An Oddball Family

A woman with long black hair in a white and black kimono with a leather bag enters a shop full of various fabrics.

"Ah, Helena," The store owner says as he sees her walk inside.

"Morning," She says with a bright smile, "Do you have the silk yet?"

"Yup, just came in last night," He says as he goes under the counter and pulls up a roll of silk. Helena gives him some gold coins and he gives her the roll.

"Thank you so much," She says with glee as she almost run out of the store, stuffing the silk into her bag, "Have a nice day!"

She heads off to the center of the town, a large castle watching the lively town down below as the sun lights up the blue sky. Sitting at a large fountain, which marks the center of town, a man in a green short sleeve tunic with wild medium length brownish blonde-hair watches all the people passing by.

"Leon!" Helena calls out over all the noise of the passing people. The man turns to her and gets up, walking over to her as she walks up to him.

"Did he have it?"

"Yeah, now come on, we gotta go get the dyes," She says grabbing him by the hand and dragging him through the crowds.

"What? Why didn't you just get them and than come get me?" He struggles to keep up with her despite being a couple inches taller than her. Escaping the busy streets, they enter shop full of bottles holding tons of liquids of varying colors. Walking up to a wall with several shelves, each one dedicated to a specific color, hundreds of shades on display. Helena reaches into her bad and pulls out a piece of blue fabric.

"Help me find which one of these matches this color," She says as she walks up to the wall and starts looking at all the shades of blue. Leon stares at the wall bewildered before joining her.

"Um, this one?" He says taking a bottle off the shelf.

"Too bright,"

"This one?"

"That's even brighter,"

"What about, this?"

"Too dark,"

"This?" He asks a bit more aggressively.

"Mmm, close, but also too dark," Leon lets out a sigh of annoyance.

"How can you tell?" He holds the bottle right up against the fabric, "They look exactly the same,"

"No they don't, that's totally darker than this," He just looks at her totally baffled before putting the bottle back. She sees the yellow glint in his eye as he continues to look at all the blues that seem practically the same shade.

"Leon,"

"What?"

"You can go, I can find it myself,"

"No, I'm going to-" He tries to say calmly but there's still gritty irritation anger in his voice.

"You can go, I'm sorry for trying to get you to shop with me. Just, go off in the forest for a bit and cool off, I'll come find you," He looks at her like he wants to fight back, but than walks off. She lets out a sigh before continuing to look for the color. A woman with long pink hair in a white and pink kimono enters the shop.

"I saw Leon huffing and puffing as he left the shop, what happened?" She asks Helena as she walks up to her.

"Hey Synthia. I tried to get him to help me find something, again,"

"Ahh. Was he close this time?"

"One shade away," She says as she picks up a bottle to the right of the bottle he had picked last.

"What? It's so clear,"

"I know. You get the food for lunch and tonight?"

"Almost, just need a few more things," She says checking her own leather bag. The two make their way to the counter and buy the dye. After about an hour they get everything they need.

"I sent him off to the forest, can you take this back to the house with you while I go get him?" Helena asks.

"Yeah, of course,"

"Thanks," And she takes off to the eastern edge of town where a large forest full of bamboo and camphor trees. Once she's deep enough to be hidden from town a bright light illuminates from her. She disappears as a raven emerges from the light, taking off into the sky. As she flies above she looks around for Leon through all the branches. After some time she sees a lion clawing at a tree, the others around it having several claw marks already in them.

The raven flies down and with another flash Helena turns back into her human form.

"We're done shopping Leon," She says to the lion whose still clawing at the tree furiously. After some time Leon finally stops clawing the tree and stands up as he turns back to human, his back facing her.

"Can you, come get me when lunch is ready? I still need to let off some steam,"

"...Ok," He stands there staring at the fresh claw marks as she turns into a raven once more and takes off. She flies over the town to a house in the south-western part of town where it's not as busy. She flies into her room through a window and turns back to human.

Helena enters the living room where Synthia is just preparing a fire to start cooking as a giant beast covered in light brown fur is spread out on the floor near the far corner of the room.

"Is he staying out there again?" Synthia asks as Helena sits down at a short table that spans about half the length of the room.

"Yeah. Synthia I'm starting to-" Before she can finish her sentence the beast lets out a snarl as it chases after something in its dream, "Worry..." She lets out a sigh as she gets up and grabs a wooden spoon from a pot. She walks over to the creature and pokes it in the side. It jumps awake.

"Huh! What?! Where's the bear!?" It exclaims in a deep growling voice as it looks around the room. He sees Synthia and Helena staring at him with annoyed looks, "What?"

"You were snarling in your dreams again Vincent," Synthia states, "Is there nothing we can do so you don't transform in your sleep? People have been starting to ask if we have an aggressive dog,"

"Sorry..." He says as wraps a nearby blanket over himself before he turns back to human, "I guess I'm not use to going this long without hunting,"

"Why don't you go with Leon when he does it?"

"I would, but...he's cranky enough as it is since Himitsu left and I'm sure him seeing me in my werewolf form doesn't help that,"

"Well, I could always go with you," Synthia states, "I could use some practice tracking animal tracks, plus I'm sure there's plenty of plants with fruit that I could use for cooking," She says as she puts food into the boiling water.

"I've never taken you for a hunter,"

"I may not be a lycan like you, but that doesn't mean I've never hunted for my own food,"

"Well than, what about tonight?"

"Do you mind being alone with Leon?" Synthia asks Helena as she stirs the pot now full of food.

"It's fine, he'll probably be asleep by the time you two leave,"

"Okay, and Vincent, you're gonna have to be human until we get out of sight of the town, alright?" He nods as he lets out a yawn.

"Yeah, can you wake me when food is ready? I'm going back to sleep," And he lays back down, leaving Helena and Synthia looking at him with, 'are you fucking serious?' expressions as the crackling fire happily cooks the food.