Moonlit Friendship

## Content Information

Arsling walked back to Carter Hall the low sunlight on her skin, she could still feel the moons tug on her even though it had not risen but not as much as the day before, afterall Arsling wouldn’t be forced to shift this time, regardless she was excited to return home, only returning in the morning to get her textbooks, she knocked on the front door “FBI here to arrest all cute supernerds!”

“Sorry, no supernerds here…” came the reply from Tamzen’s room. “Just regular nerds.”

“Damn, guess I'll have to breach in order to make sure!” Arsling says pulling her key out of her pocket and opening up the dorm striding in, wearing the same clothes she got from the forest, making her look even smaller and cuter, the outfit being a green oversized sweater, jogging bottoms and sandals “So, how was yesterday? I hope it wasn’t as traumatic as Didi warned”

Tamzen turned from her search of the closet, an oversized fluffy black sweater draped over her arm. “Not in the least. You seemed happy afterwards, and that’s what mattered to me.” She held out one arm, inviting Linny into a hug. “I didn’t hear any news reports, so you all must have had a pretty uneventful evening.”

Arsling leaped into the hug a memory drifting into her mind of approaching Tamzen and licking her hand and sniffing and cuddling her “y-yeah, i don’t remember most of the night, all i remember is that i was happy and i killed a bison...and now giving you and xander wolf kisses”

Tamzen smiled and squeezed Linny tighter to her. “That was a weird feeling… almost as weird as hugging you when you are shorter than me…” she teased, ruffling her friend’s hair.

Arsling’s hair didn’t really need ruffling. It was ruffled already “yeah, although” she lifts Tamzen up  like it’s nothing “i think the abs make up for it” before putting Tamzen down.

Tamzen *whooped* in surprise as Arsling lifted her off the ground, breaking into giggles. “Careful there - don’t break the roommate! The little goblins have first dibs on that this week.”

“I do have some questions, and I'm going to try asking...the moon,” Arsling said, smirking at the ridiculousness of her statement.

Tamzen looked at her, frowning thoughtfully. “What do you have in mind?”

“Also, Gremlins?” Arsling says curiously before her smirk falls “well i guess the main question is finding out how much of what i feel around the pack is my actual emotions and not instincts, also what effect my curse might’ve had on my Lycanthrope”

“*Goblins*… my niblings,” Tamzen explained with a smile. “I’m staying with Kitty and her wife while I’m out of town this week. They’ve got five.” She laughed, a bit apologetically. “Sorry, didn’t mean to change the subject. Is this a thing that all werewolves can do? I mean… ‘asking the moon’?”

“Apparently not, according to the packs magical nerd it’s different between wolves, i just so happened to get premonitions from the moon talking to me, trying to see if it’ll hear me” Arsling smiled “at worst i’ll just look crazy”

Tamzen tilts her head. “Well… do you want company when you try this?”

“Of course, I’d want your company regardless of what i'm doing” Arsling smiled as she looked out the window, the sun beginning to set “i’ll also try shifting, just to try and get used to it more” Arsling says letting go of Tamzen and opening the door to her own room “pretty sure my moon powers won’t be as cool as your psychic stuff”
Tamzen nodded. “Tonight then? Where do you want to do this?”

“Maybe the springs? Just gimme a second.'' Arsling grabs a backpack “for when i shift, don’t wanna ruin these clothes, they’re comfy” Arsling smiles also grabbing mighty brid and passing it to Tamzen.
Tamzen grabbed the sword and staggered slightly under the weight. “Oof… a little bit heavier than the stuff I use at practice.”

“It’s not that heavy” Arsling opens up her window getting ready to hop threw “got anything you wanna do before we head up?”

“Didn’t say it was heavy, just *heavier…* is there a reason we aren’t going out the front door?”

“Yeah, windows cooler” Arsling jumps threw smirking back at Tamzen “bet you can't jump threw”

“Okay, okay… hang on…” Tamzen ducked back into her room, and threw a couple of things in her own bag: notebook, pen, recording device. She threw her jacket on, and followed Linny through the window. “Let’s go.”

*Later, on the way up*

Arsling had begun singing it's a long way to tipperary jokingly as they hiked up before stopping “love this trail...it’s relaxing y'know”

“Yeah…” Tamzen said, looking around. “I can’t remember how long it’s been since I came up this way. Dad and I used to come up here all the time when I was growing up.”

“Awww, thats cute” Arsling says a smile on her face, sniffling at the air incase there's danger after all leachmouths are stealthy assholes “reminds me of this path near the river back in Kill...that's the name of my hometown by the way, im not turning into a murderous robot” Arsling jokes

“Just ‘Kill’? That’s all the town was named?” Tamzen asked, sure her friend was teasing her. She glanced off into the woods on either side of the path, alert for dangers in the woods.

“No i’m serious, Village Kill in county Killdare, near county Dublin, it’s pretty nice, had an old family house, must’ve been the oldest in town” she smiles “sounds better in Gaelic rather than english, still not as nuts as any of the welsh town names”

Tamzen looked over at her friend. “Do… do you ever miss it? Like, wish you hadn’t come here…?”

Arsling thinks for a few seconds “sometimes, but i was tired of Fae y’know, and living with my dad wasn’t the best, so looking for a break from the supernatural i decided to come here, its pretty ireland, i definitely wanna return, just worried about the fae catching wind and having a celebration in my face, i like it here, i didn’t have friends back home, here i do, you and xander are fucking awesome, Selene is surprising really nice for a celebrity and in the last two years i had barely been hunted, it was like normal life y’know”

“Well, I guess it caught up with you after all, huh…” Tamzen said, quietly. There was a moment of hesitation, then: “Linny… I’m sorry. I was there, and I should have tried harder to stop her…”

Arsling tuts a few times “Tamzen Tamzen Tamzen, you’re a badass, but you’re not stopping a werewolf with your bare hands badass” Arsling puts an arm on Tamzens shoulder “you couldn’t have stopped her, i punched her twenty times and she didn’t even feel it...regardless what's done is done sweetheart, i’m...one of them now” arsling tries to calm her best friend as they approach the spring

Tamzen sighs. “I know… I just feel guilty... Like-” she took a deep breath. “Like, there were so *many* ways that if something had been different, you would have had more warning… That note - if I had seen it, I could have told you that Didi was a werewolf… or *something*…”

Arsling looked up “would you? You only knew about me the day after i got concussed, and you don’t strike me as the type to spill friends secrets” Arsling asks sincerely as she places a hand on Tamzens shoulder

“Maybe not right away… but once I knew? I could have…” She sighed and slumped against a nearby tree, looking down at her feet. “I dunno. Maybe I’d be here kicking myself for something else entirely if I’d seen the note.”

“You say there's many ways that could’ve ended, an infinite number of ways, Didi could’ve decided not to turn me, i could’ve brought Mighty Brid, Xander could’ve not tried to bite that fae, you can’t beat yourself up for this” Arsling ruffles Tamzens hair “nothing you could’ve done” Arsling walks towards the spring setting down the bag and kicking off her sandals and dipping her feet into the spring.

“Yeah, I guess my brain just wants me to feel guilty right now…” Tamzen conceded, taking off her shoes and sitting down next to Linny.

“Well your brain is a dick, i’ll beat it up if it keeps insulting my best friend” Arsling smiles, moonlight on her face as she slides off her sunglasses, her yellow eyes glowing “so then time to ask a giant rock deep personal questions”

Tamzen nods, “Let me know if you need me to do anything, otherwise, I’m just going to sit right here.”

Arsling nods before looking at the moon, focusing calmly, to Tamzen nothing happens but for Arsling the moon seems to burn with a light glow as Arsling mumbles under her breath “...do I truly love didi...or is it just instincts?” the sky burns white in Arslings vision its reflected in her eyes, that Tamzen would see, as Arsling hears in her ears the voice of her mother “yes, your love is true, your respect for her is not” The fire leaves the sky and her eyes with Arsling snapping back down to reality before looking at tamzen almost crying “she...she sounds like my mam...and she said my feelings aren’t fake”

Tamzen smiled and pulled Linny closer to her, hugging her tightly. “That’s… that’s wonderful!”

Arsling hug tightens crying happy tears “her head lay in tamzens shoulder filled with emotion, the moon smiling down at her, she felt that glow still, like the sky was still burning “the sky was on fire it was beautiful”

“I wish I could have seen it,” Tamzen said, wistfully.

“Yeah, so do I” she moved out of the hug “i’ll be right back, don’t think you wanna see my bare butt” Arsling winks as she goes behind the tree leaving Tamzen alone for a few seconds.

“How is that different from when you normally traipse around our room?” Tamzen called out, teasingly.

“Would you rather I strip in front of you?” Arsling jokes as she pulls off her sweater

“How long do you think you want to be up here? Long enough for me to have a soak?”

“To be honest I could be here all night, definitely long enough to soak!” Arsling says as she drops her pants and begins focusing

Tamzen quickly stripped down to her underwear, quickly shoving her clothing in her bag and leaving it under a nearby bush before hurrying to submerge herself in the water.

Arslings shifting glow could be seen as suddenly you hear muffled by the water “CANNONBALL!” Diving into the pool is this big ginger wolf or ‘cutie’ as Fluffy had referred to the canine form of Arsling, the dog sinks in front of Tamzens view, waving a front paw

Tamzen smiles, a bit hesitant. “Do...do you remember me today?”

Cutite grins wolfishly “yeah, according to Fluffy that should only be a one time thing” Cutie doggie paddles into Tamzen, her fur despite being soaked is very soft and cozy feeling, putting King Botato to shame...almost.

Tamzen squealed. “How is your nose still cold?” She broke into giggles, and floated deeper into the spring, treadling water gently with her arms.

“Magic nose, another superpower of mine” Cutie says paddling around Tamzen “how's Xander doing? He say anything yesterday?” She finds a rock sticking out just enough to be used as a doggie seat.

“Oh god, that’s right. I haven’t had the chance to tell you all the details of what happened on Saturday!” Tamzen glanced over at her friend. “Xander’s grandmother, *Gertrude*, is in town.”

Cuties instinctual protectiveness kicks in, hearing the tone in her voice she looks worried “don’t like how that sounds” She says planting her butt in the rock seat.

“Oh, trust me… you have *no* idea.” Tamzen cringed, then ducked under the water for a moment. She popped back up to the surface and gasped. “She’s an absolute monster, and I’m not talking about the snake thing.”

Cutie growls hearing about her “what does she do?” clearly thinking about something

“Well, she shows up out of nowhere, takes my seat, mistakes me for one of the waitstaff, and apparently an extremely slow one…’*chop chop!’*” she mimics with a roll of the eyes. “Then proceeds to absolutely grill Xander in public about stuff for the company. The poor guy tries to stand up to her, but she absolutely steam-rollers him.”

Cutie bears her teeth “this lady has made the wrong enemies” A clear intent to hurt Gertrude in her eyes

“Yeah, you and me both Linny, but… *no*. It’s the wrong move right now. If she thinks she or Xander is in danger, she’s going to pack him right off to wherever he came from, and he’s going to be alone with her, with none of his friends around to help.” She gave her friend a serious look. “She was right on the verge of doing that, just because of what happened the night you were changed.”

She sank back down into the water, letting her hair pool on the surface behind her. “So, the restaurant owner is an old friend of Xander’s, and he and his daughter gave me a pep talk… and a really large glass of wine… and half a glass later, I’m staring her down and telling her she’s in my spot.” She sighed and sank below the surface again.

“FUCK YEAH TAMZEN!” Cutie yells filled with pride, her tail wagging heavily “you’re awesome dude! Wish i could’ve been there...although its good i’m wasn’t i’m too stupid for it”

“Yeah… turns out it was really impressive. It sure as hell impressed *that woman*. She grilled me about my opinion on something I could honestly care less about, cornered me into answering… so I gave her an answer I was *sure* would piss her off… and she laughed!”

“Ah, what a bitch, and that's coming from me” Cutie says trying to cheer up the mood, departing from the suit and wrapping her forelegs on Tamzens shoulders giving her a doggie cuddle

“Whoa!” Tamzen cries out as the extra weight from Linny pushes her under the water momentarily. “Hang on… I was floating!” She scrambled to move back over to the rocks at the side of the spring, and found a place to settle comfortably, then waved Linny back over. “Okay, now you can come over and do that.”

Cutie hops next to Tamzen, resting her head on Tamzens shoulder.

“So she sends Xander away, and starts giving me the third degree… who is my family, am I a gold digger, what do I want with her precious grandson.” Tamzen reaches up with one hand to scritch the top of Linny’s muzzle. “Then she asked me if that cool and confident person that told her off earlier was the real me, and could I replicate that in front of a boardroom full of egomaniacs… and I admitted to her that she terrified me, and would probably have to be drunk to pull that off again.”

Tamzen groaned in frustration. “So, long story short... Xander gets to stay in town, but only because Gertrude has somehow decided that she’s going to groom me to take over for her one day - she doesn’t have a high opinion of Xander’s… ruthlessness. So she’s going to be in town for god knows how long, and Xander’s ability to stay here depends on my willingness to play her game.”

Cutie enjoys the scratches “his softness is his best quality, bitch doesn’t deserve to have blood relation to Xander, or technical relation to you, I don’t think she could groom you into her, you’ve got to much of a soul and a heart for that...I can tell because of the head scratches”

Tamzen chuckles, and continues with the head scratches. “Well, that’s the hope at least.” She sighed. “I’m going to play along though. I like Xander, and I might even love him… the weeks since we’ve met have been kinda...*eventful*, so it’s hard to know for sure yet… but I know there’s *something* there. But I saw how easily she can reduce him to a quivering wreck, and I wouldn’t leave my own worst enemy at her mercy.”

She hesitated. “But someone like that doesn’t get to the top and stay there without serious amounts of power and leverage, and so she’s not someone you can take on head on. But if I can learn how she ticks, I might be able to use her own tricks against her… I can dig up secrets she’s never told *anyone*, if I learn how to use the Archive… and anything I can do in the meantime to give Xander some breathing room? I’m going to do that.”

She looked down at Linny, gaze intent. “You don’t have to like it, but promise me that you and Didi aren’t going to get involved with her unless Xander or I ask for it.”

Cutie thinks “i’ll try my best, but if she lays a claw on Xander or you, i won’t be able to let that stand, but i promise that’ll stay out of this as best i can…” Cutie moves her head getting her to scratch her ears, her back legs kick the water happily “ooooooooh that feels so nice”

Tamzen smiled, and sank down until just her head stuck out from the water. “Thanks. We’ve bought about eight or so months of breathing room, as long as we don’t tip our hand too early. We’d like to do a bit better than a pair of werewolves, if possible.” She considered telling Linny about Gertrude’s other demand, but decided against it.

“Well, there's a few more than a pair of werewolves that i think would be willing to help...what does gertrude do by the way? cause like Xander is loaded and like that's where he gets his money right?” Cutie rested her head on the surface of the water staring up at the sky seeing everystar twinkle

“She runs the family business. And it’s big money. I think at least some of it is in tobacco, but honestly, from what I can tell, she’s stuck so far behind the reality of that market, there’s *gotta* be something else to where they get their money from. Maybe it’s something to do with the serpentine stuff? Maybe she just knows where all the skeletons are buried, but when she was going off on Xander, she seemed pretty damned confident of her ability to absolutely ruin him if he tried to break away, and I’m just not seeing that being the case if the family business is all there is.” She ducked under that water again, coming back up almost immediately. “Something to keep an ear out for while she’s training me, I guess.”

"Yeah definitely…I hate this, you and Xander don't deserve this, you deserve to be...I don't know carrying each other home bridal style and kissing at sunsets" Cutie says smirking "or swordfighting or something like that"

“No arguments there - I’ve got my first lesson with her grand high scalyness tomorrow, and then I’m escaping out of town for a work thing - which, since she *insisted* that I not tell Xander about her plans for me, I’ve at least got some leverage to keep my current job.” She glanced over at Linny. “Don’t worry, I told him everything as soon as the woman was out of earshot - because he was guaranteed to find out about it one way or another - probably the minute she decided I wasn’t properly kissing her ass anymore - and I’d rather he found out from me.”

"Good, you already got the upper hand...unless that's what she expected you to do but let's hope not, then again you've still got the upper hand" Cutie raises a paw and boops Tamzen’s forehead "powerful face of course" Cutie winks at their lame joke giggling slightly.

Tamzen giggled as well. “Yes. I’ll get through tomorrow, and then I’ll get 4 straight days of being far away from her, and getting to spend time with my dad, my sister, and all her little chaos goblins. And Xander will be at the tournament, so he’ll be distracted from all this for a few days as well. It’ll be nice to have some quiet time, for once. It’s been a bit too *eventful* for my tastes lately.”

"Yeah I get that...I gotta find a way to relax, can't remember if I told you but my pa's saving up to visit and I'm worried about him being in night falls, with everything about and all, between leachmouths and fae I'm worried about him" Cutie sighs "can't exactly tell him not to come...he misses me"

“No, I hadn’t heard that your dad wants to come visit.” Tamzen thought for a moment, then asked. “Is he cursed too?”

"No no he was lucky enough to avoid all that, he's just a middle aged man" Cutie tries using their tail as a propeller "I'm not that close to him"

“I’m sure it must be hard to get close to people, when you are worried about putting them in danger - maybe it’ll be easier, now that you’ve changed?”

“Yeah...it’s weird y’know, i think he deserves to know...theirs also the fact that this city is a fuckin mess” Cutie takes in some water and spews it upwards like a fluffy fountain

Tamzen giggles. “You get used to it after a year or ten.”

Cutie smiled “i’m gonna miss you when you're away y’know?” Cutie says before repeating the water trick

Tamzen wrapped her arm around Linny and gave her a hug. “Aww… you’re sweet to say it. I’ll miss you too - especially when I’m trying to wrangle the little goblins.” She laughed. “And I actually haven’t even been to visit since Kitty and Abby adopted the twins, so it’ll be extra chaotic now.”

“Oooh nice, i’m sure they’re be wrangled expertly, afterall you’ve managed keep me under relative control” Cutie smiles warmly “y’know if you don’t count the pranks and botato and needless destruction of an abandoned warehouse”

“True,” Tamzen conceded, playfully splashing water at Linny. “You do make for good practice.”

“I’m glad” Cutie smirks at the splash, splashing back with both forelegs.

*Some time later…*

“I don’t know why I didn’t think to at least bring a towel with me when we decided to come up here…” Tamzen grumbled, teeth chattering as she quickly stripped out of her wet underthings to change into her dry clothing. “A late night dip in the hot springs always sounds like a good idea, until you remember that eventually, you have to get out of the water again.” She looked over at Linny. “Are you going to change back?”

Cutie clambered out of the spring shaking their body like...well a wet dog, their fur fluffing up they look adorable for a giant magical wolf “no, i gotta get used to this form” they walk behind a tree grabbing their backpack in their maw and muffle out “can you carry thish?”

Tamzen laughed and reached down to take the backpack from Linny, giving her another scratch on the muzzle as she did so. “Yeah, I think I can manage.” She took a few steps towards the trail, and looked back at her friend. “Well… shall we?”

“Yeah! If anyone asks questions you’re just walking your massive steroid eating dog” Cutie waddles over, sniffing the air for danger, finding none they rub their head against Tamzens side, large tail wagging, the woods were quiet allowing the pair to stroll down the path without hindrance, some people looked oddly at Tamzen and Cutie but mostly ignored the nerd and what appeared to be her dog

Eventually they’d returned home, Cutie taking the window in and Tamzen sleepily following after, wordlessly Tamzen entered her room Cutie following behind, Tamzen slumped onto her bed and falls asleep, Cutie grabs the quilt putting it over her friend, they consider leaving the room so they could shift back and get to sleep themselves but they glance at Tamzen and return to the base of the bed, staring out the window before settling their head down and dreaming.