under the covers on his bed as well, laying with his hands folded over his stomach and Anah curled up on his chest.

Troy turned off the lamp, and stared up at the ceiling. He wasn't yet tired, and whispered, "Hey, Moffitt?"

"Hm?"

"Why does this stuff always happen on a full moon? You know, witching hours and werewolves and all that?"

"I don't know."

"Anah? Do you know?"

"No, dear," Anah said.

"I thought you were around when all this magic stuff started."

"That was a few thousand years before my time! I am not that old! Not like you."

"Hey!"

"Troy, Anah, do stop it, please," Moffitt said. "Go to sleep."

"I am trying, dear, but he is talking," Anah said.

Troy turned in bed to make a face at her.

Moffitt sighed. "Good gracious, you two really are like siblings sometimes. Childish ones at that."

Troy smirked, then went back to staring at the ceiling. He sighed heavily, closed his eyes, and made an attempt to sleep.

The snow and deep valley returned in his dreams. His whole body felt… different. He was running faster than he normally would have. He turned once, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the huge black wings of a strix swooping toward him. The bird collided with him, and the world went black.

Troy jolted awake. He was still staring at the ceiling, but both arms were above his head. It was still dark, but the faint pale pink of sunrise was beginning to peek over the eastern horizon. He looked over at Moffitt, who was sleeping soundly and snoring softly. Envy over how Moffitt had been sleeping well over the last few nights created a tight feeling in Troy's chest. He knew it wasn't right, and drew in a deep breath to release it. He found his thoughts turning to the methods Dietrich had used to try helping Troy relax and slow down.

He could even hear Dietrich's voice in his head. "Breathe in, and slowly exhale. Slowly. Try to envision the knots inside you untangling. Clear the fog from your mind. Remember the orb? Picture that on still water."

Troy released his breath as slow as he could, trying to do all the things Dietrich had taught him over the years. Mostly, he focused on the psychic orb device, trying to picture it floating on still water. He watched it for a moment, then ripples began to form on the water. Far below the water, he could see something lithe and white swimming around. He couldn't tell what it was, but the longer he looked, the more he noticed a blue haze surrounding it, and an awful pulling sensation in his torso. The waves of the water's surface returned to normal, distorting the bluish-white thing, and pushing Troy back into reality.

Dim light was spilling into the room. Troy's head was heavy with sleep. He was slow to sit up, then rubbed his face. The presence of stubble gave him an excuse to get out of bed, but he went slow, despite his desires. He also tried to be quiet, not wanting to wake Moffitt. When he finished his shave, Troy could hear Moffitt stirring outside.

"'Morning, Anah," Moffitt murmured.

"Good morning, dear," Anah said. "I see Troy is not in bed."

"Is he out on the balcony?" Moffitt asked.

"No. The bathroom door is closed."

"Ah. I don't think he slept well last night."

"You heard that, too?"

"I thought I was dreaming. He was tossing and turning in the throes of a bad dream."

"That was what I noticed as well." Anah sighed. "He has not slept well since we got here."

"Well, I can't exactly blame him. This has all been quite stressful. At least it'll be over soon."

Troy left the bathroom a minute later, finding Moffitt was now out of bed and going through his luggage for a change of clothes. Troy opened his own luggage, just taking out whatever he could find that was clean. Unlike Moffitt, his clothing hadn't exactly been folded nicely. He started getting dressed, and noticed Moffitt placing Anah on the bed before heading into the bathroom, presumably to shave as well. Troy expected Anah to say something, but before she could, there were three knocks at the room door. He made sure he was moderately presentable before going to the door, but relaxed when he saw it was only Vasilakis. "Good morning, Alekos. We're just about ready."

"Actually, I came for you specifically, Samuel," Vasilakis said.

"Oh? What did I do?"

"Nothing, but I would like to talk to you privately."

"Alright, alright. One second." Troy went over to the bathroom door to knock.

"Busy!" Moffitt called.

"Alekos wants to talk to me. I don't know when I'll be back."

"Okay? Anah's right there, you know. You could've told her to tell me."

"I thought I'd let you know personally."

Moffitt sighed. "Alright. Fine. Have fun."

"You have fun, too." Troy turned to get his boots on, and was promptly hissed at by Anah.

"You know better than to bother people using the bathroom!" Anah scolded.

"Yeah, well, I haven't forgotten the time that he bothered me in the latrine to tattle on Hitch bothering the nurses because he couldn't think of the best way to tell Hitch to knock it off."

"Was this before I joined?"

"Yep. 'I tried! I'm not scary enough!' he says. 'I'm a little busy right now, and you need to learn how to show who's in charge,' I said. He keeps saying that he doesn't know how, that Hitch never listens to him, stuff like that. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to have some quiet time, and finally, I say, 'Pretend he messed with your tea.'"

"Did that get him to yell at Hitch?"

"I wouldn't say he yelled. He did get stern. I still had to come and deal with it. I think what made me madder is that Hitch was trying to pick up dates before finishing maintenance on our jeep, leaving poor Tully to do all the work."

"Huh. He was usually good about that sort of work."

Troy smirked. "Yeah, guess who got him there in the first place."

"You."

"Yep." Troy adjusted his boots, then stood to follow Vasilakis out into the hallway. "Alright, Alekos, what's going on?"

Vasilakis didn't respond until they were outside the hotel. He found a bench in Hirolakas Square, right by the harbor. The water was crystal clear. Troy shivered as he tried to banish the watery images from the previous night's odd dreams, of the hazy bluish-white thing that was swimming far below him. The sky, too, was clear, save for a few puffs and strips of clouds lazily drifting by. It was pleasantly warm, but there was some evidence that autumn was approaching, with some trees beginning to turn fiery colors. Troy remained distracted by the view until Vasilakis finally spoke.

"I understand this was probably going to happen no matter what—the vision, I mean—but I feel somewhat responsible. This… None of this was what you wanted when you said you were coming to Greece." Vasilakis sighed. "To be honest, I was looking forward to you visiting. I was hoping to talk about old times, where we have been, how we spent the rest of the war."

"I know. You've basically been our chauffeur for the last few days, and… not much else," Troy said.

"Look, I offered that, but, yes, I have been feeling a little left out."

"You know that wasn't intentional."

"Of course. I'm not angry, but I did want to make that known."

"Well, I'm glad you did. I'll… do better. Or at least try to."

"I also wanted to ask how you are feeling, away from the others. You seem very sad, very troubled."

"I don't know what to say that I haven't already said to someone else. I'm sick of talking about all this."

"Then don't talk about it. We can talk about something else."

As much as Troy wanted to, the events of the last few days and nights seemed impossible to avoid or ignore, especially with Lavrentis getting hurt. Like with Dietrich and Jules's prophecies, Troy was tired of waiting. It was driving him insane, and he felt he would be constantly on the verge of madness until the full moon and the witching hour finally came to pass.

"Tell me about your team. The men you served with after you were let out of the hospital from your time at Beckmann's camp and received your promotion. I know we got to talk a couple of times afterward, but we never had the chance to go on raids together again."

"Yeah. That was a damn shame. We would've been an absolute nightmare for DAK to deal with if we had to chance to go on a few more raids together. I got moved back under direct American command because of Torch, along with a few other guys they had training with the LRDG. We were all given teams of our own, very small compared to the British and ANZAC ones, and attached to larger units with a bit of autonomy. A bit. We still reported to someone at the end of the day, and that someone would report to his superior, so we had to stay in line to the best of our ability. Anyway, they paired me with another guy who was training with an LRDG unit, Sergeant Cotter, and gave us two men who recently graduated basic and expressed interest in joining our outfit. Privates Hitchcock and Pettigrew—for whatever reason, we started referring to Pettigrew by his first name, Tully, more often than not. Not sure why. Best damn group of guys you could ask for out on patrol. We ended up… losing Cotter to a pretty serious injury, at the same time we received Moffitt from the Scots Greys for a mission that required his knowledge of sand."

Vasilakis smirked. "Desert specialist?"

"Yep, and he loves it. I tease him about it sometimes. Despite that, his knowledge did help us on more than one occasion. We ended up keeping Moffitt for the rest of the war. It was nice, having guys I could count on." Troy looked out at the harbor for a moment, watching a couple of boats sailing off into the Gulf of Corinth. "I don't know what it was that made us work so well together, but we did. I made sure they made it through every mission alive. There were some where… where it looked like things should've panned out a lot worse. Moffitt would volunteer on these really risky missions because he spoke German and other languages pretty well. Several times, he nearly didn't make it because he got caught. I never worried about Tully. He had some problems in his past, but he worked through them. Hitch, I did worry about sometimes, because he needed to grow up and stop thinking sleeping around with the nurses was a good pastime. Moffitt, I worried about because… something seemed off."

"The snake thing?"

"Yeah. There was that, and he seemed to have some things in his past that he hadn't quite gotten over. He needed people who weren't going to look at him as a burden, and we became those people. We all meant something to each other. Friends. Brothers. More than just wartime comrades. We forged something special, and we haven't forgotten it in the twenty-two years that've passed since we all got the notices that the war was over and we could go home. Dietrich is another story that I can save for another time."

"Are you sure? We don't have to go over to Karolos's right now."

"I know, but I don't want to leave Moffitt waiting too long for us."

"Good point. Perhaps we can continue up at Karolos's, unless you have to meet with Kavi again."

"I do have to meet with him, but not until this afternoon."

"Alright."

Troy stood to go get Moffitt and Anah. He felt better, having been distracted from the ever-increasing pressure of what was to come in a few days. He drew in a deep breath, still wishing the battle with the strix would just come and go already.