Penn stopped short. She gaped at Elder Ruuni. Her appearance was altered to such a degree that it truly startled Penn. So much so that she momentarily forgot about the smoke winding its way up the mountain side and her consuming desire to kill Codax.

"I've dreamt of wolves that look just like you," Penn half whispered in wonder as she began to approach the Orthos Elder.

"Like me?" Ruuni asked incredulously. 

She looked to the twins and they cast her as distressing a look as they had at Penn. Curious, Runni looked down at herself just as Nordin squeezed through the narrow opening behind her and nearly knocked her to the ground. He reached out to grasp her arms and prevent her fall. The two elders stared wide-eyed at each other now.

"I can't believe," Nordin began as his eyes grew as big as the mountain.

"What you're seeing," Ruuni finished with astonishment.

He nodded vigorously before turning his eyes toward Penn. His mouth fell open even further with amazement.

"She's one of them," he whispered.

"And so too, it would seem, are we," said Lofgren from behind them. "Please move aside," he tagged on with a little humour in his voice. "You are blocking the way."

The other elders, Nys, Lind and Arvid, struggled through the narrow passage with some difficulty. They were no longer wolves. But, they hadn't exchanged their furs for their skins either. They were now just like the humanoid wolves who walked on two feet in the goddess' realm. Though, not nearly as tall. 

"What's happened to you?" Penn asked as she reached the little group. She sniffed the air around them and then reached out to gently take Elder Ruuni's forearm. "You look half human and half wolf," she informed them though it was clear that Ruuni and the others could see that now.

"You as well," Nordin pointed out with a hint of a smile when he realized that Penn was not any more aware of her current transformation as she had been of the supernal silver coat she wore in wolf form when she had arrived in Orthos in the middle of the night just forty eight hours ago. How things had changed, he thought with fear and wonder.

Penn now looked down at her own self and let out a soft gasp. She put out her arms rotating them slowly to examine every detail of the fine silver and gold threaded fur that covered them. Then her eyes were drawn to her clawed fingers. She took those same hands and ran them lightly across her face, which was covered in fine fur as well, and then reached for the pointed ears she knew had to be protruding from her hair just as they were from the elders' too. With excitement she twisted until she could see her tail wagging happily behind her.

"How is this possible?" she asked the elders as she left off examining herself and then looked over each one of them carefully. To Cassidy and Jackson, who she'd forgotten were currently huddling in fear, she eagerly called, "Come, have a look for yourselves."

Cassidy and Jackson didn't move a muscle.

Penn frowned with concern. "It's alright. We're still us," she told them with sincerity. "You are safe," she tried to encourage them.

Cassidy shook her head. This was too strange. Too unexpected. She couldn't understand what had happened to Penn or the elders. She didn't know if this was good or bad. She felt confused and fearful despite knowing in her heart that Penn would never harm a hair on her head.

"Jackson?" she whispered as she looked to him to see if he was braver than her and willing to go to Penn and the elders. He shook his head no and the two remained as they were.

Penn attempted, without thinking too much about it, to take on her fur - or rather her quadruped form - to go and comfort the children. But to her astonishment, she was unable to transform. She then tried to take on her skin. The result was the same.

Feeling uneasy, she turned her attention back to the elders and remarked cautiously, "I can't shift. Can you?"

Elder Ruuni's eyes lit up with excitement. "We aren't suppose to," she declared. "This is our true form. We are not shifters as the old tales go. We are Wolf People - Langren." 

Ruuni turned her white eyes on Cassidy and Jackson. And, in a gentle voice, full of love and understanding, she called to them. "Children, you do not need to be afraid. This is a blessing from the Moon goddess. She's transformed us and made us to look like our ancestors." Ruuni waved them over with a clawed hand that was covered in fine white fur. "Come, see for yourselves."

Their curiosity brought them both to their feet and together, hand in hand, the two teens made their way over to Penn and the elders.

But, the surprises didn't end there. Nordin dropped another bomb shell on Penn and the teens.

 "And you Penn, you aren't Langren." He looked to the other elders and they all gave him consent, with a nod of their heads, to continue. "The Moon goddess calls you Lang Ling and you are a Soul Star. Does any of that sound familiar?" he asked with growing anticipation.

It didn't mean anything to Penn. She shook her head unconcerned. Right now she was more troubled about not being able to shift. She needed to shift in order to fight Codax. She couldn't fight him in this human-wolf form. At least, she wasn't sure she could. She wasn't sure what she could do with this new body without testing it out and knowing what its strength and limitations were. But, testing it out on Codax was not a wise decision. A move like that could get her killed and maybe even the pups. She frowned as she concentrated more than ever on shifting to her wolf form.

In the absence of Penn's own curiosity, Cassidy spoke up boldly protesting, "But Penn looks just like us, shifts like us. She's one of us in every way." The girl was shocked by the very thought that Penn was not one of them - that they did not have a common ancestry. It wasn't right. She had to be. Confused and eager for the elders to make things clear, Cassidy continued, "Is a Soul Star just some different kind of Langren or a hybrid or something of that nature?"

Nordin turned his attention to the teens, "No, it's nothing like that. A Soul Star is an entirely different life form from a Langren and from the goddess too. It's an immortal star. And the goddess explained to us that she and the immortal star share a soul, something only Soul Stars can do with another immortal."

Cassidy's head hurt with all this talk of stars, immortals and soul-sharing. She felt like she was having a surprise ancient history test - one she wasn't the least bit prepared for. "Do you mean they are like soul sisters or kindred spirits?" she kept pressing for more and more clarification. "Would that make Penn like some kind of god? Is she a descendent of a wolf-god we don't know about?"

"No, nothing like that, " Nordin considered carefully. "She's not a descendent at all. Rather, she is an immortal star. A star that has lost its memories," he added while glancing at Penn, but she was only half paying attention to what he was saying. And it seemed to him most of what he'd said just now went in one ear and right out the next. What could be more important to her than this discussion right now, he wondered with mounting frustration. 

Looking back to Cassidy and Jackson he continued, "The Soul Star and the Moon goddess came to share the same soul. It's a type of symbiosis," he elaborated.

"The goddess and I share a soul?" Penn repeated with a measure of doubt in her voice. 

"That's not it exactly," Ruuni tried to elucidate. "You don't share a single soul. It's more complicated than that. Your souls are melded together. Only, you don't seem to remember any of this," she lamented.

Penn shook her head and continued to half listen to the elders as she tried to shift over and over again. She was getting increasingly anxious and less and less interested in what they were saying. If she couldn't figure out how to shift, all this talk about soul swapping or whatever it was they were saying would be irrelevant because, she was going to die trying to defend them in this strange wolf-woman shape she had now. 

The elders were visibly disappointed in her nondescript response. They were hoping that the mere mention of their ancestors and the soul star would spark Penn's memories. And, the more distracted she became, the more disheartened the elders were. Jogging her memory wasn't going to be as easy as they had hoped.

"Penn?" Ruuni asked in a commanding voice that got the she-wolf's instant attention. "Please listen. This is important."

Penn, feeling chastised, gave up on shifting and gave the elders her full attention. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm listening. Please continue."

"The Moon goddess needs you to remember yourself Penn. You aren't a shifter. You are an immortal star who has the power to enhance the soul of other immortals by becoming one with that immortal. You did this for the Moon goddess. And she told us that the two of you coexisted as one for tens of thousands of years, but you were recently separated by a Heavenly Trail. Does any of this sound familiar to you?" she asked with a little touch of desperation.

Penn raised two incredulous eyebrows and had to clamp down hard on the desire to laugh in that moment. It all sounded so far fetched. She knew all to well who and what she was. She was no immortal. She had no supernatural powers of any kind. She was nothing special. She never had been and she never would be. But, that didn't mean she couldn't find a home with the Orthos pack. In fact, she was determined to be one of them somehow. But, that all depended on whether she could safeguard them from Codax and that seemed less and less likely to her now that she could not shift. She sighed deeply with growing uneasiness. 

"The look on your face says no to me," Nordin spoke with disappointment.

Penn instantly felt remorseful. She usually was so good at hiding her feelings, but the more comfortable she felt with everyone, well, the less she thought she needed to do it. And now, she'd gone and distressed the elders. She let out another pent up breath.

"I'm sorry none of this means anything to me," she offered sincerely. "But, whatever you saw or heard in the shrine, I trust it. I trust you even if I don't understand," she told them earnestly. 

It was sort of true. She knew they'd had an encounter with the goddess. That much was true just from looking at them. And nothing they said so far was out of the realm of possibility for immortals and gods. It's just, Penn could not see for the life of her how she could possibly be anything other than herself - a cast-off pack wolf trying to find a home among a new pack that was under threat from some wack job alpha. Someone better than her had to be the immortal star the goddess was looking for. The elders just got things mixed up a bit. Penn was sure, given more time, more thought, they'd realize they'd gotten the wrong wolf.

"Is that why Penn shimmers?" Cassidy suddenly asked. "Is it because she's really an Immortal Star?"

The Elders' eyes lit with interest.

"Yes," Nordin offered thoughtfully, "that's very likely."

"I shimmer?" Penn asked with genuine surprise.

"Like multifaceted crystal under direct sunlight," Jackson replied dryly. It was so obvious to him and everyone else that the question sounded stupid to him. He was incredulous. How did Penn not know?

Cassidy gave him a sharp look and he shrugged a shoulder.

"Even more than that," Ruuni said with a little laugh. "Under the moonlight, when you are in your skin or fur, you coruscate like a room full of gems under LED lights."

The other elders nodded enthusiastically.

"That's not very practical," Penn responded with a note of discouragement. "Am I shining now?" she asked as she began to twist a little to the right and left to see if she could see it herself.

"Yes," Cassidy answered her, "but not like before. It's dimmer in this new biped form you have."

"If I'm going to hunt Codax down," Penn said with deep concern, "I can't do it like this. I can't give myself away because I become a light show under the moonlight." Frustrated with this new setback, she began to pace back and forth. "This is awful."

The elders and the teens all exchanged looks. Penn was missing the point entirely, wasn't she? For a very smart she-wolf, who could survive in the wilds for ten years all alone and read people's body language accurately enough to fend off a surprise attack from a total stranger, she had no self-awareness. How could she be so clueless about herself?

The ever compassionate and empathetic Nys stepped forward and stopped the alpha she-wolf in her tracks. She placed her own clawed hands on Penn's shoulders and looked straight into Penn's nearly sliver eyes.

"Stop pacing," she commanded her gently. "Take in a deep breath, hold it and then exhale slowly. Slowly," she repeated as Penn followed her instructions to the letter. "Again," Nys told her. Penn did it again. And one more time afterwards before she felt her body relax and her mind open up.

"Don't you think an immortal star is far more powerful than a shape-shifting wolf?" Nys asked her.

"Yes," came Penn's quick reply. "But," she began in the very next breath, "I don't know what an immortal star is or what it can do. I don't even know how to test it out? And what if Codax arrives at the mouth of the cave and I can't protect you?" Penn asked with such pain and vulnerability that it brought tears to Nys eyes.

"The goddess knows," she said quietly and confidently. "Why don't you enter the shrine now, as you are, and see what answers she has for you?"

"There's no time," Penn complained. "Codax is burning the forest as we speak. He's trying to smoke the children out of hiding right now."

Her agitation was rising again.  Twenty minutes ago, before this strange transformation she and the elders experienced, Penn was fully confident she was going to go down the mountain, find Codax and kill him that very morning. Now, she was afraid this new change might mean the death of everyone she'd come to love here in the caves and down in the valley. She was frustrated, fearful and totally unsure what she needed to do to ensure everyone's safety. Her heart was in turmoil.

"You have time," Nys spoke confidently. She smiled at the younger she-wolf and then told her, "Stop and breath."

Penn obeyed and felt a little better again.

Ruuni came forward at this point and also placed a hand on Penn's shoulder. She smiled gently at the she-wolf. "He doesn't know about the caves, correct?"

Penn nodded.

"Then, it'll take him some time, maybe even a day or two to find us," she suggested. "That's more than enough time for you to get some answers from the goddess. You head in there now and leave us and the pack here in the caves to Cassidy and Jackson. They will take care of everything while you are in the shrine and we'll give them our full support," she offered wholeheartedly. 

Penn sighed. There wasn't anything else she could do. She needed answers form the goddess. At the very least, she needed to know how to fight Codax in this new body. Nodding she gave her consent.

Jackson stayed outside the cave entrance and remained on guard while Penn, the elders and Cassidy returned inside. The elders escorted Penn right back to the little wolf-sized entrance to the Moon shrine. She had to crawl in through the opening on her hands and knees. The elders held Cassidy back.

"Just let her go in alone this time," Ruuni told Cassidy. "You can wait here with us. How does that sound?"

Cassidy nodded her head, but she felt disappointed. She wanted to be in there with Penn. She wanted to see and hear all the goddess had to share for Penn's sake. She was worried the she-wolf might miss something important since she obviously had difficulty seeing herself as anything other than a reject from her original pack. If she could just see herself as the Griffin orphans did, as Orthos did now, as the goddess certainly did, then she would be unstoppable. But, what would it take to heal a heart so broken by the rejection of her own family?

Cassidy prayed to the goddess, "Please help her to see her worth."

Nys, who was at Cassidy's side draped an arm over the teen's shoulder, gave her a gentle squeeze and said with a twinkle in her eye, "She surely will."