and the stars in their orbits shone pale through the lightof the brighter, colder moon

The nights for her species were supposed to be a time of freedom, freedom to run beneath the moon, hunt in the forest, and simply embrace their animal side. However, nights had turned to a time that Nadya dreaded, counting down during the day to the moment that her brother left Tobias and herself to go off not to return until morning. He always left with a strict order not to follow him which was the only thing keeping Tobias from simply following her brother's trail. Tetradore had left for the night and in an attempt to placate Tobias she had taken him to get food. Tobias was like a bottomless pit when it came to food with a body that had lacked such needed nutrition during those teenage growth spurts. Nadya could not and would not hunt enough to satisfy Tobias' hunger; she refused to eat that much raw meat. So the vendors around town saw a lot of the two as they picked through for cheap food. Sometimes they had to snitch it but sometimes Tobias would give Nadya money, where he got it Nadya didn't want to ask, she had learned that she was better off not knowing what Tobias got into when he was gallivanting around on his own.

Tonight was one of the good nights where Tobias had produced enough money for a good haul of food...and coffee. You could say that Nadya was a bit addicted, should find a coffee AA group, but the black bitter liquid seemed to keep her from butting heads too much with Tobias. The long shadows created by the sun had been replaced by shadows stretching over dark from the glow of the moon. It was not quite high moon but the pull was there, itching just beneath like small burning pin-needles prickling her skin begging her to shift, which caused Nadya to rub absently at her arm denying such a change. Nadya had also changed from her normal attire of dresses which made shifting easy to a pair of jeans, dark green print top, and a jean jacket which helped her to deny shifting simply due to the inconvenience of undressing. She picked through the main pathway through the warehouses, clutching a warm cup of coffee in one hand with a small paper bag slung onto forearm. Nadya dug into the bag, producing a foil wrapped hotdog and holding it out to her companion, no doubt done with his previous one and eager for the next.

"Here."

Her strides slowed down as they rounded the corner and came upon the next cluster of storage buildings, catching the appearance of light from a motion detector that had gone off. In a normal town humans might have passed off such a thing in this area as a raccoon or possum even, but to Weres the animals that came to mind were much larger. The fact of Tobias being territorial of the warehouses didn't even cross her mind, she didn't know that he had claimed this area of town as his and guarded it fiercely, taking insult to any who trespassed. Nadya was ever the curious one and left Tobias to go investigate, sliding around the building with the grace of her feline form, peeking within the door. There was a woman inside seemingly talking to someone though Nadya couldn't see them. Perhaps the girl was just loony, being alone for too long could do that to a person. Nadya was just about to announce herself, lips parted in preparation, when she saw the woman inside light a candle with only a hover of her hand in its direction before it exploded. The suddenness of the sound and realization of witchcraft caused Nadya to jerk back from the door with a silent gasp of surprise, her back colliding into Tobias' chest from her quick retreat. She glanced up, her chocolate eyes searching out Tobias' for understanding that she didn't want to be first and honestly didn't think it would be wise to let this newcomer know they were there, that they should just keep moving. She was honestly afraid of witches almost as much as she was afraid of dark hunters.