How it began…

The world had long since belonged to humans with their clever, ever advancing minds creatures of change. But in the small, quiet corners of the world there lives another race, to most known as the Beast Children, not all that unlike the humans in appearance but posses the ability to change their body to that of particular animal in accordance to which tribe they belonged to. Though not unknown to humans but a great amount distrust and disgust remains between them to the day due to two great tragedies and one very horrid mistake….

-A Stranger and A Storm-

The daylight was beginning to fading as Kagami Taiga at an agonizingly slow pace made his way through a darkened forest in the middle of winter. It was only growing colder and more confusing by the minute and he was thoroughly lost, not to emotion cold, hunger and completely alone or so he thought.

"Tetsu? What's wrong?" A tall tan skinned figure questioned his companion who had halted abruptly, head tilted, pale blue ears and tail twitching ever so slightly, as if listening to some unknown sound.

"Someone is lost." Was all the smaller companion said in response.

"What? The tan boy exclaimed in confusion turning to ask the other boy what he meant only to find him no where to be found. "Tetsuya!" He growled, his long dark blue tail thrashing angrily, as he squinting into the driving snow and ice for his escaped friend. "Well, Akashi-kun is gonna really have my head this time…"

Meanwhile the said friend was striding through the wild winter storm with complete ease, the wind, cold and snow that covered the forest floor barely hindering him at all as he moved forward. He hadn't meant to but when he had felt a presence that was foreign to him and was obvious in distress in the first he called home Tetsuya could not bring himself to ignore it. But he also knew that his friend and constant companion Aomine would have tried to dissuade or prevent him from doing so. Hence, he had chosen to use his lack of presence to separate from his friend.

He had only to run for a few more minutes before he was able to actually see the presence he had felt earlier. They were rather tall and large being but didn't have ears or tail and nor the wings…" He breathed in sharply. It was a human! He had just assumed that feeling of foreignness was simply because he had not met them before not because they was a Human. But as he was debating wether to inform Akashi or to help the human first when suddenly the tall human began to sway then proceeded fall forward. All thoughts of telling Akashi fled Tetsuya's mind and he raced forward just in time to catch the him with a grunt of surprise at the sudden weight. With a inward sigh the small teal haired boy managed to haul the large, not to mention heavy, human teen to a nearby cave to wait out the snow storm that was now in full force. Tetsuya didn't know much about humans but he did know that they would surely die in such a storm, particularly if they were unconscious.

-x-

Kagami Taiga groaned as he felt the aching throb of a headache as he blinked open his eyes and was met by a pair of pale blue irises staring back at him.

"GAH!" He shrieked in surprise. "Who the heck are you?!" Kagami Taiga exclaimed standing abruptly and pulled away from the strange pale person sitting in front of him. But as he did a heavy fur lined coat slid off him and onto the ground with a thump and they both looked at it then up at each other.

"I am Kuroko Tetsuya, previously of the Kuro tribe." The pale boy answered with a completely blank expression and tone, his his teal tail sweeping the floor gently… Tail?! Kagami did a double take of the person in front of him. The boy was fairly small with unbelievably pale skin and icy blue colored eyes and hair. And as much as he would like to, there was no way to avoid the fact the fact that the stranger indeed possessed a pair of pointed wolf ears and tail, both the same color as his hair and eyes.

"W-what are you?!" He stuttered tentatively keeping his safe distance. The being who had introduced himself as Kuroko Tetsuya just sighed and stood from his seated position on the floor to walk towards the teen. Kagami remained tense, remaining pressed against the cave wall but Kuroko simply lifted the fallen coat and carried it back with him to his original spot and laid in next to a elegant katana on the cave floor before turning to sit next to them and face Kagami again.

"I am Kurko Tetsuya previously of the Kuro tribe." He repeated with the same tone and expression as before but for some reason Taiga could tell the strange boy was exasperated this time.

"I got that. It's just… you have uh, yeah know… ears and a tail…" Kagami muttered, unsure of what else to say or how to.

"As do almost every one of the Teiko people. Only the Midori tribe don't, but they have wings instead." Kagami's jaw dropped as he realized that in front of him was one of the Teiko, better known as the Beast Children, beings he only knew of through bedtime stories. But he quickly recovered from his shock, now a bit more comfortable with interacting with his savior.

"Seriously?! Woah… I'm Kagami Taiga, nice to meet you. And thanks for saving me out there, pretty sure I would have frozen to death out there if you hadn't." He added, remembering his manners.

"Yes, seriously." Tetsuya answered with a faint smile " And your quite welcome Kagami-kun, I am not really one to just sit by and let anyone die."

"Groooowl…" Kagami blush in embarrassment as his hunger made itself known. Kuroko just tilted his head and Kagami could only think that he seemed amused even though his expression didn't show it at all.

"The storm has passed, so I will go find us something to eat." And with that he stood, untied his headband and shed his warm Kimono, letting them both fall to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Kagami shouted in shock, turning to look away from the now unclothed boy.

"Getting us us something to eat. You can look now Kagami-kun." Slowly he turned to face forward again but intend of a pale boy with ears and tail there was a regal looking but rather average sized wolf in front of him. The only way Kagami was able to guess that the wolf was Kuroko was the fact that the fur was the same teal color as his hair and eyes and was wearing the same red, diamond shaped earring with a gold tassel that Kuroko had been.

"Kuroko…kun?" He asked addressing the creature skeptically.

"Yes Kagami-kun." The wolf did not say the words but they simply sounded in Kagami's head.

"Okay, that's a bit creepy…" He said with a shiver. If a wolf could have shrugged he was sure Tetsuya would have.

"It is the best way to obtain us some food. Please wait here patiently, I will return shortly." And just like that the teal furred wolf that was Kuroko ran out into the snow without a sound and was soon gone from Taiga's sight. A few minutes passed and Kagami quickly became bored so he set about stoking the small fire Kurko had started to keep the cave warm and folded the fallen garments and laid them neatly next to the Katana that he had noticed once before that he realized must belong the other boy as well. The cloths were all very traditional but warm and made from materials he had never seen before. Several more minutes passed and the fire was slowly dying and Kagami had since run out of kindling in the cave so he moved toward the mouth of the cave meaning to leave only briefly to get some more kindling then return. But he had gone no more then five paces from the cave when a dark blur rammed into his chest sending him flying backwards into the cold snow. When the world stopped spinning he looked up to see a huge, dark blue almost black, Panther standing over him, teeth barred in a vicious snarl as a voice boomed in his mind.

"WHERE IS TETSUYA HUMAN!"

Author's Note- Okay, i just got this sudden inspiration and I must say I'm super excited! It came out of nowhere but I'm actually really happy with it! I hope you guys (and gals) like it! Please read and review, I love reviews they make me happy! ^^ (PS- Ten points to any who can guess who the Panther is! :)