The black-shafted arrow sped silently towards the leader, the slightest sound whistling through the black raven feathers at the end. The wolf had a slight moment of movement before the arrow embedded itself in her flesh. The other wolves howled an alarm and started running. Zalia pulled out her two silver knives and dashed after them.

For being mindless beasts, the wolves were pretty smart. Zalia could tell as she gave chase that they were leading her along paths that were harder and more dangerous to humans. The nearest wolf dodged a tree trunk, only a few feet from Zalia, who narrowly avoided tripping over a vine on the ground. Three feet. Two feet. One foot.

Zalia's knife came down, hitting just behind the head so as to kill the beast but not ruin the pelt. The wolf fell without a sound, and the others kept running. Zalia made a note of the tall rowan tree so she could find the body later as she picked up her speed.

Of the three wolves, two were female and one male. The male was larger, and therefore slower, than the two compact females. Zalia knew she was tiring fast. In a last-ditch effort, she sprang for the male. Her knife hit him in the side, but he fell forward, tangling in the legs of the nearer female. She went down too, with a crack of bone. The other female ran towards a protruding rock and then... disappeared.

With a sigh, Zalia mopped the sweat off her brow and carried the bodies, one by one, back to the village. When she emerged, she found a host of people gathered there, whispering with excitement. The hunter she had asked directions from earlier stepped forward.

"I need a sled," Zalia said, gesturing to the dead wolves. The hunter nodded, opened his mouth, than closed it with a plop and ran to go find someone with a sled. Once he returned, Zalia loaded her wolves onto it and tied it to the back of a carriage, which she climbed into. She was too tired to run back through the forest to the castle. Even with the bumpy road, Zalia found herself slowly closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.

->->->->O<-<-<-<-

A sudden jolt awakened Zalia as the carriage stopped in front of the Mistmoor village. Zalia hopped out without waiting for the driver, hauled her sled off of the top, and dragged the wolves through the rapidly darkening village. She stopped at her cottage, where she draped the four wolves on her skinning table. Zalia spent the rest of the night skinning the golden-gray wolves before hanging the skins out to dry and heading to her wolf-skin covered bed.

Zalia spend the rest of the night sleeping, but in the morning she put on her wolf-hunter clothes and headed to see the High King. The guards, not surprised to see her so soon, opened the doors soundlessly and let her in.

"My lord," Zalia addressed the red-haired High King.

"Wolf-hunter," the king replied. He never used her name, as he couldn't be bothered to know it with so many wolf-hunters coming and going through his ranks. "Meadport already sent word. Excellent work."

Zalia bowed. "Thank you, High King. I bring a gift," she said, taking out the largest and finest of the four pelts. With a flourish, she unrolled it before the king. While the court gasped, the king started from this throne. "This is the finest of the pelts from the wolves in the forest, my lord."

The king nodded. "It's been a long time since I have seen a pelt of that color," he mused. "Did any of the wolves escape?" he asked at last.

Zalia nodded her head slowly. "One, High King. A lithe female. I chased her until she disappeared into a wall of stone."

The king made a sighing noise and gestured for her to go. "Well done Wolf-hunter, but next time, don't let the wolf go."

Zalia left the pelt by the throne and took her leave of the throne room. As she passed the kitchens to deliver a basket of nettles, she overheard two of the cooks talking.

"Maizy, are you going to the New Moon Festival here at the castle?"

"Why wouldn't I?" a voice, presumably Maizy's, answered. "I already have my dress, a pale mint green satin all ready to go!"

The other voice laughed. "Mine is a dark green silk! We should go as a pair!"

Maizy's voice laughed. "That'd be great, Liily. I have this perfect pair of necklaces..."

Zalia snorted quietly. A New Moon Festival was usually a social gathering that had to do with dancing, but it was also the time when the wolves weren't out. If Zalia had nothing else to do, she might as well go and eat food. The only problem was her dress... She obviously couldn't wear her wolf-hunter clothes... Zalia turned and dashed out of the castle towards her cottage, her mind bursting with ideas.

->->->->O<-<-<-<-

The sound of laughter was already rising as Zalia stealthily climbed the stairs to the New Moon festival. She spied two girls in green dresses, one pale, one dark, who she presumed were Maizy and Liily. The nodded and waved to her as she passed, which was something they would've never done if she was in her Wolf-hunter clothes. Right now, her dress was covered by a night-black cloak.

Maizy and Liily walked over to her. "Hi!" Liily squealed, while Maizy grinned. "I'm Liily Stone," Liily introduced herself, "and this is Maizy Fisher. Who are you?"

Zalia hesitated. "I... I'm Zalia." She said, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Pretty name." Maizy said, much more quietly than Liily.

Zalia thanked them and started walking up the steps. Before she entered the crowded room, she finally removed her cape. A sharp squeal behind her told her that Liily was surprised.

Zalia had employed a local seamstress to create the dress for her, paying with one of the remaining gold wolf pelts. It was a sleeveless dress, but with small glove-sleeves reminiscent of Zalia's Wolf-hunter outfit. The glove-sleeves attached to flowing ombre white-to-black lace draping, which paired well with the dress itself.

It was white and silver at the top, decorated along the seams and front with silver vines, but after the V waist, which had an ombre sash with a silver buckle, the long skirt darkened to a black. Around Zalia's shoulders was the silver wolf-pelt, which was pinned with her newly acquired moonstone wolf pin. Peeking out from under the cape-pelt was Zalia's late-mother's silver and crystal necklace, shaped like flames. Over Zalia's head was a white hood of the same material of the draping on her arms. The hood itself was actually connected to a silver vine circlet on Zalia's black hair.

Zalia walked into the room, which was even more crowded than she had first anticipated. She spotted Mary Loo, the head chef at the castle, wearing a bright red dress with crimson edging, talking to some minor lords. Zalia suspected that the dress was supposed to be flattering, but it mostly made Mary Loo look like a large, overripe tomato.

Zalia spied the food tables and headed over, but on the way, someone stopped her. "Hello, Lia." Zalia turned to see Chaltain, her least favorite servant in the whole world. Chaltain had once tried to be a wolf-hunter, merely to take away the position from her, but he had failed miserably. He now was constantly trying to find ways to undermine Zalia, who still didn't know why.

"Chal," Zalia greeted him, her tone level and cool. "Still finding terrible names for me?"

Chaltain snorted, his orange eyes flashing as they caught the light of the chandeliers. "Seems to me you're doing the same thing, Lia," he taunted mockingly. "I must say though, I hardly recognized you without your tattered smelly skins."

Zalia gave him a smile. "You mean the skins you once tried to wear, but failed? Talk about sour grapes, Chal. You could at least use them to make wine."

Chaltain tossed his long, unruly orange hair. "Lia, I made wine out of them when I became a servant. I now know, thanks to my utter geniusness, that this was the place for me."

Zalia barked a laugh. "Unfortunately, Chal, you still haven't learned humility. Perhaps a few more decades sweeping floors will teach you, but by then I'll be so famous and rich you couldn't even touch my reputation without burning up from the awesomeness."

Chaltain sighed. "And you talk about humility, Lia. Perhaps I'll beat you with that broom after I finish sweeping." He flashed her a cheeky grin, winked and said, "just wait Zalia. I'll take you down yet." Then he was gone, and Zalia was finally free to eat food.

->->->->O<-<-<-<-

After hours of eating half her body weight in salty corned beef, fluffy mashed potatoes, poached duck eggs, towers of pudding, and miles of flatbread, Zalia was glad she was a light weight, thin, orphaned nineteen-Star-cycle-old girl with an amazingly fast metabolism who spent her life running through dense woods shooting animals. She left the festival, traveled back to her cottage, and changed back into her wolf-hunting clothes. Even after the silky satin and soft silk, Zalia found something inherently right about the wolf-leather.

The moon had started to go down as Zalia headed out into the forest. The four wolves she had killed that day was more than enough for the quota tonight, so Zalia instead went into the woods for herbs, greens, and other useful flora.

The night was silent and still, with even the wind holding its breath. Up above, the storm clouds covered the new moon and stars, making the world a mess of shadows. Zalia hurried through the woods, trying to find her plants and get back to her cottage before the rain started falling and the lightning struck.

She pried out a wild yam, placing it in her basket where it thumped against the garlic and olives she had found. These, along with potatoes from the market would adorn the ducks she hoped to catch tomorrow, by the lake which the river ran down to. Racing down the slope, Zalia slid down a stone, grabbed a vine, and threw herself into the shadows that she knew was the small valley in the middle of the forest. Air raced past her as her ascent halted and she started spiraling towards the other side. Here, she felt like a bird, with wind beneath her wings, stars above her head, and shadows underfoot. All too soon the ground rushed up, and Zalia rolled onto the forest floor.

As she approached her cottage-on-the-river, rain could be heard pattering against the leaves, closer and closer, until Zalia was running through a fully-fledged downpour. She rushed inside her house, slammed the door, and laughed for the first time in a long time.