Em stood in front of her mother who looked confused and worried. Em could smell the faint scent of fear coming from her.

“Em, is it you?” mom asked. Em didn’t reply. “Em? It is you isn’t it? Say something, please. You recognise me, right? I’m your mother.” Em lowered her head and growled. Mom was startled but still tried to smile.

“Come on, don’t be like that. You’re my little girl, just a bit different now. Wouldn’t you agree honey?” she said and turned to look on her right.

Em turned her head too and saw his dad lying on the ground, a grey wolf standing on top of him. Remy. Feeling the looks in his back, the wolf raised his head. His face was covered in blood and few more drops fell from its lips on dad’s chest that was red too. Dad didn’t move.

“Oh my God,” mom gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She then turned to look at Em, with a different expression on her face than earlier. The look on her face was pure fear and somehow it excited Em. A weird feeling tingled its way to every corner of her body, making her feel restless. Her muscles tensed up. The smell of blood lingered in her nose and got stronger when Remy walked next to her. Em licked her lips.

“Em, darling. It’s me, your mother. You wouldn’t hurt me, right? You know me, don’t you? Look, it’s mother right here. Good girl, you wouldn’t hurt your mother, I know you wouldn’t.” The pitch of her voice was high and nervous. Mom backed off few steps. That was a mistake.

Em jumped. There was a muffled scream as her teeth sunk on her mother’s neck. The taste of blood filled her mouth. It was wonderful.

“NOOOO!” Em sprang up, gasping for breath. Her hands were shaking, and heart was beating in her chest painfully fast. She covered her face with her hands.

“Em, are you alright?” Remy mumbled sounding very sleepy. A big yawn followed the question.

“Y-yeah… It was just a b-bad dream,” she replied and even her voice trembled. “S-sorry for waking you up.”

“Was it about wolves?” Remy asked. Em looked at Remy’s direction even though she didn’t see him.

“How did you know?”

“I’ve had them too. Don’t worry. They’ll go away. And they’re just dream, nothing to worry about. Try to get some sleep. You can always wake me up if you feel like it”, he said.

“Thanks,” Em said. She lay in the bed wide awake, listening to the peaceful breathing of Remy who had already fallen back to sleep. She just couldn’t sleep. The image of her mother was in her head. Mother trying to talk to her and she just attacked like a monster.

After what probably was at least an hour, she finally fell to a very restless sleep. If she saw dreams, she didn’t remember them after waking up, but she didn’t feel refreshed at all in the morning.

Remy was already awake when Em woke up. He was stretching, and his joints cracked loudly. His hair was a mess; it looked like a spot where a bird would make its nest.

“Aah, that chair is definitely not a good place to sleep,” he said while cracking his neck. “I think I’ve cracked all my joints already,” he continued while stretching his legs, his knee popped loudly. “Now I’ve cracked them all. Did you sleep well?”

“Well I slept,” Em said, “but I wouldn’t say I slept well.”

“Don’t worry about it too much. The nightmares will pass soon, I’m sure,” Remy said and headed to kitchen. He opened one of the cupboards and pulled out some kind of brown strips. “Jerky for breakfast?” he asked smiling.

“Uh, sure… When did you make this?” Em said yawning and trying to comb her hair with her fingers. She hadn’t eaten jerky before, but it sounded better than roots and leaves so why not.

“It was already here when I found this place. I think it’s from that guy,” he replied nodding his head towards the moose head. “But I’ve been eating it and I’m still alive so it’s not bad. Unless it kills slowly…”

“Very reassuring,” Em mumbled while sitting on the bench but she still took few pieces of the jerky. It was hard and chewy but tasted pretty good. Definitely better than roots, although she hadn’t had any roots yet but surely it was better.

They sat in silence chewing on jerky. Em stared at the table still thinking about the dream. It was so vivid in her head it almost felt real.

“So, I was thinking about going to the city today,” Remy said breaking the silence. Em’s head immediately perked up.

“I want to come too,” she said.

“You can’t come today,” Remy replied.

“Why not?”

“Because you look like you live in the forest! Your clothes are at least five sizes too big and you don’t even have shoes. You will draw attention.”

“You don’t have shoes either,” Em protested. It was true that she looked dumb, but she really wanted to go.

“I have shoes--”

“You do?”

“Of course, I just don’t use them here,” Remy said. “But listen. I’ll go there and try to get us some stuff, like food and clothes for you, okay. And then you can come with me some other time since you look like a proper person. Okay?”

“Okay…” Em grumbled, nibbling at the jerky.

“Great. I’ll show you the way to the river before I go so you can go swimming if you want. I’ll be away for a good while, so you can enjoy some alone time.”

“Wonderful.” Alone time was exactly what she wanted after that horrible dream. She definitely didn’t want to have another person with her to comfort her, no, being alone in the middle of the forest was perfectly fine.

“Great. Let’s go once you’re finished. I need to get going as soon as possible so I’ll be back before tomorrow. Walking that distance sucks.”

They both chewed on one more piece of jerky before leaving. The forest still seemed to be waking up from the night. Sunlight was filtering through the leaves and birds were just starting to sing their cheery songs.

“It’s pretty easy to get to the river. Just walk straight from here,” Remy explained as he started heading towards their destination. “It takes maybe 10-15 minutes to get there. It’s a quick walk.”

“Okay.”

They walked in a silence. Neither of them seemed to be very talkative. And to be honest, neither of them really minded the silence. It was nice in its own way, not having to think about what to say all the time.

“Do all…werewolves live in forest shacks?” Em asked then, after a few minutes of silence.

“Huh? No…I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”

“No reason really, I was just wondering.”

“Well, it really depends. Some people may live alone but I think most of us live in small groups, or in bigger packs. We usually seek out the company of other werewolves out of instinct. Wolves are social animals after all. Some are loners though. But I think in general they have better luck with their housing situation than us, whether they live alone or not.”

“So, you’re a loner?” Em asked then. Remy was silent for a moment.

“I guess so,” he said then, laughing a bit. “Well, you’re here now so I guess we’re more of a couple.” Remy went silent for a few seconds. “No, wait, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that we’re together now… No, wait… Like two wolves are together as a pair. Yes, a pair. That doesn’t sound as weird, I think?”

“I get your point,” Em said trying to hold her laughter. Remy got flustered really easily.

“Yeah…”

Then the river appeared from behind the trees. The riverbanks were mostly covered in tall grass with different flowers and an abundance of reedmace but on the spot they walked to, the grass was shorter like it had been cut or pulled out. Em guessed it was Remy’s doing. A few big trees spread their branches over the river, covering it and creating cool and shady spots where fish gathered to eat bugs that danced on the surface of the water. Water was flowing slowly carrying leaves and small tree branches with it. The water was clear enough to see to the bottom, apart from the deepest part. The bottom of the river seemed to be a mix of soft sand on the shallower parts and rocks when going to the middle. Very nice for the purpose of swimming.

“It’s so beautiful in here,” Em said, looking at the scenery amazed. She had of course seen riversides many times before, but this spot looked so peaceful and beautiful, like it was in another world.

“Yeah. And there’s lots of edible plants too. It’s great. By the way, do you know how to gut a fish?” Remy said.

“I don’t even know how to catch fish,” Em replied. And eww, gutting a fish sounded really gross. She probably shouldn’t eww things that kept her alive, but she couldn’t help it. Guts and organs and blood… It was just very gross.

“Never mind then,” Remy said. “I was just thinking that if you come here and catch some fish you could prepare it. But don’t worry about it. But take a bucket with you when you come, just in case you happen to get something.”

“Okay, I’ll try to remember.”

Remy looked at the clear sky where the sun was shining brightly and slowly climbing higher and higher.

“I have to get going now if I want get back home at decent time. You can probably get back on your own, right?” he said then.

“Yeah,” Em sighed. She didn’t want to be alone. Yesterday had been boring enough. There was nothing to do. No books to read, no old photo albums to look at, and no music to listen to. “I guess I’ll try to look for food or something,” she said.

“Cool. I’ll try to bring something with me, so we don’t turn into rabbits with all the plant eating,” Remy said smiling a little. “But I’ll go now. See you later. Take care.”

After saying that Remy just walked away soon disappearing from Em’s sight. She turned to look at the water and sighed. She sat on a small rock and stared at the sparkling water. What would she do now?

Pretty soon after Remy had disappeared from Em’s sight, he stopped and took off his clothes, carefully folding them and hiding them under a small bush. This would be the faster way to travel to the city. Hopefully no one had found his other hiding place where he kept is change of clothes. Otherwise things would become very awkward.

Remy dropped to his knees and focused. Changing was becoming harder and harder every time. Secretly he had hoped that having Em with him would make it easier, but they had known each other for a day, of course it wouldn’t have any effect. And one wolf probably wouldn’t be enough anyway.

Pained expression took over Remy’s face as his body started growing more hair. He slumped to ground as his body twisted and cracked, taking its other form.

The wolf was still for a moment, breathing heavily until it stood up and started trotting to the direction of the city. The back home would be very annoying.