I awoke the next morning to the smell of something burning. My body was lying stiffly on its side and my head was aching with an excruciating pain . I noticed that a thick blanket was laid on top of my body to keep me warm and a soft pillow had been placed beneath my head to keep the ache from happening while I was asleep. Curious as to who did this for me, I opened my eyes.

Above me, massive pine trees covered the sky. Wherever I was, I hadn't come here on my own. Painfully, my arms lifted my body. I leaned on my elbows and looked around me once again. A few feet away from me, a fire was built but it had burned out a little while ago. Whoever was here with me had left me alone for a long time.

From behind, I heard the snap of a twig. The strangest thing was that I did not hear any footsteps. Whoever or whatever it was, was aware that I was awake. I wanted to move, but my sore body and my aching head wouldn't allow me to.

I layed still, afraid that whatever was behind me would attack if I did move. Slowly, a pair of feet made its way in front of me. I bravely dared myself to look up at whoever it was.

To my surprise, a young man was looking down at me. He looked at me carefully. What was going on? He bent down to look at me some more. Oddly, his hair was many colors. Colors like the rainbow.

As he looked into my eyes, something weird mustered up into my mind. Random, blurry visions of something I had never experienced before. A young child was standing in front of me, tears streaming down his young face. It was faint, but his cry was echoing into me.

Quickly, the thought shook away from me as he clutched my arm and helped me sit up. "Who are you? What clan are you from?" I asked him as he helped me up. He pursed his lips and refused to speak, but I wanted a conversation. "Can you tell me how I got here?"

Still, he did not speak. His small eyes looked away from me and toward the fire. Instead of making small talk with me, he walked over to restart the flames. I watched him walk all the way over and huddle over the ashes. I didn't see how he did it, but he had relit the fire in a split second.

He looked back at me and then muttered something unaudible. Instantly, my face went from curious to confused. "What did you say?"

"...Hun..." It was still too quiet to hear, so he scooted closer to me. Face to face. He looked into my eyes and said it once more. "Sehun."

Was that his name? He had just introduced himself. I was guessing that the rest of the time, I would have to study him in order to understand.

Again, he walked away and left me alone with the fire. I stayed sitting in my same position for what seemed like an hour. The fire was slowly burning out, so I threw a few pine leaves into it. The smell wafted into my nose and I sneezed.

"Achoo!" I opened my clenched eyes and there he was again, sitting in front of me. I flinched back and exhaled a breath of air before relieving myself. "You're very quiet." I said to him. Sehun didn't say a word, yet he didn't deny being a silent man either.

"Thank you for taking care of me." The words just flew out of my mouth like a bat from a cave. "If I knew your clan, I would be able to repay you plenty. I am a daughter of the Unity clan's Chieftan. My name is Nou."

His only response was a nod. A frown crossed my face and I gulped down some saliva. This was getting difficult. The mood wouldn't be so tense if he had just said something back to me.

Sehun looked away as I sighed, probably trying to avoid my eyes so that he didn't have to talk. Stubbornly, I continued to converse. "Sehun," I started out. "How did you find me?"

He looked back at me and pointed at the edge of the riverbank. I guess I had washed ashore after last night's encounter. The flooding thoughts of fear began to fill my mind again.

Twelve wolves. Twelve men. The eclipsed moon. A wolf's howl. A game that I somehow got caught into. The strange connection when I looked into that man's eyes. Whatever was going on between the clans, I was scared to know that I was entangled into it. I was caught in its hold like a bug on a spider's web.

I lifted my hand and looked at the palm. The creases that lined it looked like crooked paths that led to the vein on my wrist. Just like the crooked path I was on right now.

My body was not as sore as it had been before, but it was still too painful to move. I wanted to get up and walk back home to my family. Back to the place I knew so well. The familiar lands I grew up in.

As I kept thinking, my stomach growled loudly. Sehun's eyes shot over at me and the two of us made eye contact. Was he hungry too? I cleared my throat and looked away. Shut up stomach, I thought to myself. A situation like this did not call for hunger.

I looked up and saw that the sky was beginning to get darker. I wasn't sure where to go, but wherever Sehun went, I wanted to follow. Of course, I didn't want to be alone in this forest. Not after I had experienced the game of those wolves and men. If I were to go back to yesterday's festival with today's knowledge, I would have known to let the owl feather fly away.

The hunger began to feed off of my energy and I felt weak again. Without strength to stay awake, I lied down on the soft pillow that Sehun had provided me. The longer I went hungry, the louder my stomach growled. Or at least I thought that was my stomach.

Realizing that the growls didn't sound normal, I looked up and saw a wolf a few yards in front of me. Why did this keep constantly happening to me? Quickly, I looked around for something to keep it away. I reached my hand out and grabbed a rock, about the size of my fist, and held it close to me in case it decided to come closer.

"Sehun!" I whisper-shouted for him, but had no reply. I lifted my head and looked around for him only to find that he was nowhere in sight. "Sehun...?" Finally, I became scared for my life again. Maybe he had gone to fight off the wolf? Or maybe he left me behind and saved himself. I wasn't too sure of his plans, but I didn't want to be any animal's or anyone's meal for the night. For some reason, I was always trapped in these situations where I would encounter a wolf.

A sudden panting was heard in the darkness, which nearly scared me to death. I reached for the fist sized rock and held it close to me, prepared to attack whatever was there. I raised myself and held the rock in a ready position.

"Sehun..." I called out. "Is that you...?" My hand gripped the rock tightly. The panting was beginning to get closer.

The light of the fire lined the facial features of a man. Even though I had hoped for Sehun, the opposite result came in. This man looked nearly the same age as Sehun. He had short black hair that only touched the wrinkles on his forehead. His jawline was smooth and his cheeks were quite chubby.

I didn't know who this was, but I had a feeling something bad would happen if I dared to budge. My body stayed stiff as I stared into his eyes. Again, the feeling of ocean waves crashing flowed into me. As our eyes connected, I swore to the Gods that I could feel a tornado growing inside of my heart.

Whatever was going on didn't want to stop. Subconciously, I dropped my rock and reached one palm out to him. My vision began to blur into a strange dream world. This man was kneeling in front of me with his head down. What was going on?

The sudden sound of the fire crackling awoke me from my trance. I blinked and looked around me. He had disappeared from sight and Sehun had replaced him.

"Sehun!" I yelped. Was I cast under a spell? Whatever the cause, I did not believe that it was just a dream. It seemed all too real to even fake. "I didn't know you came back..."

"Shh..." He put his hand over my lips and tossed sand onto the fire, burning it out instantly. In the dark of the night, his rainbow hair seemed to shimmer. Like it was coated in the bokeh of moonlight. Was it just magic?

Quickly, Sehun's hands picked me up and he carried me into the forest. I wanted to shout at him to ask him what he was doing, but he used his magic to silence me. Whatever the situation was, he needed me to be quiet for our safety.

He set me down behind a bush and kneeled down next to me and pulled out a clawed dagger. I looked into the distance and saw a small group of men walking toward the ashes. My eyes squinted so that I could see better, but the darkness was too overwhelming. Then they began to speak.

"Cheiftan, I believe your daughter could have been here." One of them said to a larger man. He picked up my feather and whiffed it, but it was too wet and dirty to keep my scent on. "I assume she fell into the river and got carried away by the current."

This voice sounded familiar. Like one of the hunters from my clan.

"I can almost feel her presence..." The Cheiftan had finally spoken. Just like I suspected, it was my father. He had been searching for me this whole time!

I tried to get up and run to my father, but Sehun's arms held me tightly as we kneeled behind the bush. My voice had been silenced by some sort of magic. I looked at Sehun. He was watching my father and the hunters like they were some sort of enemy.

The hairs on the nape of his neck were raising upwards. I was no fool to believe what I saw under the moonlight, but the next thing that happened scared the wind out of me.

A low growl came rumbling from Sehun's throat. He gritted his teeth and his once brown eyes turned into an eminating gold. Soft grey hairs suddenly began to vine down his back. He was turning into a wolf.

In the darkest depths of my mind, I screamed as loud as I could. The fear that had made its home inside of me came crawling out as goosebumps.

Sehun had turned completely into a wolf. One shining sliver of black crossing his bare forehead. He was preparing himself to fight off the hunters, crouched in a pouncing position. This couldn't happen. I needed to get to my father and go home safely. I wanted to leave Sehun.

"No!" Quickly, I put my hands over my mouth as his head turned to glare at me. Somehow, I overpowered the magic he had set on me and shouted at him, but whatever was about to happen next, I wish I knew.

Without a sound, Sehun disappeared into the darkness of the woods. It was as if he hadn't even been here. His presence was gone.

A light came from behind me and my father exclaimed in happiness.

"Nou! My child..." He curled me into his arms as his eyes became filled with tears, happy that he had finally found his daughter safe and sound. As he held me close, I looked around for a trace of Sehun, but he had completely gone away.

"Father..." I said slowly. "I want to go home." I want to go home and process this all in my head, I said in my mind. For some odd reason, I did not want to tell my father about Sehun's transformation. A part of me wanted him to see all that I had experienced, yet another part wanted to keep it forever hidden away.

"Yes, let's go home." My father announced to hunters and I. He lifted me up and carried me on his back as we began our walk back home. All the while, Sehun's new appearance stayed secretly inside my mind.