I thought this was updated, but apparently it wasn't . . . my bad.

Feral: Revisited

VIII

They're walking through the forest, it's hard to see the skies above but light does filter through, the tips of the lush grass brush against his bare ankle, a light, cool breeze sweeps past them, Zuko can't help but marvel at how beautiful the place really is or the feeling it gives him, momentarily forgetting that he was basically walking around the forest barefoot and nearly naked, up until he bumps in to Jet who is standing stock still.

"What?" Zuko spits, but Jet just holds a hand up and looks in some random direction.

In the distance a bird's call echoes throughout the treetops, at first, Zuko thinks nothing of it because he's heard several bird calls since he's been here, and merely looks in the same direction Jet was in an attempt to see or hear whatever it was that made him stop, but Jet cups his hands around his mouth and returns the call with one of his own. Another call is returned. A low growl from Jet shows that whatever is happening isn't good, he quickly turns to Zuko and gestures towards the nearest tree.

Zuko frowns.

Jet rolls his eyes and hisses, "Hide."

"I'm not hiding." Zuko snarls petulantly, "I'm not useless!"

"Do you have any weapons on you?" Jet asks pointedly, Zuko just frowns even more. "Thought so, now, please?"

Growling quietly, he skulks towards the tree and sits at the base, arms crossed and scowling at Jet who takes the time to snicker at his theatrics and runs off. When Jet is out of sight, Zuko feels the tree shake just the tiniest bit and sees a bunch of leaves start to fall from the treetops in several areas, looking up, he sees several shadows, large and small, moving from branch to branch in a practiced motion. All heading in the direction Jet had disappeared to.

They were Jet's people, but what was going on that needed them?

Seeing several wolves jump from treetop to treetop, he remembers that he too is a shifter and resists the urge to smack himself with how stupid he is for forgetting something that was like breathing to him, getting to his feet, he starts to remove the jacket and tosses it aside . . . careful to keep himself out of their range of hearing and smell, powerful even for weres, he peers around the large tree trunk and spots several large wolves sniffing or pawing the ground while the others continue walking some invisible path.

If they kept walking the way they were, they would come across the town.

Looking up into the leafy treetops, he spies several of his pack members perched upon the branches surrounding the wolves, one of them happens to look at him and he gestures towards the wayward wolves, the person who is still in human form flashes ten fingers then puts one hand down and holds up three fingers. So there were thirteen?

That was quite a large group for these kinds.

Peculiar.

As it was though, they weren't going to bother the group so long as they didn't notice them or cause trouble, they were going to tail them until they were far from their territory. Above him, there is a low warbling tune, in front of him, the wolves seem to perk at the sound but does nothing more. The call meant . . . refusing to make a sound no matter how much he wanted to curse, he keeps his eyes on the large, lumbering wolves and starts to back the way he'd come. Once he felt he was safe enough, he turns and is ready to run when he spots a large black wolf slowing to a trot some ways away, a familiar reddish mark splashed across the left side of its face.

Immediately crouching, he gestures for Zuko to do the same and presses a finger to his own lips to show that the Omega keep quiet, the black wolf's massive body crouches low to the ground, bright eyes pinned on him, so intense. The feeling of being the sole target of those eyes makes his blood chill, it was hard to forget that weres were predators at the heart of it all. Turning on his heel, he starts making his way towards the others with Zuko following close behind, and by the time they reach where the wolves had been, he sees that they're gone, along with his own people, for a second, he frowns until a call further ahead catches his attention and he hurries after the sound.

They're reaching the edge of the territory when he spots the group of wolves all running towards the town.

Feeling the tension he hadn't known he'd held in his body, he stands and keeps his eyes on the sizeable pack.

"Who are they?"

It's Zuko, his voice rumbling and deep, Jet doesn't take his eyes from the wolves though, "I don't know, they're feral though." Zuko remains silent, Jet finally chancing a glance at the other. "You know what feral is, don't you?"

"I do." Zuko's gold eyes narrow, "Shouldn't we stop them?"

Jet turns back towards the wolves in the distance, "They're out of our hands now."

Zuko glares at him, "And you think those people down there can take them?"

"Those people won't want our kind of help." Jet hisses, "And they're not the kind of people you want to help."

The large wolf watches Jet walk away, tension in his shoulders, several wolves and humans alike look at him as they pass him by, Zuko looks back over his shoulder, the gentle breeze carrying with it the faint screams of people and crippling metallic decay. It's wrong to leave innocents to a fate like that, but what could he do against a large pack of feral weres whose mind was so far gone? And who's to say that the disease wouldn't spread to him?

Feeling terrible, he turns his back on the distant town and follows the others.

F-E-R-A-L

Keeping the child close to her body and attempting to quiet the child's whimpering cries, Katara keeps her eyes on the boarded up window where several dark figures run by, her brother and several of the town men are standing closest to the building's entrances, leaving her to protect the women and child like she wasn't capable of fighting like one of them. It annoys her at times, but she knows that she is the one who needs to be with the children and women as she was really the only one who seemed the most competent for it, her brother's patience being too thin and his unwanted remarks, Toph is brazen and too loud, and while Aang is the only other who is also capable of babysitting, he is out there attempting to corral those feral wolves.

But feral wolves are far too gone in body, mind, and spirit, a disease similar to that of rabies only affecting those with moon in their blood and heart. There is no cure once one turns feral, unless gifted death.

It takes a while until all is deathly silent, but there comes a tapping on the door and she is relieved that when it is open Aang is standing there, but he looks morose which means he had failed in his attempts, and while she feels bad for him, they had warned him that it would not work.

Slowly, people come out from their hiding spots and start cleaning up the aftermath, the men cleaning up the bodies of those who were too unlucky to make it to safety, and the women putting the houses back together.

"Aang?"

Aang shakes his head, "They just . . . ignored me. Like I wasn't there."

Katara pats his shoulder and looks around, "Where did they go?"

Aang points towards the north, the same direction they'd chased the first feral wolf those long nights ago, looking back towards the town slowly sewing themselves back together, she wonders what these people could have done to deserve such rotten luck. Perhaps there was a den of feral wolves . . . but that made no sense as feral wolves never grouped up in large groups, like the one that had passed, because infighting often happened and always ended in death for several of the wolves.

"I know now isn't the time," she starts, "but we're going to have to take a look around the area."

Aang looks up at her, his eyes wide, "Why?"

She knows he wants to save as many as he can, especially the werewolves, but they still had a job.

"Don't you wonder where these wolves are coming from?"

"It could have been a coincidence."

"And we still need to find that were that comes every full moon."

Aang lets out a sigh, she knew he didn't like what she and her brother did, "Okay."

Katara squeezes his shoulder and is about to help the others when Aang speaks again:

"While I was trying to talk to them . . . I sensed, a wolf, in the distance." he points in the opposite direction of where the feral wolves had gone. "I could barely make their spirit out, but when I looked again, they were gone."

"A lone wolf?" blinks Katara, "Do you think it could be . . . ?"

"I don't think so, I don't know, it was too far away, but it's worth a look."

"We'll start there first thing tomorrow."

"Just . . . let me talk to them first, please?"

Katara wants to sigh, but she agrees in the end because there really is no harm in letting Aang do his thing . . . when morning comes over the surrounding forest top, they set off for the forests with the good wishes of the shaken up townspeople following them across the lush plains, up until they stand at the foot of the isolating woods.

"Are you sure you saw someone?"

Sokka asks after they've been standing there and staring at the looming trees, and while Katara would like to tease her brother about the uncomfortable tremor in his voice, she understands his nervousness. The forest treetops were dense, the sun's light breaking through in small beams and shining through the leaves.

"Why?" Toph asks, not the least shaken by the large woodland . . . probably because she was blind. "Scared?"

"No!" Sokka's voice cracks, he's glaring at Toph indignantly. "I'm just . . . this place is huge! How are we going to find whoever it was Aang thought he saw while attempting to wrangle ferals?!"

"That's why I pity you normal people." Toph huffs, "How can you get anything done without a strong sense of smell?"

"Come on Sokka~." beams Aang, "I'm sure it'll be easy~!"

The oldest of the group frowns as both Aang and Toph walk in to the canopied nature, he turns to Katara who shrugs at her brother's pointed look and follows after their two inhuman companions. Walking through the forest with three pairs of eyes looking in each direction they possibly could and a powerful nose, they somehow couldn't pick up on any sign of life that could be made by another person. It's a little unsettling and with nothing but birds as their company, they start to think that perhaps there is no one there, up until Aang perks up and points in some random direction:

"There!"

They're hardly given time to see where Aang had been pointing when the not-wolf not-human takes off running, both hunter siblings giving one another a concerned look over Toph's head before running after their friend, who happens to be pretty fast. When they find him again, he seems to be talking a mile a minute to some black-haired stranger who looks more or less perturbed by his sudden presence, when the stranger looks up at them, they all see the terrible scar across his left eye, his eyes a pleasant honey color, and skin pale . . . it isn't the one they're looking for and Katara smiles nicely because it's always nice to meet a fellow traveler.

Hi, my name's Katara." she greets, "You've already met Aang."

The stranger looks from her face to her hand, his eyes then flit to her hip where she's got several pure silver knives, he immediately recoils and a loud snarl rips from his throat, his eyes are now phosphorescent yellows and his teeth are jagged, she and the rest realizes that he's a werewolf and immediately puts her hand down, Aang instantly jumps in between them and holds his hands up for everyone to stop:

"They're friends! They're not going to hurt you!"

"Hurt me!? I'm not worried about them trying to hurt me!" the werewolf snarls, "More like kill me! I've already dealt with their kind before and I'm not looking to repeat the memory!"

And now he's starting to transform, his fingers becoming elongated and nails sharp.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Aang keeps them apart, "They're different! I swear!"

The wolf person looks between the two and while he starts to return to normal, he's still wary.

The stranger snarls, "You shouldn't be here."

Toph is the first to challenge this, "Why not?"

The werewolf who they now know is a full-blooded one seems to look over his shoulder, like he were looking for someone that wasn't there, "This is werewolf territory and the person in charge . . . I don't know what he'll do."

Several questions crossed their collective minds:

Werewolf territory?

Does a werewolf pack live here?

He?

What kind of person is he?

"Zuko~!" a voice calls out, they turn to see a tall young man approaching them. "Who's your friends~?"

The black-haired stranger, Zuko, scowls at the newcomer as he saunters up to his side and throws a callous arm around his shoulders, this new arrival is dark and charming, an air of trouble surrounding him and cloaking him, but whatever spell he had on their minds is broken when Toph gasps seconds before the newcomer raises his hand and several people, human and wolves, fall from the treetops, all armed to the teeth and all weapons aimed at them . . . Zuko startles, unintentionally pressing in to Jet's side, he feels Jet give him a squeeze before he slips away, gliding towards the kid with an easy confidence, twirling a knife loosely in his hold.

"I know you." he says aloud, "You're the hunters that tried to chase me down."

Ohhh . . . .