Kiku felt it first and set down his torch. Wordlessly, he stood and walked to the window, pulling off his googgles and peering outside, thinking about changing forms. He gathered up a jacket and left his house.
Alfred and Matthew looked up at the full harvest moon, then at each other. They jumped from tree to tree, their ears down flat against their skulls. What was it? They landed neatly in a tree in a ring of redwoods.
Ivan looked up, holding a sleeping child in his arms. His eyes narrowed and he continued walking on. This wasn't good. Not at all. He moved the child to one arm, holding an iron pipe with blood stains in the other hand.
Elizabeta and Roderich exchanged a wary gaze and broke in a run, side-by-side, their tongues lolling out, their ears twitching.
Kiku got there first, landing lightly to sit on a rock. Alfred and Matthew came next, followed by Elizabeta and Roderich. "What's the meaning of this, Kiku? Why is there a change in the balance?"
"I fear... someone has taken one who does not belong to them." The Japanese responded, looking solemn. "I do not believe it to be any of us, though." Alfred opened his mouth but his older brother cut him off.
"Shouldn't we just go on with our human facade, Kiku? At least until we can figure out what's going on?" Kiku nodded slowly in agreement. The two blonde boys vanished instantly, only a trembling brush left behind to show which way the had gone.
Roderich and Elizabeta were second to leave, running through the woods in a way only wolves could. Kiku closed his eyes and sighed, before rising up and going back to the town. He couldn't figure out why anyone would want to upset the balance that had been the same for hundreds of years.
Instead of sleeping, he pulled books off his tall shelves and poured over them one by one. He finally just closed a thick tome and picked up his blow torch back up. He didn't get it. At all.