Crisp, clean cold filled the air in Ondoland as the sun faded from the sky and a grinning ranger made his way through the streets, listening to the varied conversations for a moment each as he passed various people, taking care to ignore various insults and especially private words. Every so often he tossed a greeting to the few merchants he knew well, and shortly extanged words describing their conditions. As darkness began to cover the city as he pressed eastward the lupine's eyes adjusted well and swiftly to the faded light.

Limping on a brief incline he noticed the moon was full, meaning poor luck for him. His lunacy seemed to burst out in proportion to the size of Isiltelpë. Regardless, the evening was pleasent. At the moment, Gaurn felt no rage, no desire to maim. If nothing changed, and his simple task of going to buy supplies to create more traps remained routine, all would remain calm.

Mentally chanting that he would retain control of himself, Gaurn pressed on. As he neared the shop that the ranger had been seeking, however, something shattered his focus in one magnificent blow. A great flash appeared before the lupine's eyes, blinding him entirely. He closed his eyes and leaped backward, slipping on a thin patch of ice and then falling over.

Yet all this served to do was change the color of the flash from bright orange to a slightly darker orange. That, and, of course, injure his rear end. As he lay on the iced cobblestones, Gaurn attempted to restore focus to his rage. He brought back a shaky control to himself. Pleased, he stumbled back to his feet, opened his eyes once more to see a torch pointed at him. This sight stung, but no longer blinded him.

Confused, he attempted to gaze past at that figure holding the torch, but he could not discern anything, save that it was a woman. He was speachless, unable to request the torch be removed. It didn't matter, though, she was doing all of the speaking. She shouted out at him for being a beast and being in his way, as well as he understood, the words all flowed together.

An instant after he caught a good look at her tanned skin, wrinkles and short, grey hair, she hit him on the chest with the torch. His shirt didn't catch fire, for she had a very swift way of striking, however in that instant the blunt force and the heat combined to create an intense pain, all while knocking him back down. In this instant, Gaurn lost control of himself. All he was able to say before taking his staff and swinging her torch out of her hand was, "Somebody stop me!"

The night was dark even though the moon was full and her senses were heightened. It was slightly cold as she walked through the mountianus area even though it was summer, she sighed as her grey eyes looked at the ground sadly. She had returned after a month of isolation training her mind and body, but only to come back and find that the world she knew was shattered. The most devistating news was to learn that her best friend and rival, Zenith Meria the very angel who showed her the light, had lost it and became a fallen angel bent on destroying the world she had come to love. She had hidden the sadness in her heart, still uncertian of what would happen if they met face to face once again. She figured that she would figure it out then. She shook her head and walked on the path as she pulled the cloak over her head, the silver sheen brightened the darkness in the reflection of the moon looking up at the sky, stars bright.

She put her hand over her heart feeling it pulse, it was still there, still whole but for some reason it seemed colder. The feelings of pain that she hid away regained themselves once again. She sighed and walked the path once again but unfortunately she could not focus herself on one subject. Her past seemed to be repeating itself, and she knew that one person, one of her friends would be taking Daggers place. She shook her head and pushed her thoughts out of her head and cleared her mind. Suddenly she heard someone scream. She ran towards the area where the call had come from, a lupine was shown fighting a woman. The lupine swung his staff as he called, "Somebody stop me!" Already drawing her sword she teleported in between the two and drew her holy blade and blocked the attack. "I would stop before you hurt someone. Ma'am, you best leave. This creature is dangerous and I can take it from here. Go home where it is safe, out in the dark alone armed with just that torch is not a good idea." she said. The woman looked at the lupine and then at her uncertian of what to do then left. "The danger has passed, lower your weapon before I am forced to take even more drastic measures." she said as she locked eyes with the lupine. "Put away yoru weapon and I will do the same with mine." she commanded.

Rage continued to cloud Gaurn's mind. Another fighter. Different, not attacking, but she has a weapon. She said something, he didn't know what it was. She was calm, though. She was firm, annoyed, perhaps, distressed, perhaps, but calm. Attackers weren't calm. This seemed to be how it was. But she stopped him. Gaurn was defending himself. Gaurn was fighting, not attacking. He was... protecting himself. The other was gone, though. Who was he protecting himself from? The new one? The new one was not attacking. Not yet, that was. Disarming? No. The new one was stronger then Gaurn.

Through his excessive thought, though, Gaurn gradually became free from his anger, sobriety slowly overtaking it. Instantly, his grip loosened on his staff and he pulled it back. Once his mind was clear enough, once his thoughts had become coherant, he became able to understand what had happened. He had lost control, and a woman now standing before him had saved him from his rage. The ranger wasn't certain of the finer details, but he believed himself to understand the most important parts.

Eventually, the lupine worked up enough courage to finally say something, "I am sorry about this. I am so very, very sorry. When the moon is out like this and I- I am very sorry, I really am." This was, however, all that the mammoth ranger could manage before simply progressing to sobbing and whimpering. He cursed his affliction, he cursed the moon and he cursed the day Gayadroug's foul scheme began to play out, allowing his existance today. Above all, though, Gaurn cursed his own weakness. Here he stood, in front of a heroic woman who had prevented him from doing something normally unthinkable, and he could not even thank her, only sob like an idiot.

This was wrong. The lupine should have been buying supplies in the store for new traps. He should have dealt with the situation at hand instead of becoming a slave to his feral mind. He should have simply thanked the woman, explained, and been on his way. Here he was, though, supporting nearly all of his weight with a staff, unable to stand otherwise and sobbing like a child. Gaurn had become even weaker then when he set out for control a year ago. Even as all of this rushed into his head, all of this sober thought, he couldn't stop his damn crying.

The Lupine stood apparently dazed or confused about what she was doing. She wondered if he was even listening to her reasoning for stoping his attacks. Soon she smelled that he was calming down, growing more somber and understanding. The power of the moon had lessened on him and she knew that he was becoming more sane. She held her grip tight still but waited for him to attack or lower his weapon. She waited for his reaction, soon he spoke up and lowered his weapon.

"I am sorry about this. I am so very, very sorry. When the moon is out like this and I- I am very sorry, I really am." He said as his voice shook when he spoke obviously ashamed of the way he had acted. He began to whimper and sob, it made this proud speicies sound like some puppy she had punished. He began to curse everything about himself, he could not seem to stand tall and proud. She lowered her weapon as he supported himself on the staff he wielded. She looked at him and remembered the times she had sat down and cried herself to sleep as a child because of who she was, but she was who she was for a reason, maybe she could help this lupine like Dagger had helped her.

She looked at her sword, a holy blade that shined in the dark, illuminating the small area around them. Shetheing it on her back she walked up to him and slowly put her hand on his back reasuringly, If only we could change who we are. she thought. She gave him a calming hug, "Its okay, you did not hurt anyone, your safe...Stop crying, your okay right now. I stopped her from harming you and your safe. Don't be scared." she said holding him steady trying to calm him down. She knew how hard it was to be different, to be hurt to be the way you did not want to be.