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The racoon stopped to sniff the air when he heard the fallen leaves outside the barn cracking under soft pawsteps. His muzzle crinkled as the stench of wet canine fur pierced his nose. The number of head-shakes and frustrated snaps did not matter; the smell had imprinted itself onto the walls of his nose, sticking on like a porcupine quill. The racoon didn't wait any longer; he nabbed a random egg and darted for the hole in the coop wall. He thanked Hisoru for the unrepaired chicken coop and the alcoholic farm-hand, and made his way out. Inborn glamour made him the perfect thief, by turning his fur near invisible at night. The hens remained ignorant of his nightly raids till the next morning.

Snap!

His tail was caught in a pair of toothy jaws, that dragged him out into the open. Latching his claws onto the floor of the coop for a split second, he twisted around, canines aiming for the dog's eyes. As his mark missed woefully, a painful, painful burn set in with a sudden lightness of his rear. He thrashed on the ground, fighting an unknown weight on his back, ignoring the break of his glamour magic. His fur returned to a dull brown, only to be dyed red and black in his own life fluid.

The border collie was quick to the kill with a chomp to his skull.

°•°

The bushy tail felt weird in Hia's mouth. She, however, decided to carry it back and show her mother what a brave puppy she was to have fought a raccoon. The hens were heavy sleepers, and they clucked softly throughout the showdown. The rogue lycan wagged her tail hard, just the way her tutor had taught her how to as the collie approached her. "Well done! You should go for the neck or a leg if you want to stop them dead. Tails don't matter much to them. Not bad, not bad at all though."

Hia nodded and said, "I'll snap the neck the next time, Miss Gina, I promise. Can I keep the tail?"

"Sure. Now, I thought I had smelled one more of these bastards in here."

Hia sniffed the coop and recoiled at the heavy smell of chicken litter. "I don't think so, Miss Gina."

Before she could reply, a pile of hay beneath a nest erupted, throwing straw everywhere. The scent of the second racoon lashed across their faces as it made a mad dash for the bigger exit. The canines pounced on it but the slippery, invisible beast tumbled, dodged, and jumped over their bodies, showering them with bites. It stopped somewhere between the coop and the coniferous forest to hiss at them viciously. The invisible racoon ran off into the ferns and bushes, leaving the distraught duo to pant in defeat.

Gina shook the hay off her fur and pawed the ground. "Ruddy two-bit egg thief. Come on, let the bastard have today. We'll get her tomorrow if she comes back, cub, fresh and chipper."

"I'm sorry, Miss Gina. I'm still a pup, though, right?"

The collie looked at her and blinked. "You're a wolf cub, Hia, that's why I called you a cub."

"I promise I won't miss her the next time, Miss Gina. I'm not one of those horrid, nasty things in the woods that eat their vomit and steal poor lambs. I'm a dog just like you," she said, keeping her grey eyes fixed on Gina's amber ones. Her ears had dropped in level, her legs pacing in a restless dance.

For a split second, Hia felt her heart rise to her throat and pound like a war drum. The flashes of a sheepdog rushing to tear her limbs off, of a huntress' arrow whizzing past her ears, of the stampede of iron hooves, of unholy screeches filling the air became lightning to the thunder of her heartbeat.

"But Hia, you're a wolf," came the voice of reason, clearing the storm in her head.

"It's not a sin to be one," Gina continued, a canine smile spreading over her muzzle and ears swiveling to face Hia. To prove her point, the rogue cub wagged her tail hard, complementing it with a few barks.

"See, Cursed ones can't do that now, can they? I'm a puppy, Miss Gina."

"A snow leopard cannot change its spots, little friend," Gina said, her eyes softening. She nuzzled the spot behind the cub's ear and licked the tip of her drying button nose.

"You're bigger than a normal puppy of your age. You can speak to the bipeds, but we dogs can't. You are a Cursed one, Hia, but a good one at that."

A stray tear that had glimmered in the moonlight mid-fall clumped the dirt at their paws. She mumbled something, and gently pushed past the wall of fur blocking her path.

"Hia?" called the soft voice of the border collie, but the rogue was already on her way to the barn. She placed the tail on the ground between her paws, turned around and repeated, "Good night, Miss Gina. I promise I'll catch that bastard tomorrow. Sleep well."

The moon shone over their furs, that rippled in the breeze like the grass in their pastures. Hia heard the collie sigh, mutter something under her breath and saw her walk into the forest surrounding their little farm.

Maybe she has to pee, she thought. You may have won this time, Mrs. Racoon, but tomorrow I will have your tail.

She silently picked up the tail and ran off to the tall barn standing near the coop. The snores of the wyvern from his make-shift nest in the hayloft harmonised with the chirp of the wild crickets. It however had annoyed the farm-hand so much, that he had resorted to strong wine before passing out in his shack nearby.

She growled at an upturned bucket placed near the door, kicked it hard in its curved, rusted flanks and fell over as she lost her balance. She sniffed at the bucket as she got up and shook her head.

•°۝°•

"Is that why you are whining, you silly snapturtle?" enquired the ram.

"I'm not a C-cursed one, I'm a puppy! Wolves are really, really bad, and evil, and nasty; they eat poor lambs and calves, they hurt poor dogs and humans like Miss Gina and Mother for no reason. I'm a puppy, and I want to grow up to be a strong sheepdog like Miss Gina. That stupid racoon's going to pay tomorrow!" she said with a quivering firmness in her voice.

"Oh really? I am a wyvern, see me roar, blaah-haa-haa!"

"That's not funny, Bellwether," said Hia, her face half buried in the dry hay. The ewes slept peacefully with their lambs snuggling close to their mothers, muzzles touching. The geese had hit their nests earlier that day.

"It's Mister Bellwether, you insolent lamb. Of all the things to mope about, you bawl when you're called what you are," said the ram, as he stared at the black leather body shifting over the equally spaced wooden planks. He ducked as dust rained upon the sheep pen.

"I'm sorry, Mister Bellwether, I didn't mean to–"

"Now, do you see me wailing because someone called me a sheep?"

"No."

"Then what are you crying for? The only things you're going to get out of it are a runny nose and one nasty headache. You will stop this mewling at once."

The wyvern sleeping above their heads mumbled something about 'the dastardly dragons trying to invade the Börke plains and ruining wyvern culture'. A scream of 'Nokhoi!' and the wyvern fell like a boulder onto the barn floor, flailing his wings and waking the farmhand out of his rum-induced slumber.

"Temujin!" cried the Bellwether, who trotted out of the sheep pen to inspect the damage dealt to the wyvern and the barn wall. A medley of voices woke up, annoyed and confused at the sound. The cub tried to help the wyvern onto his feet by pushing his back with her head. The wyvern laughed; he pulled himself upright from his spread eagled position. "Ah, emegtei düü, the little puppy! I feared that the dragon lord had swallowed you. Arunor will never defeat me, even in my dreams."

"That fall should've hurt, Uncle Temujin, can you move your shoulders?"

"I am fine, hatchling, we fall from the sky and get up roaring. This is nothing," he said, rubbing his broad left shoulder with the thumb of a wing.

The Bellwether scoffed, head-butted Temujin's body and strode back into the pen. "Let the idiot be, Hia, come hither. What are you staring at Caona, go back to sleep!"

Hia wished the wyvern a good night before following the ram into the pen. Caona, the eldest ewe had tried her best to talk Temujin out of sleeping in the hayloft earlier that day. She chuckled softly and curled up near her lambs, making the rest of the flock follow suit. The Bellwether took another head count and sat down. He then began a long lecture on why one must love themselves. The barn doors creaked open on their un-oiled hinges, earning a look of disapproval from the ram. The head of the farmhand appeared momentarily, and Hia rubbed her nose with her paws to get the pungent, sugary scent of the rum off it.

Where's Miss Gina? She should be back by now.

She's probably fast asleep in her kennel. Miss Gina is a good sheepdog; she would never loiter around at night.

The farm-hand left promptly, leaving the doors ajar, making Temujin close the doors and retire to a spot near it. Hia could see a mild worry on the ram's normally stoic face.

"Hia."

"Yes, Mr Bellwether?"

He was looking out the small, square window of the pen, at the pine trees and deodars shaking the snow off their needle-leaves in the wind.

"Do you know who Runovoi is?"

Hia had been warned about them countless times, by everyone from Gina to Temujin to the huntress herself. Runovoi was a child of the Dekshtran forests, and a master manipulator of its shadows. Hia had seen their twin, bushy, tangerine and brown-ringed tails play among the pine branches at dawn. And just as they had appeared, they would disappear into a sunbeam filtering through the thick canopy. Some people thought them to be a squirrel spirit, while some others believed them to be a racoon. Hia wasn't particularly fond of either of the two species.

The ram continued, "I've been seeing more of them around these woods lately. That cheeky monster; they led the hunter to his death in the Scarlet Song of the Hunter, but at the same time saved his daughter from the great smog of the Xia city. Not a good time for Enkhtuya to go hunting, not at all."

"Don't worry about Mother, Mr. Bellwether," she replied, "She'll always find her way out of trouble. If she could tame a beast as wild as Uncle Temujin, nothing in the world can face her."

The Bellwether laid down to sleep, and watched the puppy sink into the hay. "You mean faze, little one and I hope so too. May Artulu guide her through the darkness. Hm. . . Good night, lamb, don't waste your tears on silly things."

"Goodnight, Mister Bellwether, I'll behave."

The spider hanging over the window near the sheep-pen ringed its web with two more concentric circles and settled in its centre. Two grey eyes beheld its ancient art.

I should apologise to Miss Gina tomorrow. A good sheepdog is always nice to her friends.

You're dead, Mrs. Racoon and I'd be vee-ery careful if I were you.

Hia's eyelids grew heavier with time and soon, the silver web merged with the bright, white crescent of the moon.

•°۝°•

Glossary

Nokhoi: Mongolian for dog.
Emegtei düü: Mongolian for little sister.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, welcome to the story!

Here's a question for you to mull over while waiting! Do comment your opinions inline.

🐲 What do you think happened between Temujin and 'Arunor'? Bring on the craziest possibilities!

⭐Please remember to tap the golden star if you liked this chapter.