"Was I A Bad Dog?"

 The moon was finally back to normal, and had been for a little bit, now. Nibbles groaned as she came out of her sleep, licking her chops somewhat. Was that blood?

She sniffed the air, cracking an eye open. Why was the smell of blood everywhere? Did Talia’s stash spill on the floor?

No, ground. She was on the ground and outside, going to sit up. Somewhere ahead, she could see Talia and Sara in conversation. They were discussing just what to do next.

“We wait to see if she can be revived, first,” Talia said. “Or if Amaia comes back. The more forces we have to take this fiend down, the better.”

Nibbles let out a confused little wuff, and the vampire was the first to face her.

“Hey…” Talia started, tone cautious.

“Hey…” Nibbles replied. “My head hurts and everything tastes like blood.”

The vampire sighed, walking over to the werewolf. It was clear that something was bothering her, like there was something she wanted to discuss with her but wasn’t sure how to approach the subject. Nibbles looked around, soon seeing Millie’s form on the ground.

She walked over. “Hey...you gonna wake up?” she asked her favorite human.

No response. “How much magic did she use? C’mon, Food Giver…!”

Still nothing. “...Millie?”

Nope.

The werewolf looked at her companions, ears down, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy. “...Why won’t she wake up?”

Sara and Talia exchanged glances. “You wanna tell her or should I?” the drider asked, arms crossed.

“Well…” Talia started, taking a breath to prepare. “Our enemy showed up and caused a blood moon eclipse. That makes werewolves like you lose all control. We all wanted to make sure you weren’t harmed, and the idea of a sleep spell came about. But while your human was casting it, you...well, you killed her.”

Nibbles looked stunned. “But...but she’ll be okay, right” she asked, not quite grasping what it was she’d done.

“If Amaia is successful, then we can assume so,” Talia said. “They headed to the Underworld to retrieve her.”

“How? She’s right there…”

Talia reached up and gave the werewolf some pets. “You’re still young, aren’t you?” she asked.

“I’m five.”

Talia wondered if now was a good time to give Nibbles the talk about death or if it was better suited to a later point. Sara skittered her way to the werewolf, tucking a bit of blonde hair behind an ear.

“What happened is you hurt your human real bad,” she explained. “You weren’t in control, but she still got hurt…”

And then it sank in for Nibbles, as she began to cry.

She’d played rough with her human before. She knew that much. But her human was always okay afterwards, and always told her that she loved her and gave her pets. It wasn’t like she ever intended to hurt her, especially not to this extent. She’d always been called a good dog.

But now she wasn’t so sure about that part.

“There’s still some hope to get her back,” Talia told her. “Like I said, Amaia went to look into that, and if they can reason with Hades, it’ll happen. I doubt she’s upset with you, just what happened to you.”

“Promise?” the wolf sniffled.

“Of course,” the vampire told her with a reassuring smile.

Nibbles hugged her tightly, tears stopping after a little bit. “So...what now?”

“We wait for our friend to get back with news, one way or the other.”

The werewolf nodded, but still let out a little whimper.

Sara looked at her, before going to give her some scratches behind the ears. “Any ideas, while we’re waiting?” she asked.

“Nope.”

Sara sighed. “Crap...well, what do we do if we don’t get the witch back?” she asked.

Talia crossed her arms. “Well, we know what our target looks like now. And we know that werewolf saliva can help us against his machinations. So it’s not like the situation’s entirely hopeless.”

“I’m not a bad dog, am I…?” Nibbles asked after a moment.

“Of course not,” Talia told her. “That’s just what the blood moon causes: a loss of control. It doesn’t matter if a werewolf is a full-on paragon of virtue, the blood moon makes them go insane for its duration.”

Nibbles nodded, going to the ruins of Anton’s house. At the moment, he, Shay, and Lia were figuring out how best to fix their home. Bria held Valentina’s head, this time, and seemed a little deflated.

“Are you sure I can’t eat that?” she asked. “I mean, it’s not like you can use it anymore…”

“I know that eating raw flesh is a thing for you, but can it please not be MY body?” Valentina asked, eyes pleading.

“I mean, she’s got a point,” Anita put in, glancing at the zombie. “It’s weird enough being a permanent out-of-body experience, but can we please not eat someone in the family?”

“Fine…” Bria sighed, pouting a bit.

“Need any help?” Nibbles asked as she got there, looking at Anton, Lia, and Shay.

The mage glanced over at her. “Not opposed,” he said, directing her toward some of the debris.

The werewolf started picking a few things up, tail wiggling a bit as she helped.

“Can you use magic to put stuff back together?” she asked.

“That’ll still take me a bit,” Anton said. “I did it the first time. See, before I came here, I used to be an architect. So, I was able to hash out some designs for this place. The initial construction took a lot of time and energy, and expansions were a bit simpler to deal with.”

“You want some backup when you take the fight to him again?” Shay called, looking toward Talia.

“Only if you’d want to participate,” the vampire said, walking over to help with the debris, as well.

Sara followed her. “You know what’s funny?” she said as she picked up a piece of roof. “I think I dated that guy.”

Everyone looked at the drider, wanting as much information as possible.

Shrugging, she set it aside and picked up another piece for the pile. “Well, a while back, a guy that looked a lot like the dude we’re up against wandered through my part of the woods—a lot like your group,” She looked at Talia. “I didn’t get his name, but we hooked up for a little bit before he headed off. He invited me to go with, but I just said ‘Nah, you do you, though’, and went on my merry way.”

“Anything you remember about him that we can use?” Talia asked, red eyes wide.

“Not really,” Sara admitted. “I’m more just annoyed that I’m not the only one in this group that isn’t somehow connected to your problem anymore.”

“Why’d you go with them, then?” Shay asked, curious.

“Boredom, pretty much. If I went with my fling that one time, I would have gotten to go on some kind of quest, and I wouldn’t be quite so bored. Plus, they had a very cute werewolf with them.

Talia chuckled. “Didn’t you want to drink her fluids?”

“Hey, a drider can have both, right? Appreciate a pup’s cuteness and want their blood!”

“I kinda like where my blood is right now, though…” Nibbles said.

”And that’s why Millie freaked out on her in the first place,” Talia added.

The group continued gathering and stacking the debris, to see what could be put back together.

“Where do you think this guy would be hiding out, anyway?” Valentina asked after a moment.

Now that, nobody quite knew the answer to. Tracking spells weren’t entirely a known thing in the area. Sky-changing, conjuring, glamours, and sleep spells were, of course. But tracking? Not so much.

One of the ten-eyed birds showed up again, circling overhead for a while before flying off. Talia watched it take off, sighing in irritation.

“He’s been spying on us, but the inability to track him is a bit of a pain…” she muttered.

Sara nodded, her spider legs tapping against the ground in frustration. “Probably can’t, like, catch one of those and find some way to track him…”

The vampire pondered this. Would that work? Was there some way to make it work? It seemed that she wasn’t the only one trying to figure this out, as Shay pounded a fist into her palm.

“Next time we see one, I’m grabbing it,” she said.

“Because you can fly?” Nibbles asked.

“Yep.”

Nibbles started walking off, sniffing around. Talia rushed after her, asking where she was going.The werewolf turned and looked at her.

“I’m seeing if I can find another of the hell-birds and you guys can try and find how to track him.”

The vampire nodded approvingly. Nobody knew if that would work, of course...But the only way to find out for sure was to catch one and try it.

“See? You’re not a bad dog at all,” she said, giving the werewolf a reassuring pat on the arm.

Nibbles’ tail wiggled.