#heartsprout

Rhia and Yeven met during him struggling to deal with the fact that from birth, each night he turns into a large wolf and then by morning is human again with no memories from the night. His parents had tried to hide and repress that side of him, but this led to his wolf side becoming out of control and causing their deaths. After being separated from their travel partner on the way to a small village, Rhia had heard from a nearby town of the wolf that had slaughtered said village, but would hide during the day. It would be too far for it to travel to them before the sun was up, so they felt safe and left it alone, considering just burning the village to the ground and being done with it. Rhia hurried to catch their travel partner before they could enter the town, unaware of its fate, before night, and arrived shortly after nightfall to find their partners horse waiting alone outside the village, and no sign of either friend or beast Entering to locate their friend, Rhia found them already having perished, their weapon drawn but unused. Knowing they weren't alone, Rhia tried to leave without encountering the wolf, but it found them first and Rhia managed to fight it off, using small flashing bombs to cause it to flee At day break Rhia returned to the village, and followed her fallen companions red streak to where the beast hid. A small house, torn up inside with the former owners belongings strewn everywhere. A mangled corpse of a man, and the corpse of a woman bearing only a fatal wound to her neck and no other signs of attack. She still clung to a book, her journaling of raising the son she loved, despite his nightly transformations, and how her husband had steadily forced her to reject the wolf part of her child to try lift the curse And in the basement now huddled the 19 year old human form of Yeven, naked and cowering in the remains of a rough iron cage torn open. He was more and more able to recount the events that happened while he was transformed, and he remembered Rhia. Reassuring him they were not a threat, Rhia reasoned that his wolf half only ever defended itself, longing for freedom and then being faced by a village that feared him when he won it. Rhia assumed his mother had been an unfortunate casualty, caught in the cross fire of the wolf's rage during it's escape that fateful night. Yeven Didn't know what to do to free himself from the nights transformation, and Rhia encouraged him to later that night, once transformed, come find them just outside the town gate Rhia left, made a small camp fire outside the village walls, and waited The wolf clearly remembered what Yeven had been told, and Rhia found themselves facing the enormous wolf charging them. Rhia used a burning stick from the fire to halt its charge, cast the stick to the side, and reached towards him Allowing Rhia to pet it's nose, the wolf and Yeven seemed to find what they both needed; acceptance. Rhia encouraged that it was just his personal nature to be part of both human and wolf worlds, and the wolf's fear of the sun and light was just another ghost of his abused past in the basement each night Feeling a peace wash over, the wolf and Rhia sat together through the night, Rhia gently stroking his big head and telling him the things he needed to hear. The sun rose, and now with both halves as one, Yeven remained a wolf. Rhia welcomed him to travel with them, until Yeven knew where he wanted to go Rhia smudged remnants of powdered dye on his ears, encouraging him to flick the ear corresponding red to no and yes to green and the rest they would figure out later Everything they could figure out later, right now Rhia's job was to show Yeven the world he had missed