Part I.  The Skirmish

Shell-ears looked up from her drawing.  Her mother stood blocking the
sunlight on her artist's sketchpad. "Move, please," Shell-ears said.
Her mother didn't move.  Shell-ears scooted her pad to the side, so the
sunlight once again illuminated the drawing of the redwoods.

"Daughter, the patrols spotted another of the creatures.  No one is
permitted outside the bawn for two nights.  Come back into the caern
where it's safe."  Her mother looked at her with concern in her eyes.

Shell-ears looked up to her mother, eyes narrowed.  "This grove IS in
the bawn.  The boundary is over there, can't you feel it?  Are you homid
or somethin?"  Her mother was in homid form, as was Shell-ears herself.
But unlike her mother, who was raised by human Kinfolk parents, Shell
had grown up with as many wolves as humans around her.  Her native
Crinos form, half girl half bitch-pup, was of the essence of their
kind.  Yet for her parentage she was outcast from within.

Her mother grabbed her by the arm.  "You're right at the edge!  It's too
dangerous for a child."

Shell-ears growled, shifting to Crinos.  "I'm not a child!  I can
shift.  And Watches-the-Moon told me I'm not going to ever have moon
blood.  So stop treating me like a baby.  Go away and let me finish this
one.  It was turning out good until you came and got in the way."

Her mother let go.  She looked hurt; Shell-ears thought it was faked.
Her mother was good at faking emotions to get sympathy.  Her mother said
over her shoulder as she turned to go, "Please come back as soon as you
finish that one, then."

Shell shook herself all over, then slowly shifted back to homid for
better fine control over the charcoal pencil she was using to draw.  She
sank slowly back into the near-trance of communion with tree and paper,
a conduit to put the one onto the other.  She had finished and was
dusting off the fine black grains that had fallen onto the blank spots
as she drew when she heard the low roar.  Suddenly her adrenaline surged
and she found herself in Crinos form without meaning to shift, the pad
falling from her hand, the drawing landing face down on the grass.  She
hoped it wasn't spoiled as she looked to the direction the sound came
from.

When she saw what it was that was roaring, she was very afraid - but
even more angry.  This... THING had violated the bawn of the caern!  It
deserved nothing but sudden destruction.  Angry as she had never before
felt, she roared back at it in a higher pitch as she leaped, claws
extended.

She felt her claws tear at its flesh, then a burning pain ripped through
her as its teeth clamped on her upper left arm, which went limp.  With
her right arm, she clawed again at its neck, and blood spurted as one of
her claws hit an arterial target.

Then a fiery agony stabbed her gut, eclipsing the pain in her dangling
left arm.  She looked down uncomprehending at the silver spike through
her abdomen.

It took a step back from her, bleeding from the wounds she'd inflicted,
but still with a gleam in its hideous eyes.  "Ah, you'll be a tasty
morsel for my Lord."  She went to strike it again, but the pain slowed
her; it caught her arm, stopping the blow.

"Arrrrrrrrouuuuuuuuuu!" came a cry from the near woods; a warcry.  Three
giant wolves, a patrol in Hispo form, charged toward her and her
assailant.  It roared, letting her go to try to defend itself from the
new threat.  They made short work of it, badly wounded as it was.  When
it was slain, its corpse went up in a blast of flame that singed the fur
of two of the patrollers.  The third, who had stayed a bit back of the
fight, changed to human form and went to Shell-ears' side.  He carefully
slid the silver spike out of her, murmuring a prayer to Gaia for her
blessing.  The gaping wound closed, though her belly was still in
horrible pain.

Shifting to the stronger Glabro form, he lifted Shell-ears in his arms
and carried her.  The other two whuffled and followed in wolf form.
When they got inside the caern, Shell-ears' mother was standing near the
entrance, waiting for her daughter.  She yelped when she saw her
daughter lying limp in the patroller's arms.