You're Sure To Get A Surprise

I had been disguised. Hidden away. Never to be seen again. But here's the catch... I was hidden away in my own skin.

The Fae had hidden me under a deep, thick layer of magic. At first I could barely breath and I suffered for days, a bedridden patient . Then, like recovering from a cold, it got easier to move, shifting inside the new form I'd had fashioned around me.

Caan and I returned to the human world, my world. Back to our college, like we'd only been on a vacation. Lyris wasn't around, though. I even checked down the hall, knocking on the Dove Grey door that had once entered into his apartment. Some one else lived there and I had to escape back down the hall.

Winter was setting in, and with it harsh cold seeped in through my window panes, in through my skin and deep into my bones. I hated the cold and the thick feel of it. My skin was heavy with the layers of magic and winter coats.

That's what had happened since we'd been in the town of Keep. The strange underground hidden away place. Now it's in the in-between time, when the festivities of the winter are over and all that's left is the cold. Deep, heavy cold.

~ + ~ + ~

"Rin!" Caan yelps as he leaps onto my bed. I barely flinch. Instead my eyes shift over to the corners, looking at him. He grins and continues his morning greeting, "Come on then, get up. It's nice out and you spend too much time inside. We're going out."

In a matter of minutes he has me up and has pestered me so much I simple agree. Soon we're out the door, bundled up in scarves and hats, gloves on our numb fingers. Caan wasn't lying and the weather is nice. Warmer with those false hints of spring. The snow is all slush and puddles flow into bigger puddles.

I trudge along by his side around the the lawn of the campus. I catch him looking at me and turn to him. He smiles and his breath comes out in a smoking plume. I chuckle a little and turn away. We round a corner and I catch him looking at me again.

"What?" I ask, confused as to why he's staring. "What are you thinking?"

"I liked your old looks better, but you're still..." He pauses and I raises an eyebrow. He looks around, looking for an answer and then looks back at me. "Beautiful."

My eyes roll but the corners of my mouth turn up. I can't tell if I'm blushing, cause my cheeks are already red from the cold.

"Right," I say, pushing my now fawn red hair out of my face.

My hair had once been a soft brown, but now it shone orange when sunlight hit it and smoldered deep red in moon light. My eyes are gold, more honey coloured than they had been. My features too have shifted, higher cheekbones and longer fingers. Caan says I look like a wolf in human form, smell like one too.

I asked him, when we were sitting around the apartment, watching snow fall, what his wolf form looked like. He just shook his head. I asked him if I had a wolf form too, if the magic had been that strong. He only shook his head again. I had asked if that was dangerous. He had just said no.

"Hey." He pulls me back to the present. "What are you thinking about?"

"Wolves." My answer is simple and he nods. Our walk continues and I stop looking at the ground, watching for ice, and look around the snowscape. Then I spot something.

Gold Eyes.