Narsi held a scowl at Lorag. She looked about ready to lose her patience and protest about his recommendations of tact, but he did not give her a chance to speak.

Lorag left her in her room standing up and staring at nothing. He found her the next morning fast asleep in her bedroll, curled up like a cold animal. However, she was a light sleeper. Lorag's second footfall brought her to consciousness and she was standing upright in an almost military shortness of time.

All the same, she was still bleary-eyed on her way to the training room. She only started paying proper attention once she noticed the other people present and looking at her expectantly.

"Momma only taught me to fight as an Orc," she mumbled to Lorag. "Said I needed to be more lucid as a wolf before I could fight that way. But I still wanna hit you."

While she hesitated around the strangers, Narsi's anger overtook her modesty. She pulled off her clothes in a rush, throwing them down, and then straightened. She relaxed her shoulders and exhaled.

Young though she was, Narsi's own physique suggested Harriet had not let her off easily. She was spry, well built, and bruised in places often struck in sparring. If there was any cause for concern, it was her fallow torso. Lorag would have noticed the signs on Harriet as well -- they evidently had lean diets, for one reason or another.

Narsi's brief meditation was predictably interrupted with her breath catching in her throat. She doubled over and let out sounds of struggle as the transformation process set in. It was plain to see she had not transformed enough times to get used to the pain.

Still, the same werewolf Lorag had encountered on the forest trail stood up from all fours to glare and bare its teeth at him. Nothing was holding back the creature's emotion now.

[hr]
Janius kept back and let Zharan and Kaleeth finally embrace. The back of his mind suggested he was clutching straws, but he wanted at least some moments to be savoured between the two.

If Kaleeth would not address their visit being temporary, he thought, perhaps the village elders could see sense in not allowing Zharan's request. He and Kaleeth could speak to them about it later.