The Mustache and The Beard

James went for the opening, swiftly slicing into Knoss's side, causing the man to stumble. Knoss whirled on his feet, but James was faster. He sliced the man's arm across the muscle, causing the man to lose his grip and drop his sword to the ground.

Amy cheered again at their success. With Aisha and Layla groaning in pain on the ground, things were going their way again! She bounced in the big cage beside Ari, holding onto the bars.

"YEAHHH!" she yelled again. "GET 'EM!"

Tasha disengaged and ran over to the cage, grabbing a lockpick from her boot and getting to work on the door as James dealt with Knoss.

Knoss, now left swordless, backed away a step but James extended his sword, swiping up and catching it on the end of the man's helmet. The helmet tumbled to the ground, revealing a rather average looking man with a poorly groomed beard and a crooked nose. The removal of the helmet had him shocked momentarily, which James used to his advantage.

He knocked the man to the ground, hitting his sword against Knoss's metal shoulder armor, and then brought the hilt of his blade down on Knoss's head with a jerking of his arm. Knoss fell to the ground, knocked out, and he looked over to Tasha at the cage.

As Tasha came close, Amy picked up a peculiar smell - one she'd only smelled a few times in her life, but knew well.

She shifted into her wolf form and poked her long nose out of cage, leaning in to reach Tasha, smelling her hair and shoulder.

"Wolf?" she said softly in unbelief.

Tasha jerked away out of reflex, not immediately registering what Amy had just said. A few clicks of the lock later and it suddenly hit her.

Wolf.

Her eyes widened and she stumbled back, nearly falling over, taken off guard by the sudden uncovering of her identity. How...? She grabbed for her charm, only to find the string missing and her hand coming away with blood.

Oh s***.

She could try to lie, but it was too late; her reaction had already given it away. She couldn't quite find the words to affirm it either, however, so instead she just gazed at Amy in shocked silence for what felt like an eternity.

Amy stared back at her, equally surprised, but she didn't remain frozen for long. After just a few seconds she pushed the door open with her head and burst out, landing just beside Tasha.

"Wait! Are you serious? You're a wer? A wolf?!" she began to exclaim excitedly, before looking over at the two, still conscious, though-in-blinding-pain hunters just a-ways away. Her mouth clamped shut.

James hurried over, looking at the two with confused glances.

"What are you two doing? Let's go."

Tasha just chuffed and turned back to her horse as Ari clambered out of the cage behind Amy with a goofy grin, thrilled to see James and Tasha.

"We may as well take their horses, too," she grunted. "It'll be faster than traveling on foot."

James looked over to the horses with a nod, and hurriedly hopped onto one. Amy, however, was still stuck staring up at Tasha.

"Another wer..." she said quietly, wide-eyed.

Tasha swung up on Nightmare and broke into a canter, expecting the others to follow. Evidently, she was not in the mood for conversation about this.

James followed right beside her and Amy finally broke out of her awe-struck daze and shook her head, muttering non-words to herself as she shifted back to a human and claimed a horse before riding off.

Ari looked between them, confuzzled as to what was happening but not paying too much heed to it as they got far enough from the bounty hunters for him to finally greet the rest of the group with his usual enthusiasm.

"I'M SO GLAD YOU GUYS MADE IT!" he beamed. "I'm so sorry we got caught, I shoulda been lookin' closer but then there were some fish hooks that I ain't seen since back home 'n then suddenly they were there 'n we were fightin' but there were three o' them 'n two of us 'n then we wound up there and I can't pick locks and it was really messy."

James sent a few wary glances between Amy and Tasha. He'd overheard Amy enough to be confused, but Tasha didn't look like she wanted to talk about it. So instead, he looked over to Ari.

"Don't worry about it, Ari. I'm just glad you're both alright," he said in genuine relief.

"We'll be more careful next time, I promise," Ari said sincerely.

James smiled a small smile. "I'm glad."

The group fell into relative silence with Ari occasionally rambling on as was typical of him. Eventually, they struck camp at a small clearing as the sun began to set and had a small dinner of gathered berries and a few squirrels that Wolfsbane had been quick enough to catch. Soon after they found themselves parked quietly around the warmth of the campfire.

James ate peacefully, but Amy's mind was still bothered by Tasha's defiant silence, even though she smelled very strongly of a wer. After a little eating -because she had to admit, she was starving since he hunters didn't feed her much - she finally paused and looked at Tasha accusingly.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a wer?"