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Verik's head was throbbing. He tried to open his eyes, but the bright light of the moon sent a wave of dizziness throughout him, threatening send him back into unconsciousness. He was lying on his back in the grass, but he didn't have the strength to get up. He could feel the warmth someone's hands stroking his forehead.

"He's waking up." He could hear Emmaline's voice right next to him, but it sounded muffled.

Verik tried to say something, but his throat was dry and scratchy. All he could make was a hoarse groan.

"Bring the water over here, please." There were some sounds of wolfen scuffling around and then a wooden object bumped against the tip of his snout. "Drink this, there's an herbal mixture in it that will help give you your strength back."

He opened his mouth and felt the object tip forward and bitter-tasting water spill into his mouth. Almost instantly after swallowing, his body relaxed and the pain started to slowly fade. "Are you okay?" Emmaline asked him.

Despite the pain, he pushed himself up to a sitting position and turned away from the moon, before opening his eyes. "It feels like my skull has shattered, but it's getting better. What happened?"

"We don't know. Gerrin said you were both walking back here and you suddenly collapsed."

"Gerrin?" Verik repeated the name. He couldn't quite place it, but the name sounded very familiar. Suddenly he remembered and he immediately jumped up with excitement. Immediately, he regretted his decision. A sharp pain exploded from his head and he fell back down to the ground.

"Careful, Verik!" Emmaline said sternly. "He's still here and he's not going anywhere, yet."

Verik weakly nodded. "You're right. How long was I out?"

"Only a few hours, thankfully."

Gerrin appeared behind him and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. "How are you doing, brother?"

"I've been better."

"Well, once you're ready, come join the rest of us. I have so many things to tell you!" He patted him on the shoulder and then walked back over to the other side of their camp where he continued his conversations with the other members of his pack.

After a few seconds, leaned in closely to Verik's ear. "Something happened when you blacked out."

"What do you mean?" Verik raised his eyebrows.

While you were unconscious and we trying to help you, you suddenly jumped up, became very vicious and attacked us. I don't know what it was, but I felt something. As if something or someone was controlling you."

"What do you mean? Was there a different voice in my mind, or something?"

She shook her head, "No, it was nothing like that. It's more like just a gut feeling I had. Maybe it's just my paranoia, but I thought I should tell you anyway."

Verik knew nothing about it so he just nodded. "Did I hurt anyone?"

"We're all okay, but there's something else. Something that might be more serious."

Verik scowled. Whatever it was, by Emmaline's expression, it was definitely going to be unpleasant news. "What is it?"

"When you were brought in, something was off. I couldn't, and still can't, read your mind. Even now, it's as if you aren't even here. What's even stranger, is that your brother is the same way."

"What are you saying?"

Emmaline shook her head, "Again, I don't know. If I had any clue as to what made you lose consciousness, I could consider it further, but right now I have absolutely no idea about this whole situation, but the fact that at the same time your brother shows up, I can't see either of your minds, seems quite coincidental."

"Do believe he's lying about being my brother?"

"No, I believe without a doubt that he is who he says he is, but I want you to be careful. Just don't believe everything he says without giving it thought."

Verik nodded. "I don't do anything without thinking...usually. Anyway, do you mind helping me join the others?"

"Not at all." She reached down and helped him to his feet. Verik's pain was gone, but he was still pretty weak. They hobbled together over to the group and sat down."

Gerrin smiled widely, "Great! Glad you could finally join us! Now tell me, Verik, what would you like to know?"

Verik thought about it for a few seconds and then decided. "Could you give me the details of the attack?"

Gerrin chuckled lightly. "Desiring the grim topics, as usual. At least you're still the same with or without your memories. Okay, here it goes, so we were traveling to a new forest since the humans forced us out of our previous home. As the sun started to rise, we decided to rest. During that time, Emmaline and one of our sisters, Lyora, which you probable have no memory of, went to walk around.

"When an hour passed and they still hadn't returned, we started to get a little worried. We were just about to go out in search for her when we heard Lyora's panicked howl. We all ran towards it and found them at the bottom of the hill with the creature called Erebos. He seemed to be just playing with them like a cat would a mouse. If I remember right, Lyora was already dead at that point.

"When you saw this, you instantly yelled out and ran blindly down the hill at him. That, of course, drew his attention to us. Our mother ran after to get you, but it was too late. You were halfway down the hill and Erebos was coming our way. After that, the whole pack followed you guys down. I'm a little bit ashamed of this, but I was frozen in place at the top of the hill. I watched as this creature just slaughtered everyone.

"The only ones alive were you, Syla, and Emmaline, though you were all severely injured. I believe he left you alive intentionally to turn you into one of his minions, but you did something that I had no idea you were capable of. You suddenly stood up and howled into the air. A bright light shone around around you and then exploded. I have no idea what happened, but when I looked back, you were still standing, but Erebos was on the ground with a huge bleeding gash across his body and face. He got back up, roared in anger and took to the sky.

"Once I was sure he was gone, I started running down the hill to help you guys, but then Erebos appeared back in the sky and threw this huge purple sphere down at you guys. Again, you acted quickly and managed to, somehow, create some kind of barrier around you three. When the sphere hit, it exploded and a large purple cloud started spreading around the whole area. I managed to escape most of it, but I was still infected by it.

"I thought I was going to die, but I heard a strange mystic voice, telling me to follow it. I had no idea if I was going crazy, but I decided to follow the voice anyway. As I travelled, my body slowly started changing, as you are aware. It led me to this strange forest with a massive tree in the center. I was so exhausted when I arrived that I collapsed against it. The next thing I knew, I was somewhere else and Vannah was with me. She stopped the transformation process and sent me away.

"Apparently a decent amount of time had passed during that time, because when I returned to the valley where I left you guys, there was no sign that anyone had ever been there. So, I went away and lived by myself around the canyon where you found me."

"So, I had powers before now..." Verik said thoughtfully.

"You could do some things, but not nearly as much as you can now. I'm guessing that's Vannah's doing, yes?"

"Yeah, how did you know?"

Gerrin grinned. "Nobody in this world has powers like yours, not even the human mages."

Syla lifted up her hand excitedly. "What about me! Tell me about myself!"

"Sure thing. First of all, you were the calm and collected one. When we were young, we'd be getting into all sorts of trouble, but you were always there, trying to dissuade us. You never lied and were always the trustworthy one in our pack. Once you got older, there wasn't a single wolfen in our pack that hadn't come to you for advice on some matter or another. There was not a single wolfen that could truthfully say anything bad about you."

Smiling widely, she leaned back, seemingly quite satisfied with his answer.

"Do you either of you two want to know anything about yourselves?" He asked while turning to Emmaline and Verik.

Emmaline shrugged. "If you want to, I won't object."

"Well, you actually have a relatively interesting story. You've had the ability to see glimpses into the future since you were born. You used to be in a different wolfen pack than ours. Apparently, you woke up morning with a vision that your parents, the pack's leaders, were going to die. When it came true, your pack was scared and thought that you cursed them, so they banished you from their lands. You wandered around for a while until you came across our land. We found you and brought you in to live with us. Our leaders were completely accepting of your abilities.

"When I was younger, I was very physically weak and wasn't doing very well in our pack, but when you joined, we became friends instantly and you helped me get stronger. If it wasn't for you, I might have died. Our leaders were very strength-focused. You know, if you can't contribute, you are just dead weight that will eventually have to be gotten rid of."

"I have no memory of what you are talking about," Emmaline said, "but I'm glad that I could help."

"Verik?"

He shook his head. "I think I'm good, for now. Thanks." In truth, he wanted to know everything about his past, but at this point, with all that he has figured about himself recently, he was a little scared to have it revealed to him, especially in front of all his pack.

"Alright then." Gerrin looked into the sky at the sun that was starting to climb up over the horizon. "Well, I think I'm going to head back to my canyons."

"Can't you stay here?" Syla asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but my home's over there. Don't worry, though. I will be over first thing in the evening." He said farewell to everyone there and started walking out of the clearing.

Verik quickly caught up with him. "I'll walk you out."

Gerrin nodded and continued walking. Once they were out of ear shot of the camp, Verik asked him. "Do you know where Erebos came from?"

"No, I hadn't seen anything like it before in my life. Maybe it travelled from somewhere from beyond this land. What do you think?"

"You're probably right." Verik was both relieved that he didn't know anything, but also frustrated that he still would know nothing about it; and since Emmaline could no longer enter his mind, it will be much more difficult for him to find out anything.

To Be Continued...