Daughter Dearest...Why Is There A Werewolf In Your Bed...?

“Winry?!” Nate made his way through the trees in the forest where he had seen his other half run to after Miles had told her that Rayne had run off into the forest.

“Rayne?!” Miles was a few yards to his left. The men both sniffed the air for some kind of scent, some kind of clue as to where they were. Then Miles stopped in his tracks.

“What is it?” Nate looked at him through the trees, his brow wrinkling in concern.

“Do you smell that?” Miles was a statue. Nate turned his head toward the direction Miles was facing and inhaled. His stomach seized as he, too, smelled it.

Blood. Lots of it. And a soft smell, light. The scent of feathers.

Both of them ran in the direction jumping over jutting roots and weaving their way through the trees. They slowed their pace when the scent was at its strongest, to look for more clues, not that they needed to.

There were a few bodies of partially changed werewolves lying about and one with a scorched head. In its mouth was a pile of singed, silver feathers. Nate kneeled next to it and let his gaze rake through the ground around it. He sniffed the air again, but there was no scent to find.

“It’s as if their scents were cut off right here,” Nate whispered in thoughtful frustration. Miles nodded as he stepped beside Nate.

“It’s just like they disappeared,” Miles said quietly. He looked up at the sky. “But where could they have gone?”

Nate shook his head minutely as he thought, “I have no idea.”

A slight movement to their left caught their attention and Miles was over there in a flash. It was a werewolf trying to move, to get away, but its legs were broken and its head was covered in blood. Escape was impossible.

Miles leaned over it, adopting a gruffer voice and letting hate make his eyes low faintly, “Where did they go?”

The wounded wolf began to laugh, but it soon turned to hacking and labored breathing as it moved its eyes to lazily gaze at Miles from the dirt.

“Like I would tell a blood traitor,” it growled weakly. The voice was rough and blood seeped out from the muzzle of the brown furred creature. Miles pushed down on one of the broken legs. The creature howled in pain and tried to lash at Miles, but, instead, gave a slight yelp at its sudden movement and placed its head gingerly on the ground.

“Where is she?”

Nate looked at Miles in curiosity. He remembered something that Shylah had told him shortly after Rayne was born. She had done her life’s fortune a week after the birth. The spell consisted of leaves and fire, but Nate didn’t really believe that it would work.

Seventeen years earlier

“Please I doubt this would work...” Nate sniped .Shylah rolled her eyes as she lead Nate and his baby daughter into the woods around her cottage.

They came upon a charred piece of the forest floor, a fallen tree near it. Shylah set the basket she had brought, next to the tree and motioned for him to sit on the log. Nate huffed, but sat down anyway, watching her movements carefully.

“You’re acting like I’m going to sacrifice my baby niece. It’s creeping me out, “ Shylah sighed not looking up as she rummaged through the basket.

Nate smirked. “Good then it’s working.”

“Yeah, and it’s creeping out your daughter,” Shylah said, once again not looking up. Nate looked down at his daughter who seemed close to bursting into tears, he quickly wiped the look off his face and he began to rock the baby, cooing to it softly.

Shylah chuckled as she pulled out a few vials and placed them on the log, ignoring the glare Nate shot at her. The effect was ruined when Rayne reached out and tugged on Nate’s hair. Nate yelped slightly and looked down at his giggling daughter, surprised.

Her screaming laughter made a soft smile appear on his face as she wriggled in the blanket she was wrapped in.

“She laughed early,” Shylah commented.

“She’s a happy baby, I guess,” Nate shrugged, the smile still on his face as he placed a soft kiss on Rayne’s forehead.

Shylah paused, a smile concealed by her dirty blond hair cascading over her face. She plopped down, cross-legged, in front of Nate and popped open a stopper of a vial containing liquid. A few drops were spilt on Rayne’s forehead.

Shylah turned to the charred ground and summoned a fire. The crackling fire, surprised Nate for a second as Shylah wiped the oil off of Rayne’s forehead with a fallen green leaf. She placed it in the mortar she had brought, along with a few powders and other liquids, a few more leafs and then tossed it into the fire.

She stared at the fire without blinking for a long time and whenever Nate tried to say something she cut him off with a harsh “shush”. He hadn’t witnessed the fortune of Blaine, Winry had been there for that one, but she was exhausted now. She had given birth and was chasing around a one year-old. Nate told Winry to get rest while he sent Blaine to Reisa’s.

Shylah tilted her head this way and that until a few puffs of smoke appeared from the top of the licking flames. They seemed like blobs to him, but Shylah gasped and leaned in to get a better look. Nate looked from the back of her head to the blob, trying to see if there was a Jolly Roger in it or something.

Still a blob to him. So, he stared at Shylah as she looked at the puffs of smoke and added this and that to the fire until she turned around and faced him.

“She has a hard road ahead of her, full of heartbreak, peril, and tragedy. I can tell you for certain that whomever she chooses to be with, they will love, protect, cherish and keep her safe ‘til the end of time. I can also say that her marriage will bring much needed peace with it.”

Nate looked back down at his giggling baby daughter, unaware of the future that she would face.

He stared at Miles, who was trying to find the girl he had practically professed his love to, as he did what he had to in order to get information on where she was.

The thing coughed up a little more blood and regarded Miles coldly. “They went up.”

“What?” Miles allowed a skeptical look flash across his face.

“They were crouched by the tree, they glowed, and they went up.”

“Up...” Nate whispered. He looked up at the Blue Moon. “It couldn’t be...”