Gregor can’t help his reflexive glance up at the tree-shrouded sky, even though he knows that there’s no way he’ll be able to see if the moon has suddenly risen despite it only just setting before dawn. It’s too soon for another moonrise, he knows that, and yet…
And yet Briar, Ilsa, and Kai are all wolves. Very confused wolves if he’s reading them right, but definitely wolves.
“Sorry,” the stranger, Ren they’d introduced themself as, says awkwardly, hand dropping away from their face and a lopsided smile twisting their lips. “Snowball can get excitable when she finds something she considers interesting.”
“I… see,” Gregor says as he eyes the white wolf warily, wondering what sort of creature it really is, then purses his lips and shoves his worries aside for the moment; right now, figuring out what’s going on matters a bit less than figuring out if he can reverse the unexpected transformation. With that in mind, he scuffs a foot and then raises an eyebrow at Briar when the black wolf tips his head to glance back at him. “Want me to try calling you back?” he asks.
He can practically see the gears turning in Briar’s head as the man considers the offer, so it’s not much of a surprise when Briar’s muzzle dips in a rough nod.
“Briar Halle,” Gregor declares firmly, making sure to focus on his care for the man, just in case whatever triggered the transformation tries to override the switch back.
Which it almost seems like it’s going to, as Briar’s fur ripples and he twitches like he itches— and then just as suddenly as he became a wolf, his body once more dissolves into silver mist and swirls up, solidifying into his (very naked) human form at last.
Snowball barks excitedly and prances forward, her ears forward and her tail wagging—
“No,” Briar tells her in exasperation, even as he kneels to gather up his clothes and starts to put them on. “I don’t know what you did, or how, but right now I want to find my pack le— my clan head and his wife, and I refuse to make Gregor carry all our things.”
Gregor snorts softly at Briar’s words — he appreciates the sentiment but it’s not like they were carrying a lot — and keeps an eye on Ren in an attempt to gauge their reaction to this all; Ren hadn’t seemed too bothered by the shapeshifting, but one never knew how outsiders would react after it all sank in.
(Heaven knows he had hardly been a model of decorum when he’d come face-to-face with Erich’s wolf form the first time.)
(Or even the fifth time, if he’s being honest with himself.)
(It’s not every day that one learns the legends are true, after all!)
Ren seems to be taking it all in stride, though, even if their gaze is carefully focused on Snowball instead of Briar as the man gets dressed and finally stands back up. “Amaterasu, leave the poor folks alone,” they say sternly, then sigh at the whine that earns them and adds, “No, I don’t care how interested you are, they aren’t used to you or your antics, so leave them be.”
“Amaterasu? Thought you said her name was Snowball,” Briar asks carefully as he tugs his shirt straight and eyes the white wolf again.
“Snowball is one of her nicknames,” Ren explains with a shrug. “She shows up once a year, creates chaos for the fun of it, then wanders off again. I’m sorry to say that I think your, ah… clan head and his wife are probably her newest fascination.”
“What’s that going to mean for them, precisely?” Briar asks, tone carefully modulated.
Gregor can see the set of Briar’s jaw and the tension in the man’s shoulders, and takes a small step back to focus on Ilsa and Kai instead; this seems like some sort of supernatural mess, so he’s perfectly willing to leave it to the (relative) experts in those matters. In the meantime— “Ilsa Beringer. Kai Schuler,” he declares, focusing on each as he says their names and calls them from their wolf forms.
Just like with Briar, it almost seems like the change won’t let them go, before suddenly their wolf forms fade into mist and there’s a naked woman and man on either side of him. After being in the army and then around Erich — and then the rest of his Clan — for so long, it’s not quite as embarrassing as it used to be, but it’s still… awkward. Especially since they’ve reformed right next to him, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
(They might be committed to each other, but he has eyes, damnit.)
(Sometimes he truly hates how nonchalant Erich’s clan is about nudity.)
“What it means for them will depend on what Snowball decides to do,” Ren answers Briar, their gaze flicking briefly to Ilsa and Kai as they start to get dressed before darting back to Briar. “She has a duty to this country as a whole—”
(What.)
“—and while she hasn’t hesitated to drag others around with her before, she doesn’t always do it,” Ren continues even as Gregor’s mind tries to process the idea that a white wolf has a duty to the country as a whole. It seems… just a little fantastical, if he’s being honest, but at the same time…
Well, he’s currently a regular human surrounded by werewolves, so who’s he to say what’s fantastical and what isn’t?
“I would much rather you don’t drag him or his mate around with you,” Briar tells the white wolf seriously, as if fully expecting the beast to understand him, then harrumphs and sways forward a bit when Snowball makes a sad noise. “No, we need them both. We just arrived, and they’re our leaders, and we’ve barely even settled in,” Briar says sternly, drawing on all his authority as Alexis’ second.
Ren blinks, clearly taken a bit aback by Briar addressing Snowball directly, then asks, “You can understand her?”
Briar blinks back at Ren, his head cocked in confusion, and replies, “Well, no, but it’s clear she understands us, especially given her reactions to you. The rest is just…” he pauses, gesturing vaguely, and finishes with an awkward, “educated guesses?” that makes Gregor snort in amusement.
(Briar always has been one of the best at reading animals.)
“I see,” Ren says with a touch of amusement, even as Briar sends an exasperated look at Gregor. “In any case, we should return to Kamiki Village, preferably before Snowball gets bored again. Would you all like to join us?”
Gregor nods sharply when Briar casts a questioning look at him; he’s not about to turn back now, no matter how weird this whole thing is turning out to be.
(He’s gotten rather inured to ‘weird’, ever since he walked into Erich’s office one day to find a shamefaced wolf hiding under the desk instead of a man sitting where he expected.)
(This might be a new sort of weird, but it’s still the same in the end.)
“Right, lead the way and we’ll follow,” Briar says to Ren after checking with Ilsa and Kai and getting their agreement as well.
Ren makes a noise of agreement, and then hastily steps back from Snowball as the wolf darts over to them. “No, you are not slinging me across your back again,” Ren says in exasperation. “We’ve found who we’re looking for and now we’re going to lead them back like civilized beings.” When Snowball huffs and casts a sly look over her shoulder, Ren just reaches out to flick the white wolf’s nose and says, “And don’t transform them again unless they ask you to. They might be able to keep up with you in their wolf forms, but they certainly can’t carry a human like you can.”
Snowball heaves a sigh so great Gregor almost expects her to flop over from the dramatics of it, then gives herself a rough shake and turns to trot back the way she’d come.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I know my way around this forest,” Ren says wryly as the white form quickly fades from view. “Though getting us all down that small cliff is going to be interesting without her…”
“The four of us will probably be fine,” Briar says in response.
Ren gives them all a thoughtful look, then shrugs and turns towards the way the white wolf had gone, gesturing for the group to follow. “Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Come on, it’s not too far.”
“This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” Ilsa murmurs as she falls into step with Gregor and casts him a lopsided smile. “Looks like it was a good thing you came with us.”
Gregor shrugs and gives her a dry look. “You’d have figured something out,” he says with confidence, knowing exactly how talented Briar, Ilsa, and Kai are. “And you were transformed right in front of Ren’s eyes, so I doubt they’d have treated you as just more wolves.”
Ilsa hums thoughtfully. “True, but unless that white wolf can undo the shift just as easily, I’m not sure it would have mattered much.”
“Speaking of, any idea how that happened?” Gregor can’t help but ask; he’s never seen one of the pack transform when the moon isn’t in the sky. In fact, he’s pretty sure it’s genuinely impossible in the normal order of things — he’s read everything Erich’s dug up about the Clan’s history, just to keep on top of things — which means that whatever Snowball did, it was outside of anyone’s experience.
Except, perhaps, for Ren. They’d seemed surprised but not shocked, so… people transforming into animals might not be entirely unheard of out here.
Well, he’ll just have to keep an eye on things and do his best to support Erich and the others.
What’s one more piece of impossible after everything else he’s seen, anyway?
At least this way he’ll never grow bored.
(Though maybe a bit of boredom would be nice.)
(Just a bit…)
(Sigh.)