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Chapter 3 Human Training, and the Departure

Morning broke over the estate like a heat wave crashing over buildings, fields, and trees alike. Walker woke earlier than his mate, but Steel's massive arms were wrapped tightly around him. The irate cub was awake for almost an hour before his slumbering mate allowed him to escape his embrace. Walker almost missed the warm comforting embrace of the larger wolf, but he had a job to do!

The grass in the fields was getting pretty tall after multiple weeks of neglect. Walker didn't want to bush hog the whole estate, so he figured he needed to get back to his day job. The furry Long-Fang was still human enough in shape to drive the tractor. Walker knew he needed to turn back into a human before he mowed, but since he rarely ever saw anyone out in the fields he guessed he would be ok.

Walker started up the tractor with relative ease considering he hadn't done any work on the contraption since Steel had arrived. The sputtering motor made a terrifically loud sound as it roared to life. Thankfully all the mowing equipment was still hooked up correctly. Walker put the tractor in gear, pulled out of the shed, and proceeded to mow the fields. The thought that he might look a little strange riding the tractor didn't really register to Walker once he got started; mostly because this had become such a routine chore for him. By the time he made it closer to the estate a few people noticed the young wolf mowing the grounds on a tractor. Walker absently offered a few friendly waves to the people who stared at him.

He was the only person who ever mowed the fields and the lawns around the estate, so most of the people should have known who it was on the tractor! Walker was far too immersed in his job to notice the staring people. Even if he looked like a wolf, he still felt like the same person on the inside. The chore usually took a few hours because the whole estate was mostly forested, and there were only a few fields that weren't being used to grow grapes. At one point nearly every field had been in use. Even the field Walker lived in had once been a grape field!

By about three in the afternoon a hot and panting wolf drove the tractor back into the shed. Walker had just parked the large tractor when Steel came bounding out of the house. "Walker!" Steel shouted as he looked behind his cub at the large smoke spitting device he had just been riding. "I... I thought you had left on your dragon!"

Walker laughed as he loped over to Steel, "it's a tractor Steel, not a dragon! Besides," Walker paused to pant a little and catch his breath, "I was just mowing the grass." He made his way back towards the house with Steel on his tail. "I don't live here for free you know," Walker added and frowned as they stepped into shade of his shack.

"You mean you don't own these lands?" The elder wolf asked in confusion.

"Hell no! I just live and work here!" Walker said and laughed at the look Steel had on his face.

After making their way inside Walker turned the tap on and lapped at the water that gushed out. He was pretty darn thirsty after mowing all day! It was a little funny not being able to drink from a glass like he usually did, but lapping up water wasn't half as odd as using a toilet with a tail. Walker still hadn't worked up the courage for use the facilities outside like Steel did...

"Your parents must claim this territory. Right?" The large gray and white furred werewolf had asked as he followed Walker around the small house.

"My parents?" Walker sadly shook his head, "sorry big guy, but my mom is dead, and my father left when I was a cub... I mean a kid."

Steel's ears drooped as he looked at Walker. He hadn't thought about Walker's family until now. There were humans living around the area, but Steel had naturally assumed they were related to Walker! If the cub really didn't have a family... they had more in common than Steel had first believed! "So... you don't have a family at all?"

Walker stopped lapping up water and thought about the question, "nope," he said before he continued drinking.

Steel stepped forward and placed his hand-paw on Walker's shoulder. He was acting pretty weird about this whole family business, but Walker had learned by now not to question the wolf's desire to be serious about strange stuff. "I'm so sorry Walker... I did not know your family and clan were dead," the wolf said gravely. "It must have been rough living by yourself all these years..."

"That's ok," Walker said and tilted his head to the side, "I have you now right?"

Steel's heart melted. Had Walker just said those words? Did he really feel that way about Steel? "Yes, we're a pack now," Steel said and pulled Walker away from the sink. The elder wolf looked into the cub's cute innocent eyes before he spoke again. "And we're mates now too little one," he said and bent forward. Their wolf lips met for a moment as Steel's nose met Walker's. It wasn't a human kiss, but for Steel it was just as much a sign of love and passion.

Walker giggled at the strange display of affection. "I've been meaning to ask about that Steel," he said as the moment passed and Walker pulled away. "What does it mean to be mated to another wolf... is it kind of like being married? Because I'm not into that sort of thing," Walker said and frowned.

"What is married?" Steel asked.

"I'm probably not the best human to explain that, but I guess it's when two humans decide to live together forever," Walker said and looked at the confused wolf standing over of him. "You know how it works right? A male and a female get together and exchange wedding vows... that kind of stuff..." Walker tried to explain.

Steel's face seemed to droop and his normally upright tail sagged a bit, "you mean humans only mates with females?"

Walker nodded, "yea! Don't wolves do that too?"

"No," Steel said sadly, "she-wolves are very rare. There might be only one per litter if even that," he said and looked away from Walker. "Also, we Long-Fangs are forbidden from taking females as mates. Our laws state that all female Long-Fangs must be killed!"

Walker was shocked, "that's crazy! So you can't breed with girls?" He asked.

"Yes and no," Steel paused as he thought out his next few words, "we can only breed in our wolf forms. And we cannot mate with females because we can't bite them while breeding," Steel said and frowned as he looked up at Walker. "You remember when I bit you right... during our first mating?"

"Hell yea I do! It's still tender," Walker said and reached behind his shoulder to rub his furry scruff. Steel seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but Walker was confused. What did the wolf want him to say? "So anyways... I'm not into males... so I don't... mate with males," Walker said and scratched his furry ears.

Steel looked away before he replied, "oh, I understand."

Walker watched the elder wolf as he loped sadly into the next room. For some reason Steel laid down on the floor; not on the bed like he usually did. Walker was a little confused. Did he say something to make Steel angry or sad? Maybe it was a wolf thing, but at least Walker got this whole mate stuff straightened out. Werewolf or not, Walker just wasn't into men... or males... or even werewolves and wolves for that matter!

Usually Walker would have just turned the TV on and waste the rest of the day away, but something was nagging him. "Hey Steel," Walker called out to the next room, "when are we supposed to do this "journey back to your world" thing you keep talking about?"

There wasn't a response from the other room so Walker just plopped down on the couch and flipped the TV on. He didn't have any fancy channels or anything like that, so he turned to the news. The reporter appeared on the screen almost immediately, but Walker didn't get to hear what she said because Steel came bounding into the room fast as lightning. "Who's there!" Steel growled fiercely before turning to look at the TV, "how is this human speaking into our den? What sort of magic is this?"

"Dude Relax! They can't see us, only we can see them... see," Walker said and stood up. He waved his paws in front of the TV to prove his point. "It's like... a magical window that lets you see what other humans are doing!"

Steel was entranced by the TV. He didn't seem to like it much, but he watched it like a hawk. The news eventually ended and COPS came on. Walker liked this show so he kept the TV going.

About half way through the show Walker looked at Steel and smiled. He had to admit that Steel was a pretty powerful looking wolf. His name suited him well. Walker knew he was named after his fur color, but he really was like the metal too. It wasn't just his rigid posture either; his whole body was huge, muscular, and solid. Somewhere deep down inside the young wolf couldn't help but appreciate the constant companionship of the powerful beast beside him. Walker didn't realize he was whining as he looked at his mate. Steel smiled as he reached down and pulled the whiney cub into his arms without a second thought. For Steel it was natural to hold your mate when you were resting. He knew Walker didn't understand what it meant to be mated, so why hold it against the cub?

Walker quickly relaxed when he felt the solid arms and warm fur of his mate wrapping around him. The wolf inside him craved this sort of attention. Not that Walker thought he was attracted to Steel, but all that muscle was crazy! Walker couldn't help but think about what Steel would look like as a human. "You said we can change shape right?" Walker asked absently as he cuddled against his mate's chest.

Steel nuzzled the cub in his arms before nodding and looking back at the TV. If he had seemed to be in a bad mood before it had obviously passed. He was back to his regular old overprotective self. Walker smiled as Steel seemed to gather his thoughts. He liked the wolf better this way. "We are shape shifters, yes."

"So can we turn into human shapes?"

"Yes and no," Steel frowned as he looked away from the TV, "we can emulate human shapes, but we are still Long-Fang underneath."

"Sweet," Walker said as he squirmed out of Steel's arms. The excited cub bounced over to the TV and flipped it off. "How do we do that?"

Steel frowned and gave Walker a stern glare. "Changing shape takes magic and skill; not to mention the mana required to hold a shape. I don't know if you are ready to learn yet," he said and turned back to the TV, "but humans do seem to have powerful magic... so I guess you could try."

For once in his life watching TV had paid off! "Ok, I'm ready for this," Walker said and smiled.

"To change shapes you must reach into yourself and attempt to contact the form inside your mind, your heart, and your soul. When we mated we shared our bodies with each other, and thus our shapes were shared as well. Unlike your Long-Fang form, which is the natural shape of your body, a human form is only a temporary vessel for storing your power... do you follow my words cub?"

Walker nodded and tried to look like he understood.

"Good, then all you need to do is visualize your human form and picture yourself flowing into it. It is almost like how water flows into a lake or a pond. If you are successful you will change shape."

Walker concentrated on seeing himself as he used to be. He remembered his old body pretty well. Next he thought about pouring himself into that form just like Steel had said. There was a moment when Walker felt like it wasn't working at all, but suddenly he felt a change around himself. If he could have seen his body he would have watched as his fur began to pull inside his skin, staying half exposed in some places, and mimicking a human-like hair pattern in others.

Walker's feet slowly changed into human feet, and his hands changed into human hands. His mouth pulled inwards, but his long teeth remained. Thankfully the long canines shrank to fit inside his lips; even if they were a little silly looking. Only Walker's sheath and tail remained canine. Humans didn't have sheaths or tails, so it made sense that those two things wouldn't disappear completely.

When he opened his eyes Ben looked down at his almost-human body and nearly gagged. "Oh gross," he said as he looked at himself. What amounted to thick fur-patterned body hair covered nearly every inch of Ben's exposed skin. He looked like a monkey! The fur and hair was thickest on his back and neck, but a large shaggy thatch remained on his chest and stomach as well. Aside from the unsightly body hair Ben still had his sheath and tail. It made a little sense that you couldn't un-grow some things, but he would have at least liked to have a human cock again... even if it was just for a few hours.

So far as body hair went Ben didn't think he had ever seen so much man-fur on one human before; that was true for the most part until he looked over at Steel. Apparently Steel had followed Ben's example and changed to his human shape, but there was no way Steel looked remotely human. He was easily over seven feet tall, and he nearly touched the roof of the house with his head. The man was covered in shiny dark gray hair from head to toe, but unlike Ben his face sported a weirdly thick beard that covered most of his exposed skin.

While Steel certainly had the shape of a human right he kept the four huge fangs that jutted out from his top and bottom lips. He also sported a hefty sheath and a long furry tail. Aside from the freakishly thick body hair Ben thought, with the correct application of clothing, Steel could pass for humanoid. "I have never worn this form before," Steel said and grimaced. "Humans must feel so out of place in their skin."

Unlike Ben, who still fit in his clothes, Steel was freakishly muscular. Thankfully there were lots of old clothes in Ben's closet that his dad had once worn. It turned out that Ben's dad had been about as big as Steel! Thinking about his dad brought back a flood of memories the teenager wasn't fond of remembering. It was a little weird looking at Steel in a shirt Ben remembered his dad wearing, but he choked down his feelings and smiled at the beast of a man. "You look... great!"

Steel could tell something was upsetting his mate. "Walker... you are upset?"

Ben was surprised Steel could tell. His tail was shoved in his pants to hide it form sight, and their sense of smell was greatly reduced in this form. "Call me Ben... my human name is Ben."

Steel scooped his human shaped cub up in a tight muscular hug. Walker couldn't help but smile as he remembered his dad doing this when he had been a boy. "Should I have a... a human name?" Steel asked as he put his little mate down. Even as a human Walker was small compared to his hulking guardian.

"No, Steel is fine," Ben said as he realized he was speaking English again. Steel must have been speaking English too because he didn't seem too sure of how his name sounded in the human tongue.

"Steel, is that my name in human?" He asked.

"Yup!" Walker did his best to explain what steel was in English. "In English steel is a solid shiny metal that we use to build building and tools. It's hard, strong, and sturdy."

"What does your name mean in English?" Steel asked and tilted his head to the side like a dog would. It seemed that some habits were hard to break.

"Umm..." Ben really didn't know what his name stood for in English! "I don't know... maybe one day I'll look it up online?"

"What is online?" Steel asked.

Ben sighed and shook his head. He was going to have his hands full if Steel kept asking him questions like this...

After getting ready to go into town Ben and Steel followed the winding gravel path through the woods until they reached the road. The sun was just setting over the tree tops by the time they left the house. It was starting to cool down despite how hot the day had been. Ben was glad for the cool night air because walking to town would have taken all afternoon! Thankfully Ben had his driver's license, so they wouldn't have to walk all the way to town tonight! After a half hour of trying to explain a car to Steel Ben eventually got the skeptical wolf into the vehicle and started it up. "Since you took me out for werewolf training last night you get a crash course in human training tonight!" Ben said and looked at Steel who was frowning as he watched the forest fly past the passenger side window.

"What could humans possibly teach a wolf?" Steel asked.

"Let's try having fun first, then we can move on to other things," Ben replied.

"What is fun?"

Ben shook his head in shock, "you'll see soon enough!"

...

Ben laughed as he watched Steel walking beside him through the crowded hallways and corridors of the city's largest shopping mall. The man must have been paranoid because he practically growled at every person who walked by them. Not to mention he looked pretty weird. A huge hairy man with visible canines, a thick gray beard, and a constant low growl could scare even the stoutest man or woman.

Ben had parked at the mall less than a fifteen minutes ago, and now he and his mate were enjoying the finer venues on the north side of the huge establishment. Ben knew you could spend all day running around this place, so he guided Steel straight to his favorite arcade. "Welcome to the Mecca of video games!"

Steel took a moment to take in the flashing lights and sounds before he was pulled into the swirling mass of lights, music, and confusion. It was pretty obvious he had never been inside an arcade before, but Ben was excited about the prospect of playing a video game. He pretty much ignored Steel's confusion as he led the human-shaped wolf through the arcade.

Once they were deeply immersed in the chaotic room, the lights of Ben's favorite game loomed before the pair of adventurers like a tower of deathly sculls and heavy metal music. "This is super heavy metal death attack," Ben shouted over the din of the voices and noise around them. "It's my favorite game ever!" He said and pulled some quarters out of his pocket. Ben handed a few coins to Steel who took the metal disks and gave then a curious glare.

"What do I do..." Steel started to say, but the sound of the game roaring to life caused him snap his head up to observe the large magical window that exploded to life before him. It seemed like his mate was completely unfazed by the strange device, but Steel had never seen such a thing in his entire life!

"Put some coins in here," Ben said and pointed at the slot. When Steel didn't comply right away the annoyed teenager groaned and waved his hands around to get the wolf's attention. "Put the coins in here and press the button," Ben explained again and pointed at the coin slot below the panel.

Steel did what he was told and pressed the button. His side of the arcade game exploded to life as the lights started to flash violently and the screen changed to a character selection menu. "What is this thing?" Steel asked as he looked at the images on the screen.

"It's a game, just pick someone you think looks cool since this is your first time," Ben explained.

After both Ben and Steel chose a character the screen whirled around and turned red. The two characters appeared on a huge heavy metal stage. Ben thought it was a little annoying that Steel had picked the one character in the game that looked like a werewolf. As the fight started Ben ran forward and punched the image of Steel's character. The poor wolf was confused by the violent images on the magical screen. Instead of trying to learn how the magical device worked Steel just pressed buttons randomly and sent his werewolf character into an insane series of attacks. Ben was actually trying to play the game, so he got a little angry that Steel wasn't really trying to learn the combos. But he kept getting hits in on Ben's character regardless.

The fight went on this way for three rounds before Steel finally defeated Ben. The werewolf on the screen tilted it's head back and howled. Steel followed the on-screen character's example and filled the whole arcade with a perfect wolf howl. More than a few people gave him a weird look as he howled a perfect victory howl. "This is dumb," Ben said and huffed at the screen. "You're not supposed to win your first time!"

"I am not familiar with these rules," Steel said and frowned. "Was there something wrong with your magical fighting window device?"

Ben groaned. He decided Steel might be better at something less competitive. The two spent the rest of the afternoon playing physical games. Steel was crazy strong, and he ended up being pretty good at winning the skee ball and basket ball games every time he played them! He was also an ace at anything that implied arm wrestling or just strength in general. As stupid as it seemed the elder wolf actually seemed to like these games! By the time the arcade was about to close they had won a bunch of tickets. Ben turned them all in for food tokens.

After spending the tokens on a bunch of burgers, pizza, Chinese, and other types of mall food, Ben showed Steel how humans ate. Steel didn't like french-fries and ketchup very much, pizza was far too greasy for his taste, but he ate the burgers and Chinese well enough. "Humans eat the strangest combination of foods," Steel said as he examined the large meaty burger in his hands.

Ben smiled as he watched Steel take a bite of his burger and discover an onion inside. The wolf grimaced at the offending vegetables and picked them out of his food before taking another bite. He seemed to appreciate the taste a bit more after that. It was odd to see the wolf eat pickles and mustard, but not onions or lettuce. The longer Ben watched him the more he decided he liked Steel. Sure Steel was rough, aggressive, possessive, and more than a little violent, but he was a nice guy when you got past those things. Being around Steel was like having your own personal bodyguard around! He was pretty damn bossy, but he could be fun when he wasn't so serious.

While he watched Steel eat thick red-brown fur began sprouting from Ben's ears. Steel looked up at the cub and frowned when he noticed that Ben had wolf ears again. "Um... we need to go," Steel said and stood up suddenly.

"But we just got here," Ben protested and frowned up at Steel.

"We need to go now Ben! That's not a suggestion, it's an order!"

Ben growled and bared his fangs at Steel without realizing how wolfish he looked, "I don't have to do what you say!"

Steel reached forward and grabbed Ben roughly by the back of his neck. After pulling him up, out of his seat, and over the table Steel started dragging Ben out of the food court. Ben yipped in pain like the whiny little cub he was. More than a few mall patrons watched the huge man and the hairy teen as they made their way out of the food court. Steel dragged his disobedient beta towards the doors and then out into the parking lot. "You're losing your human form," Steel said gruffly and unceremoniously dropped Ben onto the concrete.

Ben landed roughly on his butt and whined as he looked up at Steel. Not only was his pride hurt, but a quick inspection of his ears proved that the older wolf right. The newly exposed appendages drooped as Ben realized how foolish he had been. He still didn't like Steel bossing him around, but the older wolf was usually right when he did it.

"We need to return to your den," Steel said and gently placed his hand on Ben's back. It was a surprisingly human gesture considering how inhuman Steel actually was. The two werewolves walked in silence for a while before Steel spoke again, "I'm not angry with you little Walker."

Ben cringed when Steel spoke in his native tongue and used Ben's wolf name. He was still sulking even though he knew Steel wasn't really angry with him. It was almost like the older wolf expected Ben to act like.... like a cub.

As they walked along the darkened concrete path beside the mall a small group of humans watched them from the shadows. The group would have been best described as a gang, but they lacked a name and any real organization. A punk kid and a hairy man were just another potential target to these lowlife delinquents. As they waited for Ben and Steel to get closer the whole gang smiled at the prospect of getting to beat the two guys up.

"Hey punk!" The leader of the gang spoke as he stepped out of the shadows and into the path of the two masquerading wolves. Any common sense most humans usually possessed had long since left these hoodlums. A normal human would have naturally avoided the strange looking man and his smaller companion, but that was obviously not so for this group.

Steel immediately bristled when the man stepped into their path. A low growl began to bubble up from deep inside his muscular chest. "Damn guys," another young man said as he stepped out of the shadows with a bat in his hands, "this dude is hairy as fuck!"

There were a few nervous laughs at the joke, but Steel didn't seem very amused by their levity. After the laughing died down the leader of the group stepped forward. "Listen ugly. Give us your money, and anything else you got, and we might let you go without any broken bones."

"Ben, are these humans threatening us?" Steel asked in a low angry voice.

"I think "mugging us" is the correct phrase, but yes, that would count as threatening too." It was hard to view the humans as a threat when even Ben knew that he could have held his own against them. He had fought a fucking dog monster humbaba! What threat were a couple of dumbass human punks when you were a werewolf?

Steel almost seemed to smile. He had never fought a human before, but he didn't think they would be much of a challenge. Ben noticed Steel's clothes were looking pretty tight against his muscular frame. An audible ripping sound made Ben cringe a bit. He really had hoped Steel wouldn't ruin any of their limited supply of clothing. As the flannel shirt covering Steel's chest and back began to split apart thick gray fur became visible in the faint light of the nearly full moon above them. The rest of his clothes were quickly shredded by the growing bulk of the angry monstrous man. The thugs looked on in mute horror as Steel's dense body hair thickened into proper fur. A faint popping sound made the humans cringe as the last of the clothes shredded and fell to the ground. Steel growled in pleasure as his body expanded rapidly. Ben thought he would stop at about nine feet in height, but he just kept getting bigger and bigger!

The huge monster werewolf finally stopped growing at nearly twelve feet and made a creepy inhuman laughing sound as his transformation reached its climax. "It's been a while since I had a reason to fight in this form," he said in the wolf language. The humans reeked of fear as they looked up at the massive wolf monster standing before them. It seemed quite foolish, but they had managed to stand their ground, and a few of the punks were even brandishing their weapons; as if the flimsy knives and bats could have helped them against a full grown werewolf! Ben quickly decided they weren't very smart. He would have run away if he had seen Steel like this... at least Ben would have run before he had been turned into a miniature version of the hulking beast beside him.

"Holy fuck! What the hell are you?" The leader shouted and looked up at the werewolf standing before him.

Instead of responding Steel grabbed the human in one massive hand-paw and roared into his face. In the moment of silence that followed Steel dropped the human. The unfortunate human staggered away from Steel and turned to face his fellow gangsters. "Run!" the man yelled and broke into a mad dash.

The gang of thugs scattered into the night as Steel turned back to Ben. His angry expression was gone. "Are you all right?" He asked with obvious concern in his huge feral eyes.

"I don't think you can fit in the car like that," Ben said in awe as he looked up at the mountain of furry muscle.

"I think I've grown a little," Steel said and smiled as he looked down at himself. Thankfully he dropped to all fours and began to shrink. Even though he was clearly a wolf now, and still quite large, he could at least fit into the back seat of Ben's barrowed car. "Is this better?"

Ben smiled as he reached forward to pet Steel on his wolf head. "I guess we'll have to make it work."

With Ben's human form quickly fading Steel hurried the cub towards the car. Nobody seemed to notice the wolf and half-wolf running through the darkened parking lot. On the drive home Ben was forced to discard his shoes and drive bare-pawed. They got back to the estate's parking lot just as the clock in the car hit 10:00.

"I've been thinking," Steel said as Walker let him out of the back seat of the car.

"That's not good," Walker said and earned a glare from the wolf beside him

"This human world is too dangerous for you to learn to be a Long-Fang here. If you know how, maybe we should try and go back to my world until you can learn to control you shape better," Steel suggested.

Walker was shocked. He had never thought about being in danger at the estate, but what if someone got a picture of him and Steel? They would be turned into science experiments or something terrible like that! "Maybe that is a good idea," Walker said sadly. "but honestly I don't know exactly how I got to your world... I just went through the woods and found the clearing. Then that humbaba showed up like it did," Walker explained.

"Perhaps we should return to the clearing you found. I don't think I would have ever found you if that humbaba hadn't led me to the clearing. Forest spirits are very tricky to track, and you were lucky I showed up when I did," Steel said and looked around as the house came into view. "You think you can find the clearing from here?"

"Sure," Walker said and looked around the field beside his house. He still remembered what he was doing that day pretty well despite how long ago it had been. The forest was still exactly how Walker remembered it on that hot day minus the crazy heat. It was almost like an instinct that guided the young wolf. He felt like he knew where to go; like something was guiding him through the woods. Before they knew where they were the forest opened up into the same clearing Walker and Steel remembered from before. "Where's the humbaba?" Walker asked the large wolf beside him.

"I don't know... perhaps his body has already decayed?" Steel suggested and looked around the clearing before settling on a small mound with a tree growing beside it. "Walker! Over here!" Steel shouted and bounded over to the mound.

The younger wolf made his way over to Steel and the small grassy hill beside the small tree, "That's the tree!" Walker exclaimed, "the one that killed the humbaba!"

"I know. I recognize it as well," Steel said and smiled. "Perhaps the power of the humbaba gave the tree new life?"

Walker shrugged his furry shoulders and started looking around. There seemed to be other paths that led out of the clearing, but Walker only recognized the one that led back the way he came from. One of these paths had to lead back to wolf world, but how was he supposed to tell which path led in that direction? "How about this way?" Walker asked when he came across a path that looked promising.

"How do you know this is the one?" Steel asked as he loped over to his mate.

"Well... I don't," Walker said. Steel sighed before Walker spoke again, "but I guess I could find my way back to the clearing if I needed too." In fact, he knew he could find his way back to the clearing even if he was in another world.

Steel changed back to his Long-Fang form just in case there was danger. The two wolves shared a brief moment of silence before Steel nodded to Walker. "Let's stay close together. Ok?"

"Right," Walker said as he dropped to all fours and led his mate into the mysterious forest. They had no idea at that moment where their next adventure would take them, but they both had a distinct feeling that their lives would never be quite the same again.