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The next morning, it was the gradual lightening which woke Aein. Or perhaps it was the absence of the dogs outside.
"Wake up!" she said to the others. "Get up before you change!"
Sleepily, they had already started to shift. One of the women pulled back her hand. Smoke was pouring from where it had touched the silver ore in the ground. She gasped, recoiling as if she had placed her hand on a hot stove, and raced outside. The other followed her as soon as she was clear of the opening. One after another, they squeezed through. Finn winced as he waited his turn, last except for Aein, to make sure everyone got safely out. His feet were already becoming paws, his legs were already canine. He finally squeezed through the gap, crying in pain as he changed, his skin coming into contact with the boulders.
He fell onto the ground. Aein dashed out of the rocks and to his side. By the time she got there, everyone had completed their change. The werewolves from the night before were now terrified people who had taken off towards the forest, but were slowly coming back when they realized no one was making chase. Finn lay on his side, though, his breathing labored. Where he had brushed against the stone, great welts were left in his skin, leaving silver burns where the fur did not come in. There wasn't anything to do. They had no healer. No water to wash the wound. Nothing.
She turned around, aware that the pack that hunted them were now in their human form.
"Should we kill him while he's down?" asked one.
"NO!" shouted Aein. "No!"
The group stepped back from her fierceness.
Suddenly, a familiar voice spoke. Lars stepped forward, now human once again, and placed himself beside Aein. "He is our friend. Like I told you, she has a cure."
"Look at how good it has cured him," spat one of the men, pointing at Finn.
"It was the silver ore," Aein said. "The silver in that rock. It is what kept us safe from you."
The crowd shuffled back and forth, unsure of what to say. That same older man stepped forward. "Is it true, though? You have something that can help us?"
Aein nodded, but inwardly did a head count. She did not have enough berries. Would half of one be enough? Should she ration them out? How did someone give twenty-one berries to forty people?
"I don’t know if I have enough..."Aein confessed.
"Well, give to me!" the man said, pushing his way forward. "I'll take them!"
At once, it was like a riot, people pushing and grabbing at Aein in desperation. Suddenly, Finn's large, black, flying mass knocked down the older man, holding him flat on the ground, his snarling mouth close to the man's face. Any pain he was in seemed to disappear with this call to duty.
It was enough to calm the crowd.
"We will split what we have. We will be fair," said Aein. "I don't know what effect they will have, only giving you half a dose, but we must do what we can."
"Line up!" directed Lars. "Any who do not cooperate will not receive any!"
The werewolves around the people circled. Though not threatening, they kept their eyes on the crowd like sheepdogs upon a flock.
Aein picked up one of the berries and held it up to the first woman. "Do you swear you will bite this in half?" she asked.
The woman before her nodded. She took it from Aein, bit it in half and then passed it to the person beside her. This went on down the line until finally, Aein reached the final person. It was a young boy, perhaps eleven or twelve. Aein stared into his face. She had one whole berry. Would it be better to have him eat half and give the other half to someone stronger? Someone wiser? Someone whom she would be better served to have sane and at her side?
But as she looked at him she realized this was the luck of the draw. He had chosen to stand here. Their number just happened to work out this way. She handed him the berry. "For you," she said.
"Hey!" said a man. "Why did he get—"
"Because I said so!" snapped Aein. The man stepped back, casting his eyes to the ground. "Any sanity, any relief that you receive, know that I am the one who gave it to you. And if any of you believe my judgment is not sound, you may leave our pack and fend for yourself."
The wolves around her growled low, accenting her words and inserting themselves as the enforcers of her will.
But the boy did not eat it all. He only took half and handed the rest back to Aein. "I am small."
And she solemnly took back the remaining berry he offered so generously. She looked at the group. Did she give it to someone else? How could she pick? Should she give it to Finn or Lars to see if just one-half more was enough to keep them from shifting at all? She could not decide, so instead, she wrapped it in the cloth. Perhaps the gods had another use for it.
"Now," she said, addressing the crowd. "We must go to the Haidra lands to warn them of what is coming."
She hoped as she looked around at the people around her, the people who had only received half of the cure, that she, herself, was not bringing the terror to the Haidra door.