A small figure moved silently through the storm, clothed heavily, heading purposefully toward its destination. The water didn’t seem to bother it since it didn’t hurry. It would take a few steps, and then stop, sniffing the air. Then, when it seemed safe, it would move again.

It continued in this manner until it reached a rundown building with a neon sign in the window advertising psychic readings. The figure took one last look around and entered the shop.

The first room was everything you would expect from a Psychic’s place. A round table sat in the center of the room, covered in a velvety, dark purple cloth. On the table sat a crystal glass. The walls were also covered in dark velvets and on the opposite side of the room was the door that led into the rest of the house, concealed by hanging beads.

The soaking wet person shed layers of clothes and could now be easily identified as a woman. She looked young - no more than twenty years - but there was something in the way she moved that made her seem much older. Her eyes were a deeper green than seen in most people, and her hair was jet black. The beaded curtains rustled and an older woman emerged from the back. She was dressed in long satin robes, adorned with rhinestone jewels. Three fingers on her right hand bore the weight of gaudy rings, likewise on her left hand, and beaded bracelets hung loose on her wrists and on her neck.

“Welcome,” she drawled in a deep and husky voice, without looking at her guest. “I am Madame…”

The younger girl cleared her throat. “Save it, Vanya. I’m not here for that.”

Vanya blinked as she finally realized who her guest was. “Oh. It’s you. I should have known. Only you would venture out in this weather. Tea? Or something stronger?”

The girl shook her head. “There’s no time. I’ve only come to warn you that there is a Hunter on his way here. Right now. You’ve got very little time to leave.”

“A Hunter! Why didn’t you come sooner?!”

Vanya swept out of the room in a flourish. She hurried gracefully to the back where she quickly began packing a small valise. The young girl followed after her.

“I didn’t come sooner because I had other things to do. This Hunter is different. Quicker than the others. He’s going after everyone in this area. I had to warn the others first. You are the last. The caravan is meeting up on the south side of the city. There will be someone with your people who will show you the way. I give the Hunter another half hour before he gets here. So you’d best be quick. I’ll do what I can to stall him.”

Vanya looked closely at the girl, her eyes sad. “You risk much for mere gypsies. Why?”

“I have my reasons,” the girl said simply.

When she did not elaborate, the gypsy woman nodded and placed a consolatory hand on the younger girl’s shoulder. “Our thoughts are with you, Tala.”

With that, Vanya turned and left the store, hurrying to meet with her friends and family.

Tala went back into the front of the store, and sat in one of the chairs, to await the arrival of the Hunter.

~~~~~~

The Hunter could smell her scent on the air before he ever opened the door. So he wasn’t surprised when he burst into the shop, crossbow cocked, to find her sitting in a chair, her legs crossed, waiting for him.

He ignored her, and immediately headed for the back room. There was a mess of clothes, pictures, and books scattered across a bed. The gypsy woman had left in a hurry and hadn’t taken much. All of her books on magic had been left behind, but the Hunter knew from experience that those kinds of books were fakes. The clothes…. Mostly robes she would have worn to appease her customers. The Hunter sneered at the thought of people who would come to these kinds of places. Not even the pictures told him much, except that he hated this gypsy he’d never met.

He ground his teeth and stormed back into the waiting room, where Tala watched him closely.

“Alright,” he growled. He had a rich baritone voice with a slight Scottish accent to it. “Every time I hunt, I find ye there, making my duty near impossible to fulfill. I don’t want to know how ye always know where I’m going. But, so help me, I’m going to make sure ye don’t interfere again.” He raised the crossbow. Although it was against their ways to physically harm humans, this one was consciously protecting those creatures that God hated. He could not allow it to happen any more. The Hunter fired.

Quicker than lightening, Tala was standing beside him. He blinked, disconcerted for the moment as the crossbow bolt hit the velvet wall and stuck there, quivering.

“Now,” Tala said. “That wasn’t very nice.”

“Stay still. I might think about being nice after I take care of some things.” He quickly moved away from the young woman, bringing his weapon to aim again.

Tala wasn’t going to make things easy on him. She moved again, giving the Hunter no time to fire. Within seconds she had disarmed him and taken a seat once more.

He glared at her, casting wry glances at the crossbow she now held. His hand twitched, but Tala just shook her head.

“Don’t be foolish. I could be gone in the blink of an eye. But I thought maybe we could talk for a bit. Do sit down.”

The Hunter remained standing, his feet shifting ever so slightly, wanting nothing more than to wring her neck. He didn’t know who this woman was, and he didn’t really care, but he did believe that she would be gone quicker than he’d be able to move. He would not be able to attack her.

But he chose not to sit, specifically because she had requested it of him. He would no more do what she said than she would kill him.

And standing there, looking into her exotic eyes, he knew she would not kill him. It wasn’t that he put it past her. He truly believed she was just as deadly a foe as dragons had once been. But she held no animosity for him. He could see that in her eyes as well.

Who was this girl who had haunted him for so long? He was unable to answer that question and that’s why he stayed. He was unnerved, though, by the fact that his refusal to sit did not bother her in the least.

“Who are ye,” he asked finally, narrowing his eyes at her. He didn’t really expect her to answer, but he was becoming increasingly nervous by her silent, knowing smile.

She surprised him. “My name is Tala. Do you know what that means?” His look must have answered the question since she didn’t wait for a reply. “It’s Native American. It means wolf.”

“Then yer a wolf.” He put it bluntly, thinking he may finally have her figured out. If she was one of the intelligent wolves he’d heard of, that would explain a lot. And he would do everything in his power to kill her.

“No,” she said, surprising him yet again. She was full of surprises. “No. I’m not a wolf. That is what my name means. Wolves are well known for their ties to family. Did you know that wolves have stronger family relations than even humans? It’s fascinating.”

“What’s that got ta do with anything?”

“I also have strong family bonds. I love my family. I care for them very much. I’ve made it my life’s work to protect them. And to keep them from hurting others.”

“And?” He crossed his arms, a move that put his hands closer to the hidden daggers in his sleeves. He didn’t know where she was going with this. Maybe some Hunter had killed her family. He wasn’t sure and he didn’t care. He knew he had to kill her.

“I just wanted you to know, is all,” she said smiling.

His hands shot out, flashing streaks of silver highlighting the dim room. She was just as fast, ripping the thick velvet from the wall and using it to divert the daggers’ paths. That provided her free hand the opportunity to toss some powder into the Hunter’s eyes. He shut them tight against the onslaught and when he opened them again, she was gone.

He turned around and kicked the table hard, in anger. She was too good for him, and that hurt to even think about.

“AGH!!!!” He picked up the chair, screaming, throwing it across the room. He’d train, dammit! Train until he was as fast… no, faster than she was. He’d train and train. And the next time they met, he’d beat her. He wouldn’t kill her. No, that would be too easy for her. He’d torture her in every single way he knew how. In the end, he would win. No matter what it took.

~~~~~~~

The rain had stopped. The clouds had passed and stars began peeking out from their covers. Even the moon had shed its darkness to shine pale on the sleeping city.

Tala hid under her cloak in the shadows just outside the door. She heard the Hunter’s tirade and frowned, the first time she’d done so since he’d come in. She knew that it was frustrations guiding his actions. She hadn’t lied. She was no wolf. That didn’t mean she didn’t have some tricks up her sleeve. And she’d used a lot of them in their encounter.

She was tired now. She’d been running all night and most of the previous day… couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had a decent meal or a full night’s rest.

Tala had given up her name to him. In past days, that would have signaled her own demise, for names were power…. At one time, anyways. Now, the old ways were dying or dead. New ways were creeping up. And first names alone had no more power than any other word in the human language. It was, perhaps, still possible to perform certain spells that could trap a person, but both given and family names were needed. And the ways were more difficult.

Tala had no qualms giving the Hunter her name now, none except old habits die hard. But she had given it for a reason. And her reasons she kept to herself.

She touched the cool, wet stone wall, wishing so many things could have been different. Then Tala turned and left quietly – a shadow among the shadows. No one marked her passing, not that there was anyone around to.

She walked away from the city. Away from the gypsy caravan. Into the trees she went, shedding all of her clothes. These she stuffed into a rotted tree, knowing that she would not be wearing them again.

Naked and alone, she felt her body begin to crack in the first seconds of the Change. Her bones popped painfully inside of her, elongating or shortening, as the case may be. She collapsed to the ground and forced herself to keep her eyes open through the process. More of her kind had been lost because of their inability to keep watch in this weak state. She watched her chin, mouth and nose grow longer. Her hair melded with her skin and spread out to cover her entire body.

Her legs shrunk and her knees snapped out straight, then popped painfully backwards. Her fingers shortened and her tailbone poked out through her skin. At the last, her skin at the shoulder blades ripped open to allow a pair of wings to sprout from her back.

It took only seconds, yet the Change was so painful, it seemed to last an eternity. But when it was over, Tala was able to breathe a sigh of relief. She shook her head, and stretched her weary bones. She had far to travel tonight still before she could finally rest.

She trotted a few miles deeper into the trees to a small pond, where she paused for a deep drink. She saw herself as she drank, lapping up the water with a long tongue. Her black lupine fur shone almost silver under the moonlit glow. Her green eyes – unusual for one of her clan – were like jewels. The wings she kept closely tucked in at her sides were also black. In this form, Tala seemed an extension of the night itself.

She hadn’t lied to him. She was no wolf, though she seemed to be. She was only part wolf, and also part dragon. An unholy offspring of the two shape-shifting species, like the rest of her clan. The Canis Draconis, or wolf-dragons, had been around for a long time.

Tala sighed as she tried to remember the last time she had seen one of her kind. Not since the Great Migration. Every now and again, she had a sigh of regret for not leaving with the rest of them, but only for a moment. She had followed her heart when she’d stayed and she knew it was the right decision.

She glanced at the sky wistfully, but kept her wings tucked in. She would not fly tonight. Tonight, she would run.

~~~~~~

The Hunter stepped out into the night. It had been raining when the sun had set three hours ago, but it had stopped sometime while he was dealing with that woman. Tala. He knew her name now. Hell lot of good that would do him, but it was a start. She was just a human after all. A lowly human with no reason for stopping his duties except that she most likely had a fondness for those evil beasts.

Well, Hunters may frown on killing normal humans, but this one didn’t think he’d get so much as a slap on the wrist for doing away with her. But why he couldn’t beat her…. That he’d never be able to explain to them. They weren’t very forgiving of those Hunters who lost the ability to perform.

He’d have to keep this from them. At least until he figured out what her game was. She could have practiced most of her life for this. Maybe she was a Hunter also and was stealing his game. Or she could be using magical artifacts to enhance her own performance.

He knew what he would have to do now. In order to beat his enemy, he’d have to find out more about her.

His first stop that night was the local library. Not that it was open, but that never stopped him. One of his gifts was the ability to open any lock he wanted. Well, not a gift really, but one of his many talents - something he had learned under his teacher long ago. But his teacher hadn't taught him everything. This Hunter had taught himself how to use modern-day technology. The others thought this stuff just another form of magic to be eliminated, but not him. No, he knew it's value and it wasn't long before he had hacked into the computer's database.

She wasn't in the library's files, but that didn't surprise him. He didn't believe she was from anywhere around here. He pulled up maps from his previous travels, searching each city he knew for certain she'd been in. Attempting to find any person in any of the cities by the name of Tala, he kept looking until close to dawn. No luck, but something occurred to him. As he went back further into his memories, as he mentally calculated how long he had known about her, he realized that the time frame didn't match up.

Usually time did not occur to him. He was not immortal, but his people lived so long that they lost track of the elusive element. And their thoughts were mostly on the Hunt anyways. They had all the time in the world to finish the Hunt, as long as they kept breeding. But now that he did pause to think about, he knew that there was no way she could have been around for as long as she had been chasing him, unless...

Unless she was immortal too, or close to it.

He frowned. She couldn't be a Hunter. Her talk about family was absurd. Maybe it wasn't the same woman. Children, perhaps? Each following in her mother's footsteps?

He shook his head at that thought. No. It was definitely the same woman. An immortal, then. A bastard child of a Hunter? Again, that didn't make sense, as no Hunter paused long enough from their pursuits to indulge in such beastiality. A magical creature? No humanoid creatures had been seen since the Retreat. Left like the cowards they were. Could she be the last?

These thoughts were running through his head as he searched the internet and other sources, so he almost missed the mark. Only his trained eye caught it before he scrolled past. In an old history page of ancient nobles and their families, he found her. Not her name, but it was definitely her face on the screen.

He checked the dates. Sometime during the 1500's, apparently. The family name under the image read Clan Macomber. A family from Scotland, where he had been trained. That couldn't be a coincidence. Had she been following him around since he was born? She'd be even older than he thought.

The man in the picture was named. Brandon Macomber. The Hunter's name was also Brandon. Another coincidence? Doubtful. More researching told him that Clan Macomber, though spread out now, still had a plot of land in scotland.

And someone was still there, taking care of the inheritance.

Brandon, a Hunter of the finest quality, decided he would start there.

~~~~~~

Tala ran. She had no idea what Brandon was doing at that moment. Her task was different right now. She'd set aside her normal task of warning others, for something far more important.

Tala was a formidable presence among the creatures of magic. Though her kind had been shunned for a long time, she was now the last of them who could enter human settlements without drawing attention to herself. As such, she was very much a powerhouse of knowledge and information. She had worked hard to attain that level too. She had many informants in both the human world and the world of magic.

One of her informants had contacted her with grave news. She was running to meet him now and she could only hope that his opinion on the matter was simply dramatics. If not...

Serious repercussions would occur throughout the entire earth.

The outskirts of a new city loomed at the horizon. Tala made straight for it at a break-neck pace. The city grew larger in her sight as she neared, her strides taking her mere seconds to reach the appointed place.

There were still ten minutes before sunrise. The wolf dragon was earlier and she took that time to change back to her human form. Like her earlier shift, it was painful, but Tala took that pain into herself, as she always did. It was character-building, as parents said these days.

Naked, but not cold, she searched the area until she found the bag she was looking for. Her informant had left it there as per her request. Inside was a lightweight cloak and nothing more. She wouldn't be staying long. She wrapped it around herself, covering her exposed flesh.

It wasn't long after that that her informant showed up. Her ears caught the footfalls before she ever saw the wiry figure materialize from the quiet city. They were light steps - a human wouldn't have picked them up, but Tala was not human.

Her nose picked up the stench of fast food next - her informants chosen profession. The aroma assailed her sense of smell and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. Processed food never sat well with her. She preferred real meat, fresh from the kill.

As the informant came into view, she studied him. He was surprisingly thin for his job, perhaps unhealthily so, but he was well groomed, his blonde hair kept free from grease products. Obviously not lacking for money, he must do this sort of work simply for the thrill.

Tala cleared her mind of all these thoughts and concentrated on the message at hand.

"What do you have for me, James?" She asked as soon as he stepped up to her.

James, normally facetious, was looking particularly grim. That did not bode well for the wolf-dragon.

"Bad news. Worse than bad. They're gathering together. All of them. Word has gone out for a special meeting. What it's for is strictly on the low-down, but I managed to get a bit. Something about marching on a colony. Nothing they do is ever good, and this just reeks of war."

Tala frowned. James was right. It did sound bad. And if the 'colony' he mentioned was the one she was thinking of, it would be even worse. Asynia, the last and greatest refuge of magical creatures. Nearly five hundred creatures lived there, thriving in peace. There weren't many people who knew where it was and if the Hunters had found out....

Tala shuddered at the thought. A lot of the beasts who lived there were peaceful creatures. They were protected there, safe from prying eyes. Tala had regularly gone there to check up on them and she knew none of them were prepared for a battle.

"Tala," James started and Tala looked up at him, meeting his blue eyes. He knew. James knew the consequences if the remaining creatures were killed. It wasn't widely known, but he had a bit of a stake in all this. His parents, quite rich, were both dabblers in the magical arts. Thought they had wanted him to follow in his footsteps, he'd taken a job at the local McDonald's. It was there he'd first met Tala. There that she snagged him for her use.

James knew, and Tala could see that. She wished she could reassure him, but there was none to be found.

"I have to go," she said. "I have to warn them. I need you to do something for me now. There are some people I need you to find for me. Do whatever it takes. Find them quickly. I'll be back in one week. No later. Hurry." She turned and walked away. She never changed in front of anyone and this time was no different. Especially now. In order to get to the colony and back in a week, she'd have to take on a different form.

She couldn't change in the thick copse of trees. She was going big. But she did move to an area where she would be less likely to be spotted at this early hour. She tossed the cloak off, not caring where it landed. There were more important things to worry about.

Her body altered itself at her mental command. As she grew bigger, her body became more lizard-like and wings shot out of her back. It did not take long and then she was in the air - a dragon taking flight once again in the skies of earth, and racing to a dark future.

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