Rakel thought about what Hircine had said, She denied him coldly. "No, my pack is fine the way it is. Why do I need to accept
outsiders into my pack, which has has thrived for centuries without any outside interference?"
Hircine answered her question in his usual deep voice that echoed confidence. "Listen well, my hound. Your coldness is warranted,
however, Solstheim, all of tamriel for that matter, has threats that you will not be able to fight alone, you need reinforcements."
Rakel finally gave in to defeat, She sat on a rock, sighing "Fine, but, I have no idea to start looking for these...reinforcements."
He then seemed to be lost in thought. "Hound, your lord requires you to search your homeland of Solstheim and Skyrim. You will
need to strengthen for your pack for it to survive, you will need to seek out an argonian of unknown location and an orphan
werewolf named moonman." Rakel looked at him like he had three heads."Off with you hound, I'm busy!" He shouted in
annoyance and vanished into thin air.
Rakel started searching for this wolf orphan the wolf lord spoke of. She scoured the landscape, looking for wolf tracks or tracks of
any kind for that matter. She found some tracks near a tree near where she talked with Hircine mere minutes before. Rakel
lifted her nose and sniffed the crisp, wintery air. The air smelt of blood and wet fur, which suggested the wolf either took a detour
through some hot springs or the man got his fur coat wet in the rain before he transformed. She then knelt down and examined the
tracks in the snow, which were made by boots.
Rakel followed the boot tracks, which she guessed were size ten, to a nearby rock where the tracks changed into paw prints that
went on a ways until they stopped at a shed near Frostmoon Crag. Rakel tracked the wolf tracks to a shack that had its wooden
shutters shut tight both against the elements and unwanted intruders, likewise, the large oaken door was shut tight with a wooden
bar that lay in two hooks. "This guy either is really paranoid or some crazy shut in" Rakel thought.
Rakel went up to the door and lifted the heavy wooden bar off the hooks with relative ease and placed it in the snow. She rapped on
the door with her knulces, no response. She knocked again, she heard a chair scraping on the wooden floor and shuffling footsteps
behind the door. The door was opened to reveal a nord man who has a scraggly brown beard and mustache combo on his young
face. She also saw that he had long, brown hair and hazel eyes that stared out at the world through gray spectacles. She saw also
that he wore a set of mourner's clothes and brown pants, he also wore no wedding ring, meaning he was single.
The man extended his hand, which meant it was okay for Rakel to enter. She looked around his home, which was nothing more than
a small hut that he had rented, and saw it decorated with pelts of various animals. There were rabbit, bear and sabre cats pelts on
the walls along with pictures of the nord's parents, one depicted a nord male in a blue dunmer outfit with blue pants, had short
black hair and had blue eyes that stared out from behind thick, gray spectacles. The other picture depicted a beautiful nord female
wearing a red dunmer outfit, upon which was a skaal amulet. She had long, brown hair and had hazel eyes.
Rakel proceeded into the small hut, past the stairway and the walls with the pelts and the pictures until she came to the sitting
room. On the floor was a white bear skin rug, the walls were decorated in the same fashion as the hallway except that there were
no pictures adorning the walls, only furs. The other differences were a burning hearth in the northeast corner of the room and a
large armchair covered in pelts of various origin. On the chair sat the man Rakel met earlier. Rakel walked up to the chair.
The man turned around, obviously sensing Rakel's presence.
"Why did you come here, fellow wolf?" The man asked
Rakel was a bit bewildered by this question, "how could he know that I am a lycanthrope?" She thought. In a more audible tone,
Rakel asked, "How did you know I was a lycanthrope?"
"My dear, I could smell your scent from across the room. Yet I smell no other scent, Let me guess you are an orphan who found
solace in a wolf pack far north of here."
Rakel's jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He was correct on every count, even the fact that she was an orphan. He told her that he
too was an orphan and that two of Miraak's cultistsk had murdered his parents in cold blood because they refused to serve Miraak.
Rakel gasped audibly, "That is horrible, so you are all alone then, do you even have a pack to take care of you? I would help you,
but I do not even know your name and my parents told me never to trust strangers."
The man said that is a very wise lesson that her parents taught her. He went further to say that you cannot trust anyone anymore.
Your friends could stab you in the back when you least epect it.
The man turned his chair around, got up and walked over to Rakel, "No, I have no pack to take care of me and I am all alone."
The man extended his hand to Rakel, she took it. "My name is moonman, nice to meet you." Rakel wore a confused expression upon
her face.
"Don't you have a first name? I can't just call you Moonman now can I? Inquired Rakel, Your parents must have given you a first
name and not just a surname."
Moonman sighed, "I did have a proper name, but, it died along with my parents. They gave moonman to me as a nickname because
well..." Now that he thought about it, he did not know where his parents got the nickname from. Rakel looked into his hazel eyes
and said that it did not matter where his nickname came from or what his real name is. She told him what matterrs most is the
legacy your name leaves behind. Now having his trust and freindship, she asked him if he would wanted to join the Frostmoon Pack
so he would once again feel part of a pack.
He said he would love to join that particular pack. She said she was happy to hear that. She gave him directions wwhere the crag
would be found. Moonman said he would be happier if they traveled there together. Rakel stated that first she needed to find one
more member of her pack. She told him that the last member was an elusive argonian who, she guessed, was on his way to
Skyrim.
The two nords exited the small shack and walked all the way to Frostmoon Crag where Rakel introduced Moonman to her brothers
and the stray pup. She explained that Hircine told her that she needed to find one more packmember before they can truly call
themselves a pack. Rakel, Moonman and the other packmembers walked to the raven rock harbor and booked passage to Skyrim
where Rakel will find the argonian, if she was lucky. She knew that after her own packmates, she had to find a certain slippery
serpent who would not be easy to track down.