However tiring the constant journeys became, Toivo was glad to be on the move again. The energy of a decent night's sleep - in length, anyway - bounced in his paws, and his Shadow power hissed through his veins in a sheet of consistent adrenaline. The sight of Shadewylves flanking him on all sides only spurred him on further.

Harisah nudged his shoulder. Her gaze didn't settle on him, however; instead it roamed the forest, sparking with wonder at every new sound. "What sort of tree is that?" she murmured, lifting a paw to gesture at a broader tree than the rest of them, with wide leaves. Toivo smirked.

"That's an oak, I think. A deciduous tree," he added, the word falling onto his tongue at just the right moment. "They lose their leaves in winter." The number of times Lexi had explained the differences between the trees must have worked somehow.

Lexi. His smile sank.

"Woah." Harisah's tail lifted so high that it seemed to stick directly upright. She ducked under his gaze and offered him a sheepish look. "Hey, I've never been out this far. I've never seen these things. I'm finally out," she added softly, her eyes glimmering.

Forcing the joy in her eyes to enter his own, Toivo summoned another smile to his snout. He nudged her back. "Just wait until you reach the town. Oak trees everywhere."

She looked happier than she ever had before just then. In the short time he'd known her, anyway. As her gaze returned to its drifting state, Toivo gazed across at the rest of the Shadewylves, spotting similar expressions worn by other wolves. It felt strange to him that others would be amazed by such simple things, details of nature that he'd been taking for granted for moons, but he had to remind himself that very few of those he travelled with had ever ventured further than a few steps outside their cave.

The decision for Nefaris' best fighters to leave the cave had been taken surprisingly quickly. Most of them, Toivo certainly included, had still been recovering from the prison break when Montasir arrived to brief them all on what was to come. A move had been made by the opposition, and it was time to fight back. Jaser was to take them out to Borealton where they would stage a plan of attack.

The Wylfire were most likely feeling rather pleased with themselves right about now. The goal was to change that. To shatter their brief confidence and leave them afraid, ready for the Shadewylves to claim the town entirely.

And true fear could only be created through a fight.

Shivering despite the sun's warmth, Toivo shook out his fur. But he wasn't there yet. He was here, walking beside Harisah, taking one brisk step at a time. Worrying just left his heart to suffer.

Worry for what was to come, and what had already occured. He could change neither.

Harisah's shoulder brushed against his, and he felt her tense. Head snapping up, he met her eyes to see them sharp, their pale violet colour darkened. The same look he'd seen in her the night they'd watched together, when she'd hissed to him with scorning words about a certain wolf.

Following her gaze, he made out Lucifer's sparkling amber eyes, edging closer through the cloud of black. Thankfully, they were fixed on him rather than Harisah. He slid in front of her to keep it that way, and felt her warmth diminish behind him. When he turned around to check if she was okay, she was gone, dropped to another part of the crowd.

"Didn't see you there." The voice yanked Toivo forwards. He felt his own shoulders tense as Lucifer slid in beside him. "I bet you're great at hide and seek." His eyes sparked with a suggestion Toivo didn't quite pick up on. He took a guess at its meaning.

"I suppose it's quite hard when we all have black fur," he said, throwing a glance backward to search for Harisah.

Lucifer smirked. "Oh yes, insanely hard. Black wolves against green trees. They blend so well. Honestly, I can barely even find myself in this forest." A chuckle danced from his jaw, though it was met by no others. "No, I meant your little puppy height."

He reached up a paw to tap Toivo's head. Toivo ducked away. "I'm not that small," he protested. While he might have been a little smaller than most of the Shadewylves around him, he was bigger than he had been as a Peltless. Besides, Lucifer wasn't one to talk - even though he held himself high, he didn't clear Toivo's head by a great deal.

But before he could voice any of those well-formed complaints, Lucifer seemed to drop that string of conversation and throw another into the mix in one jolting movement. "Though it also was a surprise to see you here. Montasir isn't usually in the habit of trusting rogues."

Though his tone was light, there was something else there, an edge to the words that made Toivo flinch. He fought back a glare, keeping his half-smile fixed. Making an enemy of Lucifer would do Toivo no good, even if he did want to bite back for the clearly inferred accusation. "I'm not rogue anymore," he said quietly.

Lucifer shrugged. "We're all rogue though really, aren't we? The mysterious rogue Shadewylves. So actually, your not-rogue background is what makes you shifty." He twirled around to Toivo's other side. "Guess who else is not-rogue."

Flicking his tongue across his fangs, Toivo tilted his head to the side. Was he not the only Shadewylf from outside the cave? He felt his eyes light up. Another wolf like him, who'd perhaps been through a similar situation. His eyes darted away from Lucifer to the moving crowd as he replied, "Who?"

A sigh jerked his attention back to Lucifer. "Too easy. Come on, play the game."

Right, so he actually had to guess. Toivo squinted at Lucifer, drawn by his twitching smirk. "You?"

The laugh that burst from Lucifer was so strong, he had to halt his step for a moment to contain it. "Oh yes, I used to prance about in the town. Definitely. Me and Uncle Monty, living it up in Borealton." He chuckled again, shaking his head. "Terrible guessing. Again."

Toivo gritted his teeth. Were Lucifer's only conversation tools jokes and sarcasm? He studied the sparkle in Lucifer's eyes again. It had to be someone he knew, or Lucifer wouldn't find this so amusing. Or maybe he found everything amusing. Briefly, his mind flicked to Harisah, but he remembered her longing looks to beyond the cave and shoved that train of thought away. That wasn't faked. Besides, bringing attention to her might make Lucifer search for her, and Toivo didn't want that.

Montasir? No, Lucifer had already referenced him, and the old general's mysteries were far more complex than that. So who else was there?

"Evania," he said suddenly, thinking back to his first entry to the cave. Her piercing gaze. Perhaps that strange connection he'd felt with her was because they'd both experienced the outside world as Shadewylves.

Yet Lucifer shook his head again, though thankfully he didn't laugh this time. "Closer." But before Toivo could begin wondering if he knew of anyone close to Evania, Lucifer cut across his train of thought. "You're never going to get it, and I'm bored."

Automatically, Toivo edged closer. He followed Lucifer's gaze to the canopy above. At first, he saw nothing, but then a dark shape flickered into view, streaking across the sky. A pair of black wings, linked to a lean Airewylf just above the trees, tracking the progress of the wolves on the ground.

"Who is he?" Toivo asked softly.

"A dark angel. He used to live with Luna before he got kicked out because his wings were too small."

It took a couple of seconds for Toivo's mind to decipher the whisper. He turned to stare at Lucifer, jaw dropping open, only to recieve a series of giggles as Lucifer doubled over laughing.

"Your face!" he giggled. "You actually believed that?"

Toivo could only stand rigid as Lucifer recovered from his own joke. His smirk remained, though fortunately as he jabbed a claw at the Airewylf again, his explanation made a little more sense. "He came to us a while back, for what reason I don't know. He calls himself Crow, because of the wings I guess." He chuckled again. "Dark angel."

Still muttering to himself, Lucifer slipped away, apparently done with terrorising Toivo for today. Toivo shook out his fur, scratching at the dirt. Harisah was right; Lucifer really hadn't a scrap of maturity. But he at least seemed harmless enough, if difficult to extract straight answers from.

He studied the Airewylf - Crow - soaring above the trees. Perhaps not a situation identical to his own, but similar and intriguing enough to draw Toivo's attention. At the next available opportunity, he needed to have a good talk with Crow.

As he stared, Crow glanced down, and for a moment his eyes locked onto Toivo. His wings twitched, and he swerved closer, close enough for Toivo to make out the deep blue shade of his eyes. They were remarkably similar to Toivo's own.

There was a slightly unsettling intensity to Crow's gaze, too. They flickered with recognition, perhaps curiosity. Toivo stared back, observing Crow's snout as it parted, then closed again. An uncertainty joined the swirl of emotions in his blue eyes. Did he want to talk too? Jerking his head to the side, Toivo beckoned down, wondering whether his answers would come sooner than expected.

In one jolt, Crow's gaze tore away and he beat his wings harder, speeding to another part of the forest. When he followed Crow's final glance, Toivo saw Jaser staring up, blood-red eyes narrowed with furious meaning. Then the look was gone, and all returned to what it had been moments ago.

A tingling tapped at Toivo's mind. Had Jaser parted them on purpose? Did he not want Crow to talk with the newest Shadewylf recruit? Or maybe Crow was simply not trusted around here, and the glare had only been to warn him away from the crowd.

But Toivo's hard said otherwise. Somehow, it felt personal. The brief connection he'd shared with the Airewylf had been snatched away from him.

He sighed, picking up his pace a little. It was probably nothing. He was just searching for more mysteries to solve. And yet a huge part of him disagreed, and it was for the most miniscule, stupid reason.

Time and time again, Lexi had told him how rare blue eyes were among wolves. They were what made him special. Luna herself had blue eyes, and so Lexi had claimed that any mortal wolves who had them were blessed by her. Toivo had never fully believed the truth in that, but he knew for certain that they were rarely seen.

Whether it was coincidence or not, a part of him believed for that simple reason that he and Crow needed to talk. Because if blue eyes really were so special, what were the chances of two wolves with matching shades finding each other?

Night was beginning to touch the sky by the time the Shadewylves finally stopped moving, still just under an hour's walk from Borealton. The sun's slitted eye gave them one last glance before sinking below the hills, leaving them to their darkness.

Slumped beneath the shade of a broad tree, Toivo curled himself tightly. Even with his new Pelt energy, he was exhausted from the day's unyielding travel. What didn't help was that Harisah didn't seem bothered by the walk at all, and was still too distracted by being out in the open to pay him any attention.

Plus the ongoing weight of mystery surrounding Crow didn't lessen his headache.

He'd tried to discuss it a couple of times with Harisah, but every time he pushed for what she might know she'd smoothly change the subject and leave his questions hanging. She claimed that she knew little about Crow, but after her tactics had become enough to class as evasive, he'd begun to suspect that there was something he wasn't supposed to know. Not that any of that helped - he'd still had to give up asking. Harisah was an expert at being evasive.

His eyes caught a flash of black feathers as Crow leaped from one branch to another. As they had on numerous occasions, his eyes flicked once again to rest on Toivo, before he pulled away and vanished into the tangle of leaves. Why such intense curiosity if he wouldn't come any closer?

With a sigh, Toivo lay himself down fully, pressing his chest against the grass. Maybe he'd manage to catch a nap before their nightly raid began.

His futile hopes were dashed nearly instantly. Moments after he'd closed his eyes, Jaser's commanding voice snapped his head up again. "Attention, Shadewylves!"

The faint murmur that had filled the clearing disintigrated instantly, whisked away by the wind. Toivo felt Harisah sit up straighter beside him, her eyes bright with focus. Pushing up with his paws, he did his best to mimic her position.

"Tonight," Jaser began, once silence had settled in its entirety, "is finally our time to fight back." His eyes flashed with a long-hidden impatience, a fierce eagerness etched into the sharp blades of his claws. He began to pace, stopping every few steps to fix them all with his narrowed gaze. "We will split into five groups, each with a different target within the town. Remember, our aim is to slip in unnoticed, attack while surprise is on our side, and leave before those attacked can call for reinforcements. Understand?"

"General Jaser?" Toivo jumped when he realised the voice was Harisah's, closer than he'd expected. He twisted to look at her. Her claws were stretching forward, tapping at the earth thoughfully. "Should it be our objective to claim a few lives?"

Hearing her speak those words sent a chilling waterfall cascading down his spine. Her tone was business-like, searching for a simple, factual answer, but the look in her eyes filled him with unease. Did she really hope Jaser would say yes? Perhaps he'd underestimated the Shadewylf part of her.

A smile twitched on Jaser's snout as he paused in his pacing again to look at Harisah. "It is not our primary aim, no. However," he added, a unnerving spark in his red gaze, "a death or two may contribute to our fear factor, I am sure. If the opportunity is presented, do not refuse it."

Nodding, Harisah sat back again. She cast a glance at Toivo. The uncertainty in his expression must have been clear, because she ducked her head, flashing him a reassuring smile. "Come on, there must have been someone in town you hated."

His mind could immediately provide a rather long list of names, he realised with a flicker of shame. He hardened it hurriedly, feeling his Shadow flow out to claim it. The hatred was well-deserved. "But that doesn't mean they should die," he muttered. Imagining his father or his uncle dead was very different to it actually occuring.

Harisah shrugged, turning back to Jaser. "Don't worry, I'm nowhere near as murderous as our general. But if they're bad wolves, don't they deserve it? That way they can't harm anyone ever again."

Bending his head so not to look at her, Toivo picked at the dirt. "I suppose." He hated that a part of his heart found truth in her words.

At the sound of Jaser's voice again, he raised it a little, though still making sure not to meet Harisah's gaze. "The five group leaders will be myself, Lucifer, Deimos, Bidu, and Harisah." Harisah's nod brushed the corner of Toivo's vision at the sound of her name.

Jaser proceeded to list all the wolves that would be serving under each leader. Toivo clung onto a string of hope that he might be put with Harisah, if only for a reasonably friendly face to be beside him, but instead Jaser himself decided to take Toivo on. "I have a special job for you," he added, briefly meeting Toivo's gaze with a blaze of excitement, before moving on to the other groups. Most of the names Toivo didn't recognise, but he noticed both Zarola and Acacius - the two wolves that had hunted him and Lexi alongside Deimos - were placed in Deimos' group. They seemed to be quite the trio.

Then came the times and locations. Harisah's group would attack first, on the local beach, which meant she needed to leave almost immediately. He only had time for a hurried goodbye before she was slinking off into the night, flanked by two wolves that were still strangers to Toivo. He felt a strange pang of longing as she vanished.

Two other groups followed her only a few minutes after - the ones led by Deimos and Lucifer - both with randomly-chosen target houses. Their job was to attack the first wolves they saw, more or less, along with attracting stronger fighters.

Anticipation pricked at Toivo's fur as he curled himself tighter, watching the depleted Shadewylves await their call. The last two groups would travel together, only splitting once they were in the town. The thought of following in the path of Jaser's eager claws opened a pit in his stomach.

All throughout his stay in the cave, he had felt little regret for his choice. He'd discovered what he really was. His confrontation with Lexi was a constant twisting dagger, but if his thoughts kept carefully winding away from it, he could survive that path of guilt.

But now, staring into the beginnings of his first mission, it all suddenly felt far too real. He wanted to fight beside them. Yet his paws shook and his heart thumped, so similar to how he'd felt every time he'd been forced to fight Damon. The sense of uncertainty. The knowledge that his opponent was far stronger than he was, and that failure was only one wrong step away.

The Shadow slithered within him, reminding him of the new strength he now held. But even that couldn't be enough. His control over it was still fragile, easily snapped. It had nearly escaped in the moment he'd watched Lexi run from him.

The black streak of Jaser rising lifted Toivo's head. The general gave a brief nod, and other wolves followed his lead. Toivo's paws barely contained their trembles as he straightened them stiffly.

He wasn't ready for this, not in the slightest. But it had to be done. There was no pausing time now to reel in his thoughts. All he had was himself, and he would simply have to pray that was enough.