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Thunder Peaks, 1372 DR. 21st day of The Fading ~ Autumn Equinox.

The next morning, Aiden came to with a kink in his neck. His face felt strange as he sat up and he reached up with one hand to brush dry pine needles off. His legs and face were freezing. He discovered why when he looked down at himself and saw his torn pants. Oh right, he thought, the caravan attack.

He looked over to see Silvia staring at him. Now that it was daylight, he could easily make out what she was wearing. Thin leather boots, suede, probably quite expensive. The dress she was wearing was a rich dark green velvet. She was holding one of the ham haunches he'd left over the fire, with Scruff sitting next to her, clearly waiting for her to feed him some of it. She absently tore a piece off and held it out for the wolf-dog, who daintily picked it up off her hand before swallowing the piece of meat.

"Good morning," Aiden said, nodding to her. His stomach was growling still, and he stood up, quickly grabbing at his pants as they began to slide down his legs. Silvia quickly averted her eyes, blushing a fiery red, as Aiden pulled his pants back up.

"Sorry," he apologized. He felt his face began to blush from embarrassment as well. He walked over to the fire and pulled the other leg of ham off, using one hand to keep what was left of his pants up. He sat back down and began to eat, occasionally tearing a piece off and tossing it to Scruff, who snapped the pieces of meat out of the air.

Aiden pulled the belt off his pants to inspect the buckle. The metal rod in the middle of the buckle had snapped at the bottom and was bent badly at the top. He had a feeling that bending it back in to place would snap it off. The buckle was a complete loss. He took the buckle off and tossed it into the wood, swearing. He coiled the belt up and stuffed it into his pack. Then he remembered the belt he'd taken from the dead guard. He lifted it off his shoulders, sword and all and set the thing down to inspect it. There were prongs on the top and bottom of this buckle that would act as a loop, but didn't use as much metal. The buckle itself was steel, and the belt a much thinner piece of leather. He flexed the leather of the belt easily. It would probably stretch and warp with time, but on the other hand, the buckle wouldn't snap if he turned into...well, whatever it was he turned into.

Aiden set the belt down and laid his various weapons out. The bastard sword and longsword would probably be best. He put the shortsword in his pack with his old belt. His next order of business was to see how badly his shirt and chainmail were damaged. He undid the clasp of his cloak, thanking the Divines that he'd been wearing it extremely loose yesterday.

As he reached his arms up to take his chain shirt off, he felt the thing slide open in the back. He didn't even need to lift it over his head so much as pull his arms out of it and pull the rest over his head. A few links had snapped around the arm and arm pit area, but that didn't concern him. He might even leave it like that. What did concern him was the face that it had pulled apart completely in the back. The line of broken links went from collar almost all the way to lower back. It would take a blacksmith to repair the damn thing. If he could find a smith that would add links to it though, he might be able to get the thing large enough to fit him if he changed again. His shirt was hanging off him in tatters, the arms and sides having torn badly at the seams and the laces on the front were snapped, the shirt itself had ripped a good hand-span down the front. He pulled the thing thing off, shivering as the cold morning air hit his bare skin, and began digging through his pack for a needle and thread.

Eventually he found it and began to stitch up the sides of the shirt, keeping the stitching very loose in case he had to shift again. Fixing the shirt didn't take him that long, especially when he wasn't bothering keeping the stitching neat and tight. He even managed to finish up without pricking his fingers more than a dozen times.

A faint rustling attracted his attention as Silvia shifted and he looked up to see if there was something wrong. As he looked up at her, she quickly jerked her head down and he got the feeling that she had been staring at him. The thought of her staring at him without his shirt on was somehow faintly embarrassing.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you."

"Once I've got these clothes mended somewhat, we'll need to get to Tilverton, and let someone know what happened. It's less than a days travel, and if we walk fast we can get there before sundown. The guard back at the wagon is injured and needs help."

She began to sniffle and tear up at that, and he pulled his shirt back on. He started to get up, but she put her hand out, palm toward him. "No, no...I'm okay," she said between sniffles, "I'm okay."

"I'm sorry about your father. If it's any consolation, he probably didn't even feel it when he died. Silvia nodded, sniffling, and bit down on her lower lip. "Why were you a monster yesterday," She asked him, "and why aren't you a monster now? Are you a rakshasa?"

"I'm not sure. What's a rakshasa? The guard asked the same thing" he asked.

"Um...They're a race of cat... er... people. They're all wizards or something." It seemed like she was trying to be polite about it, and trying to find words that didn't offend.

Aiden shook his head. "I was out hunting a month or so ago, and was attacked by something. Things started getting weird after that, and my mother thought I had contracted something called lycanthropy. Apparently I turn into an animal sometimes."

She looked somewhat frightened at that. "Like a werewolf?" she asked.

"I guess. I'm not a wolf, though. My dog scruff there is a wolf, or....part-wolf. Don't worry, he won't bite." As he realized she might be afraid of being turned into a were-animal herself, and added "Neither will I."

He looked down, going back to mending his clothes. It was only a few seconds later when she spoke again.

"You looked more like a tiger than a wolf."

Aiden looked up again. "I've never seen a tiger. I thought they were supposed to be orange with black stripes. That's what my mother told me anyway."

"They are. I saw one in Calimshan once, at a carnival. Your face looked like it did, except white instead of orange. You even had the same stripes."

Aiden didn't know what to say to that, and went back to mending clothing. He looked down at his pants, and sighed. He'd have to take them off to mend them, and they were mostly alright. They had split down the seams on the sides of the thighs, but seemed mostly okay other than that. He looked up at Silvia and asked, "Do you mind turning around? I need to mend my pants."

She turned around, still sitting on the bedroll that he'd laid out on the ground. He quickly stripped the pants off, frowning as his loincloth went too. Apparently the strap on one side of the loincloth had given way. That needed to be fixed for sure.. He laid his pants over his legs to cover himself and began sewing the strap back together.

"So, tell me what happened when you were attacked and turned into a were-tiger." Silvia said, facing away from him. He frowned at the term were-tiger, but figured it was probably as correct as werewolf.

"Well, I'd gone hunting out east of town. I went pretty far out into Cormanthor forest. More-so than I normally do anyway. I camped the night out, and the next day I found some deer tracks. I took down a buck, and tied him, and then started heading back home, carrying it. It was dusk, when the...um...tiger jumped out of the underbrush at me. It bit my arm. Broke it, actually. I ran. I guess it was just after the deer though, since it didn't chase me."

Aiden finished the stitching on his loincloth and stood up to put it back on. He slid his loincloth back on and sat down to start working on the pants.

"So, what happened after?" Silvia asked.

"Well, I didn't wake up for a while, and when I did, I was naked. My shirt had been torn into long strips, I think to wrap it up. There was a note carved into a nearby tree, and I think the...er...were-tiger that attacked me somehow found me and bandaged my arm."

He thought for a moment, remembering how there had been a message carved in bark with an apology. It made sense now, in a way.

"I don't know. It took me a few days to get back home since I'd twisted my leg at some point, and my arm was broken. My arm healed far faster than it should have. It was strange. My mother was the one who thought I might have lycanthropy. She gave me a necklace to wear just in case. It's supposed to keep me from turning all the way into an animal. I guess it works."

Silvia was silent, thankfully, while he worked at stitching up the holes in his pants. The buttons on the front of the trousers had popped clean off. He had no idea where they were by now, and didn't have any spares. He'd have to pull them up tight and make sure his belt kept the pants closed.

After a bit, she asked him "Werewolves only turn into wolves on the full moon. They're supposedly very vicious, and like to kill. Yesterday wasn't a full moon at all, and you turned into a tiger-man before the sun even went down, when we were attacked."

Aiden nodded, then remembered that she was facing away from him. "Yes. I took a hit in the fight, and panicked. I thought I was going to die and started changing. Actually, now that I think about it, I took an awful lot of hits in the fight..."

"Werewolves are supposedly only vulnerable to magic and silver. Maybe the same thing applies to were-tigers." Silvia supplied.

"I took a lot of hits, and I know they definitely hurt. I know I had punctures from the spikes on some of the weapons they were using. I certainly healed fast though."

"Hmm. Are you going to turn into a tiger during the full moon as well?"

"Probably." he said as he finished stitching up one leg. He snapped the thread off with his teeth and flipped the pants over to start on the other leg.

"Oh." It seemed that she had finally run out of questions.

The more that he thought about it, the more he realized that being a were-tiger was probably the only thing that had saved him in that ambush. He probably owed the Gods more than a little thanks. He mused on that for a moment, pondering which deity to thank. Normally he usually gave thanks to Mielikki, The Forest Queen. Now that he thought about it, he'd had a dream of stars when he'd been making his way home after the attack, and he vaguely remembered from his childhood that his mother had mentioned that the Moonmaiden was the Goddess of the moon and stars, travelers, questers, and some good shape-changers. Perhaps she was the patron of good Lycanthropes too. Given that, it would be wiser to appeal to Selûne now, seeing as the moon was going to be a permanent part of his life unless he managed to find a cure for the disease he now had to deal with. So far though, it had definitely proven to be more helpful than a hindrance. If he hadn't been a weretiger, he would have died yesterday. Then again, he might not have even been with the caravan either. He finished sewing up the second leg of his pants and pulled them on, then tied the new belt 'round his waist.

His pants stayed up. They would do for now, and he had two other changes of clothing in his backpack just in case. It might prove wise to wear these though, seeing as they had already been damaged, and he didn't know what was going to happen in the next few days. He put everything back in his pack, including the broken chain shirt, and closed it up, making sure everything was tied down.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

Silvia stood up and moved off the blanked and bedroll, turning around to face him. Aiden picked them up and shook them off, rolling them both up, then tied them to the top of the pack. He picked up his cloak, wondering if he'd need it. The last few days had been quite warm, but he hadn't been up in the mountains. He rolled it up and put it in the pack, knowing he could always take it out in case he or Silvia needed it. It would probably get quite cold going over the mountain pass, especially this close to Leaffall. He slung the pack over his shoulders and picked up his bow, then began walking back toward the road.