The hooded wolf had barely reached the path behind Derpy when Okamihana called after her.
“Wait.”
Okamihana’s voice stopped her before she reached the path. Beneath the cloak, the stranger’s tail lowered. A thick sweep of pink fur slipped clear of the fabric and swayed beside her legs.
“I have questions for you.”
The stranger looked back. Her hood still concealed most of her face, though a few strands of blue and pink hair had escaped near one ear.
“I thought you might.”
Okamihana glanced toward the path. Derpy’s white tail disappeared beyond the flowering branches, the book she had given him tucked beneath his arm. For once, he had managed to walk away without somebody striking him, ordering him back, or demanding that he explain himself.
She let him have the distance.
“When my wolves found you that night, you were fighting alongside a rabbit and a rabbit-dragon.” Her attention returned to the stranger. “Now you stand here wearing a hood and speaking about my grandson as though you have known him for years. Are there more hybrids out there?”
The pink tail stopped moving.
“My sisters have their own plans,” the stranger said. “You would have to ask them.”
“And yours?”
For a moment, the stranger’s gaze wandered toward the gap Derpy had left between the branches.
“I want to meet the boy who wooed my mother.”
Okamihana watched her a little more closely.
“That sounds like a simple enough introduction.”
“It would be, if I could get close without changing anything.” The stranger drew the cloak tighter at her throat. “But this timeline has already changed. I don’t know how much room I have left to make mistakes.”
A petal settled on Okamihana’s sleeve. She brushed it away with one dark claw.
“Changed how?”
“If I tell you everything, you’ll act on it. Then I won’t know what happens next.”
“You seem willing to act on what you know.”
The stranger’s ears shifted beneath the hood.
“That’s why I’m being careful.”
Okamihana folded her arms. The girl had an answer ready for each question, but very little of it gave her anything she could use. Worse, the hesitation seemed real. Her eyes kept returning to the path, as if letting Derpy get too far away frightened her more than being questioned by the wolf in front of her.
“Then give me something you can say.”
The stranger drew a slow breath.
“I know who wins the fight between you and Elowen.”
Okamihana’s expression stilled.
“And I know who wins when your child fights his son,” the stranger continued. “At least, I knew how those fights ended where I came from. With what has changed here, I can’t promise either one will happen the same way.”
The training ground had gone quiet behind them. Okamihana could still see the marks her grandson’s ice had left in the earth. She looked at them now, remembering the eyes that had appeared across his back before vanishing beneath his skin.
“What changed?” she asked again.
This time, the stranger answered.
“Hollow.”
Okamihana turned fully toward her.
“The many souls living inside him,” the stranger said. “Back in my future, the one called Derpy didn't acquire them until the Great War. He wasn't supposed to have them yet.”
“Or you didn't know they were there.”
The stranger went still.
Okamihana watched the possibility reach her. “There is a difference.”
“Then I know less than I thought,” the girl said. Her hand tightened around the edge of her cloak.
The memory of those eyes became considerably less easy to dismiss.
“And this war involved my grandson?”
“You chose his side. So did the wendigo. You stood against the two dragon factions, the cow god, and the harpies.”
Okamihana’s fingers tightened against her sleeve.
She had been arguing with Lunara about an old war only minutes earlier. Now a stranger stood in front of her speaking of another one, with her grandson at its center and enemies enough to make a battlefield of every place he might try to call home.
“You came here to stop it.”
“I came here because something happens here that I have to prevent.”
“What happens?”
The stranger glanced down at the ground between them.
“In the future I remember, your grandson got his dragon side back in a couple of days. It was still stunted, but he needed to use it. What he has will be effective against what’s coming.”
“You have told me something is coming three different ways.” Okamihana stepped closer. “Tell me what it is.”
The girl held her ground, though her tail tucked nearer her legs.
“I can’t.”
Okamihana’s ears angled back.
“But you can ask me to prepare him for it.”
“Yes. And you can stop your rivals from claiming him.” The stranger’s voice sharpened. “You have to stop them from trying to cut his throat.”
For several breaths, Okamihana said nothing.
Then she asked, very quietly, “His throat?”
The stranger nodded.
“That’s where his dragon powers are strongest.”
“Why tell me that and leave the rest hidden?”
“Because I think that is less dangerous than telling you everything.”
“You just told me the future has changed.”
The stranger looked away.
“I can't promise there won't be consequences,” the stranger said. “I'm choosing which risk I can live with. What you do with what I've told you is on you. I have to go.”
She moved before Okamihana could ask another question. Her cloak swept through the petals along the path, the pink tail disappearing beneath it as she hurried after Derpy.
Okamihana watched until the branches concealed her.
The girl had refused to name the danger. She had still left Okamihana with an image she would have preferred never to consider: somebody reaching for her grandson’s throat while calling it a claim.
She lowered her gaze to the shadow at her feet.
“Husband. You’ve been listening, haven’t you?”
The darkness beside her stretched against the direction of the light.
A clawed hand emerged first, broad and black, with violet shadows moving between the fingers. Then Varok rose from beneath the edge of her robes as though the ground had only been a curtain.
His shoulders cleared the darkness, carrying a ragged mantle of black and purple, pale fur thick around its upper edges. Jagged fur framed his long muzzle and swept back between sharply pointed ears. His amber eyes remained on the path while the rest of him stepped into the light.
Gold chains lay across his powerful chest. Angular ornaments rested among them, catching against the dark fur, while battered-looking layers of cloth hung from his waist. The metal guarding his forearms and shins ended in hard points. Behind him, his heavy black tail unfurled through the last of the retreating shadow.
“Yes, hon,” he said. “I’ve been watching and listening since you came back.”
Okamihana looked up at him.
“And you waited until now to show yourself?”
“You were getting answers.”
“Pieces of answers.”
Varok’s eyes shifted toward the damaged ground.
“Enough pieces to make the next few days worth our attention.”
She followed his gaze. A little blue-green ice still clung to the edge of a broken patch of turf. Derpy had dismissed the weapon. He had not quite erased what it had done.
“How do you think we should proceed?” she asked.
“Let me train the boy for the next couple of days.”
Okamihana gave him a sidelong look.
“You think he will take that better from you?”
“I think he’s hiding more than he intended to show you.” Varok flexed his fingers, and the violet glow between his claws faded. “I’d like to see what he does when somebody else stands in front of him.”
“You aren’t wrong about that, love.”
She scratched behind one ear, still thinking about Derpy blocking an attack he should not have seen. Every time she believed she had reached the edge of what he could do, something else looked out through him.
“I suppose we wait until the rest of the council arrives,” she said. “Though I already know what some of the females will try.”
Varok’s mouth pulled slightly at one corner.
“To claim him.”
“You know how they are. Especially the Amazon one. And the water wolves won’t make it any easier.”
“The boy doesn’t appear fond of being ordered around.”
“That has become painfully clear.”
Her gaze returned to the path. She could still hear the stranger’s warning, the change in her voice when she spoke of his throat.
Varok noticed the look but let the silence sit.
After a moment, Okamihana turned back to him.
“Have they captured the special dish for the festival?”
“Yes. I believe so, hon.”
“At least something is moving along.”
He gave a low chuckle.
“Go do what you need to do. I’m going to let Hydra out.”
Okamihana’s ears lifted.
“Hydra?”
“There’s another hyena here. I thought she might enjoy meeting her.”
His tone had become far too casual.
“You thought that, did you?”
“I’d like to make things interesting. His party, a wild mutt…” Varok rolled one broad shoulder beneath his mantle. “We’ll see how they get along.”
Okamihana looked at him for another moment. Then she shook her head, the corner of her mouth lifting despite herself.
Footsteps approached before either could say more.
Teal crossed the edge of the training ground, still brushing at a stubborn stain on her dress. The sight of it briefly drew Okamihana’s attention. Apparently, being forced into the dirt had not improved her daughter’s opinion of their guest.
“Mother, my bastard brother is heading this way with two champions.” Teal stopped beside them. “Is that allowed?”
Okamihana tipped her face toward the sky.
Her son. Two champions. A grandson who had just informed her that he possessed more than enough ways to defend himself.
There were possibilities there.
“When he arrives, tell him to come see me.”
Teal’s ears twitched.
“What are you planning?”
“I have an idea that might help my champion with his training.”
Varok glanced at his wife. The look they exchanged made Teal stop brushing at her dress.
Farther down the path, the hooded stranger paused between two trees. She looked back toward the voices, her pink tail swaying beneath the cloak again.
“And now his grandfather and grandmother start scheming,” she murmured.
Ahead of her, Derpy stopped walking.
He turned his head, ears lifting.
For a moment, he could have sworn somebody had been talking about him.
The path behind him showed fallen petals, a bend between the trees, and nothing he particularly wanted to investigate. If another relative was coming to explain why knocking him unconscious counted as a productive afternoon, they could wait.
He shifted the book beneath his arm and kept going.
The farther he walked, the less often he caught the scent of passing wolves. The main paths remained busy somewhere beyond the trees, but the narrow space ahead of him had been left alone. Grass grew over the edges of an old opening. No fresh footprints pressed into the soil.
Derpy slowed.
There were plenty of places to walk. The wolves seemed to have chosen all of them except this one.
A voice stirred at the back of his mind.
Go there. Please.
His fingers tightened around the book.
“Who said that?” he muttered.
He looked behind him again, then up into the branches. Nothing moved except the leaves.
The voice did not answer.
Derpy stood at the edge of the neglected ground for several breaths before stepping inside. He tested the earth beneath one foot, glanced across the space, and finally crouched to set the book down beside him.
“Everybody wants something today.”
He dragged one claw through the soil.
The first symbol took shape beneath his hand. He added a second, then moved sideways and drew the line that joined them. His shoulders still ached from training. Every time he leaned too far, a sore place reminded him exactly how hard his grandmother could hit.
He adjusted his position and kept working.
Light caught in the marks.
Derpy spread his fingers above them. A glow gathered around his palms, brightening as he traced another shape into the ground. The edge of the clearing became easier to follow in his mind, each symbol giving the next somewhere to connect.
“Mk.1.”
A rustle came from beside the path.
She bounded into view and stopped next to him, leaning forward to inspect the glowing lines.
“Yes, friend?”
“Go find Revy and Tina. Tell them to bring Sera here.” He lifted his hand before she could step over a mark. “Careful. I’m still working on that.”
Mk.1 drew her foot back and settled beside him instead.
“Are we staying here?”
“This is going to be our spot.”
He rose, checked the line nearest the path, and slashed his hand through the air.
His crest opened in front of him.
A dragon curved around a wolf, the two connected by a red thorn. The shape shone above the clearing before lowering toward the marks he had drawn. Light ran outward through the soil. One symbol caught, then another, until the crest settled into the ground beneath his feet.
Derpy let out a breath and lowered his hand.
There. Somewhere for his people to gather. Somewhere he had chosen himself.
Mk.1 looked from the crest to his face.
“What are you doing next, friend?”
“Going to power up.”
“You were just training.”
“I noticed.” He rolled one shoulder and regretted it halfway through. “This should be different. I have a date with Pest and her sisters.”
He reached toward the empty air behind him.
A seam opened.
Mk.1 leaned to look past his arm, curiosity drawing her closer. Derpy rested his hand on her head and gently rubbed it before she could try to climb through ahead of him.
“Go get the others first. You can come with me next time.”
She looked up at him.
“Next time?”
“When you aren’t supposed to be delivering a message for me.”
That appeared to satisfy her. She stepped back, gave the glowing crest one last look, and bounded toward the path.
Derpy watched until she was clear of the symbols.
Then he moved his book away from the open seam, straightened, and let himself fall backward toward it.
Something laughed behind him.
He had time to turn one ear toward the sound.
A massive body struck him before he could turn the rest of himself.
The impact knocked the breath from his lungs. Strong arms closed around him, chains struck against one another, and a wild, delighted cackle burst beside his ear as they plunged through the opening together.
“Tina?”
It was the first name that came out of his mouth.
Then he saw her face.
Dark reddish-brown hair swept across one amber eye, the rest gathered into an enormous, tousled ponytail that streamed behind her. Tawny hyena ears pushed through the unruly mane, and small fangs flashed in her grin. Dark brown spots patterned the fur across her neck and broad, bare shoulders. She was powerfully built, with a full, heavy frame and strong arms that held him far too easily.
This was very definitely not Tina.
“My, you think I’m someone you know?” she asked.
Her laughter shook them both.
A broad, battered metal collar sat at her throat, its short chain bouncing against an oversized charcoal sweater that slipped below her shoulders. Dusty mauve ribbing edged the neckline and thick cuffs. A faded wolf emblem marked the front, while rough stitches and ragged holes broke up the dark fabric. Buckled straps gathered the loose sleeves, and heavy metal cuffs circled her wrists. A dangling chain brushed Derpy’s arm as he tried to wedge it between them.
“How cute. I found my next lover.”
Her grin widened.
“And it’s going to be you.”
“I don’t even know you!”
He planted his hands against her shoulders and pushed. She was huge. Beneath the spotted fur, the muscle barely shifted, and she seemed to find his struggling almost as funny as the mistake he had made with her name.
Derpy looked past her, searching for whatever they were about to hit.
Their fall slowed. Her ponytail drifted around them, chains lifting away from his arms. Derpy searched beneath her shoulder for the ground and found only darkness. Then her grip tightened again.
“Let go.”
She cackled directly in his face.
He drew his knees up, braced one hand against her shoulder, and twisted hard enough to turn them both. Her grip shifted. He pushed through the opening before she could close it, shoving the massive hyena away from him.
The effort sent him drifting backward. He swept his tail through empty space to steady himself while the hyena turned lazily opposite him, boots and loose chains revolving with her.
He had opened the seam. He no longer knew where it had taken them.
He worked his way closer to her, keeping beyond the reach of those broad hands.
“What is this place?”
The hyena tipped her head back.
Her laughter carried through the space around them.