Remy woke up in the morning to a feeling of something lying on top of him. When he turned his head to look, he noticed that it was Em. Her head was resting on his chest, one leg thrown over Remy’s legs and she was hugging him tightly. As Remy watched Em, she mumbled something in her sleep and tightened her grip of Remy, who couldn’t help but smile. Em looked so sweet while she was sleeping. Early morning sun was filtering through the window on her face. There was not even a hint of worry on her face. She looked perfectly peaceful.

Gently Remy tucked a stray strand of hair from her face to behind her ear and then blew some air on her face to see if she would wake up. Em’s face puckered a bit and then she nuzzled against Remy’s chest. Remy felt nice warmth form in his chest. He leaned back to rest his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to get up just yet.

When Em woke up she was half hugging Remy and half using him as a pillow. She quickly moved away, as much as the narrow bed space allowed (which wasn’t much) but at least she wasn’t hugging/strangling him anymore. Em felt her cheeks burning and her heart made a few weird and maybe slightly worrying flutters when he looked at Remy who was sleeping one arm above his head in a position that would definitely hurt after waking up. His hair was a mess, looking like a bird nest. Slowly a smile crept on Remy’s face and his eyes opened.

“So, you finally decided to let me go. I’ve been lying here for hours because you’ve been clinging on me so tightly, “ he said teasingly and Em’s cheeks got even more red.

“What? You’re talking nonsense,” she replied a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t cling on to you. You just took all of the pillow to yourself,” she continued to mumble while getting up. “You could’ve just woken me up any time.”

“I didn’t want to disturb your sleep. You snored so nicely.”

“How dare you? I don’t snore!” Em said and Remy laughed. “Bullying me first thing in the morning. How mean,” she added and headed to the door to get their water. Hopefully there wasn’t anything swimming in the buckets.

Remy got out of the bed as well, stretching. His shoulder hurt. The warm feeling from earlier persisted. He had actually fallen asleep again and woken up just a few minutes before Em. It had been nice, feeling Em breathe calmly, nuzzling against him like that.

“How are you feeling?” Em’s voice woke Remy up from his thoughts.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, are you cold? Or sick? Because you went and ran around in the forest yesterday and came back home shivering more than…someone who’s very cold,” Em said sounding a bit resenting. She had been very worried.

“Oh that? I’m fine don’t worry,” Remy said.

“Don’t worry? A bit late for that. I was worried sick. You were basically an icicle when you came in. You wanted me to sleep next to you to warm you up. And now you say: ‘don’t worry about it’.” Em was annoyed that she sounded as upset as she did. Remy probably though she was annoying now.

“I’m sorry,” Remy said. “I didn’t mean to make you worried. Sorry.”

Em smiled a bit. She appreciated the apology. Remy was relieved to see the smile. She hadn’t realized Em had been that worried. And to be honest he didn’t remember asking Em to sleep next to her, but it probably would be better if he didn’t mention that. Maybe he had been in a not so good condition after all.

“Well, if you’re alright then it’s all good. Bread and meat for breakfast?”

They both sat at the table. Em had taken out few pieces of crispbread and the canned meat. Rain water had been scooped on two mugs. Remy put two slices of meat on his bread. They had tried to be as sparing as possible with the meat but now they had almost finished the first can. It was just so delicious. There was still another can left, but it was little smaller and had sausages in it. Neither of them wasn’t too excited about it.

“So, full moon is in few days,” Remy said. “How are you feeling?”

“To be honest, I’m pretty nervous,” Em said. “Last time I didn’t know anything but now I know what to expect.”

“I know it’s scary. I was terrified of it for a long time. But it’s not too bad if you don’t resist. Just go with the flow. And I’m there with you as well. There’s not usually anything that could even happen here. I usually just run around until morning and then sleep all day,” Remy said trying to smile encouragingly.

“I guess so. I just hope it doesn’t hurt as much as last time.”

“You should be fine. The first one is always the worst.”

“I hope so. Should we go look for mushrooms? There might be some after the rain?

“Doesn’t sound like a bad idea. If there’s a chance to eat something else than grass, I’m down.”

The days passed, and the full moon got closer which Em and Remy would have found out even without checking the sky every night. The pains Em had hoped would stay away started three days before the full moon as an uncomfortable ache in her joints and gradually got worse as the days passed the pain spreading all over her body. It felt worse than the previous time, mostly because she didn’t have the small help from painkillers she had had before. Now all she could do was just listen to it and hope it went away.

On the day of the full moon Em was lying in bed, shivering, sweating and aching all over. Remy was extremely stressed and worried. He couldn’t understand why Em was reacting like this. Remy usually felt little achy too, but it was usually just small headache and joint pains. But Em was in serious pain. During all his years as a wolf, Remy had never seen anyone have such pains over lycanthropy. The worst thing was that he had no way to help her. It really hurt him too, seeing Em in pain, and hearing an occasional whimper she let out every now and then wrenched his heart. He had spent hours finding a willow tree and scraped the bark, so he could boil it for tea. He had heard willow bark was a pain reliever, but it had no effect on Em’s situation apart from maybe making her sweat a bit more.

“Do you want anything?” Remy asked Em, for maybe millionth time that day. He didn’t know what to do to help her, so he tried his best to make sure all Em’s wishes were fulfilled.

“Not really,” Em said quietly, breathing heavily. “Well, maybe a bit water.”

“Sure, right away,” Remy said hurrying to the kitchen and almost running back with the mug.

“Thanks,” Em said drinking the water slowly. “Also,” she started but fell silent.

“What?” Remy asked. “Don’t hesitate to ask me anything.”

“Could you…come here?”

“Sure, if you want,” Remy said and climbed on the bed trying his best not to hurt Em in any way. He huddled in the corner in half-sitting position and put his arm around Em gently pulling her closer. “This good?”

Em leaned against Remy’s chest and closed her eyes. “Yes, thank you.”

Em slept restlessly. She saw dreams she couldn’t really remember. She got woken up by a gentle shake and a burning feeling in her chest that followed right after. She opened her eyes gasping for breath. It had got dark outside and in the cabin. Remy was still holding her and looked at her worriedly.

“How are you feeling,” he asked. “We should head outside soon.”

“Okay,” Em said. Remy moved carefully and got up.

“I’ll go out first, so you can take off your clothes in peace.” Then he left and Em pushed herself up. It felt almost as bad as the last time. Her bones were aching, the numbing pain reaching every part of her body with sudden jolts of sharp pain, like someone was stabbing her with a hot knife. Clumsily and very slowly she took of her clothes and walked to the door. Her head was spinning, and she had to stop a few times because her vision got blurry. Finally, she made her way to the door and she stumbled outside.

The night air was chilly and felt nice on Em’s burning hot and clammy skin. She didn’t see Remy even when she looked around. The sky was clear but there was no moon yet.

“Remy?” she called.

“Here.” His voice came from the left side so Em headed towards it. Remy’s clothes were on the porch, but she didn’t notice them. Remy was leaning against a tree, looking at the sky when Em walked up to him. He turned his head a little to see her but didn’t turn to face her. Seeing Em suddenly made him very conscious about his body and he hoped he had something to cover himself a bit. Em seemed too dazed to pay attention to their nakedness.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Terrible,” Em replied and let out a weak laugh. Remy chuckled a bit too.

“You’re gonna feel better tomorrow,” Remy said.

“Yeah.”

They were silent for fifteen minutes, maybe twenty, just enjoying the night while waiting for the moon to rise. Em sat down because the grass felt cold and nice from the dew that had already started to form. The pain started to go away a little. There was a moment of peace where she just felt the gentle breeze on her skin. Then the moon appeared from behind the treetops and Em’s body was being torn apart. Remy had dropped on the ground too, in pain, but she had no idea what happened to Remy. She didn’t see or hear anything. All she could sense was the pain of transforming. She let out a scream that mixed with Remy’s painful whimpering.

Two wolves lied on the ground, breathing heavily. A gentle breeze fluffed their fur, and both moved at the same time. They stumbled on their feet, looked around and noticed each other. For a few moments they stared at each other motionless but soon greeted each other with a gentle nuzzle and a lick on the cheek.

Then the brown furred wolf moved a little further away and raised her head towards the sky to howl. The grey joined in and they serenaded to the moon together. The howl echoed in the night and then got a response. The brown wolf’s ears perked up and she quickly turned her head towards to sound. The grey male, on the other hand, pressed his ears against his head after listening to the howl very closely. His neck fur was standing up and he growled. The female let out a howl again, to respond to her kin but the male nipped on her neck to make her stop. Then he started to guide and shove the brown away from the cottage and to an opposite direction from the howl they had heard. The brown wolf grunted and tried to stay because she wanted to meet the source of this howl but as a result she got another nib on her neck. Reluctantly she started to head towards the river where the grey one wanted them to head.

They got to the river quickly. During their jog there, they heard few more howls but neither responded to them. Based on them the grey wolf guided the brown one in different directions, little bit more to the right, now straight, now more to the right again. They arrived at the river and without hesitation the grey wolf walked in the river and swam to the other side. The female stayed on the other side but a demanding growl from the grey got her to walk in the river as well. As a sign of dissatisfaction from all the nibbling and growling, she shook of the water from her fur on the male’s face. He didn’t seem to care but wanted to continue their walk right away.

So, they turned to continue but were stopped on the spot. A wolf was standing in front of them, a male with reddish brown fur and a lighter mask on his face. The grey male’s neck hair stood up again, more fluffed up than earlier, as he positioned himself between the newcomer and the brown female, who was very much interested in greeting this stranger but also a bit nervous because of her companion’s reaction.

The red male tried to approach, looking very friendly but was stopped by a warning growl and bared teeth. The red male pressed his ears flat back and lowered his head a little. His tail wagged a just little bit as an appeasing gesture, but it had no effect on the grey.

Then they heard another howl, and this time it was the red one who replied to it. The grey barked angrily and started shoving the brown to another direction yet again. He looked at the red male angrily, almost accusingly. The red one wagged his tail and howled again.

The grey wolf bolted into a run and the brown female was forced to follow. They ran as fast as they could, dodging trees and jumping over logs. They crossed the river again, ran in the water for a short while and zig-zagged around. They heard howls from behind them, but they didn’t seem to catch up.

After what felt like a forever the finally slowed down and stopped. This part of the forest they had now arrived in looked younger than where they had come from. Trees were smaller and thinner and there were plenty of bushes and tall grass. Both wolves were panting from the run their fur still wet and covered in dirt and trash. Despite this grey wolf walked around vigilantly, sniffed the air and listened to the silence very closely. The brown had no idea what was going on and why they had been running away. Finally, the grey wolf seemed to accept this place lied down sighing heavily. The female joined him, curling up next to him. They spent the rest of the nigh there, sleeping under a tree-like bush that hid them from the unwanted eyes.