Without a sound, Sabine scurried off back to the encampment. Fendros nodded and followed the others out to dry himself. By the time he redressed, Sabine returned with a scroll of parchment, a quill, a board of wood for writing against, and a small bottle that held ink. Sabine handed the materials to Fendros and went back to where she was sitting beforehand. "Thank you, Sab-... Runt" Fendros said as she walked, the only reaction she seemed to have was to pause for a moment at Fendros' apparent indecision at her name, but she just as quickly resumed her hunched stride.

"Do you know what you're going to write?" Ahansha asked.

Fendros cocked his head to the side, biting the inside of his cheek, "I have an idea of what to write, yes." Despite his own words, when Fendros sat down and leaned his back against a tree, he had to sit for a while longer than he had hoped, composing the words together. After a few minutes, he began scratching the ink onto the page.

[indent][i]Dear brother Monderyn,

If you are reading this, then efforts to try and find me have resulted, or will result, in finding my remains in the great forest. While it may give comfort to mother, father and Llarasa to know that my fate is known, you are likely to believe as well as I that those remains do not belong to me. I know that you are probably confused, maybe even angry, but you mustn't show this letter to anyone else. Herein, I am sharing with you the truth for your own safety, rather than have you come after me in denial of a staged death.

Do you remember about seven years ago, when we found that dusty tome on father's bookshelf? Within, it had a lot of words we couldn't read, but it had descriptions of Daedric princes. It had them all, from that strange one that had crab arms attached to a blob, to the little one with the horns and a pet dog. There was one that had a great antlered beast's head and carried a spear, its name was Hircine, lord of the hunt.

As you know, I left to go hunting after I had another argument with father. I had had only intended to stay in the woods for one night, but I wandered until the late afternoon of the second day. That afternoon, I was attacked by a beast I had never seen the likes of before; a great wolf with huge claws, faster than a mountain cat. It killed Josey,- [/i][/indent]

"Who's Josey?" Fendros was so startled by the voice behind him that he nearly put a line of ink across the entire page. Janius was looking over his shoulder at the letter. "Lay off!" Fendros said, waving his hand as if warding off a fly, "Josey was my horse, now please leave me alone. This is private, ok?" Janius put both hands up and walked off, "okay, okay, just wondering."

[indent][i]-but I killed it before it could finish me off. In the process, I was infected by an illness that turned me into one of them. I have since found out that it is likely that the event had been premeditated by Hircine himself. For what reason, I know not. I only know that this illness has cursed me to be the host of a savage and dangerous beast that would kill anyone to sate its hunger, if I do not control it. This is the reason I cannot come home, I have become a danger not only to the family, but anyone living nearby, as well as myself.

If it were up to me, I would never think to abandon you, Llarasa, or even mother and father, but this decision was not mine. Know that for now I am well, and I am going to put in as much effort as I can to finding out why Hircine has transformed me into this monster, and if possible, find a way to release myself from this curse. Under no circumstances should you try to come and find me, or let anyone else know about this letter. To do so would be to put yourself and others in mortal danger.

You must now become the heir to the family. Father may wail on about how you are not of Avarul blood, but his wailings are of days long passed. You are my brother in blood as much as any family member, and I believe that you are as capable as I, if not more so. I hope that the circumstances that we may be reunited upon are among our ancestors.[/i][/indent]

A pale finger came into Fendros' view, pointing to the sentence that he just wrote. Fendros, already feeling sensitive at the difficulty of writing the words down, was about to explode, infuriated that he wasn't been given the space he needed. He beheld Sabine standing over his shoulder, looking at his letter. "You will not meet him there, you will join Hircine in his hunting grounds." Sabine's words were quiet, but deadly serious. Fendros, a sense of reason coming over him again, changed his expression from fuming to one of dread. "What did you say?" Fendros muttered. Sabine looked at Fendros directly, her blank face communicated that she knew he heard every word. "What do you mean?" Fendros said, "Runt?! What are you talking about?!" Sabine turned and walked off. Fendros looked back down at his page, processing the information. Sabine's eyes didn't lie, as always. Reluctantly, Fendros struck through the sentence about Monderyn and he reuniting in the afterlife and pinched the bridge of his nose, scrunching his eyes shut to hold back tears. [i]The more I look back to home,[/i] Fendros thought, [i]it seems that I see more of it that Hircine has taken from me.[/i]

He sat for another minute to compose himself, before sniffing and opening his sore eyes. Fendros' hand was now shaking, he wiped away another tear forming at the corner of his eye and took a deep breath. Once he had slowly finished exhaling, he continued writing the final passage, continuing from the lined-out sentence.

[indent][i]We are unlikely to meet again, in this world and the next. I wish you a long and prosperous life.

Goodbye,
Fendros[/i][/indent]

Fendros wiped the quill clean and read over what he had written. It all seemed in order to him. He had no doubt that the other pack members would know most of the letter's content, but he would not show it to them. Once the ink dried, Fendros went to his belongings and equipped his sword and shield, his skinning knife, his quiver of arrows, and his bow. He didn't know what would be out in the forest to surprise them, but he didn't want to have to resort to transforming this time. Out of his quiver, he took out a single arrow, one recognizable as one his brother had fletched for him, and rolled the letter around it to prove its authenticity. With his eyes still red around the edges, Fendros found Ahnasha. "I'm ready, let's go."