Terrance watched as Darryl continued sulking at the dinner table. It had been an entire week since he put him under house arrest. Darryl stalwartly insisted that there was no harm associating with Lydia and Terrance was increasingly frustrated with Darryl every time he brought the subject up. In response to this Darryl began giving him the silent treatment and that only resulted in him trying to escape out of a second story window at 3am. So now Terrance had to assign a set of eyes for every moment. The resulting tension between then had become palpable. The other family units were noticing, and that did not bode well for the two brothers. Their Father would intervene soon. Terrance could not have that.

Sara was about to toss her hands up at the boys when Terrance suddenly rocketed up from his chair. There was an exclamation of shock from the group, but Terrance put his fingers to his head, closed his eyes and listened. Hard. Someone had howled in pain in his head, but he had not recognized the voice.

‘Sound Off’ echoed into a large group of heads around the area. A confused torrent of voices responded in a jumble that only someone with practice could discern. No one was missing, no one aside from his brother who was not talking to him.

“Who,” Terrance vocalized, then the color drained from his face, “It can’t be,” he bolted from the house tearing clothes from his body and slinging a specially designed pack over his shoulder. There were a few confused questions floating to him as he sprinted towards his destination. He quickly blocked out the others and continued.

The scene he came upon was nothing like he expected, yes, Lydia was there, fighting with herself. But she was also terrified of the medics who were on scene. She was crying helplessly into her father’s chest; her mother was stroking her hair and they were talking to her in calm voices. Even in this crazy moment, they were good parents. But it did not change their naiveté about the situation.

Unfortunately, one of the younger medics approached too quickly, and Lydia’s animalistic instincts took over and she bolted, tearing from her father’s arms and into the small copse of trees dividing their street’s properties from those behind. A call for backup was sent out and a few people followed after. She was too fast. Though, not for Terrance. He easily caught up and was running alongside her, his form almost invisible in the dark as deep brown fur blended with shadows.

When Lydia saw him, she screamed again and lost her footing, tearing into the thorny underbrush of the property line. Her pink pajama bottoms did not hold up to the abuse and she jerked again when the thorns bit into her leg drawing ribbons of blood. He tried to call out to her but there was something wrong with the link. It was full of static and discordant noises.

This would not work, if he stopped to change, he would lose her. She stumbled, Terrance noticed she lost her flipflops and the smell of blood implied she was making things worse for herself. She eventually managed free herself from those random thorns before swerving out the other side of the outcropping. After crossing a few roads, she veered toward the park.

‘Darryl!’ Terrance backed off slightly and following her from a further distance now that he had a longer field of view, ‘I need you at the park now!’ he broadcasted.

‘Why?’ Darryl asked.

‘I can’t get close; Lydia needs to be calmed down. She’s panicking.’ Terrance could feel the question trying to form in his brother’s brain, but cut him short with a curt command, ‘Just go!’ Terrance felt the mental shift in his brother and slowed to a trot as he approached the open field of the park.

Lydia was squatting down in the center of the field, panting fiercely as her head darted around to keep track of her entire area. She was not hidden, but she was positioned to have a head start from an advance from any particular direction. All-in-all it was a smart move given the situation.

Terrence spent a fleeting moment surprised to see his brother show up so quickly, but then scolded himself, knowing his frustrated brother would have bolted the second he got the chance, and what better time than when he himself caused a large distraction?

As he broke from the shadows, Lapu let out a whimper followed by a *yip*. Lydia’s head turned, and her body followed, she was running again, but this time toward instead of away. “Pups!” she cried; voice raw.  As she approached, she threw her tear-stained face into the scruff of his neck, Terrance could see her body shaking with sobs. Lapu turned and looked pointedly at Terrance. Quickly changing and throwing on some shorts from the bag, Terrance cautiously approached the two of them. He could hear cars advancing and could see lights, they had to move.

The message was relayed. When Pups began nudging at her and seemed to want to leave the open area, Lydia complied.  After sniffing around for other critters that would not be so friendly, she was led down into a small ditch behind a fallen tree off from the path. She sat down with a grateful sigh.

“Lydia,” a voice called, it was deep and gentle, not a voice she could place. She froze but Pups tilted his head, lulled his tongue, and let out his standard, though quiet, *yip*.

She began scooting back when she saw Terrance approaching her, his chest bare.

“Lydia,” he soothed again, a suppressed cry sounded in her throat as she pressed against the dog. “I want to help you, but I can’t if you don’t let me talk.”

Lydia tried to form a response, she really did, but there was another tremendous shift inside of her and she began clawing at herself, nails drawing red angry welts down her neck and along her arms. It was then that Terrance noticed she had many marks that were patterned too regularly to be from her trip outside. She had been clawing at herself for a while, possibly days judging by the bruising around some of the marks. Lapu noticed as well and whined from the pit of his stomach and nestled his head into the crook of her neck, separating her hand from the soft skin of her neck.

However, when Terrance tried to approach once more, she started to scramble away, “Wait! Wait!” he called, trying to use the link as well, but still just jumbled static.

“Will you listen to Darryl?” the Lapu’s head swung to look; a confused whinny left him. Lydia nodded slowly. “Let go of Lapu for just a moment, and Darryl can talk to you.”

Lydia knew somewhere in her mind that this did not make sense, but none of the scraps of that thought would match together, and she dearly missed her friend, so she slowly let go of the dog. Terrance made some gesture at the dog that she could only understand as “well?” but by his reaction Darryl knew what his brother was saying to him. There was a static charge that blew across her skin and a sickening chord of wet and sticky sounding *pops* and *clicks* before a very human groan ended the notes. The kneeling body beside her skillfully made a quick, modesty adjustment. While her mind registered slowly that he was naked, it did not home in on any particular thing to be embarrassed over.

“Lydia,” Darryl said, “Hey, shh, it’s alright-” he continued for a time, and his familiar and iconic dulcet voice did its job and soothed her, bringing her back enough to rationalize with. Terrance was able to approach and though she gave him a wary eye, she was much more confused about her friend.

“Darryl?”

“Yes, Lydia?” he soothed.

“Pups?” she asked, looking around. Darryl tilted his head in a very familiar way, gave his typical wide grin and let out a very familiar *yip!*

“You’re, a- a werewolf?”

“We prefer Spiritdancer, but, yes. In a sense, I am,”

“You’ve been with me this whole time?” she asked, meaning the runs.

He nodded, “for about 6 months ago when you missed all of that school.”

“Are-” she started, turning her head toward Terrance.

“Yes,” he cut her off his deep voice gentle, He thought a moment before continuing, “and I am also your biological brother,”