How We Began

Chaper 1: "Call Me Grimm"

I wake to the sound of kiyaagarrum'aiyana, howling, outside my window. A smile tugs at the edge of my mouth, and I sit up in bed. Looking out the window, I see why the wolves were howling. A fresh snow coats the ground. Perfect. I pull on some clothes and go to the door. My house is relatively small for the number of people who live here. There are 10 bedrooms, and a kitchen with a big table at one end that could seat 15. Other than that, there is a small pantry and a small entry hall where everyone hangs their coats.

As I go through the entry hall, I shake my head at the 14 coats still on the hooks. I had told everyone time and time again that they should take their coats even if they didn't intend to use them, but of course none of them had. Not that I intended to either...I suppose that if I wanted them to wear their coats I really should lead by example, but a coat was just a minor annoyance that I'd have to take back off when I got back inside.

I pull on my boots, although I would only need them for a second, and then I step out the door into the snow-coated field. My house is in a small clearing at the center of a forest in the middle of nowhere. My parents had said that their parents said we were far outside of somewhere called rhanou'awwyik, or village, but no one knew for sure. No one had left the forest in a long time. We relied on the forest for everything, from food to clothing.

I inhale deeply, and the cold air feels like it is burning its way through my throat. Perfect conditions for a run, or a good hunt. Prey would never be able to smell us if we stayed downwind, as the snow was covering up all our old trails. And it absorbed sound as well. Suddenly, a brown wolf burst from the forest and sprinted towards me. I laughed and turned to run. As I took my first step forward, I shifted forms, and I hit the ground on four legs instead of two.

The brown wolf howled and ran faster, trying to catch me, but I was bigger, stronger, faster. Of course, she wasn't alone, and as I ran, I kept an eye out for other sepheir, or wolves, hiding in the forest. A huge silver wolf almost catches me as I run past his hiding place in the snow, but I leap to the side at the last second and narrowly avoid his snapping jaws. I am as lucky the next time when a large white wolf suddenly bursts from inside a snowdrift and pounces on me, pinning me to the ground.

I shift forms, laughing, and he does the same. Suddenly it isn't a white wolf looking down at me, but a boy with blond hair with brown streaks and the same bright blue eyes as the wolf. He has a huge grin across his face, and I can't help but smile in response. "Nice trick! How long did it take you to get inside there?" I ask him.

He laughed again. "Too long. Fenris almost caught you that time though, didn't he?" I shake my head. Fenris trots up to us and shifts, his silver fur changing into white blond hair.

"I so did almost catch you! You're just lucky I was tired from chasing down Ember before!" Fenris snaps. He flops his huge frame down into the snow beside mine.

"Yeah, come on Sibyl, you're lucky you got away from him! And now we all know you can't outrun me!" The boy with the blond and brown hair teases.

I punch him in the side playfully. "That's 'Alpha' to you Ghost, or Akipha if you prefer. And what would you have done if I had been over to the side a little bit, hmm? Wouldn't have caught me then would you?" I question playfully. The proud grin on his face fades. Fenris laughs, and then sighs sadly.

"Are we going to hunt or what?" he asked, "the conditions are perfect and the a'njoru are getting fat!" Of course the deer ("a'njoru" is our word for deer) aren't actually getting fat. It's the middle of winter, and although we tried feeding them once, they wouldn't come within 50 feet of the house. They could smell us around. There were just too many of us for us to cover up the scent completely.