Ren taps their fingers against their thigh as they stare down at the map and consider the area where Shadow had indicated with his paw; his people are closer to Kamiki Village than Ren expected, which is a bit concerning. They’ve seen little sign of newcomers in the area, despite Shadow’s people settling in the old forest beyond Hana Valley.

“Well, this will be an interesting trip,” Ren says at last, shaking the thoughts from their mind. “Snowball, think you can help me up that cliff near our village’s entrance?” they ask, glancing down—

Amaterasu is curled into a tight ball, tail covering her nose and eyes closed, her Reflector trailing tongues of brilliant flame across her flank. She’s breathing gently, peacefully, and has clearly been napping for a while at this point, which Ren is absolutely unsurprised by.

(Amaterasu has never been one for waiting.)

Shadow makes a soft, confused noise, and Ren smiles a bit. “Snowball’s like that,” they explain, then reached out with a foot to poke Amaterasu in the side, ignoring the soft tickle of warm, harmless fire against their ankle. “Come along, oh great goddess, time’s a’wasting and there’s adventure to be had.”

Amaterasu whuffs and uncurls, making a production of yawning and stretching before trotting to the door and pawing at it.

Ren sighs and glances up at the ceiling in amused exasperation, already knowing how the next half hour is going to go and not really looking forward to it. “Shadow, you can head on back to your mate now,” they say. “Snowball and I will be back before sunset, I promise.”

Shadow’s ears flatten and he gives them a narrow look, before snorting, dropping back onto all fours, and stalking towards the door. It’s clear he’s still annoyed about being left out, but Ren isn’t going to budge on this, not when they can sense the edges of exhaustion still lingering around Shadow’s presence.

They open the door and wait for Amaterasu to dart out before following, stepping off their little porch and down onto the grass, bracing with every step they take, and—

Amaterasu’s teeth close on their sleeve — and just their sleeve, the goddess is a careful one despite how rambunctious she is — and then she twists around. Twirls. Tosses her head and lets go—

Ren lands on Amaterasu’s back with a breathless oof and immediately leans down to wrap their arms around the goddess’ throat. Amaterasu’s Reflector digs uncomfortably into Ren’s stomach, the warm flames coiling harmlessly over their body, but they’re not about to sit up.

(They know much better than that, these days.)

They catch sight of Shadow’s eyes widening and his ears laying flat, shock-uncertainty-disbelief echoed in both body and presence, but before they can attempt to reassure him, Amaterasu barks cheerfully and bolts.

Ren tucks their face into Amaterasu’s ruff and clings with all their might, feeling the wind beat at their skin and the brush of tall grass and wildflowers against their sandaled feet. It’s a wild ride, each bounding step driving the Reflector against their chest and stomach, and it only gets worse as Amaterasu picks up speed the longer she runs.

And then tension. Coiling power. A crouch and a leap—

Ren does their best to hold on as Amaterasu makes child’s play of the short cliff, bounding from ledge to ledge until they finally, finally reach the top.

Once there, Amaterasu pauses to look around, then drops her head and sniffs the ground.

“If we head a bit north-west—” Ren starts to say, only to sigh as Amaterasu leaps forward once more, racing across the cliff top and the swerving into the forest. “Or that works too, I guess,” they mutter into Amaterasu’s ruff, getting a bright-cheerful-amused bark in return. “Caught Shadow and Silver’s scents, then?”

Amaterasu just keeps running, wending her way through the grand forest, and Ren does their best to get comfortable.

(Their chest and stomach is going to be so bruised after this…)

(They’d really hoped they’d left these wild rides far behind them.)

(Ugh.)

Still, it really isn’t a surprise to them that this is how Shadow and Silver approached Kamiki Village; Hana Valley doesn’t have a clear path into the forest atop the cliff, and the only way Ren knows is to loop around north where a small path exists up a different cliff, and then circling south-west.

That… might need to change if they’re going to be interacting with Shadow and Silver’s people on a regular basis.

(If the group even wants to interact.)

(Shadow and Silver might be the exceptions, after all.)

Which leaves the question of how they’re going to be able to interact; Shadow and Silver are clearly intelligent and understand human language, but do the rest of their people? Convincing Issai to coax a few more poncles down south will help, but poncles don’t often remain in one place outside of their home in the distant north, as far as Ren understands.

Ren shoves their thoughts aside — they don’t have enough information at the moment to really make any plans — and lifts their head slightly to eye the forest around them. They don’t see any evidence of people yet, but they’ve also only just entered the forest. The spot Shadow had indicated is much deeper in, tucked away atop another cliff.

It’s a good spot, a strategic spot, but it’s also a very remote spot, and not one that Amaterasu will reach all that quickly.

(Then again, wolves are not exactly concerned with how remote a location is, are they?)

(In fact, the more remote a spot, the better.)

Suddenly, Amaterasu swerves to one side with a cheerful bark, leaping over a downed tree and then darting around a tangle of briars. Ren frowns and lifts their head a bit more, wondering what distracted Amaterasu this time; they can’t hear anything nearby, nor can they sense anything past Amaterasu’s overwhelming power, but that means nothing.

They’re not the one with the senses of a wolf, after all.

Not that it means much. Amaterasu is easily distracted at times, and this forest isn’t often part of her sweep of Nippon. There could easily be demons lurking in the woods—

Amaterasu leaps across a little stream. Lands with a light thump. Twists around and gives a sharp shake—

Ren goes flying from her back.

Instinct takes over between one heartbeat and the next, and Ren tucks their body in. Hits the ground in a controlled tumble. Rises smoothly to their feet and—

Blinks at the sight of four humans standing barely three meters away, their eyes wide and their stances wary. They’re watching Ren and Amaterasu, though there’s no fear in them that Ren can see or sense.

“Hello there,” Ren greets them, deciding that they might as well. Amaterasu clearly seems to be interested in these four, given the way she’s trotting around and sniffing at them. “Don’t mind Snowball there, she’s… mostly harmless.”

“Mostly,” one of the men repeats dryly, even as they pull their hand away from Amaterasu’s muzzle. “Sorry if I’m not quite convinced.”

Ren can’t help but grin a bit at that. “Well, I don’t think any of you are demons, so the only thing you have to worry about is being interesting,” they say as they dust their pants off, ignoring the quiet squawk of ‘Demons?!’ from one of other men in the group. “So, my name’s Ren, and I’m trying to find where two wolves came from. They’re about so tall, both black and cream, clearly mated? Know them?” they ask, holding their hand out at about Shadow’s height. They really aren’t expecting a positive response, no matter how unbothered the four seem to be about Amaterasu sniffing around them, though considering how accustomed to humans Shadow and Silver are…

The four humans exchange concerned looks, and the one who spoke first cautiously says, “We do. Is there a reason you’re asking?”

“They wandered into our village last night and Snowball here found them this morning,” Ren explains, to the apparent consternation of the four. “They’re fine, if a bit tired out, but they indicated that someone would be looking for them, so Snowball and I came out here.”

“That’s… we are looking for them, yes,” the first man — their spokesperson, apparently? — agrees, even as he glances up at the sky overhead, as if to check something despite the trees covering most of the sky. “If you’d be so kind to take us to th—”

His words cut off as the world flickers in Ren’s sight, turning parchment pale and ink dark, followed by a soft brush of dawn-red and—

Color returns. Sound returns.

Three of the four humans yelp, their bodies changing in a rush of moon-pale light, swirling away as their human gear drops to the forest floor and—

Three wolves stand in their place: a black, a creamy white, and a sandy brown.

“Oh dear,” says the only remaining human of the group in dismay.

Ren sighs and reaches up to pinch the bridge of their nose, a suspicion lurking in their mind; that had been Amaterasu’s power that they’d felt. Amaterasu had triggered the three’s shift, which means that Shadow and Silver are also probably…

Well.

Oh dear is certainly accurate.

(Why is this their life?)