Happiness is a Good Hunt

It wasn't long before his friends showed up on his doorstep and they were welcomed in. And it just so happened that River was having her birthday from teen to young adulthood. Fiona had known that her daughter had special powers and it wasn't something that could be easily explained away and Beau had been asking too many uncomfortable questions - she was suspicious of his motives and he had been seen in the company of the were-hunters who had killed Nikkei's father and mother - Molly had told her so and she trusted Molly. She'd known that Nikkei had left years ago and when River had mentioned that Nikkei had contacted her and her friends, that he had found a place where there were others like her, Fiona knew with a sinking heart that she had no choice but to let River go for her safety. So she let Harm, Meg and the rest of the supernatural clique take her into their custody and transport her to Moonlight Falls.

When River aged up she turned into a beautiful curvaceous young woman who was remarkably unlike the unassuming little waif that she was as a teen that Harm did a double-take. And he felt an sudden attraction toward his ward that Fiona had entrusted towards him. However that romance was not to be as she gravitated towards a figure in the distance who was picking up rocks.

Harm sighed as he headed back inside not wanting to see that attractive young woman go after someone else. River walked over to Nikkei and greeted him, thanking him for offering refuge. Even in his lycan form, he exuded an aura of deep sadness and she knew from what her mother had told him of his tragic past. He was at first resistant to her advances and didn't want to tie such a pretty woman down to his lycan form, seeing as what happened to his mother. But River assured him that nothing like what happened to his mother would ever happen...to her; not while she had claws and fangs. Nikkei looked confused, never before had she ever admitted to him about her own supernatural ability.

"Do you trust me?" River asked him, her glowing green eyes gazing into his as she showed him her own wolf form.
"You're a were too?" he asked, still rather shocked.
"How..." he stammered. "How was I never able to know?"
"You didn't have your full powers yet. You weren't able to sense others and after you had the trauma, you subsumed your own powers except for your ability to transform. My mother was one of the few true humans who understood my ability and ended up helping me to grow my powers."
Nikkei nodded, knowing just how much risk Fiona put upon herself hiding her daughter from those who would harm her, just as they had harmed his father and mother.

"But at least here we are safe..." River said resolutely.
Haruo looked her sadly, noting that her naivety was still intact despite the fear that had permeated her existence the past week that she had fled Sunset Valley in the company of her protectors. "Only until they come..." he replied. "We must prepare to keep Moonlight Falls a sanctuary to all occult."
"Even to sparkling, bloodsucking vampires?" she said curling her lip in disdain. (She wasn't a Twilight fan)
He nodded, with a grin dancing in his eyes, despite his sadness, "even, sparkling vampires...who drink plasma juice..." he joked.

"That was quite the trip, a few scares along the way," Meg noted to Carolina Reaver, who nodded back at her. "I'm just glad that we made it safely here and that we have sanctuary." Meg looked over at her companion.
"So what are your plans"
Carolina asked Meg.
"I'm a were..." Meg replied. "I hunt...and considering my ambitions, I plan to be mate to the head were in the pack." she had a devious sparkle in her eyes and Carolina wondered if she was kidding or if she was serious. "All depends on who that is..." she casually glanced over at Harm, who was one imposing specimen. "What are your plans?" she asked
"Oh, I intend to further my research and knowledge of potions and try to protect this sanctuary. It's only a matter before they come." she said not mentioning the names that Meg knew all too well in her short time of existing. They were all young adults. and they knew that their life-span would be even shorter if they ran across the Hunters who were out to ensure that none of their species ever existed. Supernaturals were being hunted to extinction.

With that Meg got up out of her seat and headed upstairs to check on the computer and see what was out there in terms of information, as a Computer Whiz, she was able to hack into secure Hunter databases to see if anyone was on their trail - they weren't as far as she could tell.

So the new occupants of the house had an opportunity to settle in and find some purchase in the maelstrom that had been their lives up until then. And they were able to hunt freely for the first time in a very long while.

And that made were-River very happy.

Alone

When Nikkei Simmer woke up in the morning he decided to research some alchemy; even though Alchemy was mostly for the benefit of witches, frankly, he figured that knowing some alchemy would help in warding off those who would seek to do him harm.

And he studied alchemy for several hours until the pangs of hunger in his belly drove him to go to the fridge and pull out some spaghetti with veggie sauce, which didn't do too much for his carnivorous appetite. But at least as a human he wouldn't crouch over the chair and lick his plate clean. He had some standards as a human after all.

He enrolled in painting class as it satisfied a wish to paint and his artistic side would be sated by painting and writing as his LTW was to become an illustrious author. And on top of that playing the piano would soothe the savage beast which always seemed to come out when things went sideways - namely getting pelted by hail.

But the downside of turning into a werewolf was that he couldn't go straight home, he had to explore and sniff and figure out all the nooks and crannies that could hold something worth hunting for.

And that was where he found himself...transformed back as a human, in broad daylight - ravenous...so he went to the diner and had himself a breakfast.

Then he went exploring again to see if he could find any more rocks. After all, if he found precious gemstones and analyzed space-rocks, he could make a decent living from it all.

He did find a fairy who was also out hunting for gemstones for her alchemy and that was where their paths crossed. And she wasn't about to give up her find for his "furry, flea-bitten hide" as she thus quoth. Frankly that brassed his tacks - he transformed right in front of her which left her non-plussed.

...and he wasn't about to take that "flea-bitten furry hide" insult sitting down and told her so...complete with a nasty, snarly growl.

Well...fairies...no matter how much they huffed and puffed, couldn't match the intimidation factor of a good set of chompers. The sight of his sharp canines was a bit too much for the good fairy and well...she fainted.

That night he came to the realization that he wasn't going to be able to carry this house alone, no matter how much he was able to find in terms of gemstones. They just weren't the quality of gemstone that he was looking for. So he had to seek out his friends, the ones who had remained friends with him for so long back in the old city. After all, they'd kept his secret...because unbeknownst to the rest of the population of Sunset Valley, they ALL had secrets to hide.

Destination: Moonlit Falls

After reaching the fabled Moonlit Falls, he set about trying to find himself a place to live. He didn't know the makeup of the population of Moonlit Falls and if there were any normals, his life could still be in danger. He was going to play his cards close to his chest and hope that his higher instincts could get him out of any danger that presented itself. But first, he had to establish himself here and mak a life for himself. And that was buying himself a house and a property to build his new home; his "castle" where he could protect himself and sequester himself away from the population.

And then he realized that he had to go and get some groceries or he would be starving that night. It was there that he realized that the majority of this population here was made up of the occult. He realized that there were what appeared to be telephone booths, but were actually teleportation pads that Moonlit Falls used for transportation between places.

When he was done grocery shopping, he walked back to the teleportation pad and keyed in his new location. it deposited him at a graveyard close to home; the small place that he'd bought had been replaced by a big mansion, which would become his refuge and his hideaway. He would use this place to figure out what his place was in this world and what he could do in this town. He realized with some consternation that the dying light had indicated that he'd spent the better part of that day dealing with the stuff that he needed to do to get settled in Moonlit Falls and to his alarm, though he was occult himself, he was in a graveyard with light fading. His curiosity at exploring the catacombs during the daytime faded to fear as he realized that there was no way that he would be able to get home before dark. So he transformed.

At least if anyone came across him in the graveyard, his natural appearance would give them pause before accosting him and his claws and canine fangs would give him the upper edge in a fight. But the only apparition that he saw was of a woman who had long been deceased.

The apparation announced her name as Frida Goth with no apparent concern about his lycanthropic appearance. They conversed for a while and then Nikkei stated that he had to get home and make himself some dinner. He stayed in his were form as he went about cooking dinner. Of course as a werewolf, his table manners were someone suspect.

Then realizing that his mansion had pianos, he went and played in the room that he was quick to call his own...the one that had a nine-foot concert grand. He thought to himself "What would make this place even more perfect would be the installation of a pipe organ.

And all things considered, he found himself exhausted so checking the weather, he opted to sleep during the day and only venture out at night when the temperatures were cooler. At least this was his plan until such time as fall rolled around. But for all intents and purposes, he was home...in Moonlit Falls, his refuge from those who would seek to do him harm.

Prologue - The Long Journey

Inappropriate Sniffing

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time: well...not so long ago, there was this were by the name of Nikkei Simmer. After all there were too many normal people in Sunset Valley or other locations that normal people would frequent and it made Nikkei Simmer uncomfortable. The reason why he was uncomfortable with normals was that they were uncomfortable with him and thus he fled after a mob of normals set his father on fire with pickaxes and torches, then brutally beat him to death. His mother (who was the only normal in Sunset Valley who knew of what his father truly was, told her only son to flee for his life before the mob came for him). He left everything he knew that day...and never looked back: he oft-wondered what had become of his mother, but he knew that to humans, her mating with an occult left her life forfeit - they would have rendered her the same fate as her husband.

He wandered for years wondering if there was any place where he was free to show his true face. Or whether his entire life would be spent in hiding. Every full moon, for years, he worried that his baser instincts would betray him. It was by chance at a dive bar that he heard the whispers of a place; "for those like us", he overheard two members of a pack of weres. "We just need the money to go up north. Then we can be with our own kind - those who don't judge us for who we are..." He followed the two of them staying just out of scent-range, his ears open for the name...of the place. The two weres were suspicious creatures and they refused to speak of the name, but when Nikkei almost despaired of hearing, one of the slipped up in earshot of him and whispered the name: Moonlit Falls.

Moonlit Falls...the name seemed as ephemeral as the fabled Shang Sim La - a virtual paradise on earth, except only for those of occult origin. Eve. He knew that his mother had left him a sizeable amount of money that his father had earned as an investment banker but still was floored at how much it really was. §5M would allow him to get to Moonlit Falls and establish himself. But the problem still was...how was he going to get there? The only direction that he had was "north". But that was all he had, so he went north disguising his identity by spending most of his time in human form and hiding on full moon nights, deep within a cave in the woods that he had scouted out before hand before settling in for the night. It was a long arduous journey as he could not by any means take any form of transit available to humans.

But two months and fourteen days after his long journey had began, just as his spirits began to despair of ever finding the location, he looked up to see the town sign, nestled amongst a grove of surrounding trees. MOONLIT FALLS; snowcapped peaks in the distance and nestled at the very foot of those mountains was the little town of Moonlit Falls and his were senses could tell that there were occult living here the second that he stepped into the area. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief. He had made it.